First, the function of social work.
Social work is produced with the arrival of industrial economy, developed to meet the needs of modern industrial society, and is an indispensable part of urbanization and industrialization. Social work first appeared in western developed countries, in the form of charity, and began to enter the social and historical stage of China in 1980s.
Social work is an important content and means to build a harmonious society, and its functions can be summarized as follows: first, comprehensive care and individual care; Do filial piety for children and share worries for society. Social workers should pay full attention to the society and deal with each case in a special way, so as to fulfill their filial piety for their children and share their worries for the society. The second is the repair function, that is, to remedy the problems that occur afterwards; Preventive function: take measures to prevent the occurrence of social problems; Development function: promoting human development, especially developing the potential of members of socially disadvantaged groups; Stable function: dealing with various social problems in society.
Second, the problems and reasons in the development of social work
(A) the conflict of values in the process of social work
Social workers often encounter value paradox in practice. First of all, social work was born in the western social environment, and its ideas, theories, principles, practice models and skills all reflect western characteristics. However, it is doubtful whether "foreign methods" can cure China's social problems under the road of China's characteristic development. Secondly, it includes four aspects: the conflict between social values and professional values, the conflict within professional values, the conflict between professional values and personal values, and the conflict between personal values of social workers and the values of case owners. Let's imagine: personal dignity and value need both the privacy of the case owner and the protection of the third party from harm. How should social workers choose when the secret of the case owner involves harm to a third party? Social workers don't agree with sympathetic love, but the case is gay. Can social workers understand their own situation and appeal to others to respect their choices? It is true that social workers are in a dilemma in practice. Although they maintain a certain degree of professional introspection, they are easily "assimilated" and lost. In this dilemma, how to position yourself and standardize your values is facing a great test.
(B) the understanding, recognition and acceptance of social work is not high.
Social work has not developed for a long time in China, and neither ordinary residents nor clients have a high level of understanding and acceptance of the social work profession. On the one hand, the social status of social workers is generally low. Many parents object to children being social workers on the grounds that children are "worthless"; Social workers often encounter situations such as "being turned away from knowing the situation" and "thinking that they are sent by business owners to supervise workers". Such social workers should be able to withstand scolding and beating, and they should not complain. On the other hand, ordinary residents even regard social workers as volunteers and are more inclined to accept their free volunteer service. The public's ignorance, incomprehension, disapproval and non-acceptance of social work have hindered social workers from actively carrying out their work and even hindered the development process of social work.
(3) The number of social workers is insufficient, and their practical business ability is not high.
The current situation is that the number of social workers can hardly meet the huge demand of human society. Most social workers are in a situation of "fighting alone". A person has to face many cases, and there are no colleagues to communicate with, so it is difficult to guarantee personal safety. In addition, social workers lack professional supervision in their work. These are not conducive to the personal growth of social workers and the improvement of the professional service level of social work. In addition, social work requires not only professional and specialized skills, but also a lot of life experience. A mature social worker needs many years, even 10 years of time and experience. The society is full of infinite expectations for the social work graduates, but their ability to solve practical problems in the early stage of work is very limited due to lack of experience and experience.
Social work and its education lack professionalism and independence.
At present, social workers in China mainly include three parts: first, administrative personnel of relevant state departments, such as civil affairs and women's federations; The second is the staff of social welfare institutions, such as charitable foundations and Hope Project Office. The third is the staff engaged in grassroots social services, such as the staff of neighborhood committees and nursing homes. Although these members are not specialized social workers, they undertake some functions of social work in China. Although they have rich work experience, most of them have not received formal professional education and social work training. In addition, most social workers now belong to the middle and lower classes of society, and many people have to do it because they have no choice but to do it, so there is no prospect for their career development. Low salary, low social status and not attractive enough. The final result is that most social workers choose to flee at the first suitable opportunity. Many social workers also "become monks halfway". They can only improve their professional quality through self-study and training. Social work affairs are not professional. In social work education, there are few professional social work educators.
Third, improve the policy recommendations of social work in China
(a) improve the policy and legal system construction, increase the publicity of social work, improve public recognition.
In terms of policy and legal system, we can formulate a social work law similar to the teacher's law, clarify the social status of social workers, solve the problem of social workers' ownership, comprehensively improve unreasonable parts, discard the false and retain the true, make their work have rules to follow, and realize their rights and obligations.
