BOOK REVIEW: GENERALIST PRACTICE IN SOCIAL WORK
GENERALIST PRACTICE WITH ORGANIZATIONS & COMMUNITIES
As generalist, social workers operate from a base of diverse skills which enable them to help individuals with personal problems, while simultaneously confronting the larger issues which are problematic for communities or organizations. Based upon the Generalist Intervention Model, today’s social worker must be equipped with a skill set that is able to address micro, mezzo and macro systems in order to effect change and address issues at each of these levels. Micro systems are defined as individuals, mezzo systems represent small groups and macro systems are large organizations and communities. This book outlines the bases of these three areas of practice in the form of a guide. We are shown the commonalities between the three systems. More importantly a practical model for initiating macro change in organizations and communities is provided in detail; along with analysis of the specific skill set required to enact these changes thru the macro intervention process.
This book is essential for helping the social worker to understand how to effectively advocate for client resources and services, by using agency skills within a community context. The ability to navigate from community to agency, in providing client services is the bases of achievement within the social worker profession. Knowledge of the macro system as it pertains to the role of the agency is germaine to establishing what a social worker can and cannot accomplish for their client. Similarly community issues must be understood for the impact that they present on the social workers ability to perform.
The core of the book’s ideology on generalist practitioners is that they possess a wide diverse skill set along with comprehensive understanding of organizational functioning, to perform as a liaison helping their clients (micro system) to benefit from the macro system. Specifically, the book delineates the need for social workers to be
As generalist, social workers operate from a base of diverse skills which enable them to help individuals with personal problems, while simultaneously confronting the larger issues which are problematic for communities or organizations. Based upon the Generalist Intervention Model, today’s social worker must be equipped with a skill set that is able to address micro, mezzo and macro systems in order to effect change and address issues at each of these levels. Micro systems are defined as individuals, mezzo systems represent small groups and macro systems are large organizations and communities. This book outlines the bases of these three areas of practice in the form of a guide. We are shown the commonalities between the three systems. More importantly a practical model for initiating macro change in organizations and communities is provided in detail; along with analysis of the specific skill set required to enact these changes thru the macro intervention process.
This book is essential for helping the social worker to understand how to effectively advocate for client resources and services, by using agency skills within a community context. The ability to navigate from community to agency, in providing client services is the bases of achievement within the social worker profession. Knowledge of the macro system as it pertains to the role of the agency is germaine to establishing what a social worker can and cannot accomplish for their client. Similarly community issues must be understood for the impact that they present on the social workers ability to perform.
The core of the book’s ideology on generalist practitioners is that they possess a wide diverse skill set along with comprehensive understanding of organizational functioning, to perform as a liaison helping their clients (micro system) to benefit from the macro system. Specifically, the book delineates the need for social workers to be