Writing Assignment As a social worker, you are there to help clients, not to judge them. Judging implies a right or wrong, a good or bad. Judgmentalism focuses on the person rather than the circumstance, and implies a put-down, or an attitude of “being better than” or knowing “more than” another. In a helping relationship, it implies that the social worker knows best how the client should think, feel, or behave. Remember, judgmentalism is the direct opposite of the social work values of respect for the client and the client’s right to self-determination. While it is impossible to be non-judgmental with all populations, self-awareness will help us catch yourself in time before we judge our client. The purpose of this assignment is to improve self-awareness along with professionalism by learning to recognize within ourselves any attitudes, thoughts, or feelings of judgmentalism toward clients. Directions: Find a client who is completely different from you (age, gender, ethnicity, immigration status, education, marital or economic status, ability) who may be hard for you to like. Spend as much time as you can with him/her/them. Focus on your thoughts, attitudes, and feelings regarding a particular interaction that you have had with this client at the agency. Consider your judgmental thoughts. Have you noticed any indication of judgmentalism on the part of other workers or other clients at the agency? Next, find client’s chart / file / intake form and read client’s history about all the issues that brought client to the agency. Mentally picture yourself in his/her/their shoes, re-live your client’s life from the moment she/he/they were born: Was she/he/they a wanted and planned child, loved… or hated? Did she/he/they grow up & lived in a broken home… in poverty…witnessed violence… Was she/he/they successful in school or at work? Was she/he/they teased and picked on? What kind of trauma / loss might have she/he/they experienced? (loss of family members / friends / country / mental or physical health / mobility / house / job / belongings / jailed / loss of hope for better future) Paper Structure: Section I (Introduction Case Presentation (Client age, sex, ethnicity, relevant history) Section II Identify your initial judgmental thoughts. Do you feel less judgmental now that you had a chance to “walk in his/her/their shoes”? Describe any changes in your level of self-awareness as a result of your fieldwork experience as a social work intern. Specifically, how has this incident led to an increased awareness of your own thoughts, values, and feelings, etc? Why do you think that it is important for a social worker to have a high degree of self-awareness and self-knowledge? Section III As a result of your recent experiences with agency clients, in what ways have you become more aware of the role that social injustice toward diverse groups plays in clients’ situations? Ask your Field Instructor / Task Supervisor, “What do you say to yourself when you feel that you’re judging a client?” (describe the answer). What can you do about any judgmentalism that exists?
Discussion Forum: Counterarguments (Should pit bull terriers be banned in my community) You created a question about the topic for your W6 Rough Draft. For this discussion, you will give an answer to that question in the form of a thesis statement. "Dieting Makes People Fat" Main Post: Share your thesis statement with your classmates. Please note: As with last week’s discussion, nothing here is set in stone. Be open to changing everything about your topic, including your position and audience, as you research it and get feedback from your classmates. Topic + Position/Purpose + Supporting Points =Thesis Statement Example: Suppose the question you posed in the Week 5 discussion was something like, “Should pit bull terriers be banned in my community?” After doing some preliminary research, you have concluded that pit bulls, if raised properly, are no more dangerous than other breeds of dogs. Your thesis statement can be something like, “Pitbulls should not be banned
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