The 10 functions of social workers

Social work is a discipline that is responsible for promoting development, cohesion and social transformation; including the individual strengthening of those who are part of a community.

Starting from a brief description of social work itself, in the following lines We will see what are the functions of social workers, what they do as professionals and how its performance has an impact on groups in vulnerable situations.

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What is social work? A short description

The history of social work is related to different processes that occurred in the mid-nineteenth century. On the one hand, it emerges from needs detected by different vulnerable groups: drug addicts, dysfunctional families, abandoned elderly people, etc.

Specifically, these needs were generated by massive migratory processes and growing urbanization, a fact that made family and socio-sanitary intervention essential. On the other hand, the origins of social work as an academic discipline are related to the division of gender and sexuality of the professions, specifically the one that took place in the investigation and intervention in sociology.

In this sense, social work is a field of study and action linked to various tasks and branches of the social sciences, humanities and community intervention. For this reason, it is an area that operates around concepts such as social justice, human rights, diversity, respect and equity, among others.

Based on the above, social work professionals have recognized different fields of action, as well as different functions, understood as the role played and recognized by those who exercise a particular discipline. Next we will see what are some of the functions of social workers.

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10 functions of social workers

Ballestero, A, Viscarret, J.J. and Uriz, M. J. (2013), carried out a national study in Spain. They took as reference the Social Work White Paper and after conducting surveys with Social Work professionals, they have summarized the functions of social workers in the following 10 points:

1. Prevent

Is about anticipate the possible causes of both individual and collective conflicts. This can be done through intervention projects that allow knowing the population context and the situations of social risk that arise, as well as the shortcomings and needs of the same context.

2. Provide direct care

Act with individuals or groups, whether they are at risk or already have a specific problem whose characteristic is social. The goal of direct care is to enhance individual capacities to that it be the same people who face and respond to daily social conflicts.

3. To plan

In order to carry out the interventions, it is necessary to prepare an action plan that has specific objectives and makes the analysis process explicit, as well as the possibilities of accompaniment and evaluation.

According to the authors, this can be carried out through the microsocial and also macrosocial level. The first is the design of interventions and projects, while the second is the design of programs and the organization of social services.

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4. carry out teaching

While social work is made up of different theoretical and practical teachings, which are taught in a specialized way in university centers, it is important the training of academics for both degrees and postgraduates in social work, and related areas.

5. Promote the promotion and social insertion

It involves taking the necessary actions to restore or preserve self-determination and functioning both individually and collectively. This can be through the design and implementation of social policies that readjust access to different services.

6. Supervise

Social work professionals can carry out supervision that allows them to accompany the people responsible for executing a specific program, social policy or service. Is about put into practice different knowledge and skills that accompany professional performance of those in charge of providing the different social services.

7. Carry out evaluations

It is about consulting and evaluating the results of the interventions, as well as verifying if the programmed objectives have been met, and what needs remain to be met. In the same way, it is about assessing the methodologies used and detecting the modifications that are relevant.

8. managerial role

Social workers may perform managerial tasks, which have to do with the responsibility of planning and organizing both social centers and specific programs and the services they provide.

9. Investigate

It consists of putting into practice methodological techniques that allow evaluate and intervene with scientific rigor on the specific problems of a particular social group. Broadly speaking, it is about analyzing, describing and explaining a specific reality, as well as establishing hypotheses that allow for appropriate intervention.

10. To coordinate

While it is about promoting social change, many of the organizations where an intervention is carried out are organized in large groups. In this sense, it is about specifying means, techniques and resources that allow carrying out a line of intervention with common objectives and appropriate to the needs of each group.

What professionals in this field say

The results of the study carried out by Ballestero, Viscarret and Úriz (2013), show different trends in the daily tasks carried out by the social workers surveyed. Professionals say that their main function is to help improve people's lives, given that social work is a discipline focused on the attention of the other.

However, the study has detected the prevalence of functions increasingly oriented towards management, planning and social administration; that are combined with direct intervention. Likewise, professionals describe little involvement in research activities. All of the above has led, according to the authors, to the prioritization of operational aspects focused on immediacy; and less focused on the reflection process for intervention.

In this study they have carried out a multivariate analysis and have detected that, in daily practice, the functions of social workers correspond to four different professional profiles:

• the profile of management-planning, with logistics functions at the macro level (where 26% of the participants are located).
• the profile of intervention for change, with functions of direct attention and social diagnosis (corresponds to 24%).
• the profile of healthcare intervention, with direct care tasks combined with administrative-bureaucratic functions (41.1% of those surveyed).
• He academic profile, with teaching and research (groups 9.4% of the participants).

The latter speaks of important transformations in the functions of social workers, and in the profession itself. Social work has recently been directed at avoiding or overcoming dysfunctions that are systemic, with which, program management and planning have an important weight. The startup objective, focused on the needs of the individual, participation and community; sometimes loses relevance. Likewise, the results speak of a growing specialization of the discipline where the functions begin to vary according to the specific development and application space.

The research invites, finally, to continue reflecting on these aspects, which are relevant for the future of the profession and its important application in different social contexts.

Bibliographic references:

• Ballestero, A., Viscarret, J. J., and Uriz, M. J. (2013). Professional functions of social workers in Spain. Social Work Notebooks, 26(1): 127-138.
• Garcia Dauder, S. (2009). Jessie Taft. Symbolic interactionism, feminist theory and clinical social work. Social Work Today, 56: 145-156.