Competencies In Social Work

Competencies In this context of social work, all of the competencies have a high level of importance. However, two competencies that are used frequently in this setting are engagement, assessment, and evaluation and critical thinking. Engagement includes having a common goal and being actively prepared and involved in the work environment and with clients. Assessment includes gathering data and interpreting it. This data includes a client’s strengths, weaknesses, personal goals and potential intervention strategies to achieve those goals. Intervention is the process of achieving the agreed upon goals, resolve any problems and advocate when necessary. This comprehensive competency seems like it almost describes the daily life of a CPS social
Also, critical thinking involves determining effective methods of assessment, prevention, intervention, and evaluation. Those competencies have already been established as important, however, they can be carried out in a variety of ways. critical thinking ensures that individual clients will be treated with careful consideration and research based treatment. Lastly, the competency of critical thinking includes displaying effective communication skills, both orally and written. This is important for CPS social workers because they appear in court before judges many times and are required to fill out a lot of official government documentation. Also, social workers in this field find themselves in a place of constantly pushing for policy changes and program development. All of this requires critical thinking to operate efficiently and
Similarly to the the Social Worker at the Lynchburg Department of Social Services that spoke to the class, Joanie worked with many aspect of CPS throughout her career. Initially, she worked as an investigator for CPS. Joanie agrees that CPS work can be risky and considers social workers on this field to be the "front line responders," sharing this responsibility with police officers. After working in investigations, Joanie switched to a much less risky, however equally important role in CPS. Joanie became an adoption case worker, what she refers to as the "back end" of the CPS. Similar to what was previously stated, the role of educator is heavily emphasized in this field. Joanie described that part of her job was to prepare everyone for foster care and eventually adoption. She stated, "the skills of parenting an adoptive child are not innate; they have to be learned." Preparing adoptive parents and foster parents for the unique challenges they are sure to face is a vital aspect of this particular role as a CPS worker. There were not any differences between the textbook and what the worker that spoke to the class said, however, the textbook brought up an important aspect that was not brought up in class discussion. Joanie highlighted the importance of being aware of abuse within foster homes, both physical and