This principle reminds the social worker that when interacting with the client, he or she is not dealing with an inanimate object or a lower entity. Because the client was unable to find a solution to his or her problem, he or she should not be regarded as a person devoid of dignity, worth, or value.
This is a common response the client receives from the community. As a result, the client believes he or she is a worthless human being and develops a negative self-image. As a loving and assisting professional, the social worker should feel that the client is an individual with dignity, worth, and respect, and that given the correct environment and encouragement, he or she has the potential to emerge from his or her unwanted position with dignity and respect.
Furthermore, the social worker should always keep in mind that each client is unique and distinct from other clients experiencing a similar problem, as each person responds and reacts differently to the same stimuli and enters or exits different problem situations in different ways. Communication between the social worker and the client is critical in social work. Communication can be either verbal spoken or written or nonverbal using gestures, signs, or actions to convey a message.
The majority of human-relations issues originate as a result of inadequate communication. A message is sent by the sender and received by the receiver in communication. True communication occurs when the meanings of the phrases and other symbols used and acted upon by the sender and receiver are shared and have the same meanings. The communication is fluid if the sender's message is appropriately or correctly understood by the receiver.
However, if the receiver fails to correctly comprehend the message that the sender wishes to transmit , there is a break or misunderstanding in the communication process, resulting in confusion and problems.
Miscommunication occurs when the sender is unable to articulate his or her feelings or what he or she wants to say. Other impediments to the smooth flow of messages include distance, noise, temperament, attitudes, past experiences, mental capacity to grasp, and so on. The social worker should be able to understand the client's verbal and nonverbal communication.
Communication is important in social work relationships since the client's and the worker's histories may differ, as may their mental states. The setting in which the conversation occurs may change from time to time, providing ample opportunity for miscommunication. The primary job of a social worker is to establish an environment in which the client feels comfortable expressing his or her feelings.
The client's trust and confidence in the worker, as well as the worker's acceptance of the client, contribute to the atmosphere. This principle serves as a solid foundation for the appropriate application of social work intervention. It contributes to the development of a solid worker-client relationship. It is critical in social work to supply information to the worker.
This can range from simple factual information to highly confidential information. A person may be unwilling to discuss specific facts about his or her personal life with anyone unless the person with whom the information is given is trustworthy.
It is impossible to aid a client in social work unless the client provides all of the information required by the worker. For this to occur, the client must have complete trust in the worker that the information given to the worker would be kept confidential and used exclusively for the purposes specified.
The worker encounters certain difficulties in adhering to this guideline. Should the confidential information be shared with other agency officials involved in the case, as well as colleagues professional social workers who may be able to assist the worker in resolving the client's problem? Second, what should he do with some information regarding the client's criminal activity, which he may be compelled to provide to investigation agency whenever he is asked as a responsible citizen?
In the first situation, the social worker may reveal the information in the client's best interests. However, in the latter scenario, it is extremely difficult for the social worker to withhold information because it was given with the guarantee of confidentiality. Every individual has the right to determine what is best for him or her and to choose the methods by which to achieve it. In other words, it emphasises that the social worker should not force decisions or solutions on the client merely because he or she has sought assistance from him or her.
Without a doubt, the client has gone to the social worker because he or she has been unable to manage the situation on their own. The social worker should promote and include the client in making excellent and acceptable judgments by supporting and guiding him or her in developing right insights about his or her social environment. The client is thus assisted not only in realising his or her potential, but also in feeling independent and like a person of worth and dignity.
Only through social responsibility, emotional adjustment, and personality development is it possible to develop social responsibility, emotional adjustment, and personality development. That is, he or she should not develop any judgments on the client, whether positive or negative, worthy or undeserving. He or she must treat the client as though he or she has come to him or her for assistance, and he or she must be willing to assist the client without being swayed by others' judgments about the client or his or her predicament.
This allows the worker to establish a solid professional relationship because both the worker and the customer are free to express their comprehension of each other. It should be stressed, however, that a nonjudgmental attitude does not exclude making professional judgments regarding the problem scenario and the various solutions being evaluated.
