Chapter 1. Sociology For Social Service Workers – Jennifer Abrams
Welcome to Sociology for Social Workers.
You are here embarking on a journey of becoming a professional helper. This is likely driven by a number of factors, your personality, your moral and spiritual beliefs, a personal history of positive and negative interactions with the social service system, a desire for a meaningful and stable career and many others known to you. This course will help you understand these motivations and it’s designed to further understand who you are as a human being and as a future Social Service Worker. This includes examining current social policy, relevant legislation, political, social, historical and or economic systems and their impacts on individuals and communities. By the end of this course you will be able to apply a structural analysis process that identifies underlying social structures to describe issues affecting individuals family groups and communities. Sociological theories are the tools that we can use to understand complex social processes which will allow us to explain presenting challenges of individuals groups families and communities.
Sociology is an academic discipline that is based on theory. The theories you will study in this course present multiple ways of looking at the world. Sociological theories inform, and are relevant to, the profession of Social Service Work. This course provides a basic overview of Sociological theories as well as specific theories of Social Work for Social Service Work practice. Throughout the course, we will be developing an understanding of sociological imagination and how this is essential to professional Social Service Worker practice.
A key feature of the discipline of Sociology is to unpack complex social phenomena. By using a sociological imagination we can develop our skills in order to recognize the history, culture, traditions, norms and values of individuals in order to promote respect and understanding. In the Canadian context it is particularly important focus on the need to re-envision the social welfare system to align with the recommendations of the truth and reconciliation Commission report regarding indigenous peoples.
Read the following description and consider the questions asked.
Reem has arrived in Canada as a refugee. Reem is 27 and has a nursing degree from Syria. Reem does not have family in Canada and has been struggling since their arrival. Three months after arriving, Reem still lacks a permanent address and stable employment. Reem is accessing the food banks and staying in rooming houses where they feel unsafe. Reem’s housemates regularly have loud discussions involving anti-refugee sentiments when they are nearby. Reem has met others from the Syrian community who have relocated to Belleville, and they spend as much time with them as possible. Reem is working with the Resettlement Assistance Program and receives up to $700.00 a month depending on employment income (for up to 12 months). Reem’s mental and physical health is worsening owing to stress and instability.
You work for the Resettlement Assistance Program as a Social Service Worker. Of course, we can easily identify Reem’s personal needs and what might help
- Assistance with employment
- Assistance with education
- Assistance with safer housing
- Referral for Mental Health supports and medical care.
- Other? __________________________________.
What is equally important but harder to see are the factors that are bigger than Reem’s individual needs.
Can you think of some? What barriers do recent immigrants face? In Canada are the problematic beliefs and narratives in relation to refugees? Regardless of refugee status, what barriers do low-income Canadians face? What are the barriers to Mental Health and physical health care in Canada? Is your personal reaction to Reem’s story empathic, frustrated? What does your reaction mean about your interpretation of this story?
These types of questions are at the heart of the Sociological Imagination.
