Social Work Intervention Models

Social Work Intervention Models

The application of intervention models

The intervention model was first used by Wener to. Lutz in the seventies. They arise from theories and therefore they are contrastable, it is also where the philosophical methods, theories and aspects of a specific trade are included. The models explain reality and serve to guide the practice since they clarify the reason for the use of specific principles, purposes and techniques and the type of medium in which they must be used.

According to Du Ranquet (1996), the model describes what the social worker, data collection, the elaboration of hypothesis, the choice of objectives, techniques and strategies of the intervention does. According to what model, some theories or other will be prioritized so that the necessary knowledge for work is acquired.

According to Payne, social work models develop what happens during practice and “being structured as a wide sample of situations, extract a series of principles and activity guidelines that give coherence and uniformity to practice” (Payne,nineteen ninety five). That is, the models cover many different situations and therefore have the necessary basis to be able to direct the practice.

According to Howe, a unit theoretical model for social work is necessary to "house all explanatory formulas of social work under the same roof" (Howe, 1999).

Relationships between Malcolm Payne and David Howe

For Malcolm Payne (2002), social work is constructed socially through interactions with customers, through their training as an occupation within a network of related professions and through social forces that define it.

In addition, theories have common characteristics that must be taken into account than their differences.

According to Howe, customer’s perception is an integral part of social work practice since it is not an isolated part. It considers of importance what the user thinks about the assistance he receives and how he understands it because “customers who understand the role of the social worker and appreciate their methods are more satisfied” (Howe, 1999). Therefore, the clarity of the social worker is essential for the client to record what the methods and purposes are.

Following the same line, for Payne (1995) future social workers must have fluidity about the theoretical ideas that involve social work, since these ideas constitute an important pillar in the understanding of what they do and in the development of theiridentity as such.

This is clearly reflected in the intervention towards users since, according to David Howe, when people are physical or other beings try to form an opinion of them, their characteristics and their general behavior. Ideas are generated about what is happening and why things are as they are and do what they do. Feeling uncertainty about the way in which the material world has a tendency to behave is disconcerting. We seek to reduce that uncertainty having ideas or theories about the people and the objects that surround us. We are looking for patterns and regularities. We try to recognize those patterns. Similarly, doubts about the intervention generates a situation of discontent about the client.

According to Howe (1999), each theory and its corresponding practice contain budgets on the people and society that places them in one of the four paradigms, (radical humanists, radical, interpretive and functionalist structuralists). The paradigm refers to what is related to the scientific and that it is universally recognized that, for some time, they give us the types of problems and solutions of a collective. The problem to be treated and their resolutions, the methods and objectives proposed will change according to the paradigms and theories to which they are associated.

So that the theory used by a social worker mainly determines his work in practice. The paradigm is supported by a logic that allows the social worker to choose their theories with a growing awareness of what each one means in practice. As indicated by (1999) the theories train those who use them to make their reality known: describe, explain, predict, control and perform.

Therefore, for Malcolm Payne, the practice and theory of social work are influenced by many social forces outside the academic and practical development of the profession. These social forces are conditioned by personal and social policies and needs.

According to David Howe (1987) all we do is theoretical. It would be a mistake to think that the theory emanates from fully formed academic development. Instead and according to the pragmatic perspective, it must always be modeled by the action of daily practice. The quid of the matter is to what extent is the theory modeled by action and sensitive to it.

For their part, Payne (1995) points out that social work models generaland uniformity to practice. Use a different typology of the models, without connection points between them. The most repeated models are psychosocial, conflict resolution, behavioral, cognitive, humanistic, Marxist, radical and ecological.