The notion of regulated emotional engagement protects social workers from becoming too emotionally invested in their clients' problems or becoming too objective. In the first example, the worker may over-identify with the client because he or she sees many parallels between the client's problem situation and other life situations or with the client's personality.
This could jeopardize the professional relationship as well as judgments regarding the client's issue. The worker may become to sympathize with the client by overindulging in the client's life, which may infringe on the client's right to self-determination and independence.
In the latter circumstance, the client may get the impression that the worker is uninterested in him or her and his or her situation because the person is too objective and distant. This could prevent the customer from disclosing all of the secret information. The client's sentiments of worthlessness and helplessness could be reinforced. Hepworth and Larsen in Allen-Meares articulate that all people should have access to resources; that every person is unique and has inherent worth; that people have a right to freedom and that individual citizens and society as a whole should realise these principles.
While reflecting on and promoting the values of the profession is of critical importance, this is not easy to achieve in everyday social work practice. Teaching social work in practice Professional values can be influenced by exposure to a practice setting in the field Allen-Meares, ; Krumer-Nevo et al. A diverse student population is exposed to equally diverse client groups in their social work practice. Cultural sensitivity and integration of social work values and principles are thus of the utmost importance.
Two boys approached me and held a knife to my throat. They demanded my cellular phone and my money. I had no choice. I am so scared. A male social work student 24 years old was hesitant to work in the prison in the event of recognising someone from his home village.
Holborn and Eddy reiterate the effect of living in close proximity to criminal offenders. To expect social work students to work with perpetrators, especially if they have been victims of crime, is challenging.
Generalist social work practice cannot exclude certain populations. Would that be true to the social work values and principles of acceptance and of being non-judgemental? A correctional setting is a direct confrontation with the social work values and principles.
However, what if one expects students, not yet senior and experienced, to intervene when they are scared, judgemental and often not objective? The ecosystems perspective discovers how human behaviour and interaction respond to different environmental forces and develop accordingly Santrock, ; Williams et al.
This applies to the students and the country context in that the history of South Africa and the current crime rate has Downloaded by [University of Pretoria] at 12 November influenced and still influences perceptions, attitudes and personal value systems. Within the system of social service delivery, an adjustment is, however, necessary to integrate the social work values and principles, regardless of personal and historical influences.
For the purposes of this research study, the term child refers to any person under the age of 18 years; although it can refer to a person who is 18 years or older but under the age of 21 years whose case is dealt with in terms of section 4 2 of the Child Justice Act 75 of Detention includes confinement of a child prior to sentencing in a police cell or lock-up, prison or a child and youth centre Child Justice Act 75 of Children and youth in detention imply persons from 14 to 20 years detained in the detention centre.
Theory modules in the first-year BSW curriculum include a general introduction to social work from a developmental perspective. Social work values and principles and vulnerable groups in society receive specific attention.
Social work modules focus on the process and skills in intervention with individuals, groups and communities. A module on family strengths and family disorganisation includes crime and incarceration. Practice modules in the BSW programme at this institution are year modules with study units on self-development and the integration of intervention with individuals, families, groups and communities.
The first-year practice module guides students with a basic understanding and integration of sensitivity to diversity by using the social work values and principles and allows for simulated intervention experiences in intervention with individuals and groups.
In the second-year practice module, social work students must apply acquired knowledge and skills in practice. The study unit for self-development focuses on sensitivity to diversity, social work principles, values and principles in professional as well as personal interactions, self-development through self-knowledge, self-insight, self-confidence and professional behaviour and the ability to internalise life skills in everyday functioning and in professional conduct.
Themes guide students to confront own prejudices, enhance self-awareness and obtain knowledge of and exposure to diverse client populations.
Students receive the opportunity to both gain and integrate Downloaded by [University of Pretoria] at 12 November knowledge in group supervision and discussion classes. Lecturers thoroughly prepare students for the intervention in a correctional centre, accompany them on orientation and follow-up visits and debrief the students after the visits.
