Social Work Theory and Practice

This essay explores the challenges and risks experienced by social workers while working with individuals and communities in Australia. It also sheds light on the political, cultural, and social diversities that social agents experience during their course of work and how these factors influence Australian families.

Running head: SOCIAL WORK THEORY AND PRACTICE
SOCIAL WORK THEORY AND PRACTICE
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1
SOCIAL WORK THEORY AND PRACTICE
Social work can be considered as a practice-oriented profession as well as an
academic discipline that results in the promotion of social change and growth. It is considered
as a regulated career where social workers have been inducted in a unique manner to serve
and support individuals, communities, families in order to accomplish some of the biggest
challenges and risks of life (Lawrence, 2016). However, social workers play a vital role in
protecting the liberty and rights to enhance and empower children, grown-ups and families.
Social workers implement a distinctive array of legal and social work awareness and
knowledge to assist citizens to bring alterations in their lives. This essay aims to understand
the challenges and risks experienced by social workers while interacting and working with
individuals and communities situated in the Australia. The paper will also elaborate certain
political, cultural and social diversities that social agents experience during their course of
work by shedding light on the way these factors are influencing the Australian families. In
addition to this, it will also focus on the means in which these issues will give impact on the
social policies and social work practices. Lastly, this essay will be providing certain
theoretical as well as ethical frameworks that will support social workers to manage and
navigate risks and challenges during their everyday work.
Social workers have always represented areas of concern regarding their public
representation from the foundation of their professionalism. However, traditionally social
agents have continued to accomplish the role of protectors and guardians of the helpless and
vulnerable members of the society. However, confusions and hostility pertaining to this type
of work might create hindrance to accomplish the aims of the profession to assist and
navigate public in need. During the mid nineteenth century, the role of social work in
Australia had been moderately vulnerable in authority (Dominelli, 2017). Several limited
training opportunities and a sharp decline in trained employee workforce created obstacles in
the process of expansion and expertise of social work in various areas related to its

2
SOCIAL WORK THEORY AND PRACTICE
production and service. Therefore, the establishment of training institutions for social work
occurred in three states namely Victoria, New South Wales as well as South Australia.
Social agents had been experiencing issues of work practices, women’s rights in the
early as well as later decades. The idea of ethics, morals and principles of practice is a
difficult process to work within limited space. It becomes immensely complex to envision the
reaching global agreed state of fundamental values and ethics of practice for dealing with
youth, children, parents as well as other members of the family. In all significant respects,
childhood is a phase, which remains attached to the marginalized section as a temporary and
intermediary status (Adams, 2011). The outcome of children being debarred from engaging
into the vital positions of the society. Older children and adolescents are also often
considered as unruly and wearisome who fail to be engaged with the practice of social work
and further facilitate to the society (McMahon & Camberis, 2017). Social workers perceive
the situation of children as a matter of concern while taking their positions within the social
structure into consideration. However, it must be noted that the focal area of social workers
deal with the areas of inclination of children that has a considerable increase in the past
decades.
An intense and collaborative relationship of AASW with the government, educational
institutes, customer associations and community has been witnessed the immense
significance of Aboriginal and Torres State Islanders (Alma & Iran, 2015). The practice of
social service with the Aboriginal communities is Australia is notified by understanding.
Social workers acknowledge the historical shortcomings of the community and further
implications related to the act of social service. They honour and identify the ethnicity and
cultural diversity of the Australian society with the existence of diversity among the people,
communities and groups belonging to indigenous and other cultures. The varied references
and information of indigenous groups, the AASW code has been revised which added general

