Essay Example on Public, Non-Profit, Private: Social Care Delivery in England & Canada

Introduction

The delivery of social care, as seen in England and Canada, delves into different models inclusive of the public, non-profit, and private. Social service providers are spread across these models, and somehow, their ability to deliver services differ. The public model represents the government issues social service provision that is mostly controlled by the government and the finances used. Most of these are free and are directed towards matters of national interest (Carey, 2008). The non-profit and private models are all managed by the private sector inclusive of industries organizations or groups that are united towards the provision of care to society.

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Based on their structure, public models have more readily available resources. Being managed by the government, staffing can be ensured at a high or dependable level. At the same time, finances are readily available as they originate from taxation. Under the public model, institutional approaches are feasible since it is easy for the government to make long terms plans due to the availability of resources (Carey, 2008). On the other hand, the model is disadvantageous due to the disconnectedness of the social workers from the people they provide care to. Public models of social care seem not to be as radical as the private models. Provision of care due to bureaucratic principles that are followed also make them not to be as essentially effective as they should.

On the other hand, the private and non-profit models have been identified as more recent and greatly functional. They are preferred because they offer a perspective of modernization and caring for people. They are more harnessed and labor efficient as well as close to their clients or those they provide care to (Carey, 2008). Their adoption in social work over the years has proved their effectiveness. Though there are reports about the lack of enough social workers and condensed management frameworks among these organizations, it is evident that their limited formal provisions make them readily available for their clients. They are, however, highly effective in residual approaches and may not perform the same way for lifelong policy matters.

If social work is to move towards pro-market and non-profit managerial models, a future social worker needs to be ready for the stress that comes with the change. The pro-market perspective seeks to ensure that the output of the social worker is maximized (Carey, 2008). Therefore, a social worker should be ready for the stress that comes with it. On the other hand, future clients should be happier as better services will be provided, and with increased competition between organizations, services may be easier to acquire.

Community-Based Service Delivery - Friendship Centers

The provision of services in social work in modern times seems inclined towards community-based delivery. Community-based service delivery entails offering services with due regard to the people who are being offered the services. The approach makes social work organizations to first investigate matters pertaining to the community they seek to serve. After identifying the necessary things they need to address, organizations using this approach then determine the way that they can address the challenges among their target populations (Sookraj et al., 2010). They choose from different alternatives and only make use of the ones that seem to be responsive and effective. Generally, community-based care is social care directed towards a specific group; hence social work efforts are directed towards their particular problems.

The National Association of Friendship Centers (NAFC) is one of the community-based organizations. Friendship Centers mostly serve aboriginal people to access vital services. Indigenous people in Canada seem to have been left out in development, and they lack some of the vital services they need to enjoy their citizenship. In recent, indigenous Canadians have sought for services that would help to better their lives. The rise of Friendship Centers was of instrumental benefit to the aboriginals (Sookraj et al., 2010).). The organization realized that the aboriginal community needed to be helped to access the services they lacked, especially most of those who had decided to try living in different Canadian cities. Through several mechanisms, the organization secured permanent funding for the group from the national government.

Valuable lessons about the engagement of citizens and accountability erupt from the thought of Friendship Centers and the way they serve aboriginal people. Vehement engagement of the community is still witnessed in the Friendship Centers. The organization, before making any move or decision, first consults with the aboriginal people. It also ensures accountability by responding to every query fronted on the management of funds as well as services, both to the indigenous people and the government, by maintaining clear records of services provided and an inventory of activities they undertake. The community system of care is one which is intricate, and as seen from the Friendship Centers, it cannot be realized in a solely vertical manner. The organization seems to create a blend of horizontal and vertical approaches of community and organizational structures. The blended structure allows the organization to have high accessibility as well as ensure that the management of the organization is effective. Community-based service delivery, as seen in the Friendship Centers, is an effective social work approach that could help provide competent social care for needful groups.

