Communication In Social Work 486h1o

http://work.chron.com/effective-communication-skills-social-workers-7168.html Communication in social work The article talks about the communication skills that a social worker must have, like listening skills, getting information, nonverbal behaviors, building trust, and it makes a better view of all of them to undersand how important communication is for a social worker. Obviously, without having this skills, a social worker would have a lot of difficulties in doing his job. Communication skills can be essential to the task of assessment, interviewing and later decision making for social workers. In practice, good communication skills, practically listening and interview skills are crucial for establishing efficient and respectful relationships with service s. Social workers must demonstrate several skills while assessing or interviewing a client. Communication is based on many skills like I said before, each of them having an important role in obtaining the information that the social worker wants to get. Listening skills are a part of communcation and for some, one of the most important part of communication "If frequency is a measure of importance, then listening easily qualifies as the most prominent kind of communication" (Adler & Rodman, 1997, p. 283). Listening may appear to be simple but active listening skills need to be learned, practised in training, developed and refreshed for effective use in real situations. Listening involves more than the simple act of hearing sound. It involves powers of cognitive processing. In order to facilitate effective communication, listeners should employ active listening skills with the aim of concentrating on the meaning of a speaker's message. Good listening skills make social workers more productive. The ability to listen carefully allows workers to better understand assignments they are given. They are able to understand what the client really want to explain and it make easier his work. On the other hand, getting information from the client is also very important for a social worker. It is vital for a social worker to know how to ask the client the information that he want to obtain, the question should be simple, friendly and concise. If the social worker does not access the situation correctly they may be conceived as being too formal or informal and this will inevitable create barriers. Further, many service s tend to come from vulnerable sections of society. It is possible that their involvement with social workers may invoke feelings of shame or fear. According to experts, a substantial portion of our communication is nonverbal. Every day, we respond to thousands on nonverbal cues and behaviors including postures, facial expression, eye gaze, gestures, and tone of voice. From our handshakes to our hairstyles, nonverbal details reveal who we are and impact how we relate to other people. In many cases, we communicate information in nonverbal ways using groups of behaviors. For example, we might combine a frown with crossed arms and unblinking eye gaze to indicate disapproval. Nonverbal communication involves the processes of encoding and decoding. Encoding is the act of generating the information such as facial expressions, gestures, and postures. Decoding is the interpretation of information from received sensations from previous experiences. A social worker should use this skill while doing his job. He can get the answer that the client doesn’t want to give using the nonverbal behaviors that the social worker can notice.

Building trust is also an important skill for a social worker, he must have a good relationship with the client. The client should trust the person that he has in front, so he can tell everything is needed. In conclusion I think that this article tries to explain the communication skills for a social worker and the importance that these have in doing his job. It is important that social workers work to always improve these skills and complete trainings to keep their work to a high level.