UNDERSTAND SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE: LESSONS FROM THE GROUND WITH JESCA

Social work is a very important profession that fosters national development by seeking to improve the welfare of citizens. Social work can be defined as a practice that intervenes in people's welfare at the individual, group, and community levels, advocating for a just society through policy advocacy and individual counselling, which helps individuals make decisions. The profession is guided by ethical principles, which we will not discuss in this article. Instead, we will focus on understanding social work practice, from theory to practical lessons from the field.
A social work practitioner is a professionally trained person who uses social work knowledge, skills, and ethical values to assist individuals, families, groups, and communities in improving their social functioning and quality of life.
My name is Jesca, a professional social worker who graduated from the University of Dar es Salaam in 2023. Throughout my academic journey, I was very excited about my career because I believed it was the greatest platform to understand social dynamics, analyze social problems, and find solutions that would result in the welfare of vulnerable communities. I am now working as a Social Welfare Officer under the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania at the ward level. I am gaining practical experience with the people I serve, which has made me realize how precious the social work profession is in improving people's lives, and I decided to share my practical lessons.
There are different levels of social work practice: micro, mezzo, and macro. At all these levels, social workers advocate for a just and well-functioning society. Let us see how these levels operate in Tanzania. As for me, I will share my practical experience at the levels where I currently operate, which are the micro and mezzo levels.

1. Micro Level of Practice
Micro practice focuses on helping individuals and families overcome personal and social challenges. At this level, a social worker sits at the same table with a client or family, listens carefully, and makes decisions together regarding the client's situation. As a Social Welfare Officer, most of my clients are individuals and families, and the main services they seek are legal advice, counselling and psychotherapy, marital case resolution, helping children return to school or home, and referrals for individuals who need further services. At this level, a practitioner should have the following skills for effective service.

i. Active Listening
A practitioner should have the ability to listen and understand the needs of the client. In most cases, when a client comes to you, he or she comes with a solution already in mind. However, they may not disclose their true direction, and it remains the practitioner's duty to uncover the truth.
Understanding what the client needs helps a practitioner provide better advice and solutions. For example, recently I received a client in my office. We had been working together for about three months, and this was the third appointment. As I listened carefully, I discovered that the action my client was about to take was driven by hate and revenge. I analyzed the situation and realized that the negative impact of the action would be much greater than the positive. Advising the client not to take that action would reduce many unnecessary negative outcomes. Therefore, we agreed together not to take that course of action.

ii. Case Management Skills
Case management skills are very important in handling a client's issue. They are important because they determine the outcome of the intervention. Effective case management helps in problem-solving, mediation, and providing relief to the client. It is also very important for a practitioner to have additional skills in case management, such as sympathy and empathy.

iii. Sympathy
I can define sympathy as feeling for someone. This is a skill that one has to develop, but for me, it happens naturally. Listening to someone's problem and putting myself in their position helps create a strong connection with my client. It gives my client greater room to talk more openly. I stop focusing on my computer, look the client in the eyes, and respond respectfully through my facial expressions. I can become angry or smile together with the client, even if I do not personally feel that way, to show that we are together.

iv. Empathy
Empathy goes beyond sympathy. It is feeling with someone, as it seeks to solve the problem beyond simply feeling sorry for the client. It is being in their shoes, and this gives you the ability to act accordingly because you feel you are carrying that problem with them. I can relate to this through one of my clients who was suffering from cervical cancer. She was very weak, and seeing her made me empathize with her deeply. She was seeking medical support because she could not afford treatment. We linked her to more affordable services, but as a Christian, I went beyond that and found myself praying for her healing in my private prayers every day, believing that my prayers were part of the solution to her problem. I felt that I was carrying her burden.
There are many other skills that a practitioner needs at this level, but the above two are the ones I find most useful in my practice as a social worker.

2. Mezzo Level Practice
Mezzo practice focuses on groups, organizations, and communities to improve collective well-being. Activities include community mobilization, group counselling, parenting education, school-based interventions, and community awareness campaigns.
As a practitioner working at this level, I have realized that it requires strong problem-identification skills and effective strategies for intervention. It is a level that requires research skills and data analysis. It also requires impact assessment and follow-up. Without being careful in these areas, a practitioner might lose important data, such as the impact made in the community. Missing this important information may result in a lack of awareness about which methods are more effective in solving a particular problem within the environment where you are operating. Therefore, there is no way a practitioner can perform effectively at this level without research and analysis skills.
Here are several mistakes I made as a practitioner at this level.

Work Blindly
Without clear data, I have worked with groups of people by providing education on different topics such as gender-based violence, nurturing the spiritual development of children in their early years, and child law. I worked with groups of women and men attending Reproductive and Child Health clinics. As a result, it became difficult to analyze my work. I did not accurately count the number of people I worked with, and I did not ensure that I was reaching different audiences. Sometimes the same people attended the clinic and listened to the same topic more than once. I became unable to analyze how the topics impacted my audience or measure the results.
This is why working with communities requires clear analysis in order to measure impact.

Work Before Research
Community intervention needs clear scientific guidance. Following systematic procedures such as problem identification, hypothesis formation, data collection, data analysis, and conclusion may feel long and boring, but it is worth it. Resources may be scarce, but something can always be done to ensure that, as practitioners, we do not work with groups before conducting proper research.
Research also helps identify what the real problem is. Without proper research, a practitioner may address an issue that appears to be the problem while failing to deal with its root cause.

Conclusion
Social work practice is a continuous journey of learning, reflection, and growth. The experiences from the field have taught me that social work is not only about applying theories and professional skills, but also about understanding people, listening to their voices, and working together to create meaningful change.

The lessons shared in this article represent only part of my journey as a social worker. Every individual, family, group, and community I work with continues to teach me something new about human experiences, resilience, and the importance of social work in society.

I will continue writing and sharing my practical experiences from the field, including the challenges, lessons, and reflections that shape my journey as a social work practitioner. My hope is that these experiences will contribute to the understanding of social work practice and inspire other practitioners, students, and individuals who believe in improving the welfare of communities.