Anti-Oppressive Service Delivery

Youth shelters in Canada have become a modern and accepted approach to dealing with youth and child homelessness. It is different from the traditional methods of placing children and youths in child welfare agencies. The traditional approaches seem to have little consideration for the children they put in placement centers. They are bureaucratic, have many formalities, are oppressive, and have little sensitivity to the needs of the homeless children and youths. There is little collaboration with the youths when they are being taken to foster homes, which makes them return to the streets again (Karabanow, 2004). Youth shelters are, however, different from the traditional centers in multiple ways. One is that they embrace the social development of the youth and children. Thus, they support their participation in caring for their needs. They are highly analytical about the problems facing the children and the youths they care for, which makes them make conscious provision of care and other social actions.

My view of youth centers is that they have acknowledged a highly-refuted fact that youths and children who are homeless need to be given a chance to decide where they are placed. Traditional approaches often treat homeless children and youths as desperate enough to be placed anywhere. However, most of the youths have run from their families due to oppression or desire to have freedom. Therefore, when they are placed in an environment that seeks to threaten their peace, they are ready to run away and get back to the streets again. Consultation and active engagement with the homeless youths as using the new approach are, therefore, long overdue. Organizations that provide care to the homeless children and youths should adopt the youth center mechanism, which will help them to realize their goal of helping contain homelessness among children and youth better.

A traditional non-profit agency that needs to build anti-oppressive service delivery should first change its organizational culture. The way an organization works is heavily established in its culture, and thus it is necessary to change it. As Karabanow (2004) explains, such organizations need to observe the tenets of locality development of the groups they serve, take mechanisms only when they are sure that they serve the interests of the specific people they serve and create a close understanding between themselves and the clients. Such moves would allow the organizations to not just provide services as they deem necessary. Instead, they would provide services that satisfy the people they serve, thereby fulfilling their mission.

Women's Caring

The input of women in society has always been undervalued and underpaid. They are considered as the lot that engages in those duties in a society which cannot be carried out by men. Three kinds of duties are mainly carried out by women in society. These duties include background jobs that involved the invisible support of organizational duties. The other duties entail empathy work where women are involved in counseling, building relationships in the organization, and counseling as well as being involved in times of crisis to control the situation. The third duty held by women is emotional labor, which entails the management of emotions of clients as well as those of the employees (Kosny & MacEachen, 2009). These duties are just as imperative as any other activity or job that is conducted in any organization. They affect the way the organization responds to customer requests and general operations and hence should be treated like any other job.

However, reports indicate that based on the fact that women mostly work in such duties that are considered invisible, they are undervalued and are underpaid. The aspect of social relationships that so much affects societies and organizations is largely supported by women. It is a day-to-day activity that is considered in organizational practices, but simply because it is carried out by women mostly, it is taken for granted, a compromise that humiliates them. Undervaluation of women in the job space, underpaying them, and treating them as if they are not important simply because they conduct such duties in the organizational workspace is wrong (Kosny & MacEachen, 2009). It is tantamount to an occupational hazard that has a negative health impact on them. It is an inconsiderate approach that should be revisited. Viewed especially in the context of social work, the work that women support societies and organizations, hence should not be treated invisibly, and they should be effectively paid and rewarded where need be.

To change the perception, there will be a need to change policy so as to recognize the contribution of all social service providers. A policy change that seeks to create the perception that every job will be needful. The change in policy will have to be dynamic such that it outlines the necessity of every job. By showcasing the essence of every job, policy changes will need to be made in terms of how payment is made such that it is no longer done under the perception of easy jobs. Indicating the essence of every job will make every role in the social service sector to be viewed with respect and not on the basis of which gender is employed to conduct that role.

A catalyst for Change: Working at the Micro, Mezzo, and Macro Levels

The role of a social worker is to seek peace and to minimize violence in the macro, micro, and mezzo levels. The input of a social worker is instrumental in helping to contain violence as they have the skills to do so and can use those skills to address the issues of violence in all the levels. One of the main sources of violence in recent is bullying and cyberbullying. Across all levels, a social worker can address these two using both active and passive approaches (Ivanauskliene & Dorelaitiene, 2011). But before undertaking the action, a social worker needs to be informed of the vehemence of bullying and cyberbullying and how he can use his or her knowledge to address both victims and perpetrators. He or she should also be prepared to be part of the problem-solvi...