A Model for Social Work Practice

This chapter presents a model for a way of describing social work practice. The model developed out of our experiences over a five-year period in developing and teaching social work practice at the School of Social Work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States. This chapter examines the tasks of the social worker in action as he works to change elements in a social situation in order to achieve a specified goal or outcome. The social worker may incorporate into the model special knowledge about particular social problems, client groups, organised societal systems, theoretical orientations and organisation tasks and processes. The focus of social work practice is on the interactions between people and systems in their social environment. People are dependent on social systems for help in obtaining the material, emotional or spiritual resources and the services and opportunities they need to realise their aspirations and to help them cope with their life tasks.