Saturday, September 13, 2014
Week #4 (9/17): Reading Blog - Ashley
Chapter 3: Understanding Community and Organizational Problems
Social workers want to change or fix problems within both individuals and communities. Individual problems may be caused by community or organizational problems. For this reason, macro and micro level social workers can both work to change macro level problems. Change is a process and takes time; it happens in small steps that build up to a big result. This chapter focuses on how to identify, research, and change problems within communities and organizations. While there are many ways to make change happen this book focuses on the rational planning approach. This approach involves research, planning and executing each step, and arriving at the desired outcome.
The first step to making change happen is to recognize a need for change and be prepared to do something about it. It is important to understand that a problem is only a problem because several people acknowledge a condition needs to be changed, and is a problem. You should talk to the person that decided there was a problem, those affected by the problem, people and groups that have helped fix problems before, people or groups that support and oppose the problem, and people or groups that can approve or deny and changes made. After all the information is gather, it should be narrowed down to the most useful. The information should help identify the causes of the problem including relevant events in history. The historical events should be put in order to help understand the history of the community or organization and the problem.
After identifying the problem, it is important to explore the knowledge base. Evidence-based practice (EBP) is used to assess past research findings and help decide the best approach to solving the current problem. EBP requires evaluations of the approach and adjustment based on those evaluations. It is important to define the concepts of the problem to help collect supporting data. It is important to incorporate both qualitative and quantitative data while finding supporting data.
After finding data, it is important to interpret the data into something that makes sense. This can be done in a number of ways. One way of interpreting data is through cross-sectional analysis. Cross-sectional analysis looks at a certain point in time and a certain population/sample. The results of the study can be transformed into graphs and charts to help understand the results of the study. Time-series comparisons look at a variable over a period of time; the results can also be transformed into graphs for easy interpretation. Epidemiological analysis focuses on finding the cause of a problem, even when clear cause and effect relationships cannot be found. Qualitative data can also be displayed using figures and charts.
The last step is to select factor that help explain the underlying cause of the problem. To do this it is important to look back over all of the past information gathered: historical events, past research, and supporting evidence. From there the researcher should develop an idea of what cause and effect relationships must dealt with for change to occur. It is also important to stay away from blaming the problem on lack of resources. Because lack of resources is always a problem within communities and organizations (no community/organization ever has enough money), it is important to find and explore other options. While lack of resources may be a problem, it does not explain the contributing factors and does not help solve the problem. As greater understanding of the problem comes about, a hypothesis should be developed about the problem. This hypothesis will guide the intervention and should be a working hypothesis that can be changed.
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You did a great job of summarizing the chapter, Ashley. You and Maggie are setting the bar high. I'm not looking forward to my turn for this. I like how this chapter intercepts with what I'm also learning in Research.
ReplyDeleteI thought that the last part of the chapter was especially interesting and Ashley touches on it, too, in her last paragraph. This part stood out to me, ".."lack of resources" does not help explain the underlying causal or contributing factors. The statement simply assumes that more of whatever is already being done will solve the problem." p. 99 Ashley explains what the author was talking about but for a minute, I thought that the author was going to touch on creative ways to solve issues that are low budget but high yielding in benefit. Maybe we'll talk about that somewhere else. It seems like Ms. Wallace's suggestion asking the Chief of Police to think of Mike Brown as his own son and how he would feel is an example of something that would be of no financial cost but yield a high benefit.
I liked how Ashley talked about the idea that macro and micro level social workers need to work together to be successful. Prior to starting the social work program, I hadn't thought once about macro level practice. It seems you only hear about micro level-therapy, direct interaction, etc. No one ever talks about macro practice. In the book it discusses the flow of relationship between macro and micro. On the micro level, a social worker and client may look at the client's environment and realize some aspects need to be improved. It may turn out that many other people suffer from this same issue. This can all be brought to macro level social workers and this change can be implemented across the board. I guess what I'm saying is I never realized the importance of the relationship between micro and macro level practice. Without one you really can't have the other.
ReplyDeleteAshley, I have to admit that prior to starting the MSW program I was quick to blame a problem within our society on the lack of resources. Although this may be true, like you said there will always be a lack of resources within a community. I know a lot of people including myself have been guilty of quickly "treating" a problem with a solution that may be simple to say but not as easy to carry out and eliminate the problem. After reading the chapter I now have a better understanding on how important it is to do your background research before proposing a solution to a problem. Gathering the necessary data will help the team brain storm multiple solutions as well as prevention strategies and successful was to decrease reoccurring problems. From this point on I will not be so quick to say, to decrease homelessness there needs to be an increase on housing funding. Because the lack of affordable housing is not the core of the problem nor only issue when it comes to homelessness.
ReplyDeleteThis is great Ashely. I think two of the most important aspects here are the first and last steps. I think it is so important to talk with the people who acknowledge that there is a problem. Hopefully those people are the residents of that community so that the change is coming from inside rather than outside of the community. The last step reminds me of what we just recently discussed, finding the root of the problem. By finding the root of the problem you are not just fixing the symptom, but are solving the problem so that it does not keep occurring.
ReplyDeleteLike Kate, I had never thought about macro level practice before. The readings overall made me realize how intertwined they are, for example when working with individuals you have to be aware of the environment that they live in so that you can effectively help them. I feel like this is especially true when it comes to young children and education. Working in the JVL neighborhood has made me realize that the kids who live in the area and are forced to go to Vashon High School do not have the same advantages as kids who live in St. Louis County. It makes me sad to think about this and the fact that no one seems to really care that these kids are at a disadvantage. Coming back to the topic of the chapter, when working with a child in this situation, a social worker needs to look at the whole picture, which includes macro level change.
ReplyDeleteAwesome job Ashley. I think that with or without resources there will always be an issues working in macro level practice. In places where there are enough resources there are usually not enough active participants and vice versa. However, finding the cause of the problem will always prevail.
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