This week’s chapter material and supplemental resources provided valuable information on concepts related to resilience, strength, and cultural considerations that should be taken into account not only when conducting assessments, but in social work practice in general. Keep in mind that self-awareness is critical in social work and as mentioned in the Standards and Indicators for Cultural Competence in Social Work Practice, there are several standards that must guide us when working with individuals and families. Doing so will ensure that you are able to truly empower others and focus on resiliency and strengths rather than judgment. For this week’s critical thinking reflection, you are being asked to respond to the following questions demonstrating your ability to integrate your knowledge into practice.
Part A. Describe an example of a time that you may have struggled (even if only for a moment) to see a client’s strengths for one of the following reasons: they made a decision that you disagreed with, their actions or behaviors were ones that you could “never” see yourself doing, their values and belief system differed from yours, or you felt as though there was disconnect due to cultural differences. Keeping confidentiality in mind, provide some background on how the interaction went and describe your initial thoughts and feelings in that moment and those that followed.
If you have not had much direct practice experience with individuals and families (yet) or you do not feel as though you have had an experience that you could apply to the above question, employ self-awareness to consider an instance that could happen in future practice which would lead you to struggle to see a client’s strengths.
Part B. Complete the “mock supervision agenda” below that outlines your plan to discuss those feelings, challenges, and hesitancies with your supervisor. Be sure to include standards and principles from the NASW Code of Ethics to guide you and your decision-making. This supervision agenda should also include at least three action steps that contain information you learned from the required readings in week 1 and week 2 and describe how you will change your ways of thinking to best approach clients from cultural backgrounds that may be unfamiliar to you.
Response to Part A.
Response to Part B. “Mock Supervision Agenda”
Topics of discussion:
Which competencies did you work to develop this week?
Case Review: (for this assignment, you will insert a summary of the client “case” that you mentioned earlier)
Concerns/struggles/challenges/dilemmas you experienced this week? (for this assignment, you can insert those initial thoughts and feelings here that you mentioned earlier)
What do you specifically need help with in relation to the above concern/struggle/challenge/dilemma?
What ethical standards from the NASW Code of Ethics did you (would you/can you) deploy to navigate the concern/struggle/challenge/dilemma?
Supervisor’s Response: (insert what your supervisor said as a response OR what you feel a supervisor would/should say)
Resources you can access to continue developing your competence in this area?
3 action steps that you will take to change your ways of thinking to best approach clients from cultural backgrounds that may be unfamiliar to you: (for this assignment, refer back to the course material from weeks 1 and 2)
1.
2.
3.
Plan for next week: