ROLES OF SOCIAL WORKERS HANDLING

CASES INVOLVING CAR AND CICL

Arwin R. Trinidad, RSW
Social Welfare Assistant
CICL Welfare Program Focal Person
CSWDO Lucena
LIST OF SOCIAL WORKER ROLES

• Advocate • Manager
• Counselor • Case Manager
• Mediator • Facilitator
• Researcher • Community Change Agent
• Educator • Broker
ADVOCATE

• Fights for the rights of the disempowered children at risk and

children in conflict with the law
• The goal is to empower the client.
• KEY FUNCTION: speaks IN BEHALF of clients when others will not
listen or when clients are unable to do so.
COUNSELOR

• In this role, we help clients

• EXPRESS their needs,
• CLARIFY their problems,
• EXPLORE resolution strategies, and
• APPLIES intervention strategies
to develop and expand client’s capacities to deal with their
problems more efficiently
• KEY FUNCTION – empower people by affirming their personal
strengths and capacities to deal with their own problems.
MEDIATOR

• The social worker here intervenes in disputes in between parties

to help them
• Find compromises
• Reconcile differences
• Reach mutually satisfying agreements

• KEY FUNCTION: take a neutral stance among the involved

parties.
RESEARCHER

• The social worker here critically analyzes and evaluates program

outcomes with others.
• A researcher extends and disseminates knowledge, and seeks to
enhance the effectiveness of practice.
• KEY FUNCTION: research as basis for evaluation and assessment
of key practice areas
EDUCATOR

• In the educator role, we are involved in teaching people about

resources and how to develop particular skills.
• One key element here as a social worker is sharing your personal
knowledge aimed to either inspire or capacitate your clients to
bring out their full potentials.
CASE MANAGER

• The social worker here locates services and assists their clients to
access those services.
• KEY FUNCTION: Case management (overall: action planning,
referral and coordination, social broker)
COMMUNITY CHANGE AGENT

• Our role here acts in coordinated manner to achieve planned

change at multiple levels
• Shifting of the focus of institutional resources to meet identified
goals
• KEY FUNCTION/S: seeks to improve or restructure some aspect of
community service provision; uses a problem-solving model to:
• Identify the problem
• Solicit community input
• Plan for change
FACILITATOR

• In this role, social workers are involved in gathering groups of

people together for a variety of purposes such as but not limited
to the following:
• Community development
• Self-advocacy
• Political organization
• Policy change

• KEY FUNCTION: involved as group therapists and task group

leaders.
BROKER

• The social worker’s KEY FUNCTION and responsibility here is to

IDENTIFY, LOCATE, and LINK clients to needed resources in a
timely and efficient manner.
• Once the client’s needs are assessed and potential services are
identifies, the broker assists the clients in choosing the most
appropriate service options and assists in negotiating the terms of
service delivery.
• In this role, we are also concerned with the quality, quantity, and
accessibility of services.
MANAGER

• As managers, social workers are better able to influence policy

change and/or development, and to advocate, on a larger scale,
for all underprivileged people.
• KEY FUNCTION: management of discussions, policy formulation,
and management of resources
THANK YOU!