Social Work Standards, Essay Example

The capacity of a person to handle social work responsibilities often depend on the motivation he has regarding the matter. Such motivation often comes from personal desire and decision to help others. Nevertheless, it could be understood that personal perception and understanding of the role they are taking into account is not enough to make it easier for such individuals to take on the challenge of serving the needs and concerns of the society (Agnew, 2004). This is the reason why NASWDC established a specific point-by-point guideline on the most important aspects of social work that individuals interested in the field must be able to recognize.  Discussed herein are three among the most common and most important factors that must be seriously taken into account by individuals seriously hoping to engage in social work.

The first standard to note is the consideration over ethics in values. Under this particular aspect of handling social work responsibilities, individuals are expected to be concerned not only of their personal beliefs but that of the others as well. Ethically serving the people’s demands for social assistance also includes high consideration on how the social workers are able to give attention to the way they respect the people they serve (Axinn, 2008). This could include personal and religious beliefs and how the people want to be served accordingly.

The second standard is dependent on the capacity of an individual to handle cross-cultural knowledge. This aspect insists on the willingness of a person to learn deeper and become more engaged in understanding that his role takes on the need to engage with people coming from all individual and cultural backgrounds (NASWDC, 2014). All these aspects have a great impact on how the people develop individually and how their behavior defines them. Responding to the needs of people through specifically taking note of their cultural background shall lead social workers on addressing concerns that are directly affective of the being of the people that they serve. Notably, this aspect of concern makes social workers more capable of taking note of the needs of people while also considering that their cultural backgrounds might affect the way they want their needs to be addressed.

The third standard is dedicated to promoting language diversity. One important aspect of social work duties is the need of each social worker to relate and understand what the people need. Considerably, with a highly diversified set of communities in the world today, social workers need to accept the fact that they are in need of handling responsibilities that would support the demands for survival of individuals coming from all different cultures and different languages (Agnew, 2004). Such need to understand others is a core value that social workers should be able to recognize and apply accordingly. It is through this approach of responding to the community that makes it easier for the social workers to relate to the people and give them the chance to experience better lives, to be assisted in their desire to realize life’s benefits amidst the challenges that they have to face and amidst the frugality of their situations.

These three primary standards provide a clear indication on the primary values that identify fully with the pledge of social workers to serve the needs of the public. Extending themselves to make things better for those who are in need of their assistance is the gist of their role as providers of service to the people. With full consideration on these primary standards, the social workers would not only be able to address the needs of the people at a current time; they would also be able to create a relative path that could be used to reestablish a better future for the people, thus allowing them to experience better lives and gain higher benefits from everything that the government and other helping agencies are ready to give them.

References

NASWDC: Standards for Cultural Competence in Social Work Practice. http://www.naswdc.org/practice/standards/NASWculturalstandards.pdf. (Retrieved on July 16, 2014).

Agnew, Elizabeth N. (2004). From Charity to Social Work: Mary E. Richmond and the Creation of an American Profession. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.

Axinn, June and Mark J. Stern (2008). Social Welfare: A History of the American Response to Need (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.