FIELDS OF SOCIAL WORK

Social Welfare and Social Work by

Thelma Lee-Mendoza
 1. CHILD WELFARE
• Concerned with the well-being of
children and youth

• Provides programs and services for

physical, social, psychological,
spiritual and cultural development
• Focus: Strengthen the relationship between
parents and child, role of family, and
responsibility of the community in the child’s
development
 • Children in esp. difficult
circumstances:
CLIENTS – Children in exploitative & hazardous
labor
• Neglected – Street children
– Children trapped in substance/drug
• Abandoned abuse
– Physically & sexually abused
• Destitute or – Children in situations of armed
orphaned conflicts
– Children in displaced communities
• Children with due to disasters
physical and – Children in indigenous cultural
communities
other forms – Children with parent/s diagnosed as
of disabilities HIV Positive
– Detained & convicted youthful
offenders, etc.
 TWO TYPES OF
CHILD WELFARE SERVICES
DIRECT SERVICE
• Rendered in the form of material
assistance
• Formal and informal educational
services
• Sports and recreation
• Health services
• Skills training, job placement
• Child placement through
residential care in an institution,
foster care or adoption
INDIRECT SERVICE
• A form of financing on a
national or international
level (sponsorship of
programs and personnel
and/or provision of
supplies, equipment and
certain facilities
• Coordination to facilitate
linkages and avoid
duplication among agencies
with similar or related
services
 Difference between Child placement
and Child Caring Agencies (R.A. 8552)
“Child-placing agency"
• is a duly licensed and accredited
agency by the Department to
provide comprehensive child
welfare services including, but not
limited to, receiving applications
for adoption, evaluating the
prospective adoptive parents, and
preparing the adoption home
study.
"Child-caring agency"
• is a duly licensed and
accredited agency by the
Department that provides
twenty four (24)-hour
residential care services for
abandoned, orphaned,
neglected, or voluntarily
committed children.
 Specific activities of Social Workers in
Child Welfare settings
1. Doing admission interviews with the child,
family and/or significant others, culminating in
the preparation of the case studies which
present recommendations that will benefit the
child and his family
 Specific activities of Social Workers in
Child Welfare settings
2. Following through the recommendations
given which may take the form of assisting the
child in his adjustment in the institution or
assisting him and his family cope with detention
and court procedures (juvenile offenders)
 Specific activities of Social Workers in
Child Welfare settings
3. Actually conducting individual counseling or
group session with the child and/or his family
whenever the helping plans is needed
 Specific activities of Social Workers in
Child Welfare settings
4. Interpreting the child’s needs and problems to
the staff/other members of the helping team
such as house parents, teachers, doctors, etc. in
the case of residential institutions, or the judge
and lawyers in the case of juvenile offenders, or
to working with these staffs as a team.
 Specific activities of Social Workers in
Child Welfare settings
5. Following up the adjustment of the child if he
is with foster or adoptive parents.
 Specific activities of Social Workers in
Child Welfare settings
6. Planning appropriate activities with the youth
to meet their individual as well as group needs.
 Specific activities of Social Workers in
Child Welfare settings
7. Preparing the child for discharge/placement
in the case of children in residential homes, of
helping the child and his family during the
period of probation if this is the court’s
disposition on the case, and then helping him
prepare to make satisfactory adjustment in the
community.
 Specific activities of Social Workers in
Child Welfare settings
8. Recommending discharge of the client or
closure of the court case if condition call for it.
 Social workers are working in
relation to…
• ADOPTION
– is a legal process whereby a child who is deprived
of a birth family is provided with substitute new
ties.
– Example: A new parent-child relationship is
established and the adopted child enjoys the
same rights and privileges as that of a biological
child.
Terms discuss in Adoption (R.A. 8552)
• "Child" is a person below eighteen (18) years
of age.
• "Simulation of birth" is the tampering of the
civil registry making it appear in the birth
records that a certain child was born to a
person who is not his/her biological mother,
causing such child to lose his/her true identity
and status
Terms discuss in Adoption (R.A. 8552)
• "Abandoned child" refers to one who has no
proper parental care or guardianship or
whose parent(s) has deserted him/her for a
period of at least six (6) continuous months
and has been judicially declared as such.
• "Supervised trial custody" is a period of time
within which a social worker oversees the
adjustment and emotional readiness of both
adopter(s) and adoptee in stabilizing their filial
relationship.
Terms discuss in Adoption (R.A. 8552)
• "Voluntarily committed child" is one whose
parent(s) knowingly and willingly relinquishes
parental authority to DSWD.
• "Involuntarily committed child" is one whose
parent(s), known or unknown, has been
permanently and judicially deprived of
parental authority due to abandonment;
substantial, continuous, or repeated neglect;
abuse; or incompetence to discharge parental
responsibilities.
 Social workers are working in
relation to…
• LEGAL GUARDIANSHIP
– a process undertaken to provide legal
guardian for the child through the
appointment of a legal guardian for the
child, including his property, until the child
reaches the ages of majority.
 Social workers are working in
relation to…
• FOSTER CARE
– refers to a substitute temporary parental care
provided to a child by a licensed foster family
under the supervision of a social worker
– Goal: To reunite the child with the biological
family or prepare the child for adoption or in
the case of the older children, to prepare them
for independent living.
Social workers are working in
relation to…
• RESIDENTIAL/INSTITUTIONAL CARE
– this provides temporary 24-hour
residential group care to children whose
needs cannot, at the time, be
adequately met by their biological
parents and other alternative family care
arrangements.
– Residential facilities provide an
approximation of family life under the
guidance of trained staff, but it is used as
a last recourse, resorted to in the
absence of foster families.
 EXAMPLE OF CHILD WELFARE
INSTITUTIONS/AGENCIES
CHILD PLACEMENT AGENCY CHILD CARING AGENCY
• DSWD-RSCC • CSWD-Boys town
(Regional Study and
Reception Center for
Children)
 Bible verse
• 1 Corinthians 12:5
“There are different ministries, but
the same Lord.”
 2. FAMILY WELFARE
• a field of social work concerned with the
improvement, strengthening and support of
the family in meeting its own needs.
• In the Philippines, it involves programs,
activities and measures that would prevent or
resolve problems of role performance and
relationships which threaten the stability of
the family as a social unit.
 • Unemployment/under-
Clients employment
• Filipino families • Substance abuse &
who are poor alcoholism
due to: • Family conflicts &
• Ignorance destructive relationships
• Health
problems (domestic violence & abuse)
• Nutrition
• Sanitation
• Housing
 • Solo-parent/no-parent
Clients families (overseas
• Human rights employment)
violations • Lack of access to community
• Displacement resources and others
due to armed
conflicts, cultural
disasters &
housing
demolitions
• Lack of parenting
skills
 Family welfare services
• refer to a program or composite of
interventive techniques, activities, or
measures focused on the prevention or
resolution of problems of role functioning and
relationships that threaten the stability of the
family as a social unit.
 Examples of Family Welfare Services
offered by DSWD and other agencies
• Parent effectiveness (rights & responsibilities
of parents & children, early childhood care &
development)

