SOCW 2061 A4

SOCW 2061 A4

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

SOCW 2061 A4

9.1 Feminist Practice

Tanya’s situation demands valuable insights to [A1] formulate viable solutions for her problems. Feminism is an approach that supports and believes in equal rights for women based on the ideology of gender equality. The founders [A2] of feminism categorized it into three orientations that include resistance, revolution, and reform. Heinonen, Spearman, and Land identify feminist models that are applicable in Tanya’s case. According to Land (1995), feminist orientations work to articulate different approaches to gain various perspectives and understanding of women’s experiences and the way they shape them. These orientations can also serve as philosophical methods that can be used psychotherapeutically to intervene in situations such as Tanya’s to confer desired and positive outcomes. In the course text by Heinonen and Spearman (2010), Karen can use feminist orientations to inform her assessment of Tanya’s situation by analyzing how individual and social problems affect women in various conditions differently. Accordingly, Heinonen and Spearman (2010) further posit that primary orientations are linked to an individual’s consciousness to validate his or her experiences and strengths. Additionally, these orientations can eliminate or reduce power differences, share knowledge or promote self-disclosure, and create favorable environments for personal growth and development.

10.1 Compare and Contrast Aboriginal Approach

The authors define wholeness as the recognition, comprehension, and acceptance of factors in one’s life that they can and cannot control. Being able to live with this realization is referred to as wholeness. Balance is also associated with wholeness because the latter allows individuals to prioritize and allocate their skills, talents, and resources to entities and activities they manage, which results in a harmonious coexistence of factors that can and cannot be controlled (Kanata, 2010). Growth is an increase in various aspects depending on using spiritual, biological, psychological, or socio-cultural perspective. Healing is the elimination of a problem or disease of an individual. Sharing is allowing other individuals to partake in an activity, entity, or adhere to similar ideologies. Lifecycle refers to the genesis of a problem to its successful resolution, while consciousness is the awareness of factors affecting one’s life, and unconsciousness is the opposite (Kanata, 2010). Growth from the perspective of strengths refers to progress in one aspect of a person’s life. However, from an aboriginal approach, it means advancements of a human’s social, cultural, physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions holistically. Helping is assisting an individual in accomplishing tasks or providing the resources that enable him/her to attain desired outcomes. Healing is eliminating a problem facing an individual. Relationships in the ecosystems approach relate to ways individuals handle external factors affecting their well-being. These factors may include the other people and the environment. In an aboriginal approach, relationships are both external and internal, with the latter referring to the way people perceive themselves and how this representation influences their welfare. Mino-pimátisiwin is an aboriginal ideology that emphasizes the need for an individual to live a good life by being virtuous according to traditional teachings (Hart, 1999). Compared to Mino-pimátisiwin, Maslow’s self-actualization neither dictates a set of rules to follow to lead a good life nor does it define a better life. Instead, it promotes the realization of an individual’s full or true potential through any means necessary.

11.1 Cultural Competence

Terry Cross defines cultural competence as “the set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and polices that come together in a system, agency, or professional and enable that system, agency or professional to work effectively in cross-cultural situation” (quoted by Norman-Major & Gooden, 2012, p. 8)[A3] . An individual’s cultural competence is defined by his/her attitudes, behaviors, and policies in the society that converges into a system, profession, or agency that allows them to work well in various cultural contexts. A continuum cultural competence acknowledges and incorporates the holistic evaluation of cross-cultural relations, the importance of culture, dynamics of cultural diversity, expansion of cultural knowledge, and embracing novel approaches to fulfill individuals’ unique needs. Importantly, cultural competence is a progressive aspect that involves developmental processes, including various tasks whose accomplishment promotes its attainment. The continuum entails cultural destructiveness, incapacity, pro-competence, skill, and proficiency of tasks or attributes that individuals develop progressively towards total cultural awareness or consciousness (Smith, 2006). Assessments of my progress in the cultural competence continuum reveal that I am at the blindness stage, whereby I believe and strive to behave in ways that portray my commitment to be unbiased ethnically. As a social worker at this stage of the continuum, I will have ethnocentric attitudes that are counterproductive to achieving the desired outcomes of being fair. This determination is informed by the ethnocentric attitudes, practices, and policies that I portray towards individuals regarded as minorities in various contexts or situations.

