Group Work In Community Work Progress - Essay Help

SUMMARY

The purpose of this essay is to utilize the medical and healthcare benefits of social work/community service with relevance to a group work perspective. With a particular focus on the systems theory and the learning theory will this deconstruction proceed, and reveal how social work done in groups is beneficial for medical and healthcare reasons. An additional reference will be made to Emile Durkheim's study here, where he connects the learning and systems theory via his functionalist perspective. Euster’s theory is also important here and finds mention in the essay. The whole idea of man being a social creature by nature is stressed upon in this work, the idea being the main compliment to the usage of group work within community service yielding healthcare benefits. 

SYSTEMS THEORY

Systems theory is essentially, the linkage of different systems coming together to form a cohesive whole for the purpose of effective functioning, both on the individual systematic level and the holistic system level. As per Vickery’s (1974) analysis, families and organisations are the “appropriate”, focal point for the engagement of community service, in the way that it is most effective and growth oriented. Additionally, Vickery notes that group work is the crucial intervention that is required between the “client systems” and “environment systems”, making group work the most important manifestation of social work. 

Mayrhofer (2004) also denotes the importance of this theory, and stresses the importance of it via the three formats of: a deterministic via of systems, non linear systems and an open systems approach. As Mayrhofer explicates, the first format relying on the existent causes for the development in any system (like machines), the second format which is a series of complicated, interconnected and dependent systems and the last format indicative of an open, feedback based environment, where one alters and improves their behavior as the process reveals its results.

LEARNING THEORY

The learning theory is another example for the deconstruction of the idea of community work progress based on a group work format. Within the learning theory do the principles of action become important. The principles of action are important under the existent proposal of Brager and Specht, based on Warren’s strategy in the case of consensus and dissention (Weisner and Silver, 1981). Learning theory is pertinent because in the cases of either consensus or dissention it either validates or improvises a practice formerly used by an individual, and so he learns how to either improve his/her ways or to focus on the appropriate ones he/she already has.

Additionally, Weisner and Silver also stress upon Ross’ pioneering work in community organisations which is vital in strengthening community practices through the channel of group work. Wang (2007) also illustrates the same ideal, wherein her focus lies on the collaborative learning methods via the sociocultural learning theory. Essentially, what this means is that there are different kinds of individuals in different setups, in community service specifically, which is a social (not a technical) skill, therefore improvements in one’s social work techniques can only be brought about via continued engagement in group formats, as individuals improve upon their own style by internalizing that of others.