Social Work Methods and Areas

RANI CHANNAMMA UNIVERSITY
VIDYASANGAMA, BELAGAVI.
DEPT. OF STUDIES IN SOCIAL WORK
Paper Presentation
on
‘SOCIAL WORK METHODS AND AREAS ’
By
Mr. Anand Basavraj Undi
Student, MSW IV SEM.

INTRODUCTION
“Social work is a practice-based profession and
an academic discipline that promotes social change
and development, social cohesion, and the
empowerment and liberation of people. Principles of
social justice, human rights, collective responsibility
and respect for diversities are central to social
work. Underpinned by theories of social work, social
sciences, humanities and indigenous knowledges,
social work engages people and structures to address
life challenges and enhance wellbeing.”

METHODS OF SOCIAL WORK
METHOD MEANS…..?
 A particular procedure for accomplishing or approaching
something, especially a systematic or established one.
 A particular way of doing something
 A way, technique, or process of or for doing something.
 A body of skills or techniques.
 A discipline that deals with the principles and techniques of
scientific inquiry.
 Approach, fashion, form, how, manner,methodology, recipe, st
rategy, style,system, tack, tactics, technique, way.

Being a scientific profession social work has its own methodology.
Traditionally the methods of social work are divided as primary and secondary.
From the above illustrations we can understand that there are primary
and secondary methods in social work. The primary methods make
interventions directly with the clients. At the same time the secondary methods
indirectly assist the primary methods and also help the clients. Let us examine
each method.
SOCIAL WORK METHODS
PRIMARY METHODS SECONDARY METHODS
Social Case Work
Social Group Work
Community Organization
Social Action
Social Welfare Administration
Social Work Research

1.SOCIAL CASE WORK
 Mary Ellen Richmond (1861-1928) the founding mother of Social Case Work.
 While social case work was a primary method of intervention, it was not until Mary
Richmond published Social Diagnosis in 1917 that a formal definition for social case
work began to formulate.
WHAT IS SOCIAL CASEWORK?
Social case work is the method employed by social workers to help individuals find
solutions to problems of social adjustment that are difficult for individuals to navigate on
their own.
Mary Ellen Richmond: ‘Social case work consists of those processes which develop
personality through adjustments consciously effected, individual by individual, between
men and their social environment’.
COMPONENTS OF SOCIAL CASEWORK
1. The person
2. The problem
3. The place
4. The process

PHASES OF SOCIAL CASE WORK PROGRESS
According Mary Richmond (1917) there are
three phases of social case work practice: social
investigation or psycho-social study, diagnosis and
treatment or management. In contemporary social
case work practice these three phases have been
divided into five divisions namely-
1. Social investigation or Study,
2. Assessment,
3. Intervention,
4. Termination and
5. Evaluation.

AREAS/FIELDS/SETTINGS/ APPLICATIONS OF
SOCIAL CASE WORK
1. Medical Setting
2. Family Setting
3. Correctional Setting
4. Educational Setting
5. Child Welfare Setting
6. Corporate Setting

2.SOCIAL GROUP WORK
 Social group work was introduced to the social work profession when it
made its debut at the National Conference for Social Work in 1935. At this
conference, Newsletter (1935) introduced the concept of social group work
to the social work profession.
WHAT IS SOCIAL GROUP WORK?
 Social group work is a method of social work that helps persons to
enhance their social functioning through purposeful group experiences
and to cope more effectively with their personal, group or community
problems (Marjorie Murphy, 1959).
 Group work is a method of working with people in groups. A group can be
made up of two or more people. Group work is an approach aimed at personal
growth, enhancement of social functioning, and for the achievement of
socially desirable goals.

PHASES OF SOCIAL GROUP WORK
1. Forming the Group-Beginning
2. Exploration- Initial Session
3. Performing- Action Phase
4. Assessment- Evaluation
5. Termination- Separation

AREAS/FIELDS/SETTINGS/
APPLICATIONS OF SOCIAL GROUP
WORK
1. Group Work in Community Settings
 Social Action Groups
 Group Work with Disaster Victims
 Groups Work Among the Substance Abusers
 Group work among the caregivers
 Group Work Among Young People in the Community
2. Group Work in Institutional Settings
 Group Work and Child Welfare
 Group work in juvenile homes
 Group work with street children
 Group work with parents of mentally challenged children
 Group Work and Geriatric Care
 Groups Work in Psychiatric Setting
 Group Work in Hospitals
3. Group Work in Educational Settings
 Student Friendly Environment
 Camping and Indian Youth Organizations- NSS, NCC,NYK

3. COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION
Community organization viewed from a humanitarian approach is meant to
solve the problems of the community is as old as society itself. But viewed as
one of the methods of social work profession it is of very recent origin.
WHAT IS COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION?
 Murray G. Ross in 1955 defined community organisation as a process by which
community identifies its needs or objectives, orders (or ranks) these needs or
objectives, develops the confidence and will to work at these needs or objectives,
finds the resources (internal and/or external) to deal with these needs or objectives
takes action in respect to them and in so doing extends and develops co-operative
and collaborative attitudes and practices in the community.
 Community organization covers a series of activities at the community level aimed
at bringing about desired improvement in the social well being of individuals,
groups and neighborhoods.
 In a more contemporary context, Murphy and Cunningham (2003) have defined
community organizing as “the systematic process for mobilizing and advocating by
using communal power”. They opine that “Organizing for Community Controlled
Development (OCCD).