• Marriage strengthening (Pre-marriage

counseling, marriage counseling, trial
separation counseling)
 Examples of Family Welfare Services
offered by DSWD and other agencies
• Establishment of Community Support
Programs (training & organization of parent
effectiveness service volunteers,
establishment of family life development
centers, conduct of family consultation
dialogues)
 Examples of Family Welfare Services
offered by DSWD and other agencies
• Strengthening of Family Values & Preservation of
Cultural Heritage (Parent Education and Female
Functional Literacy Program, Values Formation)

• Family & Environment Services (Sustainable

development, Zero Waste Management, Disaster
Mitigation)
 Examples of Family Welfare Services
offered by DSWD and other agencies
• Livelihood Programs (Skills training,
Entrepreneurship, Capital assistance, self-
managed community credit facilities, job
placement & referral, self-employment)
• Fertility & Family Planning (Population
awareness & Sex education, Responsible
parenthood, Family planning information &
Counseling)
 SOCIAL WORKER’s ACTIVITIES in the
FAMILY WELFARE Settings
1. Engaging the family in a problem-solving
relationship
2. Mobilizing existing resources & creating non-
existing resources needed by the family
3. Working with individuals, groups, & other
entities whose support & cooperation are
needed to effectively help a family.
 SOCIAL WORKER’s ACTIVITIES in the
FAMILY WELFARE Settings
4.Continuously/regularly assessing the
adequacy & effectiveness of existing policies,
programs & services that relate to the family
5. Supervising staff in their various activities in
relation to the families being served.
 HEALTH
• Main concern: The interplay of economic,
social and psychological forces in medical care,
and finds or develops ways and means to
solve problems that usually go with illness and
treatment.
 Executive Order No 578 and R.A. 747
• Issued in 1954 by President Elpidio Quirino
• Mandating all government hospital with a
100-bed capacity to provide a medical social
service
 Bureau of Hospitals Circular 146,
series of 1995
• Issued by the Department of Health
• Ordered all chiefs of government hospitals to
organize medical social services units, and
described the qualifications and functions of
social workers in hospital
GOALS OF MEDICAL SOCIAL SERVICES
1.Better acceptance of and more favorable
reaction to medical treatment
2. Better understanding, on the part of
medical personnel, of the patient’s
background, to facilitate a faster and more
accurate diagnosis of the patient’s illness,
and to enlist the family’s cooperation in
the treatment and rehabilitation of the
patient.
GOALS OF MEDICAL SOCIAL SERVICES
3. Health education of the patient and their
families

4. Utilization of community services that would

facilitate rehabilitation and prevention of illness.

