The Structural Approach to Direct Practice in Social Work by Gale Goldberg Wood Carol Tully Ruth Middleman

Author:Gale Goldberg Wood, Carol Tully, Ruth Middleman [Gale Goldberg Wood, Carol Tully, Ruth Middleman]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780231132848
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2006-09-18T00:00:00+00:00

WHAT ADVOCACY IS

From the charity organization societies (COS) and settlement house movement of the latter part of the 1800s and early part of the 1900s, advocacy has played a role in social work. While performing the role seems to decrease with an increasing emphasis on highly conservative perspectives in the prevailing philosophy of an era, advocacy has never been totally ignored. The 1930s and the Great Depression provided ample opportunities for advocacy, but World War II and the relatively conservative 1950s saw a decrease in these occasions. After the Cold War era, the heightened political consciousness of the 1960s and early 1970s gave rise to increased advocacy efforts. These efforts then tended to be eclipsed by the increasingly conservative views of the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s, when enormous budget cuts, welfare “reform,” and gradual economic downturn made the role of advocate even more necessary yet less likely to be played. It is against this backdrop that advocacy now exists—exceedingly necessary, yet often ignored in favor of what some view as more benign social work roles.

Though seen as a glamorous role when there is a liberal social, economic, and political climate of genuine concern for alleviating social problems, there are reasons why advocacy may be eschewed by practitioners in a conservative, even repressive era. First and probably foremost, in most social work agencies social workers are not paid to be advocates, and visible advocacy during working hours is rarely tolerated. Workers are encouraged to do their jobs and counseled not rock the boat. Second, schools of social work these days rarely teach students how to be advocates. Students are encouraged to learn required curricular content and not rock the school’s or the field placement’s boats. Third, once students become practitioners, they tend to forget their professional responsibilities and become agency-oriented and somewhat minimalistic about their job responsibilities—doing enough to get the job done, but not willing to do much more, least of all rock the boat. Advocacy often requires some boat-rocking and extra effort to make things better—better for one client or one worker or for a group of clients or workers.

Whether a particular form of advocacy entails rocking the boat, it always requires a belief that things can be better and, that by using advocacy and social action, it is possible for social workers to make things better. Given recent history, such idealism may seem hard to retain. Yet many social workers do remain dedicated to social change and committed to a profound belief in the profession’s values of social justice. They know that in a repressive social environment, the need for social work in general and advocacy in particular is more necessary than in times when liberalism is dominant. Thus, social workers who are dedicated to advocacy and social change focus on what is possible as opposed to what is not possible. This can-do approach is at the heart of the structural approach (Wood and Middleman 1991). Advocacy is crucial to social work and social change, inasmuch as it creates the foundation for social justice and seeks to protect human rights.

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