Evaluate Social Work as a Profession.

807 Words4 Pages
Social work is about helping disadvantageous people to have a better life and advocate for any social injustice. However in Singapore social work is an underappreciated field and is only becoming more recognized by the society. Which leads to the question, is social work a profession? Although social work can be done with many ways such as voluntary, charity and mutual aids, the national association of social workers (NASW, 2005) defines social work as a holistic approach to enhance and restore disadvantageous people to their capacity to function socially. Progressing towards this direction also enhancing the practice of social work to be a professional approach by applying various theories and scientific findings to support each steps. This assignment believes that social work in Singapore is a professional field and this is supported by Greenwood (1957) that social work consists of five criteria. The five criteria are systematic body of knowledge, professional authority, sanction of the community, regulative code of ethics and professional culture. Each of the five criteria will be discussed in length in the next paragraph to support why social work is a professional profession. In order to be able to help disadvantageous people, social workers need to be able to make assessment and come up with an intervention plan. All these steps of assessment and intervention must also be supported with tested body of knowledge. Apart from that it should also consist of technique and methods which is practical. Without the part of systematic of knowledge, social work can be done by anyone at anytime however it might not be as impactful as it could be. The professional authority is the difference which separates anyone who wants to help from a professional social worker. That being said, social work is a profession which should deliver quality and competence
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