SWPPS

• Social Welfare Policy


  A definite course or method of action selected from among alternatives and in light of given conditions to guide and determine present and future decisions
• Public Policy


  The principled guide to action taken by the administrative executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues, in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs
• Social Policy


  The study of social services and the welfare state, looking at the idea of social welfare and its relationship to politics and society
• Definitions of Social Policy

  • Policy and administration of social services including policies for health, housing, income maintenance, education and social work
  • Needs and issues affecting the users of services including poverty, old age, health, disability, and family policy
  • The delivery of welfare
• Welfare


  1. Well-being - the state of being happy, healthy and successful

  2. The range of services provided to protect people in a number of conditions, including childhood, sickness and old age

  3. Financial assistance to poor people
• Models of Welfare


  • Residual welfare - welfare provision is for the poor as a safety net
  • Solidarity welfare - welfare is based on mutual responsibility and part of solidaristic social networks
  • Institutional welfare - welfare is provided for the population as a whole, not just the poor
  • Industrial achievement/performance - welfare helps employers by preparing and servicing the capacity of the workforce
• Distributive Justice


  A fair-share model that expresses concern for the welfare of a community's members, with central ideas of equity, equality, and need
• Procedural Justice


  Considers the processes in which decisions are made, recognizing that people feel vindicated if the proceedings result in fair treatment no matter the outcome
• Retributive Justice


  Commonly referred to as the "just desert" approach, where people should be treated in a similar manner as they treat others, with the response proportional to the originating act
• Restorative Justice


  Multifaceted, with a focus on the victim, the offender, and the community, with the emphasis resting with the victim
• Typologies of Social Work Fields

  • Family and Women Welfare
  • Children Welfare
  • Employment/Occupational Social Work Welfare
  • Medical Social Work
• Family and Women Welfare

  • Social workers provide support services for families to enhance family functioning, promote and protect women's rights

  Clientele groups: Women in Especially Difficult Circumstances, Solo Parents, Families of Marginalized Sectors, Poorest of the poor families
• Children Welfare


  • Child welfare workers practice in family-based services that address children, youth and families, counsel children and youth, protect or intervene on behalf of abused or neglected children, work and recommend for appropriate child placement services, implement programs and services related to children

  Clientele groups: CICL, CNSP, Abandoned/neglected children, Victims of any forms of abuse and exploitation, Children for child placement services, Victims of Armed Conflict
• Employment/Occupational Social Work Welfare

  • Help employees deal with a large range of problems, assist corporations reengineer their organization and processes to improve effectiveness, creativity, productivity, and morale, work on the corporate social responsibility of the industry or corporation
• Medical Social Work


  • Address the emotional, social and financial needs that frequently accompany health care issues, serve as case managers, counselors and advocates, provide patients and families with the nonmedical support needed to deal with acute, chronic and terminal conditions, provide referrals to health care resources, help locate financial assistance
• Industrial Social Work


  A growing practice field for occupational or corporate social workers
• Industrial Social Workers


  • Help employees deal with a large range of problems including work stress, substance abuse, domestic violence, single parenting, depression, eating disorders, vocational rehabilitation, takeovers, layouts, etc.
  • Assist corporations reengineer their organization and processes to improve effectiveness, creativity, productivity, and morale
  • Works on the corporate social responsibility of the industry or corporation
• Medical Social Work


  Workers address the emotional, social and financial needs that frequently accompany health care issues
• Medical Social Workers


  • Serve as case managers, counselors and advocates
  • Provide patients and families with the nonmedical support needed to deal with acute, chronic and terminal conditions
  • Provide referrals to health care resources
  • Help locate financial and legal assistance in the community
  • Help facilitate discharge and provision of supportive services for post-hospitalization by providing patients and their family caregivers with information and referrals
• Mental Health/Clinical Social Work


  Support clients who have mental health disorders such as bi-polar disorder, depression, or anxiety
• Mental Health/Clinical Social Work

  • Treatment options include pharmacological, psychosocial therapy, family therapy, and education group therapy, or a combination of these treatments
  • Work with clients directly, or provide triage intervention and refer clients to other professionals or in-patient clinics
• Settings for Mental Health/Clinical Social Work

  • Psychiatric Hospitals
  • Family Service Agencies
  • Residential Treatment Centers
  • Sheltered Work Settings
  • Community Mental Health Centers
  • Employee Assistance Programs
  • Schools
  • Substance Abuse Treatment Program
• International Social Work


  • Involves direct services in international arena in child welfare, family planning, health and mental health, international adoptions, human rights advocacy, and refugee programs through relief and international organizations
  • Assist governments in developing delivery systems and training programs
  • Provide technical assistance and involved in research projects
• International Organizations Employing Social Workers

  • World Health Organization (WHO)
  • Red Cross
  • United Nations
  • Non-government Organizations
• Corrections and Justice Social Work

  • Make recommendations to courts
  • Serve as expert witnesses
  • Do pre-sentencing assessments, and provide services for prison inmates and their families
  • Focus on rehabilitation by providing therapy, drug and alcohol addiction and basic life skills training
  • Many social workers become probation officers or parole officers
  • Help ex-offenders access supportive services upon release from prison
  • Arrange for a half-way house, job training, employment, remedial classes, counseling, child care and / or transportation
• Need


  The kinds of problem which people experience; requirements for some particular kind of response; a relationship between problems and the responses available. A need is a claim for service.
• Categories of Need (Bradshaw)


  • Normative need
  • Comparative need
  • Felt need
  • Expressed need
• Normative Need


  Need which is identified according to a norm (or set standard) such as benefit levels, standards of unfitness in houses, potable water
• Comparative Need


  Problems which emerge by comparison with others who are not in need. Use comparison of social problems in different areas in order to determine which areas are most deprived.
• Felt Need


  Need which people feel, from the perspective of the people who have it.
• Expressed Need


  The need which they say they have. People can feel need which they do not express and they can express needs they do not feel.
• Poverty


  May refer to material conditions - needing goods and services, multiple deprivation, or a low standard of living; economic position - low income, limited resources, inequality or low social class; and social position of the poor, through lack of entitlement, dependency or social exclusion.
• Models of Poverty


  • Absolute poverty
  • Relative poverty
• Absolute Poverty


  Based on subsistence, a minimum standard needed to live. A 'poverty line' on the basis of minimum needs. Characterised by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information.
• Relative Poverty


  Based on a comparison of poor people with others in society. The absence or inadequacy of those diets, amenities, standards, services and activities which are common or customary in society.
• Causes of Poverty


  • Pathological
  • Structural
• Pathological Causes of Poverty

  • Individualistic explanations - Poor people are assumed to be inadequate, made bad choices, or to have chosen their lifestyle
  • Familial - Poverty is believed to run in families, with the transmission of inadequate behaviour from one generation to the next
  • Sub-cultural views - The 'culture of poverty' suggests that poor people learn to be different, and 'adapt' to poverty
• Structural Causes of Poverty

  • Class-based explanations - Poverty is the result of some people's marginality in relation to the process of economic production, which limits their life-chances
  • 'Agency' views - Poverty is attributed to the failures of public services
  • Inequality - Poverty is attributed to inequalities in the structure of society, which lead to denial of opportunity and perpetuation of disadvantage e.g. inequalities of income, wealth, race, and gender
• Stages of Policy-making is a continuous process
• poor people learn to be different, and 'adapt' to poverty.