Interview: Macro Practice

      Deciding who to choose to interview for this assignment was a bit difficult, but since I found myself sitting at my internship with nothing to do I decided I'd go around and interview some of the workers there.

Interviewer 1 - My Supervisor MSW (recently earned)

Interviewer 2 - Supervisors CoWorker (working on MSW)

Interviewer 3 - Unit Supervisor MSW (earned awhile ago)

      I interviewed my supervisor (interview 1), her coworker (interview 2) who is going for her masters, and then the units supervisor (interview 3).  Oh yeah for those who do not know or remember my internship this semester is at the DCF office in Brockton and I am part of one of the many ongoing units there.  Below the answers to the questions are not answered or written in the order in which they were asked of us on the paper.
     All three of the Social Workers mentioned how macro practice is not used at the DCF office, that the only way they ever use macro practice is when they are implementing what they have learned and the policies.  When it came down to what activities they use to incorporate macro practice they really didn't have much to say.  Drew a blank.  Also all three of the interviewees mentioned that macro practice is about policy, but besides that Interviewer 1 said that macro practice is "working within the larger system, the community, and organizations within a certain community. Macro social work is also advocating for clients that are within the community at the state and federal level for a change in policies".  She just got her MSW so that's why I think she was directly on with her answer. Interviewer 3 said almost the same thing and that is about the "bigger picture of systems" and interviewer 2 said that its of policies, "politics, social work world instead of individual" I believe she used simple terms because she is just learning of social work since her bachelor's is in Criminal Justice.   What's sad it that between all three of the Social Workers they said that they use macro practice 3% - no more than 50% of the time during the week and that if it wasn't for following the policies, as in if it came down to how much they do to help create the policies and work with the bigger picture this percent went down to 0% of the time to 20% of the time.  When it came down to leadership skills that's required to be a successful macro practice worker all the interviewee's had a lot to say, but then it made me wonder how come they wouldn't consider themselves to be a successful worker in macro practice.  Interviewer 1 said that they need to have good verbal, listening, and communication skills because of the type of people you are dealing with.  Also that you need to be convincing, reliable and trustworthy so you can advocate for your clients.  Interviewer 2 mentioned that you really need to know the social policies and reasons behind why they were created and how they help.  Interviewer 3 said that one must always be able to see the bigger picture and the better results come from this who know why certain things were done/created so that one is able to explain to their clients, must know and understand goals and reason for the goals and also to be able to convey whoever is questioning why whatever is done.   They all had good answers but said they would not consider themselves a macro practice worker.
     Overall I thought that the workers answers were ok I really was expecting more since they are more experienced but I think with years of being out of school you do lose the knowledge if you do not use it.  I say this because the best answers came from interviewee 1 who just got out of school.  Another reason I say this is because like in my blog video I said that before starting this class that I thought the DCF office was just a micro practice but since taking this class I have learned that it is also a macro practice place because we constantly deal with the community, with outside resources, with helping clients find assistance within the community and macro practice isn't all about policy but about growth and development and with reaching outside the DCF office for support that is growth.  With all the readings we've read they all spoke about working within the community and most didn't really mention policies but instead mentioned the issues that the macro workers worked on to help address, for example, like they say a person sometimes are a product of their environment, so one must work to change or look for changes that can be made in the environment to help the client.


Pictures provided by Google Images and clearly are not the actual workers but celebrity.