Focus statement

You are required to form yourself into working partnerships with others for this assessment task. Go to the link FINAL GROUPS at the Moodle site for instructions.

The core reading for both assessment options below is Fatout, M. (1992) Models of Change in Social Group Work. New York: Aldine de Gruyter. Chapter 1 referred to as 'the mainstream model' provided in the additional reading list at Moodle.

For this assessment item informed by the mainstream model you may either:

1. Using the existing knowledge you have acquired to date, develop session by session activities for your own social group work program in any area of need that interests you OR

2. Locate an existing group work program and provide a critique of its knowledge base and activities by comparing and contrasting the approach with the philosophy of social group work and the values of the social work and human services professions. This will also require you to apply the central ideas of the mainstream model to assess where an existing group work program is similar to and different from it.

Role of student (Option 1)

You are to place yourselves in the role of social work students on your first field education experience. Your supervisor has requested your group to develop a social group work program and demonstrate integration of evidence based sources to inform the content. As students, you would expect to be co-facilitating this program with your supervisor as lead facilitator. You are to use the social group work method.

Details

An example of a past student submission is loaded to Moodle.

Prompts are provided below as guidance around the types of programs you may develop:

• Planning and scripting a social group work experience revolving around puppet shows

• Delivering information about protective behaviours for groups of children aged 5-9 years (or any other developmentally similar age group);

• A social group work program for young women and/or young men who have been referred from high schools for self-harm and/or who are at risk of suicide;

• A program providing a plan for best practice critical incident debriefing for members of human services, community organisations, and associations who are at risk of encountering traumatic events in your local community; or

• A therapeutic and recreational social group work program for new clients of an aged care facility.

You are not limited to the above themes or social issues. You will need to consult and gain approval from the unit co-coordinator before proceeding with your topic and research.

Dependent on the client group selected, and the particular needs of your client group, the group work experience will generally be four to six sessions.

Submission Format

The social group work program will be presented in A4 landscape with the following information or column headings conveying the complexity of information required to facilitate a social group work program. The following are provided as a guide to the required headings, however you may incorporate additional topics:

• Purpose of session;

• Input/information to be delivered/rationale for input;

• Instructions for group activity/rationale for activity according to group dynamics;

• Social work literature informing responses to the social issue chosen;

• Method of evaluating client change (session by session and whole of program).

Product

You are not limited to the information provided here and you are encouraged to add or develop your own initiatives for this submission. Use these suggestions as a guide only.

In keeping with the succinctness required for such practice plans within an agency context, brief statements, headings, and a dot point format is acceptable. As above, you are encouraged to produce a matrix/table format showing sessions and their content/activities informed by social work literature, group dynamics, and the integration of any other relevant theory. For future practitioners’ ease of reference to the research informing your program conventional academic referencing is required. You may consider using a preamble to the program submitted to contextualise and orient future workers to the approach you have taken and how it is informed.

This preamble may consider such issues as:

• the criteria that potential participants must meet in order to be suitable for the program in order to ensure the safety and success of clients as they work towards accomplishing their goals;
• a rationale for delivering the knowledge using the social group work method rather than other social work methods such as case management, family work, or community development;
• the aims and anticipated outcomes of client participation;
• practical issues associated with the context chosen (assess an actual site in your local community: church hall/school/human service; organisation), set up, and delivery of group work programs and how these issues will be co-ordinated;
• the management of co-facilitation roles; and
• cultural sensitivity

Role of student (Option 2)

You have decided to focus on an academic critique of an existing group work program. You are acknowledging and using the work of other professionals who have made their group work experiences available in public domains but subjecting those programs to a critique using the philosophy and principles of the mainstream model in social group work.

Details

An example of a group program available in the public domain will be provided at Moodle however you are free to source your own program from on-line environments or permission from practitioners in the field.

Product

A formal 2000 word analysis of the selected group work program comparing and contrasting it with the social group work model (i.e. in what ways does the group work program depart from the philosophy and principle of social group work and in what ways is it similar?). You are therefore required to demonstrate your understanding of the social group work model by applying it to the program you have found.

• Application of social group work philosophy and principles to the program;
• Application of knowledge about group dynamics;
• Development of program (Option 1) informed by social work literature OR
• Critique of program (Option 2) informed by social work literature;
• Comprehensive response to briefing provided above in unit profile and discussions at Moodle;
• Professional preparation and presentation: clarity of written expression including accurate spelling, grammar;
• Adherence to the Harvard referencing system; and
• Breadth and quality of reference list.

Focus statement

Demonstrate and record the facilitation of a session with at least two family members.

Product

Assessment task # 2 must not be edited but show an uninterrupted, unedited 20 minute segment of family work practice.

For continuity of learning, students that have completed assessment tasks in SOWK12009 Casework and case management could continue on with their original client engaging the most important family member to emerge in that work. Alternatively, all students are free to submit this assessment task with new clients, scenarios, and social issues.

In this exercise, these skills are to be demonstrated within the context of an interview with at least two people performing the role of a client. It is important to remember that there is no ‘perfect’ interview or one single formula for demonstrating effective helping. You must engage reflectively with the concept of ‘use of self’ in your preparation for this exercise. This assessment item invites you to begin demonstrating your style of social work practice. Each submission/approach will be as unique as your peers accompanying you in this unit.

You are encouraged to undertake several practice attempts prior to recording/deciding on your final product for submission, in order to allow opportunities for you and the ‘client’ to become familiar with the interview process and the technical aspects of recording.

For ethical reasons it is important that you ensure all people involved in this product are playing a role and that a consent form provided at the site is uploaded before the final day of term.