3
SOCIAL WORK THEORY AND PRACTICE
statement related to cultural diversity (Coombs, Nicholas, & Parkas, 2013). A case of serious
concern lies regarding the analysis of social work ethics. Several social service practitioners
who worked on immigrants, refugees and non-English speaking communities have stated that
the AASW code failed to address several areas of concern such as sexuality, culture, race,
ethnicity and alike. Modernist theorise often create obstacles for social workers to deal with
the participants’ responses.
Social work practitioners must consider the significant economic implications while
dealing with mental health services. Several factors, which have relation to socioeconomic
status, may situate the poverty-stricken victims who are often denied assistance by social
workers. Although social workers often make frequent visits to the places of socially and
economically deprived families, many have expressed fear and apathetic towards the
families. Many have stated to continue their practice within the places of their comfort with
clients paying visit to them. However, the times when assistance towards mental health are
situated at a distance from the communities which they have claimed to serve certain level of
biasness becomes evident from the position of the social workers.
The notions of services to mental health and wellbeing remain indistinct and blurred
to many communities with varied cultural aspects. For instance, the concepts comprehended
in English and Spanish language fail to demonstrate similar connotations. There is a great
need and demand for bilingual social practitioners who can effectively illustrate the purpose
of the work while catering various sections of linguistic minorities.
A sudden unemployment surge in recent times has caused an immense effect on the
industrial growth of the country. The anticipation of over sixty five thousand job cuts raised
an issue of concern amongst the Australian families (Carvalho, 2015). However, it must be
taken into account that this type of unemployment stress has given rise to mental illness

4
SOCIAL WORK THEORY AND PRACTICE
among the workers in the labour force. The rate of labour retrenchment has severely hit the
Australian youth that has increased from twelve to fifteen percent with less than a decade. A
nongovernmental organization in this country has characterized this kind of a disgraceful
economic state as a scandalous situation for the country’s youths.
In recent times, Australian families are experiencing several social risks and
challenges. An overbearing past of colonization has led the country’s political situation be
troubled with various conservative liberalism, privatization as well as market philosophy.
Subjects related to the issues of respecting and giving privileges to other cultures has
predominantly existed in this country. Australia has been assigned to the Universal
Declaration on Human Rights that further states the equality and respect for all humans in
terms of rights, freedoms and authorities with the exclusion of any kind of racism (Fozdar, &
Hartley, 2013). An amount of over five million families in Australia was living in the country
during 1990’s (Robinson, 2013). A vast population of immigrants of the Aboriginal as well as
Torres Strait Islanders backgrounds has been witnessed in comparison to the communities
who did not belong to the indigenous families. However, it was noted that the former resided
in multifamily households whereas the later were mainly single households. One of the
causes related to this disparity lied on the increasing rates of unemployment and economic
scarcity among the Indigenous families (Bennett, 2015). The cause of the difference also
occurred due to the reasonably higher percentage of deaths and male imprisonment. Socio
economic dissimilarity has been considered as another cause of family diversity where the
availability of jobs and adequate earnings were not distributed equally among the families in
Australia. The early twenty first century had witnessed about twenty percent of families
without a bread earner, a percentage of almost fifty consisting of sole earners who were
primarily women (Markus, 2014). There is a need of social as well as public policies to be
implemented in order to protect and respond to the divergence of individualistic and family

5
SOCIAL WORK THEORY AND PRACTICE
assemblage occurring in the Australian society. These policies further needs to focus on the
social, ethnic and economic factors related to the society. Public policies are significant, as
the growing rates of unemployment, single parent families and deprivation have caused major
impacts on the living conditions of the youth and children of the country. Employee
engagement and availability of jobs along with labour market policies, health facilities can
either lead to the advancement and promotion of equality and reduce exclusion.
The process of migration has been a critical factor for the growth of the Australia’s
social capital. Millions of migrants have chosen this country as a place for occupation,
production as well as fill up the gaps of labour scarcity. It must be taken into account that a
country’s cultural and economic development is highly dependent on the migrant population,
who not only upsurges the human investment stocks but also leads to the increase in social
and recreational activities of the Australians. The major portion of social revenue that is
related to migration is characterized as short term and is developed from the process of
settlement. The immigrant families experience several dilemmas associated with difficulties
with English language, cultural assimilation, and lack of infrastructure facilities as well along
with spiritual and religious fundamentalism (Bennett, 2015). Several other concerns raised by
the indigenous communities were mostly related to the temporary association or cultural
struggle between the migrants and the members associated with the host culture.
The Federal Government of Australia for past several years has been actively working
on the fund distribution to ethno specific groups through the means of the immigration
department. The main purpose of this financial support was to provide services to the
refugees as well as humanitarian entrants (Kilpatrick et al., 2015). This funding system has
proved to be greatly beneficial to the Australian communities in reaching out to the
settlement development in the country. These funding have not played a vital role in the
establishment of members of diverse communities but has also contributed to an effective

