Mswpg7101: Foundations Of Social Work Theory Essay Assignment Sample

Introduction:- Strengths-Based Empowerment for Youth With Disabilities

This essay aims to discuss the 'strengths-based practice' with a special reference to empowerment, in the context of young persons with disabilities residing in nursing homes. These people experience concerns such as loneliness, low exposure to age-appropriate activities, and loss of independence, making their quality of life considerably poor. As a result of this improved approach, the essay tries to identify the overall applications of the strengths-based approach at micro, meso and macro levels to address the aforementioned challenges and empower this vulnerable group of people. This approach tries to capitalise on the capabilities of such young people to improve their quality of life, autonomy and perceived efficacy. Moreover, it is going to consider the weaknesses of the concept in this connection and evaluate it in overall terms about the subject's practice of social work.

The client group

People with disabilities who are youth residing in nursing homes are a minority and sensitive group (Gréaux et al., 2023). These problems are characteristic of groups of the specified age and imply such issues as isolation, lack of occupation in their leisure, and an undesirable outlook for further spiritual and personal growth. These young individuals feel powerless or lose control of their lives because nursing homes are mainly organized for elderly people’s care (Robinson et al., 2020). The disconnection between the abilities, demands, and potential of the learners involved and what is offered in these main settings can worsen frustration –feelings of powerlessness (Robinson et al., 2020). It is for this reason the social work approach used should not only focus on the needs of these women but also assist them be active participants in controlling their lives.

The approach

The strengths-based practice, especially the empowerment paradigm, is a social work model of practice that highlights such aspects as searching for and nurturing the clients’ potential strengths, abilities, and assets (Caiels et al., 2021). This approach is different from the deficit and problem-oriented approach because it centres on the strengths that clients have. Being applied in the case of young people with disabilities living in nursing homes, the strengths-based approach is designed to enhance a person’s control and, therefore, self-sufficiency (Giacomucci, 2021). In this approach, the social workers engage the clients in identifying their potential, establishing objectives as well as fashioning plans to achieve the objectives hence improving the independence and quality of life of the clients (Giacomucci, 2021). In doing this, it aims at deconstructing the power relationships that commonly characterise institutions as it strives to develop a more client-oriented and therefore more empowering model of care.

Applying Strengths-Based Practice to Young People with Disabilities at a Micro Level

At the micro level, strengths-based practice entails one-on-one close working relationships with young people with disability in a bid to enable them to embrace and enhance their unique strengths (Turcotte et al., 2023). Some strategies for practice can begin with comprehensive initial and ongoing assessment and regard to the individual’s strengths, interests and pReferences and not necessarily the disabilities/impairments. For example, in case a young resident prefers music in his or her free time, the social worker will find ways on how this talent might be harnessed, or if there is a need one might be provided with music therapy or devices that s/he might use to practice music (Turcotte et al., 2023).

This also distinguishes this approach as allowing the young person to participate in the planning process (DeJoseph et al., 2024). In contrast to power-based planning, the social worker works with the client, coaching him or her to have individualized goals and chooses to make decisions that are in the power of his or her skills, wills, and preferences. This could also involve availing ourselves to teach them new skills, whether verbal or non-verbal or even teach them how to fend for themselves and be more assertive.

In practice, this could be a social worker helping the young person identify what it is they want to do in the short term and the longer term (DeJoseph et al., 2024). It would be then the role of the social worker to assist the clients in coming up with a way of achieving these goals in smaller achievable steps with relevant encouragement and resources. At the micro level, this strengths-based approach that hinges on the abilities of the person with a disability in contrast to their disability creates a feeling of control among the youths with disability thus leading to fulfilling lives in the nursing home (DeJoseph et al., 2024).

Applying Strengths-Based Practice to Young People with Disabilities at a Meso Level

At the meso level, strengths-based practice addresses the ways of improving the immediate space and the community of the nursing home for young people with disabilities (Duan et al., 2022). This in essence implies creating an environment that accepts and supports such people, and seeing to it that they get the kind of support they require in an organization. Currently, social workers are in a good position to facilitate change to bring about fairness by supporting and pushing for programs that enable the young members of society (Esteban et al., 2021).

There is a need to create a buddy support system whereby young persons with disabilities will be grouped to better understand themselves and share best practices (Fleming et al., 2019). Such groups can also minimise feelings of loneliness and allow such persons to showcase what they can do among their peers. Besides, nurses and other caregivers can enlist the assistance of social workers in creating activities and services that are suitable for young individuals as per their age preferences (Fleming et al., 2019). They could include organizing group activities such as workshops, games or training sessions which are in line with the resident’s interests and abilities.

Also, they can cooperate with the administration to educate the staff on the product of adopting the strength-based perspective when engaging with young residents (Caiels et al., 2023). These can encompass approaches for identifying and valorising the talents of people as well as understanding instruments for engaging residents in decision-making concerning their well-being (Caiels et al., 2023). In implementing a strengths-based culture at the meso level social workers foster such values that facilitate the youths with a disability to realize their worth in society hence improving their general well-being.

