Respond to two colleagues:

Evaluate an identified limitation your colleague may encounter when relying on intuition or personal experience in making decisions about an intervention plan.

Colleague 1
RE: Discussion 2 – Week 1
COLLAPSE
I understand the comparison of the two situations. However, I feel as though in my line of work the options are different than in a medical professionals line of work. I work as a case worker for CPS. I work with families after their children have been removed from the home. A lot of what I do for these families are based on their needs, resources available, and court orders. While I do utilized strength based practice in the way I interact with these families and I often look back on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs when dealing with the children. I would not say that I generally use any social work theories. I am not super versed on social work theories if I am being honest. Most of what I do is based on my experience, knowing the resources available, and what I would refer to as common sense but you can call it intuition. However if  my doctor is treating me, you better believe I want tests ran to back up any gut feelings he has. Turner stated that “without such an understanding, practice remains in the realm of guesswork” (2011, pg. 9).  I understand this conclusion, however I also see that we send our families to therapist and psychologist/psychiatrist to be evaluated. While I evaluate the family’s needs and strength based on the removal affidavit and conversations with the family, I would not say I utilize any particular theories while doing so. I could be wrong.

I hope in this class to learn more about theories that I may utilize without even knowing it.

Reference

Turner, F. (2011). Theory and social work treatment. In social work treatment: Interlocking theoretical approaches (5th ed., pp. 3-13) New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

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Colleague 2
RE: Discussion 2 – Week 1
COLLAPSE
In the two different situations presented, there were only a few differences. In the first situation, I relied more on my professional and personal experiences as well as what other professionals had suggested with examples, provided via their cases as well as data in various research. Where there was a difference in these two situations, rested more on the other situation. I believe these choices differed based on several factors. For example, when working with a client, you rely on them to let you know how something is working, if they believe something is helpful or they are following through on a suggestion or a step you provided, you tend to have to go based off of their self-reporting, or that of another social worker or other person involved in their treatment. In contrast, in the second situation, a medical doctor often as other ways of being able to tell if treatment is working effectively, such as through blood tests and other labs.

              When following ones intuition or personal experience, there are several advantages; when following your own experiences, you can share not only your own successes or struggles, you are also sharing your personality which can be an asset when building repour. An additional advantage to sharing personal experiences is that it falls under two of the National Association of Social Workers code of ethics; dignity and worth of the person and importance of human relationships. (NASW, 2017). When a social worker shares their personal experiences, they are engaging in the importance of human relationships by helping the client view the social worker as a person and helps to limit some imbalance of power. The additional ethical consideration of the dignity of the person is that it allows the client to not feel so alone in a problem or problem behaviors along as gives hope to the client and sets an example.  While personal experiences are great for helping build repour with clients, and an excellent place to start with various interventions and treatment, it is also essential for a social worker to be mindful and realize when self-disclose is appropriate and done professionally.

              The advantages of using theories and research evidence are just as vast as utilizing personal experiences. The advantages of using evidence-based research and various theories are that the studies or ideas are backed by data; the data can help a social worker decided what is the best intervention or type of treatment as well as gives the social worker and their team an idea of the success rate.          A disadvantage to solely using evidenced-based research and theories is that they can limit the way a social worker views a client, for example, clients are humans who have multiple intersections and are not just a statistic in data.

Work cited

About. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics-English

An Introduction to Use of Self in Field Placement. (2014, August 28). Retrieved from https://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/field-placement/An_Introduction_to_Use_of_Self_in_Field_Placement/

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