5. Helping the patient and his family to deal with

the psychosocial components of the physical
illness.
• Medical Social Workers
– are called to social workers in hospital settings
 SOCIAL WORK ACTIVITIES IN THE
MEDICAL SETTING
• Eligibility studies (done during admission since
there is need to determine whether a patient
should be given free or partly free medical
treatment)

• Interpretation to patient and his family of

hospital policies and regulations
 SOCIAL WORK ACTIVITIES IN THE
MEDICAL SETTING
• Data gathering on patient’s personal and
social situations to assist medical staff arrive
at a more accurate diagnosis

• Use of appropriate forms of treatment,

including individual counseling as well as
group treatment activities with his family
and/or together with other patients.
 SOCIAL WORK ACTIVITIES IN THE
MEDICAL SETTING
• Mobilizing hospital as well as community
resources to meet various patient needs
• Performing coordinating liaison activities
between the patients and the medical staff,
the patients and the hospital administration,
and the patients/hospital and the community
at large.
 CORRECTIONS
• the administration of penalty in such a way
that the offender is corrected and that current
behavior is kept within acceptable limits at the
same time his general life adjustment is
modified.
 FUNCTIONS AND CONTROL OF
CORRECTIONS
• Probation
– is a process of treatment, prescribed by the
court for persons convicted of offenses against
law, during which the individual on probation
lives the community and regulates his own life
under conditions imposed by the court and is
subject to supervision by a probation officer.
 FUNCTIONS AND CONTROL OF
CORRECTIONS
• Parole
– is the release of a prisoner under supervision
before the expiration of his sentence, with the
provision that he might be returned to the
correctional institution if he violates the
conditions of his parole.
• During the correctional period, the service is
“re-socialization”, in the sense that it should
provide the offender a personal community
that will respond to his needs as an individual.
 Provisions during offenders
Re-socialization

1. Significant individual relationships that allow

him to see himself as a person of worth and help
him learn to solve the problems of daily life
acceptably
 Provisions during offenders
Re-socialization
2.Membership in groups that offer genuine
satisfaction through legitimate experiences,
teach him to use appropriate reference groups
for support in controlling behavior, and train him
in the social skills necessary to accomplish tasks
in a complex society.
 Provisions during offenders
Re-socialization

3. Access to the normal opportunity structures

of the community such as employment,
education, recreation and religious instruction.
 Provisions during offenders
Re-socialization
4.Remedial services appropriate for dealing with
his individual problems in social functioning
such as vocational training, psychotherapeutic
help, or medical rehabilitation
 Provisions during offenders
Re-socialization
5. Correction of those conditions in his personal
community that reinforce his tendency to
commit offenses.
 National Correctional Institutions for
Convicted Adults
• National Penitentiary in Muntinlupa
• The Prison & Penal farms in Davao,
Zamboanga, Palawan & Occidental Mindoro
• The Regional Prison in Leyte & the
Correctional Institution for Women in Alabang
 Licensed Social Workers
• February 28, 2002
• Muntinlupa, Palawan, Leyte and CIW in
Alabang
 Two Institutions Granted by the
Family Courts
• One for boys (the Vicente Madrigal
Rehabilitation Center)

• One for girls (Marilac Hills)

