Question

What is your understanding of the responsibilites of the social work profession, generally and specifically, the role and responsibilities that you wish to be able to assume as a professional social worker employed along the U.S. Mexico border?

Answer 1

Professional social worker

A professional social worker helps clients to function well in their areas of work or personal life. Social workers are trained to maximize the potential of their clients to excel in their chosen practice. Their clients may be individuals, a group of people, a family, a community or even organizations. Social workers focus on maintaining justice and welfare across social and economic realms to which their client belong to. They are involved in solving problems related to planning, implementation and administration of policies. They are also involved in private and public sectors, teaching and services on a community and state level.

General responsibilities of the social worker:

A social worker has the following responsibilities,

1. Identify areas of help for the client
2. Assess the level of needs and the circumstances that the client is in
3. Identify the strengths and support system of the client
4. Create plans to improve the client's situation
5. Provide assistance to execute the plan
6. Provide guidance to access community resources. For eg., health care, food stamps etc.,
7. Provide assistance to the clients to reap the benefits of government schemes
8. Help them through crisis situations
9. Act as a barrier to protect clients from unlawful practices and educate them of the same
10. Provide feedback and keep updated on their progress

As a social worker employed along the U.S. Mexico border - Roles and responsibilities:

1. Identify ways to provide basic needs to the affected
2. Identify ways to come up with reforms in the areas where there are obstacles to provide basic needs
3. Come up with solutions to problems in immigration reforms
4. Come up with solutions to problems in health reforms
5. Strategize economic development
6. Find ways to get budgeting and funding
7. Interact with policymakers in planning and implementation of reforms
8. Have an effective program development strategy
9. Supervise and follow up with program implementation to ensure that they reach the target audience.