Social work is a professional and academic discipline committed to the pursuit of social

welfare, social change and social justice. The field works towards research and practice
to improve the quality of life and to the development of the potential of each individual,
group and community of a society. Social workers perform interventions through
research, policy, community organizing, direct practice and teaching. Research is often
focused on areas such as human development, social policy, public administration,
program evaluation and international and community development. Social workers are
organized into local, national, continental and international professional bodies. Social
work, an interdisciplinary field, includes theories from economics, education, sociology,
medicine, philosophy, politics, psychology, and as well as anti-oppressive and anti-racist
discourse.

Social work is a profession for those with a strong desire to help improve people's lives.
Social workers assist people by helping them cope with and solve issues in their everyday
lives, such as family and personal problems and dealing with relationships. Some social
workers help clients who face a disability, life-threatening disease, social problem, such
as inadequate housing, unemployment, or substance abuse. Social workers also assist
families that have serious domestic conflicts, sometimes involving child or spousal abuse.
Additionally, they may conduct research, advocate for improved services, or become
involved in planning or policy development. Many social workers specialize in serving a
particular population or working in a specific setting. In all settings, these workers may
also be called licensed clinical social workers, if they hold the appropriate State mandated
license.

Child, family, and school social workers provide social services and assistance to improve
the social and psychological functioning of children and their families. Workers in this field
assess their client’s needs and offer assistance to improve their situation. This often
includes coordinating available services to assist a child or family. They may assist single
parents in finding day care, arrange adoptions, or help find foster homes for neglected,
abandoned, or abused children. These workers may specialize in working with a particular
problem, population or setting, such as child protective services, adoption, homelessness,
domestic violence, or foster care.

In schools, social workers often serve as the link between students' families and the
school, working with parents, guardians, teachers, and other school officials to ensure
that students reach their academic and personal potential. They also assist students in
dealing with stress or emotional problems. Many school social workers work directly with
children with disabilities and their families. In addition, they address problems such as
misbehavior, truancy, teenage pregnancy, and drug and alcohol problems and advise
teachers on how to cope with difficult students. School social workers may teach
workshops to entire classes on topics like conflict resolution.

Child, family, and school social workers may be known as child welfare social workers,
family services social workers, or child protective services social workers. These workers
often work for individual and family services agencies, schools, or State or local
governments.

Social work we mean work for the society. Social work is a work by which a
social worker can aware individual about their problems, identify their worth &
dignity & give a satisfactory and independent life which they can’t get by their
own effort. The first school of social work was set-up in Bombay in 1936.
 Scope of Social work

1. Child development
2. Medical social work
3. Clinical social work
4. Social work administrative & management
5. International social work
6. Social work in acute psychiatric hospital
7. Social work as community organizer

1. Child development:
Children are the most vital part of our Nation. They are the foundation of any
nation. For progress of any country their development is necessary. Their
mental, physical, emotional, psychological, social development is important.
The following services has been organized by the Central Social Welfare Board
for welfare of child in India. They are:

• Right to education
• Right against exploitation
• Right for rehabilitation
• Right to speech & expression

Government policy

•Institutions for their protection, education & rehabilitation of the

socially handicapped children
• Temporary homes for the sick children suffering from TB & skin disease
• Children home, infant home, Balbadi, Nursery, Pre-primary school, day
care centre, recreation & cultural centres
• Holiday homes for the children of the family of economic weaker
sections
• Child Health Centre
• Child Guidance Clinic
 • Schools for Mentally retarded children

Social workers work in this institutions & tries their level best to solve
their problems and strengthen the path forth development of their
personality. He also develop the abilities & capabilities of the child.

2. Medical Social Work

The medical social work provide assistance to patient & their family who are
coping with many problems
A social worker have the potentiality to aware the Doctor about the problem
and collect & analyse patient’s detail information to help other health
professions to understand the needs of the patients & their family
In fact when a doctor come into any conclusion in a minute, a social worker
diagnosis a problem thoroughly.

