SOCIAL WORK PRINCIPLES

The principles in Social Work is the fundamental

philosophy that guides the social worker in his or
her work with individuals, groups or
communities.
SOCIAL WORK PRINCIPLES

 1. Acceptance of People as they are. The

social worker brings into the relationship
with the client her professional education
and experience and the agency’s support
of her helping role in keeping with its
societal prescribed goals. She also brings
with her the attitudes that are based on
scientific assumptions about human
behavior.
SOCIAL WORK PRINCIPLES
 The worker dos not only understand the meaning and
causes of the client’s behavior but also to a mode of
meeting and interacting with the client, i.e. non-
judgmentally.

 She manifests a genuinely warm interest and concern in

the client and his situation, in the causes of the difficulty
or problem and in what can be done about it.
SOCIAL WORK PRINCIPLES
 This principle does not mean accepting the deviant
behavior, “the object of acceptance is not only the good
but the real” which means dealing with the client as he is
in reality.

 Acceptance also means that we recognize that people

have strengths and weaknesses and capacities and
limitations.
SOCIAL WORK PRINCIPLES
 2. Participation of the client in problem-solving
 From the time that the worker begins to gather
information, the client is asked to provide pertinent
facts, to present his own perceptions of the situation
and is involved in defining the nature of the problem,
and if there are many problems, he is involved in
prioritizing these problems.
SOCIAL WORK PRINCIPLES

 He participates in planning ways of

resolving the problem,
 In thinking of possible alternatives,
 Look into his own resources
 Act on the problems
SOCIAL WORK PRINCIPLES
 3. Self-determination as a right of the client
 Determine his needs and how they should be met
 Guide the client so that he is able to look at his problem
objectively, understand what choices or alternatives are
open to him, their implications and consequences and
make his own decisions.
SOCIAL WORK PRINCIPLES
 A client develops or regains her self-
respect and self-confidence when he
realizes that he is able to solve his own
problems.
SOCIAL WORK PRINCIPLES
 4. Individualization of clients

 Involves “the recognition and understanding of each

client’s unique qualities and the differential use of
principles and methods in assisting each toward a better
adjustment…based upon the right of human beings to
be individuals and to be treated not just as a human
being but as this human being with his personal
differences”
SOCIAL WORK PRINCIPLES
 No one has gone through the same experiences
 Every person is unique
 No 2 persons are exactly alike

 Social workers should relate to each client as an individual in a

situation, which involves the interaction of different factors-
physical, social, psychological, etc. The impact of the interplay
of these factors on one individual and his consequent reactions
would not be the same in the case of another individual.
SOCIAL WORK PRINCIPLES
 A very important implication is the need to give every
client one’s interest and attention, making sure that the
uniqueness of his situation is taken into consideration,
from the time the worker studies and gathers data
about the problem, up to the time of preparing for the
termination of the helping relationship
SOCIAL WORK PRINCIPLES
 5. Confidentiality
 Provide the client protection, within the limits of the law,
from harm that might result from his divulging information to
the worker.
 Trust is an important element in a client-worker relationship.
 What the client discuss or tells the worker is not discussed
with others, except when this is done within the context of
professional relationships , for the purpose of helping the
client.
SOCIAL WORK PRINCIPLES
 Example: a case conference on the client involving other
professionals. Letters requesting information about the
client from another professional agency are not
prepared without the client first giving his permission.
 What a wife tells the worker is not shared with her
husband without her permission
SOCIAL WORK PRINCIPLES
 A prerequisite of confidentiality is privacy which is an
element that may not be easy to observe especially in
our setting.

 It can be done with care with respect to any member of

the family who listens
SOCIAL WORK PRINCIPLES
 6. Worker self-awareness
 The social worker is always conscious that her role is to
make use of her professional relationship with her client
in a way that will enhance primarily the client’s
development rather than her own.
SOCIAL WORK PRINCIPLES
 Being human being herself, she is influenced by her own
cultural values and beliefs. She has biases, prejudices
and negative attitudes about certain things.

 All these may affect her relationship with individual,

group or community she works with
SOCIAL WORK PRINCIPLES
 She should therefore sufficiently understand and face
herself, and be conscious of her own responses to her
client.

 She must always examine her feelings, whether they are

positive and negative, and whether her responses and
feelings are professionally motivated. i.e. for the
purpose of helping the client to fulfill certain need or
aims on her part.
SOCIAL WORK PRINCIPLES

 Self discipline is crucial to the principle of

worker self-awareness. Her very position
provides her countless opportunities to
manipulate people and their affairs, and
to use her relationships with them to
meet personal needs.
SOCIAL WORK PRINCIPLES
 The conscious use of one’s self is also part of
this principle. When conducting an interview
or counseling session, when to pose a
question, when to make an interpretative
remark or when to use silence, are acts that
reflect on the worker’s discipline and
conscious use of herself.

 Furthermore, conscious use of self includes

the capacity to set limits when necessary.
SOCIAL WORK PRINCIPLES

 There is also a need for social worker to

be conscious of how she responds or
reacts to manipulation by others. By
being conscious of this she can learn the
skill of properly handling certain acts that
undermine her professional role.
SOCIAL WORK PRINCIPLES
 7. Client-worker relationship
 This is the means for carrying out the social worker’s
function. The phrase that “social work problem-solving
takes place within a meaningful worker-client
relationship” put the emphasis on “relationship”
SOCIAL WORK PRINCIPLES
 Every relationship is characterized by a dynamic
interaction between human beings-
 A professional relationship does not happen, or move in
any direction, it comes to be formed on the basis of
expectations from the parties who compromise the
relationship…
SOCIAL WORK PRINCIPLES
 A purposive worker-client relationship allows for some
degree of subjective feelings which cannot be entirely
removed in any relationship.
 Social work uses “controlled emotional involvement”
SOCIAL WORK PRINCIPLES
 2 concepts which social workers experience in their work:

 Ambivalence- based on the proposition that the human

mind functions in a dualistic way

 Transference- concept from Freudian psycho therapy.

Believed to take place when a client unconsciously
transfers to social workers attributes or characteristics of
some important persons in his early life.
SOCIAL WORK PRINCIPLES
 Being human the social worker has also personal
reactions to a client. Feelings of dislike must be
controlled –this is what we call counter-transference
 Worker-client relationships are not meant to last forever.
Helping should take place within a reasonable period of
time and should be terminated at a certain time
 (Reference: Social Welfare and Social Work by Thelma
Lee-Mendoza)