According to Cowles, the core areas include human behavior and the social environment, social welfare policy and programs, social work practice, and research methods. Each area is considered a generic area of knowledge that can be expanded upon based on the setting you are involved in and can be viewed as a body of knowledge in the social work profession. Once you obtain the generic core knowledge areas, you can then move into more detailed aspects of the practice setting to create specific areas of knowledge to understand the client. This is a fundamental process to obtaining knowledge needed in social work and working with clients in any setting and each area is equally important.
An example in the healthcare social work practice could be taking a look at the human behavior and the social environment and how it involves biological, psychological, and social aspects of an individual’s background to attempt to find the relationship and determinants of the patient’s current situation. For, example if you were to work with a patient who was suffering from cirrhosis of the liver from alcohol abuse, you would need to consider ALL factors that caused the patient to use alcohol. You would want to know if that if the patient’s mother abused alcohol while pregnant or if the patient used alcohol at a young age that may have affected his or her growth and development as a child, or if the patient had suffered from psychological problems, and consider if the patient lived or is currently living in an environment where many members use alcohol. All of these factors contribute to the presenting health problem of the patient and must equally be considered in order for the patient to have the tools to get well.
Reference:
Cowles, L.A.F. (2003). Social work in the health field: A care perspective. Routledge
I agree with your post. I do think that health care social work practice can be taking a look at the human behavior and the social environment. I like how you gave the example of the mother that who gave birth to a child and the mom was an alcoholic during pregnancy. Your main goal is to find out exactly what is going on. The mother would probably not be willing to cooperate but that is just another job a social worker has to deal with. I do believe the core knowledge areas will help with the social worker to get through what they need to do. Good post!
ReplyDelete