Presidential Decree No. 968
• Known as the Probation Law of 1976
• Allows the first offenders who are handled
a jail sentence of not more than six years
to apply for probation
• Established the Probation Administration
which has about 124 social workers
employed today as Social Welfare Officers
and Probation Officers in fifteen regional
offices and in Central Office in Quezon City.
 Republic Act 8369
• Known as the Family Courts Act
• Became a law on October 28, 1997
• Mandating to establish a family court in every
province and city in the country, giving it
exclusive jurisdiction over child and family
cases, and making it a State policy to provide a
system of adjudication for youthful offenders.
 Social work functions in
Juvenile Probation Work
1. Preparation of social case studies to facilitate
legal decision-making
2. Provision of counseling and other necessary
services to the youth and his family
throughout the period that the youth is on
probation
 Social work functions in
Juvenile Probation Work
3.Referral and mobilization of community
resources on behalf of the youth and/or his
family.
4.Coordinating with other groups/agencies
which are engaged in activities relating to or
affecting probationers.
 Social work functions in
Juvenile Probation Work
4.Preparing reports/recommendations on the
probationers which will be the basis for
decision-making by the courts.
SCHOOLS
 School
• Concerned and responsible for the “whole”
person and not just for his intellectual
growth, commit themselves to the goal of
developing the intellectual, physical, social
and emotional endowments of the
individual.
TWO KINDS OF ACTIVITIES
1. Activities which focus on particular
children
-consists of provision of counseling
services to selected children and/or parents
in cases such as negativism, isolation,
bullying, other children, etc.
-provision of group work services,
children school performance, collaboration
with other disciplines, providing consultative
services to individual teachers and other
school personnel related to areas of human
behavior and social environment and
community resources.
 TWO KINDS OF ACTIVITIES
2. Activities which focus on children in general
-participate in school administration by
serving curriculum and other school
committees, by providing consultation on the
educational programs with groups of parents or
teachers
 Zaragosa Elementary School
• First known school social work program in the
country
• Began January 1924 and ended March 1925
• Known today as Rosauro Almario Elementary
School
• Josefa Jara Martinez served as a school
counselor
 SPECIAL GROUPS
• Drug dependents
• Socially disadvantaged women
• Released prisoners and former patients of
psychiatric institutions
• Older persons
• Persons with disabilities
 1. DRUG DEPENDENTS
• Work with people who are trapped in drug or
substance abuse
 Terminologies
• Drug abuse-term that includes all drug-taking
-use of any drugs (legal or illegal) when
detrimental to the user’s physical, emotional, social,
intellectual or spiritual well-being
-known as “substance abuse”
 Terminologies
• Drug dependents-are persons, who, as a
result of periodic or continuous use of drugs
have developed a physical and/or
psychological need for/dependence on these.
 IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS
• 1965-Creation of the Narcotics Section of the
National Bureau of Investigation (under DOJ)
and the establishment of the Treatment &
Rehabilitation Center in Tagaytay
 IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS
• 1967-Organization of the Narcotics
Foundation of the Philippines by civic-minded
citizens
 IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS
• 1968-enactment of RA 5461 which provided
for rehabilitation services to special groups
including drug dependents (responsibility
assigned to the Bureau of Vocational
Rehabilitation under DSW)
 IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS
• 1969-signing of a MOA between the DOJ and
DSW defining the two government agencies’
respective responsibilities in relation to drug
dependents
 IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS
• 1971-Bahay Pag-asa, a drug rehabilitation
center, was opened under the leadership of
Rev. Fr. Robert M. Garon
IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS
• 1972-R.A. 6425 was enacted
-defining the prohibited drugs,
penalties of the offenders,
educational and rehabilitation
measures and suspension of sentence
for the offender (resulted in the
creation of Dangerous Drugs Board-
Health, Justice, National Defense,
Education, Finance, Social Welfare)
 IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS
• 1980-March 15 President Marcos signed
Presidential Decree No. 1683 making capital
offenses (punishable by life imprisonment or
death) the illegal importation, manufacture
and distribution of regulated drugs and
provided the maximum penalty for them
 Five established Drug Rehabilitation
Centers in the country
• Drug Abuse Rehabilitation Network
• Drug Abuse Research Foundation, Inc.
• National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)
Treatment and Rehabilitation Center
• Narcotics Foundation Center
• Prevent and Rehabilitate Drug Abusers
(PREDA)
2. SOCIALLY DISADVANTAGED
WOMEN
• Include women who are victims of gender-
based violence
• Wife beating, marital rape, incest, rape,
sexual harassment, prostituted women,
victims of armed conflicts and militarization,
solo parents (unwed mothers, widows,
abandoned or separated wives, wives of
overseas contract workers, wives of
prisoners, wives of patients who are
confined in hospitals for long periods)
• Socially disadvantaged women is also known