11.2 Inclusivity

Opportunities that I have encountered to make me familiar with issues facing older adults include living with my grandmother and great-grandmother before they passed away. This experience has helped me to understand the challenges that people face when they grow older. For example, my great-grandmother has lost her sight and hearing ability, which deteriorated her quality of life tremendously[A4] . Growing old in our culture is perceived as an honor, and a person gets immense respect from the belief that s/he possesses valuable wisdom [A5] (Verniest, 2006). The manner our community treats the elderly depends on individual families, with the most critical determining factor being the socioeconomic state of particular kin (Margot, Loiselle, & McKenzie, 2006). Able and stable families regard their elderly as contributing members of society, while homes facing financial hardships see them [A6] as a drain on service and resources. The loss of sight and hearing ability in my great-grandmother offered me firsthand experience with issues of people living with a disability, their causes, and possible solutions. The culture of disability brings to mind behaviors, material artifacts, beliefs, and experiences of people living with such challenges, which work to create shared consistencies that establish a collective identity.

12.1 Social Work Values and Theoretical Approaches

Self-determination refers to the concept of individuals supporting their inherent tendencies to show behaviors and harbor attitudes that promote their well-being and progress in life. The term describes achieving by linking optimal human working, motivation, and personality regarding both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation types that exert significant influence in shaping the individual’s behavior and character. According to Carniol (2012), self-determination is an inherent human attribute conferred by innate psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and connectedness. Importantly, it cannot take place in isolation since an individual needs social systems to ensure they can support and sustain processes aimed at achieving self-improvement and betterment. A person needs to interact with other members of their society, which works to determine whether they will succeed at self-determination or fail.

The nature of benefits accrued from self-determination determines whether a person is empowered continuously or demotivated (Shebib, 2011). Extrinsic rewards have been demonstrated to curtail such efforts because they diminish one’s autonomy and intrinsic motivation. However, offering unexpected and positive responses and encouraging feedback works to increase an individual’s intrinsic motivation and performance of tasks meant to augment their efforts at self-motivation. Self-determination can be related to aboriginal approaches in social work because they both support holistic notions of fulfilling results in life.

References

Carniol, B. (2012). Structural social work: Maurice Moreau’s challenge to social work practice. Journal of Progressive Human Services, 3(1), 1-20. Retrieved from http://www1.carleton.ca/socialwork/ccms/wp-content/ccms-files/BenCarniolArticle.pdf

Hart, M. A. (1999). Seeking mino-pimatasiwin: An aboriginal approach to social work practice. Native Social Work Journal/Nishnaabe Kinoomaadwin, 2(1), 99-1121

Heinonen, T., & Spearman, L. (2010). Social work practice: Problem solving and beyond. Toronto, Ontario: Nelson Education Ltd.

Kanata, O. (2006). Allying with the medicine wheel: Social work practice with aboriginal peoples. Critical Social Work, 7(1), Retrieved from http://www1.uwindsor.ca/criticalsocialwork/allying-with-the-medicine-wheel-social-work-practice-with-aboriginal-peoples

Land, H. (1995). Feminist clinical social work in the 21^st Century. In Van Den Bergh, Nan. (1995) Feminist Practice in the 21^st Century. NASW Press. Retrieved from http://www.socialpolicy.ca/52100/m15/Feminist%20Practice%20in%20the%2021st%2Century%20Sample%20Chapter.htm

Margot, L., & McKenzie, L. (2006). The wheelness wheel: An aboriginal contribution to social work.Retrieved from http://www.stu.ca/~spirituality/Loiselle.pdf

Norman-Major, K.A., & Gooden, S.T. (2012). Cultural competency for public administrators. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.

Shebib, B. (2011). Choices: Interviewing and counseling skills for Canadians. Toronto,    Ontario: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Smith, E., J. (2006, January). The strength-based counseling model. The Counseling Psychologist, 34(1), 13-79. doi: 10.1177/0011000005277018

Verniest, L. (2006). Allying with the medicine wheel: Social work practice with Aboriginal peoples. Critical Social Work, 7(1), 46-51.

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 [A1]Redundant.

 [A2]Avoid using difficult words.

 [A3]It looks very similar to the definition of Terry Cross. You should have cited it appropriately.

 [A4] [A4]Did Verniest discuss your great grandmother?

 [A5]I, however, found this view in that article.

 [A6]Avoid lexical repetitions.