MSWPG7211 Assessment Task 1 - Social Work Annotated Bibliography

What are the problems faced by Social Workers in their work life?

Daniel, B. (2013). Social work: a profession in flux. Journal of workplace learning, 25, 394-406. doi:10.1108/jwl-06-2012-0048. 

The paper looks into the general idea of social work as a profession but mainly focuses on describing the main factors that are responsible for influencing change in the profession. After explaining the origins of social work the paper looks to explain previous research findings and then follows up with describing three factors that are the catalyst of transition that social work faces, the three factors are Personalization of services, Multi-disciplinary environment and risks faced by the social workers. The paper teaches us the importance of social work as a profession by understanding the potential problems embedded in it, the fact that social work does not have written documents that dictate the job description of a social worker is explained through the three factors. This paper reviews the origins of social work as a profession and the problems it faces today.

Elias, P., & Upton-Davis, K. (2015). Embedding peer support using social work values. The journal of mental health training, education and practice, 10, 304–313. doi:10.1108/jmhtep-06-2015-0028.

The purpose of this paper is to look at the problems a social worker faces while developing a peer support program specific to an inpatient psychiatric service based in Australia, also to find potential solutions. The author uses a retrospective approach to look into the challenges of a social worker going through the process of creating a peer support program. Given the profession of a social worker, he/she has the ability to integrate peers support workers, mental healthcare professional and nurses to create a peer support program that combines the abilities of these groups to create a program that helps the patients who suffer from mental illnesses. Thus study is another testament to the theory that social work can be used for integration because of the values and ethics embedded in this profession. 

Hudson, A. (2015). Social work: a “forgotten” piece of the integration jigsaw? Journal of integrated care, 23, 96-103. doi: 10.1108/JWL-06-2012-0048

The purpose of the paper is to justify that social work can create practices that lead to a positive change in social and health care which should be integrated to work best and the idea of professional leadership to be the driving force behind a change in organizational culture. Practice and reviewing previous related findings is the method adopted by the author to demonstrate that social work can integrate health care with social care leading towards a better society. The author describes social care to be as a support profession for building better health care which should not be the case, rather health care should lead up to social care. Integrating the two through social work is the key to better health care, if health care becomes a social work then the results would be leading towards a more sympathetic society and a better health care system. This paper teaches us that social work we can integrate professions and create better societies that rely on the individuals to work together to achieve greater heights.