MSWPG7214 ADVOCATING FOR INDIVIDUALS, FAMILES, GROUPS AND COMMUNITIES - COPMERATIVE ANALYSIS ESSAY ASSIGNMENT HELP

Introduction

In a healthy society, social action and advocacy work together to promote the values of human rights and social justice. Social workers activists as a part of the organised movement have always offered advocacy services, especially in the health sector in Australia. Advocacy and social action are the two key elements of social work. In practising social work, advocacy and social action are used as the structural approach that assumes that the resources and opportunities are distributed unequally (Lewis et al., 2011, pp. 5-16). The social worker also assumes advocacy and social action are the direct practice to provide support to deprived and vulnerable members of the society. 

Advocacy, in particular, ensures that the deprived and unprivileged people are able to get their voice heard on the issues that are important to them, they can defend their rights, and their views are taken into considerations before imposing a decision on them (Loue, 2013, pp. 1039-1043). Advocacy service provides support in enabling people to express their views, access the information, and explore options and choice. On the other hand, social action refers to working alongside the community (Surooprajally, 2018). Social actions help in developing a sense of awareness. To advocate a case, it is important to comprehend and handle different social situations. However, working with a community providing advocacy and social services helps in improving the social skills and you interacting skills with society. 

In order to have effective and successful advocacy and social action, there are certain techniques that are needed to be followed. To strategically advocate, it is important to identify and frame the issue being raised. Once an advocate understands the raised issue, further research can be done to collect more information. In order to take social action, a social work forms alliance, network, involve media and plan the campaigns against the cause to build pressure on the representative body (Rasmussen et al., 2018, pp. 139-164). In this way, the advocacy flows systematically and results in achieving the desired results. In addition to that, to achieve the desired outcomes, a social worker should follow the key principles in people-centred advocacy. A social worker or advocate must listen to the people carefully, participate in counter questioning in order to gather details. A social worker is supposed to have considerate knowledge about the acts, information and techniques to strategically advocate the issue for the successful advocacy (Rasmussen et al., 2018, pp. 139-164). 

In the following comparative analysis research report, two case studies of advocacy and two case studies of social action will be studied in order to analyse the underlying theories and effectiveness of the models used in the case study. The purpose of this comparative analysis report is to analyse and compare examples of advocacy and social action, drawing on relevant theories and models. 

2 Models of Advocacy – Case Study

Case Study 1 – Self Advocacy Case

This case study is about Kirsty who filed a complaint against her community care cleaning services for not performing the job. For the floor not being mopped and dried properly, Kristy had recently had an accident. Kristy soon discussed the matter with the ADA Australia’s advocate who confirms her that she has the right to receive proper services. Along with the advocate, Kristy complained to the manager to assure the right action is to be taken timely (ADA Australia, 2018). 

In this above case, Kristy used self-advocacy model against her complain. Self-advocacy model defines individuals speaks up and represent issues for themselves, with a support of paid or unpaid authorised advocate. It is an outward facing model that aim to secure support and services for the individuals. Self-advocacy model focuses on ensuring the vulnerable person’s voice is heard. It also promotes confidence, knowledge, protection and skills of an individual (Stewart and Maclntyre, 2013). 

In this case, the applied theory of social work can be community development. The theory of community development social work highlights understanding the social relations and power dynamics that direct relationships in diversified communities. In this case study, it was important to file the complaint against the community care services for not performing the job properly in order to avoid the future consequences that can harm other members of the community. For this reason, self-advocacy was a good choice, but Kristy could have asked other members to report to take peer advocacy for this incident.