Hey! I hope you all had a great weekend! Don’t forget to do your reading quiz before class this week. I went though and added of them to the assignments so you can work ahead if you desire. Don’t worry to much about them. The questions aren’t worth that many points. You can do it with a partner or open book if you’d like. I just want you to read the textbook chapters. On Wednesday after it is due, you will be able to see if you missed any questions.
Unit Introduction and What You Will Learn
Week three of SOWK 486 is about understanding what direct social work practice and some of what makes social workers unique in our helping style. We will start with an exercise, considering how you have been helped in the past. Many clients we work with as social workers are mandated to participate in services involuntary in some manner. We will discuss how to engage with them through some best practices. The agenda for the session is as follows:
- How we help
- Orienting perspectives for social work practice
- Evidence-based practice
- Involuntary clients
- Ecological Systems Model
- Social work jobs and roles
Learning Objectives
- Identify and describe key roles, settings, and practice areas where social workers operate, including local examples.
- Explain the purpose of social work and how the profession addresses prevention, restoration, and remediation.
- Analyze the ecological systems model and orienting perspectives (e.g., strengths-based, cultural humility, trauma-informed) as frameworks for understanding client interactions.
- Reflect on personal and professional alignment with the NASW Code of Ethics and its core values.
- Describe strategies for building trust and promoting cooperation with mandated clients.
Unit Assignments
A-01: Class Engagement and Attendance
Attend class
A-02: Chapter Reading Quizzes
Complete W-03 A-02 Hepworth et al. (2022) for Chapter(s) 01 and 02 is due at 5:30 PM before class via My Heritage
Unit Resources
In your ethics class, you will likely read the entire code of ethics, but it is useful to read through it and familiarize yourself with the values and expectations of being a social worker. You can find it online National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics. Your readings next week will also focus more on this.
We are going to talk about the roles that social workers take on today. I made a video a while back, The 15 Hats (ahem, Roles) of Social Workers, that also talks about this if you want to use that as a primer.
All of the presentations for this class can be found at https://presentations.jacobrcampbell.com. This week’s slides are Fall 2025 SOWK 486w Week 03 - Direct Social Work Practice.
The Lecture Videos tab in the MyHeritage course is where you will be able to find class recordings. The video this week is at [Fall 2025 SOWK 486w Week 03]().
Reference
Hepworth, D. H., Vang, P. D., Blakey, J. M., Schwalbe, C., Evans, C., Rooney, R. H., Rooney, G. D., & Strom, K. (2023). Direct social work practice: Theory and skills (11th ed.). Cengage Learning, Inc.
To-Do List
- Attend class on Wednesday
- Read Hepworth et al. (2022) chapters one and two
- Complete you reading quiz by due at 5:30 PM before class via My Heritage
- Consider watching my video The 15 Hats (ahem, Roles) of Social Workers