3 Levels of Practice

3 Levels of Practice Micro, Mezzo and Macro. 004039291 3010 Social Work Practice Methods Lois Garriott 12/5/12

3 Levels of Practice Social Workers today need to be prepared to face a great deal of diversity in their clients and issues brought before them by their clients. They need to

understand how laws work, and how these laws can be applied to their clients. They need to understand a clients home life and the role that their family plays. A social worker needs to be prepared to do whatever they can to provide their client with the best service and information they can. To best help clients and understand what they are facing, and how their outside world applies to them, a social worker needs to understand the 3 levels of practice. First there is micro, which is the level that involves the client specifically. This can include physical or biological factors, as well as psychological. So a social worker on a micro level would be looking at how their client is feeling about themselves and their situation. They would be looking at a clients strengths, and whether their client is sick. The mezzo level is the level that would include a clients family and friends, and those relationships. Finally, there is the macro level. The macro level is the level that would include services and laws. This is the level that deals with legislation and making changes on a larger scale and can occur in a more political setting (although this is not always the case) (Kirst-Ashma & Hull, 2009). The client in the example we saw had three children who had been taken away from her after an emergency room visit. Her oldest child had been speaking to a drug dealer, and she put her hand near a burner on the oven to show her child that she could get burned when her child was accidently burned by the stove. And then when her children were taken away from her at the hospital she reported them to be crying and her oldest child said it was her fault and it was an accident. Originally the client was upset

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and stated that without her children she could not receive her welfare check. Later on the in the meeting it was found that without her welfare check she could not pay rent, further delaying her childrens return. The clients children were her life and she was doing the best she could. She was kicked out of her parents home when she became pregnant at 16, and never had any contact with them. With no partner, and no formal education she is literally alone in trying to provide for her children. Her only source of companionship is her friend, with whom she takes the children to the park when both she and her companion can manage the money for bus fare. However they live too far apart to have any kind of regular correspondence and too far from any (clean) park to walk. This is a situation where a social worker that works primarily at the micro level may end up working in a macro setting to better their client and people like their client. The social worker would see that there are things that could be done for this woman and her children and that the only way to get these things done was to go and get the community involved. There are a great many issues that need to be addressed and they would need to be handled in different levels. There are many problems, and it could be overwhelming to see exactly what needs help first. This woman has no support, she has no confidence or parenting skills, and she has no hope to get her family out of this cycle. What stands out to me in this specific situation is the sense of hopelessness. It was apparent when the client was speaking, and it is apparent just reading over notes and rewatching. This client literally has no way to get out of the cycle she is in. She wants to provide as best as she can for her children, and in order to do that she needs her welfare check. In order to get her welfare check she needs her children returned to her. She has no formal training to better her financial situation, and even if she does get a job, she has

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no opportunity to go and leave her children with someone reliable while she works. She stated that there were drugs in the neighborhood, and she doesnt feel it is safe for her children to play outside. So her childrens outdoor activity depends on when she can scrounge up the money occasionally with her friend for bus fare. But she does the best she can to entertain them by playing games. I saw a parent who was lost, and unsupported and did not know how to help herself. It is a problem on the micro level that this woman does not know how to properly punish or parent, as she expressed she felt that she was losing control. On a mezzo level, this client has no support and very little access to the one person she considers a friend. On a macro level, there is no sense of getting out of this situation. The neighborhood her children live in is dangerous, and there is no place for them to be children and play and little to no chance for them to escape the cycle they are raised in. With all that, there are a great many changes I would want to pursue in my clients interest. In fact, these changes would occur in each of the three levels of practice. On a micro level, I would want to provide my client the opportunity to get her high school diploma, and then eventually into night school to get a degree or certificate so that she can hold a steady job. I would want to make sure that there was a daycare center or a babysitter who could donate their time to watch her children. I would want to help her make new friends by encouraging her to join a support group. I would even want to find her a long-term therapist, as there were issues that she was still dealing with from her parents abandonment and their caring more for their neighbors opinions than for their daughter. Finally, I would provide her with names and means to attend parenting classes so she could feel effective in punishing instead of having