PROCESS OF COMMUNITY
ORGANIZATION
1) Role Searching
2) Enlisting People’s Participation
3) Developing a Community Profile
4) Needs Assessment
5) Ordering/Prioritizing Needs
6) Problem Analysis and Redefinition
7) Formulation of Achievable Objectives
8) Development of Community Confidence and Willpower
9) Work Out the Alternatives
10) Selection of an Appropriate Alternative
11) Work Out a Plan of Action
12) Mobilisation of Resources
13) Implementation of Action
14) Evaluation of Action
15) Modification
16) Development of Cooperative and Collaborative Attitudes.

AREAS/FIELDS/SETTINGS/ APPLICATIONS OF
COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION
1. Urban/ Rural/ Tribal Community
Development.
4. Working With the Community Power
Structure.
5. Government/Non Government/ Corporate
Sectors.
6. Models- Locality Development, Social
Planning/Policy, Social Action,Neighbourhood
Development Model,System Change
Model,Structural Change Model.

4. SOCIALACTION
Social Action has been used to signify a wide range of primarily voluntary initiative to
bring out change in social systems, processes and even structure. Social workers, more often
than not, have divergent opinion about the scope and relevance of social action. This
ambiguity has even accelerated the debate whether to recognize social action as a method of
professional social work.
WHAT IS SOCIAL ACTION?
 Mary Richmond, for the first time, in 1922, made use of the term social action in social
work. She has defined social action as “mass betterment through propaganda and social
legislation”.
 Nanawati (1965) considered social action as “a process of bringing about the desired changes
by deliberate group and community efforts. Social action does not end with the enactment and
signing of social legislation, but that the execution of the policies was the real test of success
or failure of social action”.
 Social action should not be seen only as a method but as an overriding philosophy behind
socialwork education in India.
-Armaity Desai

PROCESS OF SOCIALACTION
1. The Initiating set
2. The Legitimizers
3. The Diffusion set
4. Defining the need
5. Commitment to action
6. Goals
7. Means
8. Plan for action
9. Mobilizing and organizing resources
10. Launching the program
11. Carrying out the program
12. Final evaluation

APPLICATIONS OF SOCIALACTION
1)Prevention of needs.
2) Solution of mass problems.
3) Improvement in mass conditions.
4) Influencing institutions, policies and practices.
5) Introduction of new mechanisms or programmes.
6) Redistribution of power and resources.
7) Decision-making.
8) Effect on thought and action structure.
9) Improvement in health, education and welfare.

5. SOCIAL WELFARE ADMINISTRATION
Social welfare administration is a process by which we apply professional competence
to achieve certain goals. It is called a process of transforming social policy into social
action. It involves the administration of government and Nongovernment agencies.
WHAT IS SOCIAL WELFARE ADMINISTRATION?
 Herleigh Tracker (1971) interprets social welfare administration as a “process of
working with people in ways that release and relate their energies so that they use
available resources to accomplish the purpose of providing needed community
services and programmes.”
 John C Kidneigh 1950 : social work administration is “the process of transforming
social policy into socialservices ……..a two-way process:
1) transforming policy into concrete social services, and
2) the use of experience in recommending modification of policy”.

PROCESS/ FUNCTINS/ SCOPE OF SW
ADMINISTRATION
1. P- Planning
2. O- Organizing
3. S- Staffing
4. D- Directing
5. Co- Coordinating
6. R- Reporting
7. B- Budgetting
8. E- Evalution
9. F- Feedback

6. SOCIAL WORK RESEARCH
Social Work Research is the application of research methods to the
production of knowledge that Social Workers need to solve problems they
confront in the practice of Social Work.
WHAT IS SOCIAL WORK RESEARCH?
 G R Madan in Indian Social Problems Vol-2 (Page No-18): Social Work
Research is the systematic critical investigation of questions in the social
welfare field with the purpose of yielding answers to problems of social
work and of extended.
 In brief “it helps Social Workers to find ways and means of enhancing
social functioning at the individual, group and social levels.

THE RESEARCH PROCESS
Stage I : Selection and Formulation of Problem
Stage II : Formulation of Hypothesis
Stage III : Formulation of Research Design
Stage IV : Collection of Data
Stage V : Analysis and Interpretation of Data
Stage VI : Generalizations.

APPLICATIONS OF SOCIAL WORK
RESEARCH
1. Social Work Theory
2. Social Work Practicum
3. Social Work Profession

CONCLUSION
The discipline of social work has a long history
of evolution from charity-based tradition to the
autonomous profession of today. The concern for
professionalizing and acadamizing social work across
the globe became a significant issue in the beginning
of the twentieth century in the west including Europe
and the US. From the west, social work as a
professional discipline has spread all over the world.

REFERENCES
1. Prof. Gracious Thomas (2010). Origin and Development of Social Work. Indira
Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi.
2. Prof. Gracious Thomas (2010).Case Work and Counselling: Working with
Individuals. Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi.
3. Prof. Gracious Thomas (2010).Social Group Work: Working with Groups.
Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi.
4. Prof. Gracious Thomas (2010). Community Organization Management
for Community Development. Indira Gandhi National Open University, New
Delhi.
5. Prof. Gracious Thomas (2010).Social Work Research. Indira Gandhi
National Open University, New Delhi.

THANK YOU SO
MUCH FOR
GIVING AN
OPPORTUNITY!!

Social Work Methods and Areas

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Similar to Social Work Methods and Areas (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Social Work Methods and Areas