Social Work
Social work is a university qualified profession dedicated to assisting people improve their lives. Social workers advocate for fairness, social justice and human rights. Social work is most often used in complex social situations or where people are very vulnerable and at risk.
In the disability sector in Australia, social workers play a crucial role in supporting individuals with disabilities who are part of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Social workers can be used within the Capacity Building Independent Daily Living budget of your plan. At the Core is a registered agency and can provide Social Work services as per the NDIS price guide. Social Work interventions in this context aim to develop the persons capacity and quality of life.
What is Social Work and how will it add value to my situation?
Social work draws from systems theory, ecological systems theory, strengths based approaches, psychodynamic theory and attachment theory just to name a few underlying perspectives. Social Workers routinely support people to build capacity or understand what the barrier is to achieve their goals by applying systems theory.
A basic explanation of systems theory is to imagine you’re looking at a spider web. Every strand is connected, and if you tug on one thread, the whole web reacts. Social work systems theory is kind of like that. It says people are influenced by the different systems around them, like their family, friends, community, and even society. If one part of the system changes, it affects the whole picture. Social workers aim to work out where best to intervene or influence the system to provide what is needed for change or capacity building.
For example, if a social worker was working with a person with disability who was socially isolated, instead of focusing only on the person, they’d look at the systems around the person. Thier family dynamics, their interactions, their history, disability, the engagement or non engagement with environments, their strengths and interests and even community resources available. This would provide a map of where to intervene to assist the person to overcome isolation and develop social networks.
Interventions in Social work can include counselling as therapy to develop a persons capacity and skills.
How Social Work can be used as a NDIS funded support.
Social Workers funded within NDIS plans aim to build capacity of the individual and their system/family supports. This is done by:
Assessment and Evaluation
The first step is to conduct a comprehensive assessment to determine the individual’s support needs and goals. This includes as evaluation of the impact of the disability on the person’s daily life, psychosocial well-being, and relationships. This is known as a psychosocial assessment and incorporates the person’s whole experience including the systems and family they are supported by.
At the core can also provide more detailed functional capacity assessment from a social work assessment where the participants disability and circumstances are more specifically psychosocial rather than physical.
Goal setting/planning
Collaborating with the participant and families, and other professionals to understand and identify goals and develop a plan to achieve this. This can include identifying appropriate services, support networks, and resources required to achieve the individual’s goals. This stage is where capacity building interventions are identified and formulated with the participant and their network.
Capacity building
This can take many forms from a social work perspective. It can include counselling and therapuetic support alongside other interventions such as crisis interventions, advocacy, support and capacity building aimed at the person’s system/network of caregivers, and community development.