The advanced generalist is adept at direct service delivery with individuals, families,
groups, and communities, and also has indirect practice capabilities in the areas
of supervision, administration, program development, and evaluation.
Advanced generalist practitioners possess a broad range of practice skills. They employ
an eclectic and disciplined approach, and are committed to evidence-based practice,
including clinical social work.
Themes
Social work at Wichita State University builds on this understanding of Advanced Generalist
Practice by advancing four educational themes:
Social Justice
Within the Wichita Metropolitan area, ethnic and racial minorities, the poor, the
elderly, and the young, are the most vulnerable to experiencing difficulties arising
out of economic and social change. To be just means to treat all people fairly. In
its most basic meaning, pursuing social justice means to advocate for equal rights,
opportunities, protection and treatment for all people. Additionally, social workers
who pursue social justice can identify unfair laws and policies that affect their
clients, and work to have these laws and policies changed. In order to be meaningful,
social justice must apply to a wide range of social and economic circumstances, since
legal justice has little meaning if not supported by more substantive forms of equality.
The MSW program focuses on social justice as one of its four themes. Students learn
that social justice is a part of every social work interaction. As part of this emphasis,
the curriculum seeks to develop skills in both community development and in effecting
social change through the political process.
Cultural Competency
Data concerning population trends in Wichita of Sedgwick County and its surrounding
counties support an advanced generalist curriculum that prepares social workers to
provide culturally competent services and develop and evaluate programs that are inclusive
and which seek to remove cultural barriers to service delivery. A curriculum that
incorporates cultural competency will not only provide students with basic knowledge
on different racial and ethnic groups, but will develop students' ability to think
critically about diversity in social work assessment and practice.
Cultural competency includes the acquisition of the awareness, knowledge, sensitivity,
and practice skills necessary to effectively understand and address the cultural/racial/ethnic
world-views, strengths, issues, and needs of minority populations. The ultimate goal
in the development of cultural competency is to actively utilize the appropriate practice
methods that foster the outcome of greater development of cultural/racial ethnic identity
and cultural/racial/ethnic empowerment.
Multi-dimensional Practice
Social service delivery systems in the Wichita Metropolitan area are a complex web
of public, non-profit, and for-profit agencies. Agency structure, which includes its
purpose, scope, size, and type of clients served, is constantly changing. Further,
with the onset of privatization in the state, agency boundaries are not always clear.
Social workers are serving on teams in which both public and private agencies are
represented (Lewandowski & GlenMaye, in press). Most agency funding comes from a variety
of private and public sources. Over the past ten years, local agencies have experienced
changes in the type and scope of services provided and in the clients they served.
These agencies are undergoing changes due to external and internal factors and these
changes have contributed to the increasing complexity of agency services and clients
served.
The multi-dimensional framework draws upon chaos and complexity theory to develop
a practice model that more accurately reflects the dynamic complexity of social work
practice.
The multi-dimensional perspective suggests that change and human interactions both
occur and affect several levels and dimensions simultaneously. Within an individual,
the dimensions consist of the multiple levels of development, including biological,
social, psychological, and spiritual development. As individuals interact with their
environment, multiple dimensions include the variety of levels of social organization,
such as family, groups, and organizations. Rather than being either/or and linear,
a multi-dimensional perspective suggests a both/and, nonlinear approach to understanding
human interactions (Lewandowski, GlenMaye, & Bolin, 2001).
Empowerment
As in many urban environments, there is an unequal distribution of goods and services
within the Wichita community, and discrimination and oppression may contribute to
these inequalities.
Empowerment is defined as the process and goal of increasing personal, interpersonal,
and political power so that people can take action to improve their life situations
(Gutierrez, DeLois, & GlenMaye, 1995). As a curriculum theme, empowerment is linked
to four basic processes:
- Analysis of the social arrangements/institutional structures which create and sustain
power inequalities which lead to relative advantage and disadvantage for certain groups
in our society.
- Understanding of the dynamics of oppression and discrimination which disempower people
by limiting choices and confining people to low status and devalued social positions.
- Increasing personal and group power through building on individual and group strengths
and facilitating efficacy-enhancing skills, knowledge, and experiences.
- Utilizing empowerment-oriented techniques and values in practice, including a participatory/collaborative
worker/client relationship with shared power, active involvement of clients in the
change process, raising awareness of structural inequalities and their relation to
individual problems, advocacy and mobilization of resources, and a professional commitment
to efforts to create a more just and equitable society.
These themes are woven together to develop the school's model for Advanced Generalist
Practice. The model incorporates the values and multiple role capability the social
worker brings to each intervention. These core values and roles help integrate the
practitioner's understanding of practice within a multi-system framework.
The multi-system framework is used on the assumption that human events can best be
understood in their context. Human behavior and social problems are "nested" within
a hierarchical structure. Smaller systems (individuals and families) are affected
by the actions of larger systems (organizations, communities and societies) in such
a way that effective practice requires skills with all system levels.
Practice Roles
Whatever the setting or client, Advanced Generalist Practitioners are prepared to
bring evidence-based practice skills to bear in each intervention. The complex and
changing practice environments require that direct practitioners also be able to function
in clinical work with individuals and across a spectrum of practice up to national
policy analysis. Practice with individuals, groups, communities and society requires
an ability to fulfill multiple practice roles, including:
- Administrator
- Advocate
- Broker
- Case manager
- Lobbyist
- Policy Practitioner
- Researcher
- Supervisor
- Therapist
- and more
