In the United States and other economically advanced countries, the function of social work is seen as the promotion of the “social functioning” of human beings—whether as individuals or groups or in a com-munity—through the rallying of their own resources and the maximum use of the services available in a community.
Some writers have characterized social work as an institution that promotes the full and effective functioning of other institutions of society. The emphasis is on the area of inter-personal or inter-group relations and how to make them personally satisfying, mutually beneficial and socially fruitful.
In this area professional social work has developed some well-defined principles which flow from its basic liberal-democratic value framework and which guide its practice. An important principle in social work requires the worker to “accept” the client as he is.
Such acceptance is not “acceptance” of a client’s actions. It implies genuine concern for the worker’s well-being, suspension of moral judgment for the client’s well-being, and a willingness to offer such professional assistance as he or she is capable of. This professional assistance may include material help in the form of money or goods, but more importantly it is directed at the client’s ability to develop and use his or her own resources.
The aim of professional service is not merely relief but rehabilitation. This shift in emphasis is more in keeping with the concept of personal worth and the goal of promoting the full development of human potential. The successful practitioner of social work should enable his client to help himself—to give his client an independence, whether as an individual or a group.
If such independence is to be attained by the client, the social worker’s efforts should be based on his assessment of the client’s capacity to access assistance at a given time and he should always involve the client’s closest participation in the planning of his rehabilitation. The client has the right to determine the goals he or she wishes to pursue.
The social worker assists in the process. The social worker must always remember, despite pressures to the contrary, that each person he or she helps is an individual, has his or her own problems that are in some ways unique, and needs help to meet them in his or her own partial way.
The professional’s only tool to assist him is his relationship with the client* —a relationship which must be at once based on objectivity and confidentiality and on the other hand on sensitivity and warmth. The special skill of the social worker lies in his ability to make use of this relationship.