3. Clinical Social work

The clinical social work provides a full range of Mental Health Services
including assessment, diagnosis & treatment. It provide referral service to
individuals, couples, families & groups. Assist clients in adjusting to measure
life style changes due to death of loved one, disability, divorce or loss of a job.

4. Social work administration & management

To manage a programme planning is most important. The important of social
worker
related to Fund raising & making grants

Budget management
•
• Monitoring & evaluation of public & social policy
• Co-ordinate activities to achieve the agencies goal
• Staff co-ordination

5. International social work

The role of social work is to :
 • Counsel & aid refugees to ensure a smooth transition into a new
environment
• Facilitate international adoption
• Provide disaster relief in the time of crisis
• Counsel families to find better solution to their problems. Remove
children from abusive situation & place it to care homes
• Find employment & housing for homeless families
• Assist pregnant women, adoptive parents & adoptive children in crisis
• Provide assessment, support, counseling
• Provide assistants to women & their children who are victims of
domestic violence

6. Social work in an acute psychiatric hospital

A social worker can help to a psycho patient very trick fully because of her/his
professional quality. She/he can provide-

• Complete Intake
• Psycho-social assessment
• Participate in the treatment plan
• Provide patient & family education & support
• Provide individual treatment family & group therapy
• Provide discharge & after planning

7. Social work as community organizer

Assist the community in defining a school problem

•
• Provide direction & guidance to the community in-order to mobilize &
identified cause by case work, group work & community organization
• Assist in establishing new programmes to meet the needs of individuals,
groups and families

Other Scopes

• Addiction Treatment
 • Child abuse, adoption & welfare
• Criminal justice
• Crisis Intervention
• Developmental disabilities
• Disaster relief
• Domestic Relief
• Domestic Violence
• HIV/AIDS
• Military social work
• Political development
• Rural development
• Industrial development
• Women welfare

Social work with adults and adolescents

• Standards for the Practice of Social Work with Adolescents

o Standard 1. Social workers shall demonstrate knowledge and understanding of adolescent
development
o Standard 2. Social workers shall demonstrate an understanding of and ability to assess the
needs of adolescents; access social institutions, organizations, and resources within a
community that provide services for adolescents and their families; and advocate for the
development of needed resources
o Standard 3. Social workers shall demonstrate knowledge and understanding of family dynamics
o Standard 4. Social workers shall demonstrate acceptance of and contribute to the development
and maintenance of culturally competent service delivery
o Standard 5. Social workers shall possess or have access to specialized knowledge of the legal,
regulatory, and administrative requirements and resources for youths and their families
o Standard 6. Social workers shall strive to empower adolescents
o Standard 7. Social workers shall advocate for an understanding of the needs of adolescents
and for resources and cooperation among professionals and agencies to meet those needs
o Standard 8. Social workers shall participate in multidisciplinary case consultation across
agencies that provide services to adolescents and their families
o Standard 9. Social workers shall maintain confidentiality in their relationship with youths and of
the information obtained within that relationship

• Standard 10. Social workers shall assume an active role in contributing to

the improvement and quality of the work environment, agency policies and practices
with clients, and their own
• Adolescence is a period of the lifecycle when
individuals are managing multiple, complex developmental
tasks. These involve significant changes in
biological/physical, social, psychological/emotional, and
community-relatedness domains. Mastery of these
developmental demands is challenging with lifelong
 consequences. Attempting to master them while under the
influence of alcohol or other substances can become
unfeasible. Therefore, it is important to address the problems
of adolescents and to facilitate their future development in all
arenas.
• Adolescence is a period when individuals may begin
to engage in highly risky behaviors. They may be
experimenting with sexual activity, criminal and/or delinquent
acts, and driving automobiles. Combining these already risky
behaviors with the effects of alcohol can increase the
adolescent's vulnerability to permanent and irreversible
consequences (disability, death, legal entanglements, etc.).
• Some adolescent substance abusers grow up to be
adult substance abusers (Duncan & Petosa, 1995). As a
society, we hope to protect young people from the negative
health and welfare consequences of drinking. Social workers
who help adults with alcohol use disorders often consider
ways to intervene earlier, which means working with at-risk
individuals during their childhood, adolescent and early
adulthood years