6
SOCIAL WORK THEORY AND PRACTICE
settlement for thousands of refugees. However, it must be noted that this process of
settlement can be interrupted and hindered by few external factors which might led an
individual to lose his own refugee area. Communities, which are based particularly on
ethnicity, have huge reliance and dependence on the SGP funded position in order to improve
the sustainability level (Ballantyne & Burke, 2017). However, a loss of such an organization
has caused immense impact of the ethnic organizations because of their high-level
dependency. Several ethno specific organizations were left with no capitals and incomes to
provide further contributions to the wider community via these services, which are created to
meet communitarian needs and desires.
The practice of social work involves several stages of evaluation, observation, and
intervention with an involvement of supporting and promoting human development and
social justice. In order to have a smooth social work practice and initiate these strategies,
social practitioners must observe and evaluate the way to proceed with each phase within a
given circumstances. The concept of social policy along with social welfare is often identified
as similar concepts although they have varied approaches. These practice of social policy and
justice results in different explanations and even contradictory views that is dependent on the
position of the affected ones both as a recipient and contributor. The idea of social justice
relies on the welfare of human beings that can be recognized worldwide. The Chinese
civilization argues about the concepts of social guiding principles and social welfare which
can be found in the traditional ways of teaching of the ancient philosophers who has still
immense contribution in various Chinese educational institutions (Scerra, 2012). The
implementation of social justice to the mankind has its origin in the Global Declaration of
Human Rights Charter of the United Nations that spoke how human rights has strong
association with dignity and value of individuals who seek to ensure freedom and

7
SOCIAL WORK THEORY AND PRACTICE
sovereignty from all types of fear and anxiety. The core responsibility in social work practice
remains in accomplishing obligations in order to look after human rights for achieves justice.
The role of governments is confronted by differing and conflicting human demands and
desires from varied sections of the society.
The concept of risk tolerance plays a vital role in the act of practice for a social
worker. This concept of risk tolerance is referred as a level of comfort social workers take,
both for oneself as well as for the client (resources, priorities and alike) during their social
service in order to accomplish the purpose (Ritchie et al., 2013). Another component related
to social work is the model for ethical decision-making. However, it must be taken into
account that maintaining ethical strategies is not considered, as an effortless job as even with
the most accurate purpose and objectives social workers might still be ineffective. Social
work practitioners must incorporate proper strategies while making ethical decisions. An
effective observation and understanding of the participants through constructing
disagreements and arguments would help in the justification of the actions of the social
workers. Practitioners must determine the aims and purposes, which participants will
accomplish. Ethical social workers are confident in the usage of decision making that further
supports to critical thinking as well as reflection. It is required for the social workers to use
specialized and proficient decision-making equipments during the interaction and
consultation with students or supervisors. This ethical framework is considered as a primary
component in order to conduct a professional social service practice. Social practitioners
experience several dilemmas during their practice and further require resolving those
effectively. Certain issues social workers face during their practice can be self-disclosure,
confidentiality, personal and qualified boundaries and lastly difference of interest.
Regardless to the expertise and skills professional social work, practitioners possess,
yet they would be bombarded with several issues and dilemma because of certain challenging

