Social Work Theory, Skills and Methods Assignment

Hi

Can anyone shed some light on the question set below?

the consumer empowerment approach]...borrows the language of the market and recognises that one of the causes of mismatch between what people want and need and what they get is that service users do not have enough power to get what they want from the system' ( Hunter and Ritchie, 2007:14)

Assessment written task
Read the statement by Hunter and Ritchie, provided above. Think about the social work processes, e.g. assessment, intervention etc., that we have discussed during the module. Think about how these processes have changed over the last 20-30 years. You need to show that you understand the progress from service led processes to personalised processes that keep the service user at the centre of our work.

Identify one of the social work processes that have been introduced during the module. Describe the methods that social workers have used when implementing the process, showing how this has adapted in recent years to enable service users to take more control of their lives and circumstances.

The first thing to remember is that "consumer" in this context means the people who social workers used to call "clients" and not "consumer" in the sense it is usually meant. What your teacher wants you to demonstrate is that you understand the evolutionary process within the field of social work reflected by that change in nomenclature, from "clients" who are the passive recipients of services provided by an agency to "consumers" who are the agents making the decisions about what services they will access and how. Your teacher wants you to do that by choosing a social work process such as assessment or intervention and describing how that process goes within a consumer empowerment model as opposed to the older way of doing things.

So, your first task is to review the relevant readings and make sure you understand them. Next, choose which social work process you would like to use as your illustrative example. When you write your essay, you'll want to define and explain the consumer empowerment approach in the introductory paragraphs and then use the social work process you selected to illustrate what you say. In conclusion you may wish, in addition to summing up, to offer your own assessment of the consumer empowerment model.

You might also look at the distinction between "want" and "need", and at how the concept of social work "clients" as "consumers" moves the responsibility for making the distinction from trained professionals to the people they are supposed to be helping. Then again, that might put you off-topic. The assignment instructions seem to indicate you should look at the success of the approach, rather than criticizing it.

Hi People,

Can anyone shed some light? I've failed the assignment by 3 percent and I'm gutted!!! I KNOW I HAVE POSTED THIS BEFORE BUT OBVIOUSLY MY ATTEMPT WASNT THAT GOOD IF I FAIL IT AGAIN I FAIL MY FIRST YEAR!!!! The assignment title is:

Identify one of the social work processes that have been introduced during the module. Describe the methods that social workers have used when implementing the process, showing how this has adapted in recent years to enable service users to take more control of their lives and circumstances

Thank you in advance...

I see that, above, we gave you advice on how to write the essay but never saw the essay. Obviously, we can't comment on that essay without seeing it.

Now I see that you have a new question about which you must write. And, again, we've not got enough information to be helpful. We don't know which social work processes have been addressed during the module nor what you have learned about them. You've got to give us something to work with here.

Post the essay you submitted originally, and the comments you got back on it. That way we can give you specific feedback about how to rewrite it, since you seem to have been given an opportunity to do so.