The use and abuse of alcohol and other drugs by adolescents are pressing social
problems in America
Among tenth graders, 63.7% reported some alcohol use during the past year,
57.6% reported trying cigarettes, and 46.2% reported trying at least one illicit
drug
Table 1. Risk Factors for Alcohol Use and Abuse Among Adolescents
Individual Risk Factors

• Physiological factors (genetic pre- • Alcohol expectancies

disposition, alcohol sensitivity, etc)
• Impaired cognitive functions, learning
difficulties, school failure
• Temperament/personality traits
(negative mood states, social
withdrawal, irritability, tantrums)
• Impulsiveness
• Aggressiveness
• Emotional distress
• Extraversion and sociability
• Tendencies toward risk taking and thrill
seeking
• External locus of control
• Low self-esteem
• Co-morbid psychiatric
problems
Social/Interpersonal Factors
• Family alcohol and drug
behaviors and attitudes
• Poor and inconsistent family
management practices
• Limited parental monitoring
• Family conflict
• Low bonding to family
• Peer rejection in elementary
grades
 • Poor coping skills • Association with alcohol-
• Deficient social interaction skills involved peers
• Alcohol-specific self-efficacy • Negative evaluations from
• Early and persistent problem behaviors parents
• Low degree of commitment to school, • Home strain
society, and/or religion • Parent divorce or separation
• Oriented toward short-term goals and
hedonistic gratification Contextual/Cultural Factors
• Little interest in success or
achievement • Laws and norms favorable
• Alienation and rebelliousness (or ambivalent) toward
• Tolerant or positive attitudes toward alcohol use;
deviant behavior nonenforcement
• Attitudes favorable to alcohol use • Availability of alcohol
• Early onset of alcohol use • Extreme economic
deprivation
• Belief that alcohol use is normative
• Neighborhood
disorganization

Several issues, debates, and strains related to the treatment of

adolescent alcohol use problems exist. The first is the ongoing
debate as to whether controlled use of substances is a desirable, or
even possible, outcome. A second, related topic, is what actually
constitutes a "successful" treatment outcome with adolescents? A
third issue of concern and strain on the service system is the high
rate of coexisting psychopathology and polydrug use. Fourth, many
adolescent substance abusers are estranged from their families,
making treatment difficult when social supports and family history
are expected to facilitate the assessment and intervention
processes. A fifth challenge relates to the various aspects and
concerns involved with appropriate client-treatment matching. Sixth
is the observation that many adolescents with alcohol use problems
will no longer demonstrate the problematic behaviors as young
adults (i.e., after about age 22 years). The final issue is the ongoing
debate concerning diagnostic criteria and instruments that are most
appropriate for application in work with adolescents.

Teenagers demand to be taken as whole people

It is essential to understand that teenagers demand to be taken as whole

people. Social workers may find it especially difficult to work with teenagers if
they begin by taking a position of certainty, relying on scientifically sanctioned
knowledge as the supreme truth. One cannot gain access to what another
person is experiencing without also reaching for other legitimate sources of
knowledge, not the least of which is the reality expressed through the narrative
voice of the young person him- or herself. This requires that we “assume a
stance of uncertainty” (Pozatek, 1994), a commitment to developing relationships
with teenagers that transcend the traditional model of practitioner as expert and
client as dummy.

Maintaining a sense of humor

I mentioned at the beginning of my talk that kids are not impressed with my
reputation and credentials. This thought leads to two related essential aspects of
good social work with adolescents: maintaining a sense of humor and
willingness to check your ego outside the door. By a sense of humor I don’t
mean that you must have comedic skills, but that you develop the ability to see
the humor or absurdity in a situation. Although ours is a serious business, it
doesn’t mean that we have to approach it with deadly seriousness. Someone
once quipped that seriousness is the root of all mental illness.

