Social Work Essay

Money is an important aspect of everyday life. Without money, we would not be able to meet our basic needs of food, shelter, and clothing. Another important factor of money is its ability to provide us with a sense of safety, security, quality of life, goals, and aspirations (Klontz, Britt, & Archuleta, 2015). Based on my knowledge and understanding of financial social work thus far, it can be defined as helping individuals overcome money issues, particularly, those that lead to poor money management. Poor money management includes overspending and missed credit card payments, partner and family conflict, gambling disorders, bankruptcy and legal issues, and even substance use/abuse issues (Hill, 2016). Clinical social work practice focuses

Financial therapy is a newly emerging field which, in the past, had very little research as well as a lack of courses on this particular subject (Klontz et al., 2015). The factor of financial therapy being absent in the past, alone, is likely the reason why many individuals struggle from poor money habits today, hence, the first reason why financial social work is so important. How more financially stable would citizens of the world be today if more of them had the opportunity to or was required to take at least one money management course at some point in their high school or college years? Perhaps, there wouldn’t be a drastic change in the statistics of individuals who are struggling financially, but I guarantee the amounts would at least be slightly lower than they are now. Another reason why financial social work is important is because it can impact case workers as well as clients. Through studying and practicing financial social work, case workers can come to recognize their own money habits hence,

As a BSW level social worker, I will most likely begin my career with case management positions. Financial social work will be an important skill for me to have in order for me to successfully incorporate each phase of social work practice into the cases of my client. As Dr. Hill stated during the Module 1 lecture, “It is very difficult to assist a client with his/her presenting problem, when the issue roots from financial discrepancies of some sort, without first, solving those financial issues”. For instance, I may have a young married couple as clients, who are experiencing severe marital issues, and wish to divorce one another. To add, the wife works at a minimum wage paying job, and the husband has recently been laid off from his job. While I do not know much about the whole divorce process, I have learned from a friend that it can be a very costly process. So, while the presenting problem is that the couple’s marriage is in shambles, and both parties would like a divorce, there is now a financial issue that becomes a major part of the planning