The Generalist Approach in Social Work Essay

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The ecological perspective encourages social workers to view clients in terms of their relationships with their environments, including factors like family systems, culture, institutions, and hierarchies. As part of the psychosocial orientation, the ecological approach generally considers three different levels of individual experience: the macro, the mezzo, and the micro. The macro level includes broader societal factors including those related to public policy but also to culture, norms, worldview, and value systems. Mezzo structures include intermediate social institutions such as schools or neighborhood level organizations. The micro level issues are those most immediate to the client’s life including relationships with kin and psychological issues. The ecological model provides a balanced view of the client because it takes into account the interplay between micro, mezzo, and macro levels rather than limiting the focus on just one problem. Similarly, a generalist approach to social work can interface with the ecological model. The generalist approach allows social workers to target any of the three levels to promote change (Watson, 2014). This report will focus on one macro level issue to illustrate how that macro level issue might impact an individual client in the community. Moreover, this report will show how changing the macro level issues might not necessarily lead to micro level improvements in the client’s wellbeing. Only by taking into account micro, mezzo, and macro levels together is it possible to illustrate a healthy, desirable, and goal-driven developmental transition for the client.

In this hypothetical case, an individual is transitioning from adolescence to adulthood. The individual has a history of both eating disorders and substance use. As Shanske, Arnold, Carvalho & Rein (2012) point out, social workers frequently serve as the de facto case managers during developmental transitions. The “significant psychosocial considerations impacting this developmental process are a primary focus in health care,” and social workers possess the specialized training to help clients successfully navigate developmental transitions.

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Social workers are uniquely equipped to handle developmental transitions precisely because of their application of the ecological approach and the emphasis on the generalist approach to working with clients from diverse backgrounds and who may have differential goals and needs. Developmental transition is a term used in social work and healthcare to describe the critical period when a client shifts from one stage to another, such as from adolescence to adulthood, or from adulthood into old age. The developmental transition can be difficult in situations where the social institutions at both the mezzo and macro level do not offer sufficient supports.

When working with individuals, the social worker avoids focusing solely on the individual. Buchbinder, Eiskovitz & Karnieli-Miller (2014) advocate a critical-reflective approach for social workers, encouraging an honest assessment of how all three elements of the ecological model are being addressed. Often when dealing with individuals experiencing developmental transitions, it can be too easy to get caught up either in overemphasizing the political issues at stake with the macro level issues such as healthcare policy, the mezzo level issues such as ineffective outreach or mental health services available in the area, or the micro level issues such as the client’s substance use issues. A generalist approach requires open mindedness and critical thought to tackle all three levels because of the assumption that they are inextricably entwined. If the macro level issue in question is related to healthcare policy, then the social worker would advocate on behalf of the client to initiate healthcare policy reform. At the same time, the social worker would mobilize federal, state, and local resources to direct client to services available in the immediate vicinity. Any problems the….....

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