The Effects of Technology in the Field Of Social Work

Introduction

This paper will be discussing the effects of technology in the past, present and future in the field of social work. Further it will be analyzing that how technology in the past, present, and future has affected the field of social work. In addition to this it will discuss whether technology is useful for social work and does it enhance or have a detrimental effect on social work.

What is Social Work Technology?

Social work technology is a new term and with the time its awareness is increasing. Social workers are people persons. Social workers also work on a macro level to seek changes in society which often cause people to seek assistance (Grebel & Steyaert, 1). For example, lack of available housing can be a lack of income which may be a result of education/training, which may be a result of several causes. While social workers have used this “systems” approach to client functioning for decades, it has been done with using the barest of informational and technologically advanced tools. As CEO of Centre source, Nicholas Holland told a group of social workers during a presentation to the Tennessee Conference on Social Welfare, in April, “In 2011, you need and iPad”. The iPad, Xoom and other smart devices are forcing social workers to adapt to technological changes or social work and other community organizations will be replace by private industry you will do it for less and more efficiently. However, cheaper is not always better (Grebel & Steyaert, 3).

However, some social work in the field is being forced into a new technological age with the beginning of smart devices and social media that entitle for a new approach for meeting the needs of clients and organizations. Social workers are taking smart phones in clients' homes and scanning documents and sending them directly to their office network. Social workers are meeting with customers in remote locations over web based videoconferencing technology (Joanne, 98). Social workers are geo-mapping districts in cities to obtain specific information regarding trends and how to design services to meet those needs. What is needed is an approach that takes the best of social work skills and software/hardware skills to create a new field that combines the best of both worlds. 

Discussion

If we talk about the functions of technology for social work, in the first place are the following of them are:

Analytical and predictive: the identification and registration of products in the territory of groups, families and individuals belonging to the category of social risk, the definition of needs in different types and forms of social support, monitoring of the dynamics of social processes, the forecast change in the existing parameters (Joanne, 101); 

Diagnostic: an analysis of existing actual and potential social problems, determine their causes, the study of the problem field of the social situation-specific individual and group customers;

System-modeling: determining the nature, scope, forms and methods of social care for people and groups who find themselves in difficult situations, the conceptual basis ...