Social Work Policy Assignment One
Jadyn Richmond
SW 310
February 19, 2023
Dr. Brittany Turner
Social Work Policy Assignment One Social work plays an integral role in American society today. Social workers advocate for the people that the rest of society disregards. They provide tools and resources to help a person improve their quality of life, however, this would not be possible without policies being created with the intent of helping those in need. Policy-making is a crucial part of social work, it is where change occurs and also where social workers gain the capability to help their clients get the resources they need. A policy outlines what services will be offered and what people will receive the service, it includes
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Mirco social work is helping individual people meet their own specific goals. Micro social work is personal and does not involve trying to fix large-scale issues, only the issues the individual is facing. According to Jessica Ritter, “At the micro level, social workers are often charged with implementing policies that were passed at the macro and mezzo levels” (2021). Growing from micro-level social work is mezzo-level social work. Social work at the mezzo level includes advocating for groups of people. This can include creating small policies to help a community of people. According to Jessica Ritter, “At the mezzo level, social workers try to influence policies within the organizations where they are employed” (2021). The final level of social work is macro social work. Macro-level social work is policy-making at the local, state, national, and global levels. These are the policies that will influence and impact the people being advocated for. According to Jessica Ritter, macro-level social workers “social workers work to pass legislation or policies at the international, federal, state, or local level” …show more content…
According to Jessica Ritter, one key element of the planned change process is that “the most appropriate intervention method(s) is determined” (2021). This process falls under the broader category of generalist social work, which means that these social workers will be “prepared to effect change with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities”, according to Jessica Ritter (2021). The planned change process has multiple steps that social workers must follow to have the best chance of achieving their goals. Due to the close nature between the planned change process and the generalist social work, the steps within the planned change process and the stages of the generalist intervention model are very similar. The six stages of the planned change process are as follows, according to Jessica Ritter: “Engagement, assessment, planning, implementation, evaluation, and termination.” (2021). Instead of using the planned change process, social workers can use the policy change process. The policy change process has six steps, the first of which is defining the problem. The next step is to make the problem important within the political world. The third step is creating a policy to potentially fix the issue. The fourth step is to get the proposal approved. The fifth step is to make sure the policy is executed as intended. The sixth and final