Students reflect on the interventions through both structured and unstructured reports on experiences. Structured reports are assessed with standardised rubrics and lecturers address reflections in weekly discussion classes of min each and in supervision. A continuous emphasis on integrating the theoretical underpinnings with the experiences in practice forms an integral part of the curriculum.
In , students assessed the needs of children and juveniles awaiting trial in the detention centre. Prioritised needs were self-development, education, relationships and recreation. Students compiled a report and integrated data obtained from the questionnaires with theoretical references.
In , the students attended to the identified needs by presenting weekly activities on building self-esteem and relationships, building trust, stress management and anger management. The educational management at the centre requested that the project continue and be expanded to include more detainees. Since , second year students annually continue with the project for the duration of the academic year, applying intervention with communities, intervention with groups and intervention with individuals.
Goal of the project The main goal of the project is prevention of further crime focusing on self- development and improving social functioning. The strength perspective recognises that every client, and the youth awaiting trial in this case, has a capacity for growth and change Miley et al.
Exposure to the correctional system in this way provides an ecological transaction between students and the offenders and their environment. Feedback from the centre management on the student involvement include that they observe a change in attitude and willingness to cooperate with the children who participated in the project and an improvement in well-being.
Capacity building is an important aspect of the approach. Lombard and Wairire , p. The project provides an excellent opportunity for the integration of theory, working from a strength perspective and using the developmental welfare approach. The objectives for the research were to contextualise generalist social work values and principles in intervention with offenders; explore the personal experiences of second year social work students in their intervention with children and youth in detention and formulate themes from the research results in order to make recommendations with regard to selecting practice settings for social work students.
The question exploring the central phenomenon of the study was what is the experience of social work students of values and principles in intervention with children and youth in detention? The sub-questions associated with the central question focused on how the intervention with children and youth in detention contributes to the integration of social work values and principles and how the intervention assists students to reflect upon their own values compared to generalist social work values.
Research methodology The research study focused on the experience of social work values and principles that the participants the second year social work students had in their intervention with the children and youth in detention, characteristic of qualitative research Creswell, Permission to conduct research with students at the university was given by the Dean of Students and the Registrar of the University.
The Research Ethics Committee of the faculty provided ethical clearance. The second year social work students formed the collective case and their exposure to children and youth in detention was the intervention.
The meaning that they attached to the exposure with regard to the integration of social work values and principles formed the data from which comparisons and suggested generalisations were made.
Research population Downloaded by [University of Pretoria] at 12 November The population for the study was BSW students in their third year of study, 1 year after their exposure to the correctional setting.
In the South African context, these students are in the age group of 20—25 years, thus in early adulthood.
The group was diverse and included both male and female students from different cultural and ethnic groups. No sample was drawn as the whole group was approached to participate to explore the experiences of all of the students, and not only of students that reported a positive experience. Students had a choice to participate voluntarily or not to be involved. Twenty-two students, 4 males and 18 females, volunteered to participate and signed letters of informed consent.
Data collection Because qualitative research relies on text Creswell, , participants wrote an essay of words on their experience of social work values and principles in their intervention with the children and youths in detention. Essays were submitted anonymously and were used as personal documents to collect data.
The advantage was that participants could consider their responses and pay attention to their language Creswell, Information obtained from the documents was primary material and provided valuable personal meanings, contributing to the reliability of the research data Babbie, Research participants had the right to privacy and knew that their data would be kept confidential Creswell, Data analysis Since this was a qualitative research study, inductive data analysis was used by building patterns, categories and comprehensive themes Creswell, The data analysis involved open-ended data.
Content analysis included a systematic process to quantify the frequency of elements or words in documents.
Words in the documents were transformed into a quantitative and systematic form Babbie, The author searched for the concepts social work values and principles taught in both the first- and second-year BSW programme in the documents written by the students.