Checking your ego at the door

Regarding checking your ego at the door, author Carlos Castaneda said it best in
his book A Separate Reality when he referred to losing one’s self-importance. He
wrote, “feeling important makes one feel heavy, clumsy and vain. To be a
(person) of knowledge one needs to be light and fluid.”

To work with teenagers one needs to be light and fluid and flexible and grounded
all at once in order to effectively adjust to the changing tides of equilibrium and
disequilibrium and the shifting sands of conflict, playfulness, calm, constructive
activity, fighting, tension regulation, attending to task, and affectionate feelings.
Seeing the humor in a situation and losing one’s self-importance help.
Remember, it’s not your credentials that impress kids. Or at least mine don’t. The
following encounters illustrate how different teenagers I have worked with
questioned my intelligence, my charisma, and my sexuality.

On intelligence
In a meeting with a frequently out of control and violent fourteen year old boy
Greg, he was trying to explain why, as he put it, he “acts crazy.” He said, “I’m not
really crazy, I just act crazy so that people will think I’m crazy.” When I pressed
the issue and asked him why he wanted people to think that about him, he rolled
his eyes, waved his hand at me dismissively and said, “You’re out of here Andy.
This is way over your head.” I guess Greg wasn’t too impressed.

On charisma
In the last of a series of debriefing sessions in the aftermath of a dance that
turned violent, several members of predominantly African-American group known
as the Youth of Culture Drug Free Club who organized the dance asked, “Why
do we have to keep talking about this?” I responded with a long and what I
thought to be eloquent response that drew a long silence that I took to be a sign
that they were soaking up my eloquence. Sitting to the left of me was sixteen-
year old Berulia, a natural leader. She turned to me and smiled her beautiful
smile. She said, “Andy, why is that whenever you speak everyone falls asleep?” I
guess Berulia wasn’t too impressed either.

On sexuality
Finally, and mercifully, in a discussion about sex, a group of teenaged boys
refused to believe me when I assured them that pulling out is not the safest
method of birth control and that it is risky. In response they fired questions at me
about my sex life. Before I could respond, one boy concluded, “Andy probably
has the sex life of a rock.” Laughing and high fives followed this. When I asked if
they really wanted to have the information about my sex life, another replied, “I
don’t even want to think about you having sex,” to which they all unanimously
agreed. And then one of them tried feebly to come to my defense by saying,
“Andy must have sex, I think he has two kids.” And then without missing a beat
another turned to me and said, “Andy, what happened, did the condom break
twice?” You can’t make this stuff up.

Everything I needed to know about social work with adolescents….

I was fortunate to first learn about social work with teenagers as a young
volunteer (Malekoff, 2001). You know the book, Everything I Need to Know I
Learned in Kindergarten? Well, VISTA, Volunteers in Service to America, was my
social work kindergarten. I had no choice but to assume a stance of uncertainty
since I didn’t know anything. At least I felt that way.

Child Biologically, a child (plural: children) is generally a human between the stages
of birth and puberty. Some vernacular definitions of a child include the fetus, as being an
unborn child.[1] The legal definition of "child" generally refers to a minor, otherwise
known as a person younger than the age of majority. "Child" may also describe a
relationship with a parent or authority figure, or signify group membership in a clan,
tribe, or religion; it can also signify being strongly affected by a specific time, place, or
circumstance, as in "a child of nature" or "a child of the Sixties."[2
child” as every human being below the age of 18
years, it allows for minimum ages to be set, under different circumstances, balancing the
evolving capacities of the child with the State’s obligation to provide special protection.
Accordingly, Indian legislation has minimum ages defined under various laws related to the
protection of child rights.2
3. Though legislation has been enacted to make 18 years the general age of majority in India,

