social work

1. Integrated Social Work Methods
• Integrating means combining parts into a whole
• It is sometimes referred to as the multi-disciplinary/generalist approach
• Combining various methods allows social workers to have a wider
perspective when looking at a problem-not limited to a single area of
focus such as the individual but even the family and community at large
• An integrated approach enables the worker to have more sophisticated
ways of looking at a problem thus allows understanding of variables
• The integrated approach is similar to but not the same as eclecticism

2. Cont.
• They both involve the application of concepts that cross scholastic
boundaries
• Eclectism and integrated approach are sometimes used interchangeably
yet they have distinct meanings
• Eclectism has been used to denote pragmatic case based approaches in
which components of different approaches are employed without trying
to build a unifying conceptual theory

3. Cont.
• In integration there is more extensive consolidation of theories into a
meta-level theory that struggles with and works through the
juxtaposition of the meanings of different concepts or social methods
• Social work is organised at a number of levels
• Theory
• Strategy
• Intervention (Lebow, 2005)

4. Cont.
• An approach may utilise one school of thought (theoretical framework)
but can be quite eclectic in employing strategies and interventions in the
context of the theory
• Such an approach would involve no integration at a theoretical level but
will involve considerate crossing of scholastic boundaries at the levels of
strategy and intervention

5. Strengths of the integrated approach
• It taps from a wide base of knowledge (eclecticism)
• The approach allows for the amalgamation of theories that will enable
explaining human conditions because humans are characterised by a
multiplicity of factors and phenomena e.g. with psychoanalysis we
cannot explain the individual as a whole
• Helps in understanding clients from a combined perspective, consider
the influence of genes as well as socialisation (tries to strike a balance
between nature and nurture-biological and social factors)

6. Cont.
• Allows greater flexibility in correcting any given individual, family, group
and community problem without being tied to one monolithic
treatment trajectory but can shift anytime considering the nature of the
problem ( increases efficiency of intervention).
• Reduces reductionism – belief that all human problems result from
psychological problems without considering the bio-psychosocial which
is person-environment interactions which are considered complex

7. Cont.
• Specialisation narrows the way one perceives and understands problems
e.g. a community organiser understands a problem in relation to
community change, development etc. while caseworkers in terms of
counselling, therapy etc. (Compton & Galloway,1984)
• In the integrated approach the social worker works with the client and
target groups through direct ways like casework and groupwork and also
use indirect methods like consultation, brokerage, advocacy through
working with other professionals and organisations (Anderson, 1981).

8. Cont.
• Allows for the use of an array of techniques that are known to the social
worker and allows a variety of treatment and care options
• Social worker is not confined, he/she is free to move to other methods
thereby giving them the chance to alternatively intervene and impact on
presenting problems [more effective in solving problems than
specialisation which merely focuses on the achievement of narrow
methodological goals]
• Applicable to the broader client population

9. Cont.
• Techniques and goals can be adopted to the clients being served and the
problem as well as the time available and intervention
• Social workers can be better able to match the treatment they offer to
their own personal conception/perception of problems and change as
well as their own personality characteristics
• Therefore the person characteristics and personalities of the social
worker has a key role in practice because a behavioural profession
• A social worker should test that the therapy they give to others is useful
and not harmful

10. Cont.
• Integrative approach allows for the possibility of the intervention to
have a best fit with the social worker who delivers the treatment this
enables for the development of an organic fit between the practitioners
and practice rather than artificial draft and practice to provider
• Social workers are most likely to offer interventions for which they are
best suited resulting in greater skill in integration and increased
efficiency.
• It also increases greater belief in the social worker interventions and a
communication of this belief to the client which are crucial factors in
social treatment

11. Cont.
• Integrated social workers can combine the major benefits of the specific
methods considering that each method has specific strengths and social
workers can freely draw from these strengths
• Social workers are likely to bring greater objectivity to the selection of
strategies for change because they have less of an investment in the
adequacy of a particular method.
• Integrative practitioners are free to experiment and explore literature
relevant to the adequacy of specific techniques

12. Cont.
• An integrative approach can be readily adapted to include new
techniques that have been proved/demonstrated to be effective
• Social work is a contemporary profession so is continuously confronted
with new practice information, change occurs countrywide and it’s not
unidirectional
• Integrative approach offers several advantages to the training of social
workers, the training offers a broader range of experiences than method
specific training it also promotes an open attribute on the social workers
and furthers the development of the workers ‘critical faculties

13. Limitations of the integrated approach
• One pitfall is that it lacks a theoretical rigour of definitions of concepts
and a connection between the conceptualisation of the human condition
and practice [no one theoretical frame of reference or understanding]
• It is just but a broader array of intervention but with no detail
• The approach assumes that when dealing with clients there is a lot of
time and resources, thus the approach may be difficult to implement in
areas without such resources

14. Cont.
• The approach lacks consistency, not as systematic as the other individual
social work methods found within social work
• The approach/intervention has been criticised for manifesting utopian
views and asserting grandiose goals of resolving all levels of problems
• Its application requires a lot of skill in selecting appropriate methods