In the middle range, strengths-based practice with young people with disabilities residing in nursing homes involves enhancing the individuals’ strengths (Bu & Duan, 2020). The latter is a critical responsibility of social workers; enunciating the need for fair practices and demanding that organizations start paying attention. Having foster care buddies for the young can be effective in making friends, comparing their experiences, and overcoming loneliness (Bu & Duan, 2020). Moreover, to improve quality of life social workers can work with nurses and caregivers in developing activities that meet residents’ needs and preferences while being developmentally appropriate. Staff training in the use of strength-based interventions helps the young people to be empowered leading to improvement in their well-being.

Applying Strengths-Based Practice to Young People with Disabilities at a Macro Level

On the macro level, strengths-based practice entails searching for causes that support elderly youth with disabilities and nursing home rights and empower them (Pazzaglia et al., 2023). Policy practice is available for social workers so that they can exercise both legislative and societal pressure to change the status of this group of people. This may include advocating for laws that compel nursing homes to include services and programs that are relevant to the young people in the homes, to help the young people to have the best chance in life (Pazzaglia et al., 2023).

They can also engage other professionals in advocacy and disability groups to fight for the rights of disabled youths held in institutions (Pazzaglia et al., 2023). Thus, focusing on such problems, can draw people’s awareness and contribute to constructing a better world that embraces everyone. Also, social workers can endeavour to source funds for projects most relevant to young residents these may include grants for new programmes, technical equipment or community projects which enable the young residents to get more involved in society (Kjellberg, 2022).

At the macro level, there is an increase in research and data collection as part of nursing homes’ delivery of youth services to young people with disabilities (Kjellberg, 2022). Social workers should promote research that reveals how this population benefits from strengths-based interventions. In this manner, they can add to the base of knowledge that is available to better inform policies and practices that are more reflective of the live applications of youths with disabilities.

The Limitations of a Strengths-Based Approach

This paper canvases strengths-based practice as a model for engaging young people with a disability: where there are opportunities for young people’s social inclusion, enhancement of autonomy and self-determination and where there might be dangers in ‘pathologising’ YPWD when utilizing that paradigm in the context of nursing homes (Wehmeyer, 2020). At the micro level, one of the limitations is that it may be challenging to identify and capitalise on strengths if the young person has a major disability affecting their expressive language or learning (Wehmeyer, 2020). In such cases, the strengths-based approach might take more time to identify such strengths and in some instances, these might not be easily possible in settings where there are limited human or financial resources.

At the meso level, the approach may hit turbulence in organizations/systems that are entrenched in the ‘deficit’ and ‘risk management’ paradigm (Pascarella et al., 2021). Organizational culture may also be an issue: staff may be reluctant to embrace the strengths perspective if they have long been trained in more bio-medical paradigms of care. This resistance can reduce the efficacy of the approach making it possible for proper implementation to be circumvented by different staff and at different shifts as well (Pascarella et al., 2021). Also, the organisational setting of the nursing homes may not always allow for the necessary flexibility regarding the strength-based approach, as care planning or peer support initiatives may be limited.

At the macro level, the institutional challenges that can be confined in terms of funding, policies and prejudice in society can hamper the opportunity for strengths-based practice (Hampton et al., 2024). For instance, measures that promote bureaucracy against the culture of personal care may in a way work against the cause of supporting young people with disabilities. In addition, people’s perceptions of disability may continue adopting disability as a loss instead of acknowledging the capacity and value of the disabled persons; this deters strength-based practice environments (Hampton et al., 2024). Altogether, strengths-based practice is a robust model that can be very fruitful in furthering practice development, yet these considerations inform about the potential weaknesses of the approach to could be improved to make certain it may be more efficiently and sustainably implemented in taking care of youths with disabilities in the nursing homes.

Conclusions

This essay has focused on strengths-based practice and in particular on the way that empowerment has been implemented with young people with a disability who are residing within nursing homes. Thus, using this approach at micro, meso and macro levels, social workers can contribute to improving the degree of independence, quality of life and self-realization of this category of people. As with the positive youth development approach, the strength point of view changes the focus from the problem to positive opportunities for young people with disabilities in the management of their lives. However, going through the contents of the essay it has also exposed some of the difficulties associated with this kind of approach which are; communication, institutional and systemic hindrances. These limitations highlight the need for a systematic and culturally sensitive kind of strengths perspective practice that is backed with necessary facilities, training and lobbying. Nevertheless, the strengths-based approach is a helpful conceptual model that can assist in empowering young adults with disabilities to live a better quality of life under the circumstances of residing in a nursing home. Through careful implementation analysis and continuous review, it would be possible for the social workers to enhance the use of this approach and participate towards the improvement of an effective and positive environment for the patients.