8
SOCIAL WORK THEORY AND PRACTICE
societal or behavioural reinforcement. The issues, which social workers face while
conducting their practices in a school context include issues related to abuse, harassment,
school attendance, aggression and other psychological concerns that negatively influence
student socialization. However, through the process of social learning theory, practitioners
can observe and work on these issues. The concept of general system theoretical practice puts
prominence to the reciprocity of relationships among the elements of the system (Blaikie et
al., 2014). This theory helps in enhancing the attention of the social worker to diverse
organizations within which an individual functions. Conflict theory is considered as a
significant foundation for social work related to the association of communities for macro
level work. The interests and aims of various leaders, organizers remain unnoticed and
disregarded because of their lack of alignment to dominant thoughts and perceptions
(Congress, 2017). Thus, there lies a requirement of identifying the interests and desires of
these organizer and directors. The duty of community organizers is to bridge the gaps found
within communities and neighbourhood resulted because of the conflicts among members of
the communities.
Thus, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that the fundamental purpose of
social work is to provide guidance and assistance to their clients and members of the society
to accomplish their respective needs as well as desires to further enhance and encourage the
humanitarian wellbeing. Social work practitioners work in a productive manner to act in
response to the demands and obligations of the members of the society. The essay highlights
certain challenges social workers experience while conducting their work with the Australian
Aboriginals and Torrent Islander Communities. The paper further focuses on the factors
influencing the migrants and refugee population in the country. Lastly, the paper will
elaborate certain ethical and theoretical frameworks, which would assist the social workers to
navigate challenges during their course of work.

9
SOCIAL WORK THEORY AND PRACTICE
References
Adams, R. (Ed.). (2011). Working with children and families: knowledge and contexts for
practice. Palgrave Macmillan.
Ballantyne, G., & Burke, L. (2017). “People live in their heads a lot”: Polymedia, life course,
and meanings of home among Melbourne’s older Irish community. Transnational
Social Review, 7(1), 10-24.
Bennett, B. (2015). “Stop deploying your white privilege on me!” Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander engagement with the Australian Association of Social
Workers. Australian Social Work, 68(1), 19-31.
Blaikie, P., Cannon, T., Davis, I., & Wisner, B. (2014). At risk: natural hazards, people's
vulnerability and disasters. Routledge.
Carvalho, P. (2015). Youth unemployment in Australia. Policy: A Journal of Public Policy
and Ideas, 31(4), 36.
Congress, E. P. (2017). What social workers should know about ethics: Understanding and
resolving practice dilemmas. Social Work Ethics, 1909.
Coombs, T., Nicholas, A., & Pirkis, J. (2013). A review of social inclusion
measures. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 47(10), 906-919.
Dominelli, L. (2017). Anti-racist social work. Palgrave.
Fozdar, F., & Hartley, L. (2013). Civic and ethno belonging among recent refugees to
Australia. Journal of refugee studies, 27(1), 126-144.

10
SOCIAL WORK THEORY AND PRACTICE
Fozdar, F., & Hartley, L. (2013). Refugee resettlement in Australia: What we know and need
to know. Refugee Survey Quarterly, 32(3), 23-51.
Kilpatrick, S., Johnson, L., King, T. J., Jackson, R., & Jatrana, S. (2015). Making connections
in a regional city: Social capital and the primary social contract. Journal of
Sociology, 51(2), 207-220.
Lawrence, R. J. (2016). Professional social work in Australia. ANU Press.
Markus, A. (2014). Attitudes to immigration and cultural diversity in Australia. Journal of
Sociology, 50(1), 10-22.
McMahon, C., & Camberis, A. L. (2017). Family as the primary context of children's
development.
Murray, K. E., & Marx, D. M. (2013). Attitudes toward unauthorized immigrants, authorized
immigrants, and refugees. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 19(3),
332.
Payne, M. (2015). Modern social work theory. Oxford University Press.
Reamer, F. G. (2013). Social work in a digital age: Ethical and risk management
challenges. Social work, 58(2), 163-172.
Ritchie, J., Lewis, J., Nicholls, C. M., & Ormston, R. (Eds.). (2013). Qualitative research
practice: A guide for social science students and researchers. Sage.
Robinson, K. (2013). Voices from the front line: Social work with refugees and asylum
seekers in Australia and the UK. British Journal of social work, 44(6), 1602-1620.
Scerra, N. (2012). Strengths-based practices: An overview of the evidence. Developing
Practice: The Child, Youth and Family Work Journal, (31), 43.