Adolescence (from Latin: adolescere meaning "to grow up")[1] is a transitional stage of
physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal
adulthood (age of majority),[1][2] but largely characterized as beginning and ending with
the teenage stage.[2][3][4] According to Erik Erikson's stages of human development, for
example, a young adult is generally a person between the ages of 20 and 40, whereas an
adolescent is a person between the ages of 13 and 19.[3][4] Historically, puberty has been
heavily associated with teenagers and the onset of adolescent development.[5][6] However,
the start of puberty has had somewhat of an increase in preadolescence (particularly
females, as seen with early and precocious puberty), and adolescence has had an
occasional extension beyond the teenage years (typically males) compared to previous
generations. These changes have made it more difficult to rigidly define the time frame in
which adolescence occurs.[7][8][9][10]

The end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood varies by country and by
function, and furthermore even within a single nation-state or culture there can be
different ages at which an individual is considered to be (chronologically and legally)
mature enough to be entrusted by society with certain tasks. Such milestones include, but
are not limited to, driving a vehicle, having legal sexual relations, serving in the armed
forces or on a jury, purchasing and drinking alcohol, voting, entering into contracts,
completing certain levels of education, and marrying.

Adolescence is usually accompanied by an increased independence allowed by the

parents or legal guardians and less supervision, contrary to the preadolescence stage

An adult is a human being or living organism that is of relatively mature age, typically
associated with sexual maturity and the attainment of reproductive age. In human context,
the term has other subordinate meanings associated with social and legal concepts; for
example, a legal adult is a legal concept for a person who has attained the age of
majority and is therefore regarded as independent, self-sufficient, and responsible
(contrast with "minor"). Adulthood can be defined in terms of physiology, psychological
adult development, law, personal character, or social status.

Transactional Analysis (TA) is a personality and psychotherapy for personal

growth. It has wide applications in Clinical Psychology, organizations and
education also. Dr.Eric Berne, the originator of TA, considers a transaction as the
unit of social intercourse. A transaction consists of a transactional stimulus (TS)
and a transactional response (TR). TS is the behavior (verbal or nonverbal)
produced by one person in acknowledgement of the presence of others when
two or more people encounter each other. TR is the response to TS by another
person. Types of Transactions

Berne identifies two types of transactions:

1. Complementary Transactions
Complementary transactions

Examples of Complementary Transactions

 Parent-Parent, Adult-Adult, Child-

Child, Child-Parent, Parent-Child, Child-
Adult, Adult-Child, Adult-Parent, Parent-
Adult

First Rule of Communication

We have the first rule of communication

in TA : Fig 2. Parent-Parent
"When TS and TR on the P-A-C Transaction
diagram make parallel lines, the
transaction can go on indefinitely." (Complementary Transaction)
2. Crossed Transactions
 Examples of Crossed Transactions

Adult-Adult and Parent-Child; Adult-Adult and Child-Parent; Parent-Child

and Parent-Child; Child-Parent and Child-Parent

Second Rule of Communication

Here we have the second rule of communication in TA:

"When TS and TR in the P-A-C diagram cross each other, communication stops."

The self is an individual person as the object of his or her own reflective consciousness.
The self has been studied extensively by philosophers and psychologists and is central to
many world religions

The psychology of self is the study of either the cognitive and affective representation of
one's identity or the subject of experience. The earliest formulation of the self in modern
psychology from the distinction between the self as I, the subjective knower, and the self
as Me, the object that is known.[1] Current views of the self in psychology position the
self as playing an integral part in human motivation, cognition, affect, and social identity.
[2]
Self following from John Locke has been seen as a product of episodic memory[3] but
research upon those with amnesia find they have a coherent sense of self based upon
preserved conceptual autobiographical knowledge.[4] It may be the case that we can now
usefully attempt to ground experience of self in a neural process with cognitive
consequences, which will give us insight into the elements of which the complex multiply
situated selves of modern identity are composed.