Response 1:

Resiliency

Respond to at least two colleagues in one or more of the following ways:

·      Add to your colleague’s suggestion for applying resiliency to Talia’s case by suggesting an adaptation of the strategy.
 
·      Critique your colleague’s suggested application of resiliency to social work practice, stating whether you might use the strategy in your own practice, and why. 
 
·      Be sure to support your responses with specific references to the resources. If you are using additional articles, be sure to provide full APA-formatted citations for your references.
 

Colleague 1: B

Nineteen year old Talia Johnson was the victim of a rape at a fraternity party (Plummer, Makris and Brocksen, 2014).  This week’s video depiction highlights Talia’s struggle with navigating her way back into the life she knew prior to the sexual assault (Laureate Education, 2013).  The social worker has a glimpse into her daily life, particularly as she struggles with her parent’s understandable discomfort with their daughter remaining on campus (Laureate Education, 2013).  Talia views her current situation as stagnant and not easily changeable.  During these situations, the professional charged with helping the client achieve the best positive outcomes when pairing their innate resiliency with a Strengths Based Perspective (Zastrow and Kirst- Ashman, 2016).  Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman recognize the importance of emphasizing one’s resiliency, particularly when faced with undeniable adversity (Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman, 2016).  

While this may be proven as an effective approach, convincing a client who is experiencing consistent feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, is certainly not an easy feat.  Therefore, the focus of this approach should remain small, manageable tasks seen through to completion (Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman, 2016).  In Talia’s case, perhaps suggesting she schedules agreed upon times to speak with her mother would alleviate the stress she feels by receiving the numerous phone calls (Laureate Education, 2013).  The premise behind this suggestion is that when Talia starts seeing small daily success, she may start “buying in” to the fact that she, too, can come back from the trauma that has placed her where she is.  Thus, her acceptance of her own resiliency, while her innate strengths are continually highlighted by the social worker, will only add to her achievement of positive outcomes (Zastrow and Kirst – Ashman, 2016).  

By applying this concept of resiliency to Talia’s case, it is clear how this would be an effective approach within my own future social work practice.  Every client with whom a social worker comes in contact, has some innate level of resiliency.  Finding the opportunities to point out resiliency, even in its simplest form, becomes the responsibility of the professional charged with guiding the client toward the desired outcomes.   For example, when a client drives a car for the first time after being involved in a car accident, this can be identified as  form of resiliency and the first step in achieving their goals.  The ultimate goal would be for the client to recognize this resiliency within himself, but until this time the social worker can serve as the client’s “strength identifier.”  

Laureate Education (Producer). (2013). Johnson family: Episode 5 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Plummer, S. -B., Makris, S., & Brocksen, S. M. (Eds.). (2014). Baltimore, MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing. [Vital Source e-reader

Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2016). Understanding human behavior and the social environment (10th ed.). Boston, MA:  Cengage Learning.

Colleague 2: J

Talia is a 19-year-old college student who was sexually assaulted at a frat party. After seeking help from campus resources and the services of a counselor, she has begun to experience high levels of anxiety and stress (Plummer, Makris, and Brocksen, 2014). While Talia has begun to resent her counselor for the coping mechanisms she has given Talia, Talia has nonetheless continued to do the things suggested for her, such as journaling, going to group meetings, and talking about her feelings (Laureate Education, 2013). As an observer, these behaviors exhibited by Talia all suggest that she is a resilient individual who refuses to let the things that have befallen her ruin her life permanently.

            As a social worker, it can be a very difficult task to convince a client that they are resilient, especially when they feel like their life is falling apart. As mentioned by Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman (2016,) giving the individual small, manageable tasks to achieve can boost their confidence and encourage them to take on larger, more difficult tasks. The social worker in Talia’s case already has proof that she is resilient by Talia’s compliance and adherence to journaling and going to group meetings (Laureate Education, 2013).

            In my own practice, using the concept of resiliency will only serve to increase my client’s self-esteem and self-worth. By giving clients small goals that they can achieve, I can build up their confidence and determination. I think it will also be important to still call clients resilient when they fail at a goal- by still coming to sessions and admitting failure, they are only improving themselves. This would also give them the chance to evaluate the goal or their performance and see what went wrong, what can be done to fix it, and when can it be tried again. Resiliency means to be able to keep going through adversity; it also means to be able to adapt and change with the situations at hand. By instilling this in clients, they can begin the healing process.

Laureate Education (Producer). (2013). Johnson family: Episode 5 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu.

Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen, S. M. (2013). The Johnson Family. In Sessions: Case Histories. Laureate Education, Inc.                                                        

 Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2016). Understanding human behavior and the social environment (10th ed.). Boston, MA:  Cengage Learning.

Response 2:

Discussion: Micro vs. Macro Practice

·      Respond to at least two colleagues by identifying three reasons that macro practice should not be dominated by micro practice if social work policy is to effectively deal with the problems of oppressed and marginalized groups.
 
·      Support your response with specific references to the resources. Be sure to provide full APA citations for your references.
 

Colleague 1: D

Micro practice is to work with individuals.  Macro practice is to work at the organizational level.  Micro practice has come to dominate the social work profession because if we were to break down the macro and mezzo levels, we are left with individuals.  “Social workers have long recognized that micro and macro practice are complementary, but they have generally emphasized the micro, individual treatment aspect of the profession” (Popple & Leighninger, 2015, p. 7).  It has been discussed plenty that social workers find themselves working with individuals a majority of the time.  The root of the individual’s issues is based on things that are bigger than the individual (Popple & Leighninger, 2015, p. 7).

Popple, P. R., & Leighninger, L. (2015). The policy-based profession: An introduction to social welfare policy analysis for social workers. (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Colleague 2: R

The dichotomy between micro and macro social worker practice varies in the approaches used. Micro social worker practices are based on the ideas on how to better equip the individual to deal with societal needs and expectations. If there is an individual in need of services, the micro approach will link that individual to services to assist their individual underlying needs. The macro social worker approach attempts to have the community meet people at their levels of need. The idea behind the macro level approach to is discuss social worker and the needs of group of individual to larger organizations and agencies such as schools or child welfare agencies. In essence, and as mentioned in this week’s reading, the ideas of micro and macro practices are to compliment from one another. Understanding the needs of one might be just be the needs of the general population of that area, (Popple & Leighninger, 2015). Therefore becoming familiar and effective with using techniques on the micro level, might uncover solutions to bigger societal problems in communities. 

Popple, P.R., & Leighninger, L. 2015. The police-based profession: Introduction to social welfare policy analysis for social workers. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Educations