Social work is a discipline that is responsible for promoting development, cohesion and social transformation; including the individual strengthening of those who are part of a community.
Starting from a brief description of social work itself, in the following lines We will see what the functions of social workers are, what they do as professionals and how their performance has an impact on groups in vulnerable situations.
The history of social work is related to different processes that occurred in the mid-19th century. On the one hand, it emerges from needs detected by different vulnerable groups: drug addicts, dysfunctional families, abandoned elderly people, etc.
Specifically, these needs were generated by massive migratory processes and growing urbanization, a fact that made family and socio-health intervention essential. On the other hand, the origins of social work as an academic discipline are related to the gender and sexual division of the professions, specifically that which took place in research and intervention in sociology.
In that sense, social work is a field of study and action linked to various tasks and branches of social sciences, humanities and community intervention For this reason, it is an area that operates around concepts such as social justice, human rights, diversity, respect and equity, among others.
Based on the above, social work professionals have recognized different fields of action, as well as different functions, understood as the role played and recognized for those who practice a specific discipline Next we will see what some of the functions of social workers are.
Ballestero, A, Viscarret, JJ and Úriz, MJ (2013), carried out a national study in Spain. They took as reference the Social Work White Paper and after conducting surveys with Social Work professionals, they have summarized the functions of social workers in the following 10 points:
1. Prevent
Is about anticipate the possible causes of both individual and collective conflicts This can be done through intervention projects that allow us to understand the population context and the social risk situations that arise, as well as the deficiencies and needs of the same context.
2. Provide direct care
Act with individuals or groups, whether they are at risk or already have a specific problem whose characteristic is social. The goal of direct care is to enhance individual capacities to that it be the same people who face and respond to daily social conflicts
3. Plan
To carry out the interventions, it is necessary to develop an action plan that has specific objectives and makes the analysis process explicit, as well as the possibilities of support and evaluation
According to the authors, this can be carried out through the microsocial and also macrosocial levels. The first is the design of interventions and projects, while the second is the design of programs and the organization of social services.
4. Do teaching
While social work is made up of different theoretical and practical teachings, which are taught in a specialized manner in university centers, it is important the training of academics for both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in social work, and related areas.
It involves carrying out the necessary actions to restore or preserve self-determination and functioning, both individually and collectively This may be through the design and implementation of social policies that readjust access to different services.
6. Monitor
Social work professionals can carry out supervisions that allow them to accompany the people responsible for executing a program, a social policy or a specific service. Is about put into practice different knowledge and skills that accompany professional performance of those who are in charge of providing the different social services.
7. Conduct evaluations
It involves consulting and evaluating the results of the interventions, as well as verifying whether the programmed objectives have been met, and What needs remain to be met? Likewise, it is about evaluating the methodologies used and detecting any relevant modifications.
8. Managerial role
Social workers can perform managerial tasks, which have to do with the responsibility of planning and organizing both social centers and specific programs and the services they provide.
9. Research
It consists of putting into practice methodological techniques that allow evaluate and intervene with scientific rigor on the specific problems of a specific social group. It is broadly about analyzing, describing and explaining a specific reality, as well as establishing hypotheses that allow appropriate intervention.
10. Coordinate
As long as it is about promoting social change, many of the organizations where an intervention is carried out are organized in large groups. In this sense, it is about specifying means, techniques and resources that allow carrying out a line of intervention with common objectives and appropriate to the needs of each group.
The results of the study carried out by Ballestero, Viscarret and Úriz (2013) show different trends in the daily tasks carried out by the social workers surveyed. Professionals say that their main function is to help improve people’s lives since social work is a discipline focused on caring for others.
However, the study has detected the prevalence of functions increasingly oriented towards management, planning and social administration; that are combined with direct intervention. Likewise, professionals describe little involvement in research activities. All of the above has led, according to the authors, to the prioritization of operational aspects focused on immediacy; and less focused on the reflection process for the intervention.
In this study, they have carried out a multivariate analysis and have detected that, in daily practice, the functions of social workers They correspond to four different professional profiles:
The latter speaks of important transformations in the functions of social workers, and in the profession itself. Social work has recently been aimed at avoiding or overcoming dysfunctions that are systemic, thus, program management and planning have an important weight The initial objective, focused on the needs of the individual, participation and community; sometimes loses relevance. Likewise, the results speak of a growing specialization of the discipline where the functions begin to vary according to the specific development and application space.
The research invites, finally, to continue reflecting on these aspects, which are relevant for the future of the profession and its important application in different social contexts.
