In this essay, I will aim to evaluate some of the necessary skills, important to social work practice within my role as a day service assistant. (For reasons of confidentiality, identities of individuals have been changed).
"A characteristic of social care practice is the ability to meet physical needs at the same time as respecting the feelings of others and addressing social, intellectual, emotional and cultural needs. Responding to strong emotion's, and dealing with difficulties in behaviour and relationships". .
(The social care association. The Social Care Task, March 1993).
The law governs social work practices, from which policies are generated and put in place by local authorities. As a paid employee, my actions as a carer are constrained by the aims, policies and values of the agency. The value base underlying the guidance for staff policy is based on the principles of the All Wales Strategy, for people with learning/physical disabilities.
Disability is defined as:.
" A physical or mental impairment, which has a substantial and long term effect, on a person's ability to carry out normal day today activities".
The Disability Discrimination Act - Access to goods, facilities & Services. Page 2.
It is important that all care workers should first look at their own values, ethics, prejudices, attitudes and behaviours, before they can accept any other person as a unique individual, regardless of sex, age, disability, race, religion etc, and what strengths or weaknesses they may or may not have.
Levy's typologies of values are "preferred conceptions of people, preferred outcomes for people, and preferred instrumentalities for dealing with people".
Cited in (Social Work Processes, 4th edition, page 196).
The main aim is the well-being of the clients I work with, who are oppressed, vulnerable, discriminated against and marginalized, also to meet their basic needs and enhance their well-being, paying particular attention to empowerment of individuals and the environmental forces that contribute to and create problems in society today.
