Social Work Essay Example: Group Model

The Group Model is important for public policy development especially social work because group work is a modality for introducing change in the environment or the interpersonal relationship of members. According to Healy, (2014), social group work introduces the group approach for purposes of accomplishing their goals common to every social work practice: 1) to prevent members from having to develop dysfunctional methods of coping with circumstances; 2) to improve the engagement in the use of social, artistic, intellectual and other endeavors; as well as 3) for rehabilitation purposes of members have developed handicaps in their personal as well as social lives. In social work, the unit of service can be an individual, a subgroup, a group or even a more large collectivity.

The group model emphasizes group procedures that facilitate the development of members self-understanding. This understanding includes the way in which behavior is experienced by others and how unconscious elements determine their thought and actions. The members ate helped to use this understanding for purposes of exploring ways of altering the way they act within and outside the group.

An important set of such procedures enables the members to examine processes that occur among each other and in the group in general. The focus of such examination is on the relationship implication that involves interaction. An example is a feedback that a person gets when offered advice to another member saw him seeking to control her. The members self-understanding may be in areas of feeling or thought of which the member was not previously conscious: workers and members may interpret one another of the meaning of behaviors to assist in bringing this understating. Social workers generally draw on observations made by scholars in the practice of group model.

Based on this model, for effective services to be conducted sound preparation for the initiation and subsequent development of that group is necessary. Yet practitioners sometimes ignore or simply give cursory attention to the planning process. Perhaps this results from the fact that they do not appreciate the importance of planning. Or maybe they feel the pressure and in a hurry to get the group on its toes. But thorough and thoughtful planning contributes mightily to the success of social work in a group. It is an important part of social work practice.

The significance of social workers being able to act ethically cannot be understated. In their pursuit of human rights, social workers should be able to create an environment where ethics flourish. However, within a group context, individual virtues may actually take a backseat to the overall professional circumstance in which social workers find themselves. According to Colby, Dulmus, & Sowers, (2012) professional ethics have been the exclusive concern for the individual social worker. Ethics must become the concern of the social group- in this instance the concern of social work agency, and the profession.

Response

Social interaction, which includes political contact, is considered a category of exchange where people interact with one another in case the anticipated benefits outweigh the anticipated costs that arise from the contact. Based on the rational model, public policy is often as that which achieves maximum social gin for expended costs (Colby, Dulmus, & Sowers, 2012). Policy alternatives are evaluated in accordance with the criteria. A rational choice model assumes that the presence of society as a whole can be known and weighted.

References

Colby, I. C., Dulmus, C. N., & Sowers, K. M. (2012). Social work and social policy: Advancing the principles of economic and social justice. John Wiley & Sons.

Healy, K. (2014). Social work theories in context: Creating frameworks for practice. Palgrave Macmillan.