Spiritual Development

Furness and Gilligan (2010) stated, “There is a growing body of literature written predominantly for health professionals and more recently for social workers about the importance of developing and incorporating cultural and spiritual sensitivity and awareness in their work with others” (p. 2187). Spirituality, which may or may not include involvement with an established religion, contributes to human diversity and influences human behavior. An individual’s spirituality may be an important factor in his or her social environment. As a social worker, your awareness of a client’s spirituality may help increase your understanding of the client and his or her needs.

Sensitivity to and respect for your client’s spiritual dimension reflects your appreciation of diversity. As you consider the potential impact of your clients’ spirituality on their perspectives and behavior, you must also consider how your spirituality might influence your interactions with a client.

For this Discussion, you consider the impact of spirituality on your interactions with clients.

CREAT a Discussion in which you explain how considerations about clients’ worldviews, including their spirituality or religious convictions, might affect your interactions with them. Provide at least two specific examples. In addition, explain one way your own spirituality or religious convictions might support your work with a client, and one barrier it might present. Finally, share one strategy for applying an awareness of spirituality to social work practice in general.

Be sure to support your posts with specific references to the resources. If you are using additional articles, be sure to provide full APA-formatted citations for your references.

 Adultism: Personal Experience and Professional Role

Consider these scenarios:

You are a social worker and just started working at a local mental health agency. Your client is several years older and he or she asks you how old you are.

In a meeting with a much younger client, the teenage girl looks at you and blurts out, “You are too old to understand anything about what I am dealing with.”

How might you react and respond in those two scenarios?

Judgments about someone’s capabilities due to how old they look are made every day. Both young and older people are disrespected due to bias around their perceived lack of abilities. Additionally, these prejudices are often internalized, impacting the way these individuals feel about themselves. This internalized oppression diminishes their sense of self-confidence and self-esteem and often equates to unnecessary self-defined limits. Youth are constantly in a position in which their actions are controlled and their voices are stifled. Similarly, the elderly are ignored, hidden away, and, at worst, abused. They are often targeted for maltreatment and marketing scams due to their perceived vulnerabilities. You will be asked to consider your own experiences with either of these issues and how as a social worker you might mitigate the marginalization of these groups.

Consider your own experiences with ageism and adultism. Did any topic or subtopic related to ageism or adultism you encountered this week surprise you?

Post a 400 word responce in your journal, explaining a specific example of ageism or adultism that might have occurred in your life or in the life of someone you know. Describe how the experience affected you or the person you know. Then explain how you as a social worker might support younger clients facing adultism or elderly clients facing ageism as they work toward the goals they have set for themselves.

Please use references