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W F U W O N E W S WORLD FEDERATION OF UKRAINIAN WOMEN’S ORGANIZATIONS No. 7 June 1967 Social Work Services in Our Community The Ukrainian women’s or ganizations have shown great concern for the welfare of indi viduals and families in our com munities. Each one, for example, has a unit called “Suspilna Opi- ka” which concerns itself with all sorts of assistance to needy individuals. One senses, how ever, that we have reached a point where concrete and finan cial assistance, as helpful as it might be, is no longer meeting the many existing needs within our communities. We know that the community’s health and hap piness can be measured only by the health and happiness of its individuals and families. As a women’s organization we are es pecially aware of family con flicts, maladjustment of chil dren, mental and physical ill nesses, juvenile delinquency, narcotics addiction, and the re sulting stresses on family life. The western democracies have developed a whole network of services to help its troubled in dividuals and families. The field of social work includes both pri vate and governmental services ranging from financial assist ance to casework, groupwork community organization servic es. We would like to know how to give intangible help to the troubled person that comes to our attention. Mary Richmond, one of the pioneers in social work, spoke of social casework as the “pro cesses which develop personality through adjustments conscious ly effected, individual by indivi dual, between men and their so cial environment,” and again in her book The Long View she writes “Social casework may be defined as the art of doing dif ferent things for and with dif ferent people by cooperating with them to achieve at one and the same time their own and so ciety’s betterment.” Later defi nitions have defined more speci fically the process, but none has stated more clearly the aim of social casework. The casework process is based on a one-to-one relationship, be tween social worker and the cli ent who comes for help out of his own free will. However, the caseworker usually functions within the administrative framework of an agency which through its resources in many ways facilitates the helping pro cess. To qualify as a social worker within a reputable agency one must in the USA for example, complete college and later re ceive a master’s degree from an accredited school of social work. The program in a school of so cial work consists of two years of study. Since social work train ing requires a good degree of personal involvement it is a very enriching experience. It would be very advantageous if some of our members would consider at least some of the available social work courses in order to better serve their communities. Social work principles are gen uinely and consistently based on democratic philosophy. Keneth L. M. Pray writes: “The philo sophy of social work . . rests upon profound faith in human beings, in their inherent and in violable right to choose and to achieve their own destiny through social relations of their own making, within the essen tial framework of a stable and progressive society.” (Commun ity Organization its Nature and Setting — American Association of Social Workers 1947 p. 4). Self-determination is one of the very important principles of social work. Help is most effec tive if it helps the client to help himself. No one enjoys prolong ed dependency or “hand-outs.” The best help we can give is when we can stimulate the client to resolve his own problems and to achieve his own destiny. The worker must be fully aware of his own feelings and attitudes in order not to impose his will and judgment upon the client. The relationship between the social worker and his client is strictly confidential. The client is led to understand early in the relationship that at no time will the worker disclose the informa tion that the client gives him. It is important that the social worker maintain a non judgmen tal attitude toward his client and that he create an atmo sphere of acceptance conducive to client involvement and parti cipation. Here again it seems a rather simple principle and yet it requires quite a lot of practice to achieve this in our relation ship with others. For example, try to imagine having to help a mother who maltreates and re jects her child. What will your feelings be? Here we come to an important facet of social work process namely self-awareness on the part of the worker. The worker must understand his feelings and reactions toward the people he is helping. This understanding is just as impor tant as his understanding of his client’s feelings and behaviour. It is important to realize and to appreciate the individual differ ences of human beings and to
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