Assess Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities

The assessment of systems in social work is another inegral facet of the profession. The wide variety of assessment tools available to social workers help them to determine the needs of individuals as well as communities as a whole. In addition to assessing clients, social workers can also use assessment tools to help themselves grow professionally. It is my desire to continue to utilize and formulate assessments that will benefit my clients and my community.

Formulate Comprehensive Assessments, Using a Variety of Diagnostic Classification Systems

Field: Throughout my 500 hour internship, I reviewed students’ relevant documentation, including high school IEP’s, RCLD assessments, and GACE assessments, and listened to students’ personal accounts in order to assess what interventions would be most beneficial to them.

Class: During my fall semester clinical class, I did an assessment in the form of a process recording and self-assessment paper of my final video, demonstrating all of the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy skills that I learned throughout the semester. During my winter semester clinical class, I wrote another assessment paper evaluating my final video in which I demonstrated my abilities as a group practicioner.

Other: Another helful assessment we learned about is the genogram. This assessment is a helpful tool for looking at family systems from a unique perspecitve when working with individuals and clients. Here is a genogram that I made as practice, based on my own experience.

Design and Implement Organizational and/or Community Assessments

Field: Together with the Director of Disability Services, I created a survey for new students receiving accommodations in the 2018-2019 school year that inquires about their perspectives on the intake process in order to the help Disability Access intake process run more smoothly for clients and staff.

Class: As part of a group project for my administration class, my peers and I created a Needs Assessment and Research Plan to help determine areas of focus for our project on reruiting and retaining volunteers for The Caring Place in Cleveland, TN.

Other: During one of my courses, we watched the Resilience documentary that looks at Adverce Childhood Experiences (ACEs). ACE assessments are a tool healthcare and community professionals can use to determine a patient or client’s liklihood for experiencing negative health outcomes, based on childhood trauma. After watching the documentary I wrote a reflection and reaction paper on it.