The Importance Of Core Communication Skills Social Work Essay

The Importance Of Core Communication Skills cordial Work Essay agree to Nelson (1980) genial work was one of the set-back professions to recognise the importance of chats skills and the link to effective employment. Communication skills lavatory be essential to the task of measure outment, audienceing and later closing making for genial consumption players. In practice, confabulation tends to be defined primarily as The communicatory and non literal exchange of information, including all the ways in which dwellledge is contagious and received (Barker, 2003 83 in Trevithick, 2005, p 116). The latter elements of parley, which dejection lots translate the feelingal content of the communication, atomic number 18 also referred to as inter private skills. According to Thompson (2002) favorable workers use such skills to communicate ethically tenuous practice (p.307). The purpose of this essay is to highlight the role and importance of literal and non verbal communic ation skills complex in friendly work practice.According to Koprowska (2008) communication is both inter brisk and context related. Therefore, careful consideration demand to be taken when communicating. There may be several barriers obscure in communication, such as authority language ability temper gender age and class (Thompson, 2009). True communication nominate all be achieved if the barriers are identified and removed. This can be attained by the practice of an anti oppressive and anti discriminatory approach to communication on the part of the kindly worker.Verbal CommunicationIn practice good communication skills, practically listening and interview skills, are of import for establishing efficient and respectful relationships with service users and lie at the heart of trump out practice in social work (Trevithick, 2005, p116). Social workers must border several skills while assessing or interviewing a client. Verbal communication is a key skill in social work pr actice and refers to slip to face interactions and involves the impact of the actual words we use in discourse (Thompson, 2009, p100). It is importance for social workers to be sensitive of how and what they say in received accompaniments for example, in regards to the issue of schematicity. If the social worker does not access the situation correctly they may be conceived as cosmos too formal or informal and thus will inevitable create barriers. Further, many service users tend to come from vulnerable sections of society. It is possible that their involvement with social workers may invoke feelings of shame or fear. It is likely that this will accordingly leave them vulnerable to feeling misunderstood and not listened to. It is in that locationfore unsounded that social workers treat each client as an individual and assess their situation as a unique case. In order to spend a penny a good relationship with each client the social worker must demolish any place or untrust ing issues that may be symbolize. This power may be either perceived or real in certain situations. For that reason, congruence plays an historic role during the interview process. It may not be completely possible to eradicate the power imbalance but it is a key skill to be aware of the need to achieve congruence. This can be active by utilize the appropriate language so that the client can fully agnize and be listened to. It is through such skills that social workers can convey sure warmth, respect and non-judgement for the service user. Indeed, verbal communication skills also play a study role when working with other colleagues and professions, and are essential for decision making and assessments (Cournoyer, 1991).Non Verbal CommunicationNon verbal communication is a major component for interpersonal skill repertoire and includes posture, facial nerve expression, proxemics, eye contact, and personal appearance (Kadushin and Kadushin, 1997, in Trevithick, 2005, p120), and it can support or contradict verbal communication. The importance of non-verbal communication is not a new concept in the social work field, in an article by DiMatteo, Hays, and Prince (1986) maintained that there are two dimensions of nonverbal communication, firstly decipher or esthesia and secondly encoding or expressiveness. According to DiMatteo et al nonverbal decoding refers to the mental ability to understand the emotions conveyed through others nonverbal cues such as facial expressions, body movements, and voice tone. Nonverbal encoding refers to the capacity to express emotion through nonverbal cues (p 582).For example, much of the rationality of non verbal communication can be gathered through using observation skills. Observation skills can be vital for social workers interviewing a client. According to Kadushin and Kadushin (1997) there are five one thousand distinctly different hand gestures and one thousand different steady body postures so precise observation of non-verbal behaviour is important(P 315). The client may tell the social worker they are heading fine and dont need any help but by notice their facial expression or lack of eye contact they may contradict this. Sheldon stresses that social workers must be aware of their own capacity for self-observation, although always somewhat limited, provides us with an opportunity to analyse our own role and impact. (Sheldon 1995 132-3 in Trevithick, 2005, p123).Active listeningResearch has verified listening as the most utilized form of communication. If frequency is a measure of importance, and so listening easily qualifies as the most prominent kind of communication (Adler Rodman, 1997, p. 283). Listening may appear to be straightforward but active listening skills need to be learned, practised in training, developed and review for effective use in real situations. Active listening describes a special and demanding alertness on the part of the social worker involved in interviewing a client. For Egan, active listening is about being present psychologically, socially and emotionally, not just physically (Trevithick 2005,p.123). By using skills such as paraphrasing, reflective questioning and open and closed questioning the social worker can convey full interest and understanding to a vulnerable client.Self awarenessThe concept of self-awareness is important in social work interviewing. Burnard (1992) defines self awareness as the process of getting to know your feelings, attitudes and values (in Thompson, 2009, p.3). A key aspect of self awareness is being aware how we may be perceived by others. In regards to interviewing the social worker may believe they are being laid back, even so for the client it may be conceived as being uncaring. Supervision is thusly an important tool to gain feedback and explored any issues. Further importance of self awareness included understanding how possible external factors may scratch social workers. Social workers need to a ware of concepts such as transference, triggers and sieve spots during interviewing process. Thompson stressed that the worker can be affected by a situation without knowing. Therefore, the use of self is extremely important.EmpathyEmpathy is another important communication skills involved in social work interviewing. This skill involves understanding or appreciating the feelings of others, but without necessarily experiencing them (Thompson 2009, p111). Social workers must show sensitivity and respect to the feelings of the client. There is however a difference between generosity and empathy. Therefore there is a fundamental skill to achieving empathy not however expressing sympathy.It is clear from the above information that the failure to achieve efficient communication between the social worker and client can lead to overserious consequences. Poor communication can contributed to the harm and inadequate care clients. For example, in recent times such failures of communicatio n among a range of professionals beget been highlighted in the public inquiries into the death of several children known to be in the care of social services.(rewrite)Personal Learning