Course Outline

 

Objectives

1.                                To understand the mission and roles of professional social workers in a changing society;

2.                                To appreciate and reflect on the core values and principles of the social work profession;

3.                                To understand the generic social work practice orientation;

4.                                To understand the importance of social science theories in our understanding of the clients’ behaviour and in the process of changing clients’ situation;

5.                                To apply the systematic approach in multilevel approach of intervention; and

6.                                To acquire basic understanding on the core competence of the social workers.

 

Course Arrangement:

  • Use of textbook and reading material - To facilitate discussion, the textbook listed below will be used from time to time as far as possible.  Readings from the textbook are required for some of the lectures and some of the seminars.   For other required readings not from the textbook, the articles will be printed and distributed to each student.

  • Exercises - For details, see the timetable below.

  • Assignments - There are two assignments

  •  Interview of an elderly person - details will be spelt out in another paper

  •  Interview of a social worker - details will be spelt out in another paper.

  • Quiz - Quizzes may be conducted at the beginning or at the end of any lecture.  The questions for quizzes conducted at the beginning of a lecture will be based on either the exercise(s) assigned prior to the lecture or readings assignment spelt out in the time-table below.  The questions for quizzes conducted at the end of a lecture will be based on the content of the lecture and/or reading assignments.

  • Seminar Presentation - Seminar starts in the 6th week, i.e. starting from 13/10/2003.  Students will be asked about their preference in the topics of presentation and subsequently assigned.  If there is more than one student presenting the same topic, they are expected to make a joint presentation.  Presentation will be made in English and last for approximately 20 minutes.  Presenters can also raise questions to facilitate discussion.

  • Seminar Paper - Students are to write up the seminar presentation in a form of a paper and submitted on or before 15/12/2003.  For joint seminar presentation, each student still has to submit his/her own seminar paper separately.

 

Text Book

Compton, B.R. & Galaway, B. (1999). Social Work Processes. 6th ed. Pacific Groves, California: Brooks/Cole.

 

References

There are quite a number of introductory social work textbooks in the library.  They are all useful in one way or the other.  A great deal of good reference material can now be found in the Internet.  Apart from using search engines (e.g. those listed on the HKU website - http://www.hku.hk/, you can also use the Internet resources in the HKU library to locate useful references: http://obelix.lib.hku.hk/irms/socialwork.html

 

Time table

1.    9/9/2003

  • Course Introduction

  • Nature of Knowledge, social science knowledge, social work knowledge

After class reading (recommended) Chapter 1 of Compton and Galaway's textbook.

 

Exercise 1

        Definition of Social Work (For details, see separate paper)

(to be submitted via email (hrnwlck@hkucc.hku.hk) before the next lecture, i.e. 16/9/2003, or in the class at the beginning of the next lecture)

 

2.          16/9/2003

Before Class Reading Assignment:

Ø          Chapter 2- "The Emergence of Social Work as a Profession" in Social work : a profession of many faces by Armando T. Morales and Bradford W. Sheafor (1992 or later edition); Reading 1-1 of textbook - Social Work's Mission. (page 13); and Chapter 5 of textbook - Authority for Social Work Practice

Ø          許賢發 (1989) <社會工作者的使命與專業投身>, The Hong Kong Journal of Social Work, 23, 54-56

Ø          羅國權 (1989) <社會工作者的使命與專業投身>, The Hong Kong Journal of Social Work, 23, 57-58

 

Exercise 2

    Use the Internet to locate discussion on the mission of social work. Identify three key elements of social work mission.  Give the URL addresses of web-sites of relevant information. (Note: It is easier to find mission statements of organizations or schools of social work.  You can infer from these statements about the mission of social work.  Remember: this exercise asks you to discuss the key elements of social work mission, not mission of these organizations.)

(To be submitted in or before the next lecture, i.e. 23/9/2003)

 

3.          23/9/2003

Before Class Reading Assignment - Chapter 4 and 7 of Textbook - Client-Worker Partnership and Relationship in Social Work Practice

 

4.          30/9/2003

Before Class Reading Assignment –

Ø          Chapter 6 of textbook - Ethical practice 

Ø          Code of Practice of the Hong Kong Social Workers Registration Board

(See homepage of the Registration Board - http://www.swrb.org.hk)

 

5.          7/10/2003

Revisit knowledge base of social work.

 

6.          14/10/2003

Before Class Reading Assignment - Chapter 2 of Textbook - The Ecosystem Perspective and the Use of Knowledge.

 

(21/10/2003, Reading Week)

 

7.          28/10/2003

Before Class Reading Assignment - Chapter 3 of textbook - Problem Solving: A Process for Social Work Practice

 

8.          4/11/2003

Before Class Reading Assignment - Chapter 8 of textbook - Engaging Potential Clients

 

9.          11/11/2003

Before Class Reading Assignment - Chapter 10 and 11 of textbook - Data Collection and Assessment and the service agreement

 

10.      18/11/2003

Before Class Reading Assignment - Chapter 12 of textbook - Interventive Methods to Mobilize Client Power

 

11.      25/11/2003

Before Class Reading Assignment - Chapter 13, 14 and 15 of textbook - Case Management and Formal Social Support, Mobilizing Informal Social Support, and Building Helping Communities

 

12.      2/12/2002

Before Class Reading Assignment -

Ø        Chapter 17 and 18 of textbook - Evaluating Practice and Endings in social work

Ø        Read about the Service performance Monitoring System in the Social Welfare Department homepage:

http://www.info.gov.hk/swd/html_eng/sup_ser/ser_pfm_mon/index.html

 

Seminar topics

1.  The Role of Social Workers: Discuss what are the roles played by the social worker in the reading with respect to his work with the mother, the family, the community and the society.

Reading: Chapter 10- "The social worker in Action " in Social work : a profession of many faces by Armando T. Morales and Bradford W. Sheafor (1989 edition only)

 

2.  Is Social Work in Hong Kong a Profession?  Discuss

Reading: Greenwood, E. (1965) "Attributes of a Profession" in Social Welfare Institution, by M. Zald (ed), Wiley.

Law, C.K. (1989) "Social Work Professionalization and Social Workers Registration", The Hong Kong Journal of Social Work (23), 41-44.

 

3.  Ethical issues - Case discussion - What are your positions on the ethical issues? Discuss.

Reading:

Ø        The Code of Practice and guidelines of the Hong Kong Social Workers Registration Board. (See its homepage: http://www.swrb.org.hk)

Ø        Case material to be distributed

 

4.  As (3) Case discussion (to be distributed)

Ø        Read the Policy Statement and the Privacy Ordinance in the Office of the Privacy Commission homepage: http://www.pco.org.hk/

Ø        The Code of Practice and guidelines of the Hong Kong Social Workers Registration Board. (See its homepage: http://www.swrb.org.hk)

Ø        Exhibit 6-8 (duty to warn), and Exhibit 6-9 (duty to report) in the textbook, and additional case material to be distributed

 

5.  Social Work Case discussion I (to be distributed)

6.  Social Work Case discussion II (to be distributed)

7.  Social Work Case discussion III (to be distributed)

 

Assessment

 

1.          Exercises

10%

2.          Quiz

10%

3.          Assignments

10%

4.          Seminar presentation

10%

5.          Seminar paper -

10%

6.          Seminar participation -

10%

7.          Examination -

40%