SOCIAL WORK PROFESSION

Assignment-1 Topic: Welfare Models Of Social Work (19th October, 2009)

BY MIRIAM JESSON

Contents
1. Defining welfare 2. Welfare model 3. Areas of welfare model
y y y y y y y y y Child Development Youth Development Family Work Community Development Correctional Administration Welfare Administration Medical and Psychiatric: Weaker section Human Resource Management

4. Other welfare models of social work y Residual model y Institutional Model y Structural model

5. Conclusion 6. Bibliography

Welfare Model
Defining welfare:
Welfare refers to the economic well being of an individual, group, or economy. For individuals, it is conceptualized by a utility function. For groups, including countries and the world, it is a complex concept, since individuals fare differently. In trade theory, an improvement in welfare is often inferred from an increase in real national income.

Welfare Model
Welfare model is one of the models of social work. It is connected with the fields of social work like Community Development, Correctional Administration, Family and Child Welfare, Human Resource Management, Medical and Psychiatry and Youth Welfare. Depending on the need and problems of the target group these methods are applied.

(i)Welfare model in Child Development:

Care has to be provided from the child in the womb. The child at risk starts at the time of conception. If the fetus is identified, as a female baby there is a possibility for getting aborted because of male preferential tendency in the society. A female child in the family has to face a differential treatment and hence the child is being affected socially as well as psychologically. Further, as school going children, the girl is not very sure whether it would complete the primary education, high school or higher secondary as the girl child is perceived as a liability in the family. Some children turn to be child laborers and drop outs due to the environment and circumstances. The orphan children, single parent children and children from broken families are more vulnerable for any undesired eventualities and they are in need of guidance, counseling and assistance. Therefore, the welfare and development of the children are to be provided through professional assistance for which the professionals are being trained to practice the methods of social work in this field.

(ii)Welfare model in Youth development:

The youth being a status of transition for a limited period, they are neither children nor adults which create more problems to the

youth. The educated youth or the youth who have not gone for formal education have to earn for their living to support their families. The youth population in any country is really significant at the same time unemployment is also high. This has resulted in lots of problems to the youth, to their families and to the society at large. Such a group desperately needs for professional guidance and assistance and also the various life coping skills or the soft skills, which are essential but not provided in the educational institutions. In this area there is enough scope to practice the various methods of social work.

(iii)Welfare model in Family work:

Family is a social institution, which has got social sanctioning for a man and a woman to enter into matrimony and establish a family. Since there Is a need for mutual understanding and adjustments in the new family set up wherein at times it is observed that there is a problem between the life partners or with the other family members in terms of relationship. On the other hand there are other problems in running the family like economic, unemployment, housing, etc. This would spoil the family life. In such situations the affected people require help from the professionals. The professionals will help the individuals to bridge the gap between the resources and the needs.

(iv)Welfare model in Community Development: Community is where a group of people lives in a geographical area for a common purpose on a permanent basis. In any community there is always a disparity based on their social, economic, cultural, educational and political status. Due to the variation there is every possibility of dependency, inequality and exploitation within and between the communities. In such a situation there is a need for social work intervention by enabling and encouraging the community to identify its own needs, assess its magnitude, symptoms and causes give priorities and work out the strategy in addressing the problem.

(v)Welfare model in Correctional Administration:

Deviant behavior and behavior deviancy are observed at the early childhood and if they are not checked the script is written to the respective child, which would complicate the life of the

individual. Such individuals may not be able to adjust and at times become social deviant and turned to be an anti-social. The juveniles and the young offenders are in need of assistance at the appropriate stage. The adults who are involved in undesired activities are also in need of professional assistance for which the social work welfare model would be of great use.

(vi)Welfare model in Welfare Administration:

Administration is an area where a system is created to deliver the services to the needy. Though the other supportive and sub-systems are also needed in an administration the personnel involved in the administration contribute significantly to realize the goals an d objectives of the organization. The administration plays a major role in identifying a problem, assessing the problem, prepare a plan o faction, work out the interventions, organize the man power required, train them or increase their capacity to carry out the whole process.

(vii)Welfare model in Medical and Psychiatric:

Health is an area, which is essential for all people. The physical health, mental health and psychological health have to be ensured foe the well being of an individual. The individuals, the medical personnel are to be linked with coordinal relationship to avail the services and to reach out to the people with an effective delivery of health services. In the health services organizations the medical personnel are able to extend the health services but the interpersonal relationship with the medical personnel and the sick people need not be warm due to the work load and moreover the social and economic status of the patients are not probed into to provide services at an affordable rate for which the medical social workers are unavoidable.

(viii)Welfare of Weaker Section:

In any society there are always a few groups which are in disadvantageous position due to their social, economic, cultural and political status. Apart from this people are vulnerable by their gender and age. Therefore the scheduled caste, women, children and the aged become a weaker section. Though the government and non-governmental organizations are extending their helping hand to such groups but not adequate enough to cover the entire vulnerable group. Therefore, there is a need for professionals to enhance supplement and compliment such efforts. Most of the people in this category are unaware of the efforts of the government and have no affordability and accessibility of the services that are made available.

(ix)Welfare model in Human Resource Management:

One of the resources available in countries like ours is the human resources. The manpower and manpower management in the present context is an important asset which has to be properly utilized for a constructive and productive purpose. The human resources in the organized and unorganized sectors have to be approached according to its merits and demerits. The unorganized human resources are very high compared to the organized human resources. In capacitating the people the professionals have an important role to play.