In reading the data, specific themes were sought, then analysed and then checked and compared with the literature on the subject. Textual analysis added value when the meaning of the document content was interpreted.
Participants were aware of the possible discomfort that may arise and that debriefing would follow immediately after their participation. Harm to participants was limited. Results and discussion The research data are presented according to three main themes.
First, the initial reactions of students when they were informed that they would do their social work in practice intervention in a correctional setting are discussed.
Second, the exposure to Downloaded by [University of Pretoria] at 12 November and experience of working in the correctional setting receive attention and third, the reflective feedback after completing the intervention is integrated within the context of social work values and principles. Main theme: initial reactions Students were scared. As discussed earlier, the crime rate in the country is high and a large number of people are victims of crime.
Zastrow , p. Social work students are not exempted from falling victim to crime and are very aware of the incidence of criminal activity and subsequent detainment.
Their social and physical contexts have daily incidents of crime, even if only through media reports on incidences. I was scared to death because when I heard prison, I thought criminals, crime, murder, sexual abuse and more. There is a stigma attached to criminals, that they are always bad and always heartless.
A male student was honest about his feelings as a young male social work student who had to work in a correctional centre for males. In addition, the prospect of being a guy and being left in prison mistakenly was a feeling that gave me sleepless nights. Nobody could expect the students to feel at ease and not be scared.
Feelings were real and concrete. Rohleder et al. Ingram and Rohleder et al. The emotional student responses were concrete and had to be recognised and acknowledged. Students were uncertain. Another initial reaction to the information about their intervention in a correctional centre was one of uncertainty. The media often portray prisons as settings with gang activities and violence. The possibility of recognising a perpetrator in the correctional centre is a reality. Students are aware that correctional centres are overcrowded and that they have detainees who committed a range of crimes from rape and murder to petty thefts.
In spite of preparation sessions prior to going to the centre, students still felt uncertain. I prepared myself mentally but I was still a bit uncertain of what to expect, because Downloaded by [University of Pretoria] at 12 November how should I approach the criminals, should I look them straight in the eyes, should I talk to them or just ignore them.
I felt. Students were judgemental. Crime is a reality; falling victim to crime is a possibility; correctional centres are overcrowded and filled with perpetrators.
Judgement comes easy. Hearing people say that the death sentence should be re-introduced to make people pay for what they do to others is common. When students hear that they have to work with offenders, one of the immediate reactions is to judge, even if they learn in their BSW programme that they are not supposed to do so. In the case of the project involving awaiting trial detainees, students initially judge both the detainees as human beings as well as what they did.
I thought that they deserved to be there. It was not easy for me to feel pain for them I saw people in the prison as bad people who do bad things that harm good people.
They must be exposed so that people can know what bad persons they are. My preconceived ideas about criminals rushed to the fore and I was expecting violent and rebellious individuals. Students were shocked. Scott et al. The profile of the young detainees in the specific centre includes sexual offences, violent crimes and minor crimes. When we were first told. I thought to myself, why lecturers would want to give us to these criminals. When I first heard about the community work that we have to do with awaiting trial detainees, I was shocked and I felt like this is the end.
Downloaded by [University of Pretoria] at 12 November Main theme: exposure and experience Students understood and accepted the children and youth as unique human beings. Populations served by social workers cut across diverse socio-cultural contexts. Social workers need a depth of knowledge and skills to intervene with sensitivity Carter-Black, No matter what I do I can never know exactly how they must be feeling or how they think, but the least I can do is always believe in their potential, and see them as human beings with emotions and behaviour and needs.
It does not matter what a person has done, we social workers are there to try to understand and guide them towards a process of growth and healing. Everyone has a story: all behaviour has factors which motivate it. Krumer-Nevo et al. Students should be aware of their own contexts that may be privileged or not always privileged, and how these contexts influence attitudes towards the people that they work with. After spending a few more minutes in prison.
I became more relaxed. It was such a real and peaceful moment for me because I realized that they are human too. Students became non-judgemental.
Social workers should not apply their own values in culturally competent practice.
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