It is not acceptable to engage children in the role-play. Local members of amateur theater groups or drama students may be happy to participate in the role play. The selected role play should not be closely related to an actual or past event for the interviewee and you must establish this at the outset with the individual who agrees to take the interviewee role. Encourage your performers to draw on their experiences of/create composites of other people they know well as opposed to themselves.

Keep in mind that the complexity of the topic selected is not being assessed; it is your response to a client’s presentation at an agency that is being assessed for feedback. In other words, it is not necessary for you to work with an emotionally provocative issue or an overly complex social situation in order to demonstrate your competency and confidence with the family work method. Emotional and physical safety for both you and your role players must be considered at all times in this style of experiential professional education.

In-keeping with good professional practice, it is also advised that players in the role play are provided with an opportunity to debrief or discuss the role play after it has concluded. This debrief may involve having an opportunity to talk about how players found the role play experience including actual emotions experience or breakthroughs in their own thinking about the character they played, what they would have said if they had more time and opportunity, and how the person who adopted the client role is different from the role played.

To create the most authentic role play scenario possible (even when training with friends or family members you know very well) provide your role player with a few dot points about the case study/scenario outlining the nature of the issue you wish them to present with. The less information provided, the less anxious your volunteer is likely to be. To minimise any possible anxieties with your role player, after providing them with this information, give them permission to develop this role in any direction or form they wish. Allow them to improvise.

Despite these safeguards, ensure you encourage the person who volunteers to assist you, to contact you or the unit coordinator, for referrals to a human service organisation if their experience in this project raises unexpected issues/stressors for them. A consent form will be provided at Moodle for your volunteers to sign demonstrating they understand the nature of the task, possible ramifications, access to the audio-visual files and follow up if necessary.

• Application of social work and human service principles and values into practice with families;
• Application of assessment skills in practice;
• Use of self in the helping relationship; and
• Demonstrated ability to create professional contexts conducive to client change drawing from at least one school of family work practice.

Focus statement

You are to submit a formal academic analysis of Assessment task # 2.

Role of student

Imagine you are a student on placement and have been asked to record a brief contact with a family followed by a formal academic critique of your practice.

Product

This critique requires the application and integration of the theories of family and family work practice presented in this unit.

Overall, the focus of this submission is your ability to demonstrate your critique of family work skills, i.e a written analysis of your strengths and limitations against the guidance of at least one model of family therapy practice. As per the assessment criteria, you will also be assessed on your capacity to integrate the knowledge shared by social workers facing similar scenarios who have published their ideas and techniques.

Consider the following suggestions for the organisation of this critique:

• You are encouraged to develop hypotheses about the relationships within the family informed by the knowledge of family dynamics presented in this unit and at the compulsory residential.
• Link your assessment of your interpersonal skills with the knowledge of family dynamics presented in this unit and at the compulsory residential.
• Demonstrate the language you would have preferred to use at points where you have identified limitations in your practice. Use direct quotes in your critique to rework or revise the language used in Assessment item # 2 that you think could be improved.
• Identify additional assessment information that needs to be gathered if you believe you have not acquired a full understanding of the issues facing the family system or sub-systems.
• Devote final sections to your assessment about interventions for change such as activities or aides you think would assist you in moving the family toward the action-phase of the change process.
• Suggest input or knowledge that you suspect the family needs in order to accomplish those changes.
• Select possible techniques drawn from published literature that fit well with social work approaches to intervention.
• Suggest how you intend to continue evaluating the changes that the family seeks.

• Demonstrated capacity to apply concepts from at least one school of family therapy to social work and human service practice with families;
• Application of relevant social work literature for professional practice with families experiencing similar presenting issues;
• Demonstrated capacity to articulate the skills demonstrated or required guided by at least one school of family therapy;
• Comprehensive response to briefing above in unit profile and discussion at Moodle;
• Demonstrated ability to synthesise and present cohesive arguments in a formal academic writing style;
• Formal academic written communication: accurate presentation and preparation including spelling, grammar, and punctuation;
• Adherence to the Harvard system of referencing; and
• Breadth and quality of reference list.

Focus statement

The family system is one of the most formidable influences in people's lives and this theme is constant whether families are present or absent across all of parts of an individual's lifecycle.

Your role

Engage with the importance of examining self, family, values, and the profession of social work.

Product

Reference to academic sources is not required for this submission. It is a reflective acccount. As per the assessment criteria links to AASW frameworks for practise are required.

This assessment task attracts no weighted marks and therefore no criteria but must be included as an Appendix to Assessment task # 3. Drawing on your knowledge of reflective and reflexive practice you are to create 100 words in response to each of the following reflective questions. These are a culmination of your own family-of-origin experiences, learning, and ideas therefore you are not required to support this assessment task with academic references. Use experiences at the compulsory residential to prompt discussion and reflection for this assessment task.

1. Name what appeared to you to be the most prominent beliefs that appeared to influence your professional conversation with the client family at different points in Assessment task # 2. What were/are the sources of these beliefs and their 'fit' with social work and human services values?

2. Overall, reflecting on the language you used throughout Assessment task # 2 what has it demonstrated to you about your capacity to practise social work or human service delivery?

3. Recalling your role play what thoughts did you experience that you did not share with the family? What blocked you from sharing those thoughts?

4. What emotions were you experiencing about the clients and their situation (not the Assessment task) and were they the same or different after your contact?

5. Give some examples about how your thoughts would change about the family dynamics if they were Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander or from a culture in which English is a second language?

Assessment tas k# 4 must be included as an Appendix to Assessment task # 3 in one (1) Word document.

• Capacity for concrete description of personal values in relation to family life;
• Discussion of impact of learning on personal values about family life; and
• Discussion of relationship between personal values and AASW practice standards and Code of Ethics.