Social workers are often engrossed in providing quality of care, managing caseloads, attending meetings, collaborating on projects, conducting interviews, leading interventions, and working closely with clients, but the perspective of the client

Overview

Social workers are often engrossed in providing quality of care, managing caseloads, attending meetings, collaborating on projects, conducting interviews, leading interventions, and working closely with clients, but the perspective of the client may be lost in the busy day of the social service provider. To better understand the agency experience, this assignment will give you the opportunity to view the agency from the client’s perspective.

By successfully completing this assignment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following EPAS and general practices:

• Competency 1: Demonstrate Ethical and Professional Behavior.
• C1.GP.A: Make ethical decisions by applying the standards of the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics, relevant laws and regulations, models for ethical decision making, ethical conduct of research, and additional codes of ethics within the profession as appropriate to the context.
• Related Assignment Criteria:
• Explain how the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics can be applied to support clients served at your practicum site.
• Competency 2: Advance Human Rights and Social, Racial, Economic, and Environmental Justice.
• C2.GP.A: Advocate for human rights at the individual, family, group, organizational, and community system levels.
• Related Assignment Criteria:
• Describe two clear recommendations based on observations and analysis for the waiting area that promote human rights and social, racial, economic, and environmental justice.
• C2.GP.B: Engage in practices that advance human rights to promote social, racial, economic, and environmental justice.
• Related Assignment Criteria:
• Describe the waiting room or lobby and front office personnel, considering ADEI principles as well as human rights and social, racial, economic, and environmental justice.
• Analyze how the waiting room or lobby impacts the dignity and worth of the client.
• Competency 3: .
• C3.GP.B: Demonstrate cultural humility by applying critical reflection, self-awareness, and self-regulation to manage the influence of bias, power, privilege, and values in working with clients and constituencies, acknowledging them as experts of their own lived experiences.
• Related Assignment Criteria:
• Self-reflect on the experience of a client at this organization and consider your own power, privilege, and lived experience.

Assignment Description

In this assignment, you will experience a social work agency or organization by imagining and reflecting on the client’s perspective. These reflections will be based on an on-site observation of the social work agency or organization. You may use your placement site or an agency that is closely connected to your site. You should not use personal experiences where you are the client for this assignment.

Assignment Instructions

1. Discuss this assignment with your site supervisor.
2. Access and review the NASW Code of Ethics
3. Links to an external site.
4. from the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) website.
5. Visit the social work agency or organization (this can be your practicum site) and spend 30 minutes in the waiting room or lobby. Imagine you are a client. Write about your client experience in a 3–5 page reflection paper:

• Describe the waiting room or lobby and front office personnel. How does the area look, smell, and feel? How do the front office personnel, social workers, and other employees greet and communicate (verbally and non-verbally) with the clients in the waiting area? Include any observations related to the client and staff diversity as well as how communication may or may not effectively address diversity. Consider ADEI principles as well as human rights and social, racial, economic, and environmental justice and how those are promoted or not in this space.
• Analyze how the waiting room or lobby impacts the dignity and worth of the client. What feelings do you have, based on the waiting area and the personnel working there? If you were a client, how would you describe your experience in the waiting area?
• Self-reflect on the experience of a client at this organization and consider your own power, privilege, and lived experience.
• Explain how the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics can be applied to support clients served at your practicum site.
• Based on observations and analysis, provide two clear recommendations for the waiting area that promote human rights and social, racial, economic, and environmental justice.

Additional Requirements

The assignment you submit is expected to meet the following requirements:

• Written communication: Written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.
• APA formatting: Resources and citations are formatted according to current APA style and formatting standards. Refer to the Evidence and APA
• Links to an external site.
• Campus page for more guidance.
• Length of paper: 3–5 pages.

Competencies Measured

By successfully completing this assignment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and rubric criteria:

• Competency 1: Demonstrate ethical and professional behavior. (Competency 1)
• Explain how the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics can be applied to support clients served at your practicum site. (C1.GP.A)
• Competency 2: Advance human rights and social, racial, economic, and environmental justice. (Competency 2)
• Describe the waiting room or lobby and front office personnel, considering ADEI principles as well as human rights and social, racial, economic, and environmental justice. (C2.GP.B)
• Analyze how the waiting room or lobby impacts the dignity and worth of the client. (C2.GP.B)
• Describe two clear recommendations based on observations and analysis for the waiting area that promote human rights and social, racial, economic, and environmental justice. (C2.GP.A)
• Competency 3: Engage anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ADEI) in practice. (Competency 3)
• Self-reflect on the experience of a client at this organization and consider your own power, privilege, and lived experience. (C3.GP.B)
• Competency 10: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and consistent with expectations for members of the social work profession.
• Apply the standard writing conventions for the discipline, including structure, voice, person, and tone.

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