COMPONENTS ELEMENTS OF SOCIAL CASE WORK

   



H.H. Perlman defines case work as, “a process used by certain human welfare agencies to help individuals to cope more effectively with problems in social functioning”. She adds that the nucleus of the case work event in this: “A person with a problem comes to a place where a professional representative helps him by a given process”. Thus, by this statement, elements or components of case work can be said as:
1. Person
2. Problem
3. Place
4. Process- casework intervention
5. Professional representative
1. Person
In social case work, any individual with problem is focus of attention. A person can be anyone – a man, woman, (even a she male), a child, etc. who is actually in some difficulty a problem which he /she cannot solve without some help. In technical language of case work such person is referred as “client”. He may voluntarily come, or may be referred to the agency by some other institutions.
One of the basic assumptions of social case work is that each individual is different from others, even two identical twins cannot have same personalities inspire of having same ancestors, social background and familial relations. Therefore, while studying a client, a case worker must remember that:
2. The Problem
The problem is a situation, event or anything which impairs the normal functioning of the individual and makes him handicapped. Problems arise from some needs or accumulation of frustration or maladjustment, and some times all of these together. Paul B. Horton says that a problem is a situation which exists anywhere, any and effects any person. When these hurdles are there, the individuals are become conscious of it and try to find out a solution. Sometimes the problems solved by one’s own efforts but sometime he needs external help. That external help is given by social worker at individual, group and community level.
3. The Place
The place may be a social service agency, department, or human welfare agency, which provides psycho- social services or any other aid to the client with the help of a social worker. An agency embodies a society’s decision to protect its members against social breakdown, to prevent their maladjustment and/or to promote the development of better or higher levels or human functioning. The complete process of case work is influenced by objectives, function, policies and resources of the egency.
4. The Process
The process is a progressive transaction between the professional helper (case worker) and the client. It consists of a series of problem-solving operations carried on within a meaningful relationship. It is the intervention stage in which case worker initiates the formal procedure of helping the client.
A client may have several dynamic problems. Besides, sometimes problem may lie within the person. Thus, intent of the case work process is to engage the person himself, both in working on and in coping with the one or several problems that confront him.
5. Professional representative – the Case Worker:
After client, Case worker is the most significant component of case work process, as helping process of client cannot be initiated without him. He acts as a liaison between case work agency and the client, because of his capabilities, he/she is referred as change agent in social work profession. Therefore, while describing case work safrad has explained social work as a method conditioned with social worker.
According to safrad, “Socials Case Work is a method employed by a social worker to help individual, find a solution of their problem of social adjustment which they are unable to handle in a satisfactory way by their own effort.”