Sunday, March 25, 2012

Instilling Concern for Others in a Masters of Social Work

There is a serious dedication to the welfare of human beings in social work. The quality of life is that subject being improved upon here, and inequity and social wrongs the villains. Students of Masters of Social Work courses are better equipped to handle such issues than others.

Different exercises, from researching situations to actually acting to resolve them, are involved here. Your subjects are going to be others who have suffered or are suffering grave misfortunes in their lot. There is a definite concentration on poorer countries, naturally.

Nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America experience extreme social, emotional and physical poverty. There are societal issues here that are deeply affecting the quality of life for people. The degree of suffering is such that the gap between the lives experienced by natives of such countries and the lives of natives of better-off countries is already approaching the width of the Grand Canyon.

It is unfortunate that while planet Earth is potentially rich and able to sustain the lives of over 7 billion people living in the planet, the wealth is not equally distributed. The problem has to do with the wealthy and their refusal to give up their ascendancy (and riches) simply for the sake of others. There is much to do and correct.

It is not known to all that a good percentage of the globe's population only has USD2 to spend every day. With that little income, living is reduced to merely existing. While there is relative poverty in many parts of the United States (which deserve the attention of government and social work practitioners), developing countries experience extreme poverty; that kind of poverty that bites hard and deep.

Those in the field of social work tend to direct most of their efforts to areas like these. The classes for social work also help students understand what injustice is and how to rectify it. The social sciences are involved here, from the political down to the humanistic.

Two abilities required of graduates would be the ability to research and the ability to properly instruct others. Often, a social worker is called on to conduct research or to teach people in communities. Social workers thrive in both areas of interest – searching for ways to provide the most appropriate solutions to societal problems (research) and being with people (teaching).

You also need to be good at communicating with others. Their job needs them to better understand people and their needs, and so they are expected to learn hands-on. You have to be capable of not just talking but also of listening, so that you can be a true advocate of social justice.

To further define what a social worker contends with, the International Federation of Social Workers released a statement about what Social Work entails. The organization said that social work demanded that its professionals keep in mind the setting of a particular issue, and the need to discover as much about its environment as possible. The social web was noted for its immense complication and for the connectedness of people to one another.

The social work professional knows and can handle matters concerning human development, social theory and social systems. You need to be capable of facing real-life issues head-on. The Masters Social Work classes are intended to give you the training you need for that.