as “Women in especially difficult
circumstances”
 Services given to Socially
Disadvantaged Women
• Temporary shelter
• Home life facilities
• Medical and psychiatric and dental services
• Psychological, Social and Spiritual services
 SOCIAL SERVICES
• Involve working directly with women to
help them re-orient their values and
attitudes
• Therapeutic services to help cope with
personal and other problems
• Working with their families
• Supervising rehabilitation programs like
skills training, pre-employment
orientation, job placement
 SOCIAL SERVICES
• Mobilizing community resources
• Community education for the acceptance of
socially disadvantaged women
 LAWS PROTECTING WOMEN
• R.A. 7192 Women in Development and
Nation-building Act of 1992
• R.A. 7877 Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of 1995
• R.A. 8353 Anti-Rape Law of 1997
• R.A. 9262 Anti-Violence Against Women and
Children Act of 2004
Social Workers engaged in this Field
• Research and advocacy
• Program planning and administration
• Direct services:
– a.) Women’s shelter, crisis intervention
centers, telephone hotline projects
– b.) Community-based programs like human
rights education, assertiveness and gender-
sensitivity training, Crisis Incident Stress
Debriefing, organization of women’s
support groups, etc.
 3. RELEASED PRISONERS AND FORMER
PATIENTS OF PSYCHIATRIC INSTITUTIONS
• Released Prisoners
– are prisoners released on parole or acquitted after
serving a prison term, or released on absolute
pardon
 OBJECTIVE
• To assist the released prisoner in making
an effective adjustment in the
community upon his return there.
REASONS FOR ASSISTING RELEASED
PRISONERS IN COMMUNITY LIFE
• Present prison system does not provide
rehabilitation services
• Many prisoners have lost touch, or are
rejected by their families, or have some
personal family problems that require
outside interventions
• Former prisoner has to contend with
community attitudes that make post-
institutional adjustment difficult
 Specific Activities of Social Workers
1. Doing pre-release assessment of prisoners to
determine their capacities and limitations
2. Providing various necessary social services to
the prisoner/his family prior to and after
release, including guidance and help in
relation to employment
 Specific Activities of Social Workers
3. Mobilization of needed community resources
together with civic groups
 RELEASED PATIENTS OF PSYCHIATRIC
INSTITUTIONS
• National Mental Health Center (formerly
National Mental Hospital)
• Psychiatric Units of General Hospital
(Philippine General Hospital, V. Luna Hospital
and Veterans Memorial Medical Hospital)
– Activities are also similar undertaken for released
prisoners
 4. OLDER PERSONS
• UN General Assembly of December 15,
1991 adopted Resolution 46/91
– Promulgating the UN Principles of Older
Persons
– Advocating equal rights, privileges, and
opportunities for older persons as productive
members of society
– Should have a dignified life in safe and healthy
environments, free fro prejudice due to
income, age disability, gender, ethnic
background
 Terminologies
• Older person-refers to people between sixty
and above
• Young old-Sixty to eighty
• Older old-Eighty and above
• Gerontology- the branch of science dealing
with the phenomena and problems of old age
 Help extended to Older Persons
• Economic dependency
• Health and medical problems
• Emotional needs and problems
• Social problems like family and community
relationships
• Personal care
• Recreational needs and living arrangements
 LAWS PROTECTING OLDER PERSONS
• R.A. 7432 Senior Citizens Act 0f 1992
• R.A. 7876 An Act Establishing Senior Citizen
Centers in all Cities and Municipalities and
Appropriation of Funds
 5. PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
• PWD’s
– Described by World Health Organization as those
persons suffering from restriction of different
abilities as a result of mental, physical, or sensory
impairment, to perform an activity in the manner
or within the range considered normal for a
human being.
 Cont.
• PWD’s (Persons with Disabilities)
– one who is his/her society is regarded or
officially recognized as such because of a
difference in appearance and/or behavior in
combination with a functional restrictions
are reductions in bodily functions (moving,
speaking, seeing, etc.)(National Council for
the Welfare of Disabled Persons/NCWDP)
(Christoffel Blinden Mission/CBM) and
(Community-Based Rehabilitation
Program/CBR)
 Clients
• Physically handicapped like blind, deaf, deaf-
mutes, crippled, victims of physical
deformities including hansenites (Hansen’s
Disease is Leprosy)
• Mentally ill and handicapped
 Rehabilitation
• is a helping process which aims to restore a
handicapped person to the highest possible
degree of physical, social, emotional,
vocational and economic well-being.
• process involves the provision of a wide array
of services to the person
 Social work activities
1. Administration, which involves formulation or
recommendation of agency policies that would
respond to the needs and problems of this
special group, recruitment and training staff,
helping plan and develop community support
 Social work activities
2.Direct service, including participation in case
management along with other members of the
rehabilitation team which, for the social worker,
starts with a social case study that provides
information and insights into the disabled
person’s personal, family, community situation.
 COMMUNITY WELFARE
• a field of social work practice that
encompasses a variety of programs and
services which have for their main goal the
well-being of entire communities.