“Social Workers and Community Welfare Workers do making a difference”
Essay Assignment
What “Social Workers and Community Welfare Workers do making a difference” when dealing with patients who have mental illnesses.
In the recent past, research has shown that more than 264 million people have mental illnesses; however, this problem has been underestimated for years now (WHO 2019). Mental illness, also called psychological disorders, refers to a wide range of psychiatric conditions that affect the thing, behavior, and the mood of the patients (Moriana, Galvez-Lara & Corpas 2017). People suffering from mental illness are often stigmatized, discriminated, bullied, or harassed by members of the public through physical or psychological abuse (Corrigan, Roe & Tsang 2011). These vices towards mentally ill patients lead to social injustices, and social workers can make a difference. The core purpose of this essay is to give an overview of what social workers and welfare workers can do to ‘make a difference’ in the field of mental illness, that includes an understanding of Aboriginal ways of knowing, doing and being and also describe a beginning practice framework.
Social and community welfare workers are supposed to reduce social injustices in the society by improving the quality of life and well-being of disadvantaged members of the society through advocacy, educational programs, intervention, and direct practices (Oppedal & Idsoe 2015). Social and community workers always aim at “making a difference” in society or to individuals. The phrase “making a difference” is used in different fields of study to give different meanings; however, in psychology, it means to cause a change (Briffault 2019). It is also defined as the act of doing something of value that makes the life of other people better. When social workers are working in communities, it is essential for them to be active in developing self-awareness about the values and history of the society as individuals when assisting people who have experienced generations of societal disadvantage such as people suffering from mental disorders. The following are what the social workers and community welfare workers can do in helping people with mental illness, with the integration of the understandings gained from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being, and doing.
First, mental disorders are not terminal illnesses, and thus if patients seek treatment and follow the prescribed therapy or medication, they can recover and resume their healthy lives. According to Link et al. (2011), the recovery of mentally ill patients has not been effective as expected, and stigma has been identified as one of the major barriers to the recovery process. Social workers can make a difference in the mentally ill patients in society by coming up with educational programs that are aimed at transferring knowledge to the society about mentally ill patients (Weiss 2017). The social workers can use visual illustrations and narratives to educate the society on the causes of mental illness and how they can be treated and also avoid stigmatization. The reduction of stigma in the community will make the patients feel loved and appreciated, and this will fasten the recovery process.
Secondly, according to Corrigan, Roe, and Tsang (2011), most of the mental illness patients are bullied or harassed by members of the public through physical or psychological abuse. As a result, the patients tend to isolate themselves and fear to seek treatment due to fear of discrimination. Social and community welfare workers can make a difference through advocacy for these people to be treated with dignity. If possible, the law is enacted to protect them against any form of harassment or discrimination (Weiss 2017). This will make the mentally ill patients feel much loved and view themselves as the members of the society and promote their recovery.
Thirdly, mental illness sometimes occurs due to drug abuse or psychological pressures, which results in depression and other related illnesses. The social and community welfare workers can make a difference by establishing community links, which will enable them to freely interact with the community and be able to identify those people suffering from mental disorders (Hogue 2016). Social workers can also observe non-verbal gestures among people in the community to identify those suffering from mental disorders and helping them in the best way possible. For instance, social workers with collaboration with other partners can build a rehabilitation center for those people suffering from drug addictions. In these centers, they will be able to learn the impacts of their behavior and be helped to overcome them by accepting their mistakes and changing their behaviors.
Fourthly, social workers can make a difference to those people suffering from mental disorders by seeking policy change or requesting government intervention on the treatment of these illness. For instance, many health insurance companies do not cover the procedure for mental illness in their policies because they are expensive to treat, and patients may take a long time before recovering (Corrigan & Rao 2012). This limits mental health patients from seeking treatments, especially if they come from families that are not financially stable.
Through community linking, which is one of the learning techniques in the Aboriginal framework, social workers can be able to learn the challenges that the patients go through when seeking medication using health insurance. With this information, social workers can drive for change in these institutions by calling for policy change through government interventions.
Lastly, social and community welfare workers can make a difference for the mentally ill patients by offering humane treatment. This approach requires the therapist to act with tenderness, sympathy, and compassion to the mentally ill patients. It makes them feel free and comfortable, and as a result, therapists can engage on a friendly basis (Moore et al. 2016). This approach makes the patients feel socially engaged, loved, and appreciated, and as a result, they can seek treatment and respond well to therapies or treatment offered. This quickness their recovery process, and they are to resume to their normal lives make a difference in their lives in the long-run.
Beginning Practice Framework
Social work aims to promote social change, solve problems in human relationships, and empower and enhance the liberation of the disadvantaged groups of people in the society (Oppedal & Idsoe 2015). In social work, it is not possible to separate the theory from practice, and therefore social workers are supposed to have a framework that guides their actions and work during practice. This section of the essay shall focus on my “beginning practice” framework. The framework shall describe my skills, current knowledge, values in social work to minimize the disadvantages of mentally ill patients in society.
As a beginner practitioner in making a difference in the lives of those people suffering from mental illness there is a need for self-care, be sensitive to cultural practices, be self-confident, have adequate theoretical knowledge, and be able to apply it into practice. I believe that my background, values, skills, experiences, context, and beliefs that I hold will have an impact on my emerging framework when working with mentally ill patients in society.
I am a gentleman aged thirty years of age, and I am the first last born in a family of six children. I was brought up in a society where people suffering from mental illness were socially isolated and discriminated, and I developed a passion for helping them. This drove me to pursue a course in social work to help them by making a difference in their lives. Some of the essential skills that I have include active listening, excellent verbal and non-verbal communication, flexibility, creativity, interpersonal skills, compassion, and empathy. I believe that these skills will enable me to interact to implement the personal framework and make a difference to mentally ill patients. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being, and doing will be used to understand the cultural aspects of society and the patients.
My core values are respect for the patients, love, self-determination, social justice, human dignity, confidentiality, and being non-judgemental. I believe that access to medical services for mentally ill patients is a right but not a privilege. I further believe that everybody, despite their conditions they should be treated with positive unconditional regards. Lastly, I believe that everybody has a story, and the story deserves to be heard. Aboriginal ways of knowing will be used to understand mentally ill patients and helping them to recover.
Despite having skills and knowledge that will help me to implement the framework. I need to improve my understanding of different approaches of handing patients as well as gain more professional, theoretical, and empirical knowledge on social works. Further, I will need to gain more understanding of the context of social work, and I will use of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing to gain this knowledge. I will also consider reading widely to get an in-depth understanding of the micro and macro-context of social work.
I am hoping I will be able to achieve goals of social work in transforming the lives of mentally ill patients. However, I expect that there could be resistance from the community as well as from the patients themselves. This will be overcomed by organizing civic education before starting the work. Further, some programs and initiatives may require a huge amount of funds that may not be available, and this will be overcomed by looking for support from the government, well-wishers, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
To wrap it up, I believe that I have the required skills, knowledge, and experience to implement my frameworks and transform the lives of those suffering from mental illness. I believe that this practice framework will be able to successfully support me and act as a basis for my placement next year.