The other welfare models of social work

The other models of social work are: y y y Residual model Institutional model Structural model

(i)Residual model:
The residual model focuses on supportive measures outside the labor market, which makes the means test a pivotal device in ensuring both minimum subsistence levels and the willingness to work. Measured by its income maintenance system the UK conforms to this model 'because the new middle classes were not wooed from the market to the state' (Esping-Andersen 1990: 31). The universalism once envisaged by Beveridge has given way to the dualism of state and market in insurance, housing, education and now also in the privatization of health and community care services. Personal social services, as the 'fifth social service' in the British welfare state, have experienced more than their fair share of the divisiveness characteristic of the residual model. Social workers' attention, in particular, remained focused almost exclusively on poor families and they inherited the last-resort image of the Poor Law as their mandate rarely extended to proactive, inclusive and universal initiatives. These remained the domain of the voluntary sector and of other professional groups such as youth workers. The recent preoccupation with child protection responsibilities has accentuated the social pathology orientation of British social work, which is itself perhaps the most direct result of the residual welfare concept within which it is made to operate, with statutory workers bearing the brunt of the political dilemma (Corby 1991: 102). They are not only made to draw the line between acceptable and unacceptable child rearing practices but also to weigh up the rights to citizenship between parents and children, without being able to command the resources that would secure the social rights of

both. Thus the residual framework is conducive to a more pronounced polarization of care and control. The state comes into evidence through controlling assessments and first-line interceptive functions, while non-statutory services can provide the caring. British social work has born the brunt of public criticism over child protection decisions precisely because it is associated so directly with a state that plays very ambiguously with the boundaries of social rights, relying more on coercion than on endorsing civil and social rights for social cohesion. Residual concept of social welfare sees state assistance as temporary, minimal, requiring evidence of need, and available only after all other avenues of help have been exhausted. The cause of need can play a role in defining a person in need

(ii)Institutional model:
An institutional system is one in which need is accepted as a normal part of social life. Welfare is provided for the population as a whole, in the same way as public services like roads or schools might be. In an institutional system, welfare is not just for the poor: it is for everyone. The institutional concept of welfare see social welfare programs as protecting individuals in society from the social costs of operating an industrialized capitalist market, rather than letting those costs fall on those who experience the risks of industrial society. Need is established based on the fact of need, without consideration of the cause of need.

(iii)Structural model:
Structural social work is part of a critical, progressive tradition that has been concerned with the broad socio-economic and political dimensions of society, especially the effects of capitalism, and the impact of these influences in creating unequal relations amongst individuals. Its primary goals have been to reduce social inequality through the transformation of Western, Euro-Centric civilizations and the emancipation of those who have been oppressed. The lens of this theoretical approach has been focused on the interplay between the agency of individuals and structures, particularly the broad structural barriers which influence and limit the material circumstances of service users. By structures, I am referring to social regularities and objective patterns external to individual action, intentions, and meanings and not reducible to the sum of those meanings or actions , specifically both institutional arrangements and broad social relational patterns such as racism and sexism. Structural theory argues that these arrangements serve those in power, allowing them to maintain their power and privilege at the expense of others. Structural social work theory begins from a conflict, rather than an order perspective. The theory regards society as composed of groups with conflicting interests who compete for resources, power, and the imposition of their own ideological views of the world. In this

perspective, social problems are more the result of defective rules which pathologies those who are marginalized and the consequence of institutional arrangements which maintain social hierarchies, rather than faulty socialization of individuals. In structural theory, the mechanisms of oppression and the internalization of falseconsciousness for marginalized groups were explored. Using the feminist notion of the personal is political, practitioners were expected to identify the processes by which victims were blamed, linking service users to the broader structures that led to their domination as well as connecting them to others with similar problems. Wood and Tully identified four main tactics for structural practitioners: 1) connecting people to needed resources, 2) changing social structures, where feasible, 3) helping service users negotiate problematic situations and 4) deconstructing sociopolitical discourse to reveal the relationship with individual struggles. Providing clients with insider information was an additional strategy suggested by structural theorists. Currently, structural theory has evolved to examine the transformation of capitalism, particularly the effects of globalization, and the shifts governmentally to increasingly neo-liberal agendas with the consequent effects on those most vulnerable in society. The view that structural theory can offer guidelines for animating political alliances and anti-globalization movements is part of that exploration.

Typology of welfare models

Residual Institutional Structural

1. Entitlement of individual vis--vis Basic minimum 2. The society collective responsibility 3. Mechanism for delivery of services 4. Range of programmes primarily curative minimum

minimum opportunity for development. accepted in principle

equal with others

obligatory state through local authority preventive & curative all

largely voluntary state with voluntary efforts curative with emphasis On prevention

5. Coverage

only handicapped

a larger section of gen. population

6. Level of benefits 7. Percentage of national expenditure on welfare 8. Status of clients

low less than 5%

medium between 10 to 20%

low difficult to measure

low

low with efforts to

equal with

Non- stigmatize 9. Role of Voluntary agencies primary supportive marginal

others _

Conclusion:
Thus it could be stated that from the above details that the welfare model does not pertain to a particular aspect instead it has to have a check on all settings in the society. Basically the residual, institutional and structural models are the base for the welfare model. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------