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to resort to such drastic and dangerous measures. On a mezzo level, she would have to accept those educational services and the services for her children. I would even encourage her to speak to her siblings if not her parents (this would be far down the line) and potentially explore reconciliation. However if this was not an option I would never push the situation. On a macro level, I would try to change policy involving the high school GED programs. The client was working on obtaining her GED prior to the situation with her children (no word on if she was still trying while they were gone). However transportation and the hours were not ideal. I would try influence legislation to change times or location. Failing that, I would even push for legislation to have transportation made cheaper or easier, or even provided with welfare. If transportation on the bus was more easily accessible (or even free), this woman could not only get to her classes more easily, but also could take her children to the park or even visit her friend more often for support. I would even try to go further and establish a neighborhood watch as drugs are clearly an issue in the neighborhood and a neighborhood watch would benefit more people than just my client. Finally, I would lobby for a park to be established in one of the abandoned lots in the neighborhood. If children had a place to play and grow instead of being cooped up and/or turning to drug dealing, they might not be as tempted to explore by using drugs. These are only some of the changes at a macro level that I would be interested in exploring for this client, and all of them would require more people and a general community involvement.

3 Levels of Practice There is a great deal of overlap between the three levels. The Mezzo level

overlaps very much with both the micro level and the macro level. Family, since it is in a persons immediate environment could be considered by some to be micro as well as mezzo. In the same token, if you were to try to establish a support group to help this client make friends in the same situation you are working on a mezzo level. But at the same time, you could encourage these people to take a stand and make a change in their community, resulting in a change at the macro level. Each level feeds off of the next. You need to see the connections and how one action or one problem can manifest into a bigger issue at the macro level. Unfortunately there are a great many challenges facing this woman. She is a single mother, with no support. When looking for jobs she could be judged based on her sex, and someone could judge her for being a single mother (even though she has no control over the situation). Situations like this clients have a very strong effect on minorities and women because they would usually not be given the same consideration for the fact that they are a minority or are a woman. So in this culture you would experience the problem of no guidance for upcoming generations. They dont know better and this is why they cannot change their situation. Then you have more people who are not self-sufficient and who are dependent on welfare. As a single mother this woman would encounter prejudice. As Ive mentioned above, the lack of support in this womans life is detrimental. This woman actually embodies values that other people share, people who society dubs good parents. She puts her children first, and does not want them being raised by a nanny. She doesnt want her children making poor decisions (like

3 Levels of Practice she feels that she did as a child). She does not want to repeat her parents mistakes. She values education, although she cannot find the time or money for the bus fare. There are issues that arise from this specific situation though. You are faced

with the fact that there is drug use in the neighborhood and children are exposed to it at a very young age. There are also problems with how people could perceive this womans values. They may think that she does not value education or exercise, although this is not the case. She clearly does not have the means or ability to provide her children with transportation for exercise or herself for education. Some people could think that there is something missing from her values in the fact that she decided to punish her child the way she did. But she did take her child to the emergency room when her misguided punishment went awry, and was not doing it to be abusive but was at a loss for a way to properly punish her daughter. When it comes to the social work ethics, they clearly state that it is a social workers ethic responsibility to provide services for clients in need, and this woman is a prime example of a client a social worker is obligated to help. There is the social work value of service, social justice, dignity and worth of a person and the importance of human relationships. All of these core social work values apply specifically to the situation with this client. This woman is worth every bit of dignity as the next person as there is worth and there is strength within her. It is very important that a social worker encourage the human relationships in her life, with both her children and friend. Also with developing new friends. A social worker would only need to look at the core values that they agreed to when they started on the journey of their education to know that it is their duty to help this person.

3 Levels of Practice Every person deserves the best service a social worker can give them. Sometimes this involves a social worker who works at a micro level to go outside their comfort zone and move into the mezzo and macro levels in order to help their

client and other people in similar situations as their client. A social worker needs to be well versed in all of the levels and be aware of the steps they need to take in each. That is the only way to be the best social worker possible when fighting for their client. And every single client deserves a social workers best effort, and a social workers respect.

3 Levels of Practice References Kirst-Ashman, K., & Hull, G. (2009). Understanding generalist practice. (5th ed.). Cengage Learning. National association of social workers. In (2008). National Association of Social Workers. Retrieved from http://www.socialworkers.org/pubs/code/code.asp