Human service interactions in terms of macro systems-communities and organizations.
• Describe the concept of personal, interpersonal, and political empowerment.
Empowerment is basically a process to assist people groups, families and communities, individuals, to use their strengths to overcome their challenges by using the tools and resources around them.
Personal empowerment refers to a person's ability of competence, strength and ability to affect change. It indicates a subjective state of mind, experiencing a sense of control and feeling competent within themselves. It is focused on ways to develop personal power and self efficacy.
Interpersonal empowerment refers to person's ability to influence others. It comes from two sources, first based on social status- race, class, gender, sex. Second power comes from learning new skills and securing new positions. It includes successful interactions with others and regards other people hold for us.
Political empowerment refers to person's relationship with political structures. It refers to the process of transferring resources, capabilities and positions to people who do not possess them. It stresses the goals of social action and social change and intends to transfer power to the society while maintaining the individuality.
• Explain an individual's involvement in multiple social systems-micro, mezzo, and macro-at work in the environment.
Social work is divided into three categories: micro, mezzo, macro.
Macro level system is a large scale system that affects communities and systems. Individual's involvement at macro level may involve creating policy changes, planning, and implementation of social programs. Macro social work addresses issues involved in mezzo and micro systems.
Mezzo level includes an intermediary system like neighborhoods, institutions and smaller groups. It entails to bring people together who aren't as intimate as family members but benefit mutually from this social network. It deals with small to medium sized groups such as neighborhoods and schools like institutional and culture changes, managing social work organization, group therapies, self -help groups, neighborhood community associations.
Micro level means individual or his family and focuses on personal interaction either with an individual, coupe or family like clinical social interaction: interacting with a person at mental hospital, interacting with school teacher or student on drug addict issues or misbehavior, or case working one on one with a client with a homeless shelter. (Understanding Human Behavior in the Social Environment, Charles H. Zastrow, Karen Kay Kirst-Ashman, 2012, pg 33)
• Discuss the macro system response to child maltreatment, sexual abuse, crime, and delinquency.
There are four types of child maltreatment like physical , emotional, sexual and child neglect done by parent, care giver or any other person who harms child's development. Child abuse can come in poor families because parent has low intelligence, insecurity, low self esteem, low maturity.
If anyone knows about child abuse, macro system has created ways to ensure child is protected like youth services, calling the school, allowing the child to spend time away from parent, calling the prevent hotline locally, calling help national child abuse hotline, calling RAIN(Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network), taking the child to local NGOs.
Macro system responses can be divided into three risks: mild, moderate, severe. If the case is mild, responses that are suggested are early intervention, family support, formal/informal services, parent education, housing assistance. If the case is moderate, suggested responses are appropriate formal services, coordinated family support, safety plans, and community support services. For severe cases, suggested responses are Intensive family preservation or reunification services, child removal, court-ordered services, foster care, adoption, criminal prosecution.
• Compare and contrast the application of functionalism and interactionist theory to poverty.
In general both functionalism theory to poverty explains why social stratification (rankings of people based on wealth and social values); exists and endures. Interactionist theory on the other hand symbolizes the differences this stratification produces for interactions.
Functionalist perspective views society as an organism, as a system where all different parts of society need to be present and should be working together or else society will fail. Hence it says that poverty is needed to balance the society. Poverty is needed so that we can have rich people, it is a necessary part. It says poverty exists because it fulfills certain functions that are important to society like, poor people do the work that other people don't want to, the programs that help poor people provide jobs, poor purchase goods like old clothes, expired breads, that other people do not wish to purchase, poor provide jobs for people like doctors, teachers, who may not be competent enough to give services to wealthier people. Hence all these pose positive functions of poverty.
Interactionist perspective on the other hand says that society is possible because people interact with each other which gives a meaning to things based on these interactions and understanding of their daily lives. Unlike functionalist view, it doesn't explain why we have stratification but examines the difference that stratification makes in people's lifestyles and interactions. This theory says that poor people exist because they were never able to make sense of their world and might have not been able to see opportunity or were not with people who had a better life. Poverty exists because people who are in it saw other people struggle and never tried for more options since they didn't have the infrastructure to expand and get recognized.
• Describe the role and responsibility of the human service worker in the macro environment.
Human service worker is a profession where people have strong desire and focus to improve people's lives. These people help poor and disturbed people with their issues, relationships and help them solve their personal and family problems. Some social workers help people with their disabilities or diseases, or unemployment, inadequate housing, domestic conflicts, family quarrels, child or women abuse. Or some social workers who run NGOs, or design system processes or policy development.
Child, family and school social workers proves assistance to improve their social and psychological functioning of children and families and academic functioning of children.
Some specialize in services for senior citizens by running support groups for the children of senior people, arranging housing long term care etc.
They also run employee assistance programs that helps employees to cope up with their jobs, job related pressures, or personal and professional problems that affects the quality of their work.
In schools, social workers help children to cope up with their studies, act as a link between parents, teachers and school so as to ensure right education is passed on to the children and address problems like misbehavior, early pregnancy, drug addicts etc.
Medical and public health social workers help people get right treatments at right time, and to cope up with people and families with terminal illnesses.
Social workers also give assistance in mental health and substance abuse like tobacco, alcohol, drugs etc, services include group therapy, social rehabilitation, crisis intervention etc.
Other types are social work administrators, policymakers, activists, planners who develop policies, implement the plans to address various issues, raise money for the same and suggest legislative solutions.