The context of care is very influential and is affected by several societal constructs. The history of care passed through informal to respite to domiciliary. Resources and the relationship of care services to other organisations are the contemporary structure of care organisations. Resources include budgets, facilities and professional skills. Moreover, alcohol and substance use, criminal justice system, housing, benefits system, health care and children and young people’s services. Amongst the several expertises, I noticed a fundamental function of social care professionals/specialists/providers/experts, or whatever you wish to call them. They fall under the same umbrella though. Services, further, are developed based on the centrality of needs of individual, groups and/or community. As such, the public necessitates social care practitioners and workers whom can deliver quality care and other support services. The work of the social care specialists can be very challenging – emotionally and physically. The role necessitates qualities, qualifications, skills, knowledge and values at par from the rest in regulating the care workforce.
Dimensions of the Social Care Practitioners Role
From what I observed, social care specialist has ‘scholastic’ qualities such as a broad knowledge base on their field, the ability to take a dual role as an individual worker and as a team member ad research and problem-solving skills. Reliability and trustworthiness as well as altruism, maturity, empathy and compassion are the personal attributes. An extensive preparation and an open-minded approach, in lieu, must be provided for the practitioners. Professional qualifications are the basis and their entitlement to work as practitioners; thus, students must learn to integrate their learnings into real life praxis.
The conducts of the social care professionals are guided by the general responsibility to protect and promote the interest of the service users and carers. Toward this end, social care professionals are held accountable for maintaining and improving individual skills and knowledge. I have realized that social care professionals are respectful in nature in treating service users as individuals, as humans. They promptly support the lives of the service users while maintaining a balance of providing them with informed choices and equal opportunities. These are developed, I believed, through our individual experiences of involvement in supervised work practicums for specific periods, in-servicing, charity works and volunteerisms. Through this process, my academic background are being challenged while also deepening my knowledge in a professional manner, learning social care skills based on actual interactions and giving me the opportunity to measure my own capacity.
Moreover, the social care experts possess technical rationality, personal/practice, experiential and ethical/moral knowledge as the cumulative requisites for social caring. Aside from learning facts and general information and applying theories to personal and communal initiatives, the most fundamental measure, from a personal observation, is the development of intuitive judgments and objective and critical thinking. I prefer to call it as the ‘discovery-and-integration’ stage wherein social care professionals could take the opportunity to psyche themselves, discover their weaknesses and later utilize the knowledge effectively. In effect, while the social care provider are applying and practicing social caring, his or her commitment and involvement are strengthened.
Dealing with different cultures, values and diversity is also a challenge; hence, the establishment of trust and confidence is crucial. I noticed that the only people who can give genuine service to service users are those social care professionals who possess the following skills and attributes: influencers, honest and straightforward, dependable, attentive and sensitive to the needs of the users, novice, competent and proficient. From a personal experience, I have learned that flourishing the mentioned skills, aside from formal education and real-life applications, students must be given opportunity to practice, be provided with a continuous learning, and be provided with support mechanisms either from the government, social institutions and other community-based and non-government organisations in order the develop confidence.
Understanding the real sense of social caring takes into consideration the satisfaction aspect of the job, unproblematic relationships with colleagues and being proactive. These are manifested behaviours that show you understand and learn something functionally and practically as a result of experience and practice. Community immersions, for example, are individualized yet also highly-collaborative experiences. They intensify the endeavor through hands-on experiences in various settings. The process introduced the students to formal and professional standards in which they have to comply. Students create their own awareness of themselves as well as the needs and rights of the users, recognise their limitations and manage their own expectations.
In sum, the effectivity of these programs, increase the connectivity of social care experts to oneself, his or her colleagues, the service users and the community. To be successful in this field, a social care expert must not only acquire knowledge and skills but also reflexive practices. The old adage that experiences are the greatest teachers holds true for social care professionals whereas his learning will prove to be futile if he or she cannot relate it to others and even to him or herself. In particular, his or her qualities, qualifications, well-internalized responsibilities, knowledge and skills and understanding will serve as instruments towards succeeding at this endeavor. Collaborative and integrative systems are also central to the social care profession as it requires a closes-loop interconnection with the academia, government and other institutions.
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