Egan, a professor at the University of Chicago, divides helpers into four grades: 1.
Relatives, friends, colleagues and strangers are four-level helpers; 2.
Doctors, teachers, bosses, etc. They are all three-level helpers; 3.
A priest, priest, etc. Are secondary helpers; 4.
Psychologists, psychologists and social workers are all first-class helpers.
Egan believes that the first three levels of helpers are informal helpers. They are full of love, but most of them have not received special training to help others. As a first-class helper-a professional who specializes in dealing with people's social and psychological problems, he must receive professional knowledge learning and skills training.
Social casework and group work (group
Work), community work (community)
Work is three traditional methods of social work. Compared with groups and communities, case work has the earliest origin, the most full and perfect development. Group and community work must be based on cases. Case work is that professional workers follow the basic values, use scientific professional knowledge and skills, and provide material and psychological support and services to individuals and families who feel difficult in a personalized way. Its purpose is to help individuals and families fully understand their own resources and potential, improve their personality and self, and enhance their ability to adapt to society and solve difficulties, so as to achieve a good welfare state of individuals or families.
As a helping profession, casework and psychological counseling have many similarities:
1) Help people in need in an individual way and by means of communication;
2) Pay attention to the psychological factors of the recipients' difficulties or problems;
3) Pay attention to the empathy and emotional counseling of the recipients;
4) The professional principles of psychological counseling, which are receiver-centered, non-evaluation, non-guidance and confidentiality, have something in common with the values concerned by social work, such as respecting people's needs, trusting people's potential, and the autonomy of clients.
The difference between case work and psychological counseling: 1) From the perspective of problem solving, psychotherapy and counseling focus on "heart disease" and pursue mental health. Case work often deals with personal social problems, such as poverty, unemployment, family, deviant behavior, adaptation to school life and so on. 2) From the knowledge background, physiology, psychiatry and psychology are the main knowledge bases of psychotherapy and counseling. Case work deals with the problems arising in the process of personal social function. Some of these problems are caused by psychological factors, and more are environmental factors that hinder individuals from playing their social functions normally. Case work must have professional knowledge about the relationship between people and society, human behavior and interpersonal relationship adjustment in philosophy, ethics, sociology, psychology, law and other disciplines, as well as rich practical experience in case social work. 3) In terms of working methods, psychological counseling emphasizes "attacking the heart" and "treating heart disease with medicine". In addition to tapping individual potential and allowing individuals to make adjustments, case work also emphasizes mobilizing organizations and community resources other than individuals to solve problems. 4) From the perspective of working relationship, in our country, psychological counselors and therapists often face the clients as authoritative figures and experts, and they have professional responsibilities to the clients. On the other hand, social workers emphasize maintaining equal working partnership with the clients.
Juan Maochong believes that,
There are the following differences between casework and psychological counseling:
1) Psychological counseling pays special attention to the profundity of professional skills, and case work emphasizes the value concept and caring feelings of respecting and accepting people;
2) Psychological counseling pays attention to the personal psychological reasons of visitors' problems, while case work pays more attention to the social reasons of the personal problems of the case owner;
3) Psychological consultation is limited to the exploration and treatment of psychological factors in the consulting room, and case work emphasizes the utilization of resources;
4) Psychological counseling only solves personal problems without considering other social and political factors, and case work adds more social and political responsibilities.
Now, more and more people think that the combination of casework and psychological counseling will be more conducive to the development of social work. On the one hand, with the rapid development of social work education, some people with psychological background engage in social work teaching and research, which helps social work students absorb more knowledge and technology of psychological counseling and treatment, and improve their professional level and helping skills; On the other hand, people engaged in psychological consultation and consultation will be more conducive to the development and effectiveness of psychology if they pay attention to the infiltration of social work values and attach importance to philosophy, ethics, sociology, law, social psychology, political science, management, cultural anthropology, social medicine and other disciplines. Reference: Zhang Shuzhai's social case work; Xu's case work teaching materials and other colleagues' materials are also appreciated.