Some seminars and training courses can be held to promote government departments and employers to form a unified understanding of social work. Vigorously publicize some successful cases in the process of social work and some major news cases in the development process, so that the masses can have a full understanding and understanding of the achievements of social work, and establish the awareness of finding social work institutions and finding difficult social workers in the future. In addition, universities, welfare institutions and social workers should form the full cooperation of the social system and shoulder the responsibility of popularizing and popularizing social work.
(B) to strengthen the construction of social work teams
The real development of social work specialty depends not only on policy support, but also on exploring and establishing professional methods that can promote professional development and meet social needs, and cultivating professionals who are competent for social work. We should encourage more qualified people to join the ranks of social work and further improve the welfare and salary of relevant social workers. Shaanxi province began to recruit 2000 full-time community managers for the society this year, which is undoubtedly a good start. To strengthen the training of social work team, we must first strengthen the professional education of social work and cultivate professional social talents. Moreover, it is necessary to broaden the channels of social work professional education, bring the training of social work volunteers into the educational track, and improve the overall quality of social work practitioners.
(c) Promoting the practical social work ability of professional students in school.
It is not enough to develop social work and improve the service quality and overall quality of social work only by relying on enthusiasm and kindness. There must be high-level, high-quality and high-level social work professionals. The cultivation of professional students in school requires strengthening professional identity, paying attention to the cultivation of practical business ability in the process of education, and forming complementary progress between professional students in school and social workers with practical experience but little professional knowledge in reality, thus establishing a high-level professional team. On the other hand, the requirement of social work education is that the talents to be trained should be people who understand practice and have the ability to reflect, engage in specialized research and develop social work models and theories from their own experience. Under this * * * effect, their professional quality and professionalism, as well as the improvement of their specialization and professionalism, are important ways for the growth of social work professionals in China.
Improve the specialization and professionalism of social work.
Social work in China is striving for specialization and professionalization. Social work professional training should pay attention to the cultivation of professional quality, values, knowledge transfer and skills training, and be closely linked with social work practice. Although China's social work education has made great achievements since its inception in the 1980s, problems such as lack of teaching materials, low level of teachers, imperfect teaching links, and insufficient students of social work majors in colleges and universities have led to a serious loss of graduates, which has also affected the development and further development of social work majors in China. Therefore, China should take social work education as an important position. In addition, according to the current situation, it is unrealistic to completely replace the existing staff with' regular graduates' trained by social work professional education institutions. The only thing we can do is to supplement high-quality staff, realize the effective transformation of the functions of current actual social work organizations, groups and personnel, and provide corresponding professional education and training for these people who are actually engaged in social work.
Four. conclusion
Social work is a constantly improving profession and occupation. It is the responsibility of China's social work theory and practice to understand the development law of western professional social work and grasp the local characteristics of China's traditionalism. Social work in China is still in the primary stage of development, and there are many social problems. It needs the joint efforts of the government, society, professional social workers and the public to make a breakthrough in social work.
The Development Status of Social Work in China
First, the government and the public lack understanding of social work.
Because some theoretical workers are unwilling to publish books and periodicals about social work for various reasons, many mass media do not understand social work, and the government cannot widely publicize it to the society. In addition, social work started late in China, and the degree of specialization is low, resulting in people basically not knowing or even knowing what social work is for. At present, the government is in charge of all welfare affairs of social members, and its understanding of social work is still in an administrative and semi-professional state.
Second, scientific research practice is out of touch, and government support is not enough.
The development of social work needs the joint efforts of the government, scientific research educators, professional workers and all walks of life. Social work educators in colleges and universities are an important force in developing and perfecting social work in China. However, China generally pays more attention to the cultivation of social workers' theoretical knowledge and ignores the cultivation of practical ability, which leads to the lack of practical experience of social workers and can not serve the society and benefit the people well.
Third, the development space of social work is narrow, and a large number of social workers are lost.
At present, the biggest problem of social work in China is the shortage of employees and the low degree of public participation. The reason is that social work started late in China and the relevant policies are not perfect, which seriously restricts the development of social work in the right direction and greatly reduces its development space. In addition, compared with other occupations, social work has low income, heavy workload and limited promotion space, which makes many professional social workers and graduates give up the road of social work occupation.
Fourth, the regional and urban-rural gap in the development of social workers.
Professional organizations and non-governmental organizations of social work in China are mostly concentrated in areas with better economic development in the east. Their popularity and professionalism are high, and their employment prospects and career development prospects are getting better and better. However, in the economically backward areas of the central and western regions, social work is hard to find, and most people will not enjoy the services of social workers. At the same time, almost all social work services are carried out in cities, and the awareness of social work in rural areas is basically zero, which leads to an increasing gap between urban and rural social workers.