Concept of needs, problems, and provisions

1. Concept of needs,
problems, provision & social
responsibility

2. Concept of needs
• Human beings everywhere have
certain human needs, the best
known theory about these, is the
Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of
needs that supports, expands the
understanding of need.

3. This is the definitive and original Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

4. Social workers are becoming aware of the need
for individuals and groups to feel that they have
the power or the control necessary to meet their
needs or to change situations that are affecting
the need fulfillment.

5. Three knowledge basis to understand human need in any situation:
a. Human development
• Indicates that people develop physically, cognitively, socially, emotionally and
spiritually over the life cycle. Human development can be identified in two
ways:
1. at each stage of life individuals should be developing in certain age
specific ways, and for this development to take place, certain conditions must be
present.
 Infant needs love and physical care as well as sensory, stimulation.
 The school age child still needs physical care, though not with the same degree
with the infant.
 The child needs protection but also the freedom and opportunity to learn skills
and develop creativity.
 The adolescence needs opportunities to resolve the normal conflicts of
growing up, to find out who she is, to deal with sexuality and to make
vocational decisions.

6.  adult need opportunities in which they can feel a sense of
accomplishment, fulfill their nurturing needs, and participate in group
life and the society in which they live.
 Older adults need economic security; provisions for health needs;
and the opportunity to deal with feelings arising from retirement;
failing health, and impending death
2. Second way to identify human need would be to note development
that would be expected at a particular life stage but that has not
taken place
 Includes needs from the past that have not been met and are
contributing to problems in present social functioning .
The response to concern/need from devt point of view is to provide the
necessary conditions that will allow development to progress and to
eliminate those that block development.

7. 2. Human diversity- this approach brings together understanding about the nature
of culture and its effect on the development and functioning of human beings.
 Accdg to this approach, the response to need is not to measure norms but to
determine the meaning of perceptions, experiences & events as they affect the
growth and functioning of the individuals in their own cultural context.
 In the concept of human diversity, it sees behavior as being influence by 3
factors:
a. Genetic influences include both mental and physical growth potential, the
ability to tolerate stress, and ways of responding to stress.
b. Cultural influences include life goals, behavior patterns, self concepts and
attitudes, and ways of perceiving events.
c. Social influences include the social institutional structure , which comprises
systems of socialization, social control, social gratification and social change.

8. In order to understand human need , social worker must also have
significant knowledge about the role of environmental factors as they
affect the functioning of individuals. Environmental factors include
social, economic, geographical and climactic conditions that are part
of the immediate surrounding's of the individual.
3. Social systems theory- it provides a means of understanding larger
systems in which humans function, it include the family, the small
group, the community and various social institutions, such as the
school, the church, and the social agency.
This system is useful for social workers for it provides a means of
conceptualizing linkages and relationships among seemingly
different entities- individuals, families, small groups, communities and
societies.

9. Concept of the problem:
Problem is simply an unmet need, it maybe a universal
problem affecting masses of people like poverty or
disease, but it has characteristics unique to the persons,
confronted with the problem in terms of its causes as well
as consequences.
A problem is often a manifestation of a dysfunction in
society’s institution for meeting human needs.

10. FEEL
Concern/need values
THINK assessment
Planning evaluation
knowledge
Action
Intervention skills
Interaction

11. Concept of provision (how the society meets the needs of its
members)
This provision is based on the premise that there will always
be people everywhere, at all times, with unmet needs or problems
which are beyond their own capacity to solve. Thus social provision
refers to the desirability of providing social resources for the
satisfaction of human needs for the goal of human welfare.
1. Individual and group efforts
2. Major societal institutions and their roles and responsibilities for
meeting human needs.
a. The family, the church, the government, economic institutions
(labour unions, cooperatives, occupations)
b. The forces that bring about change in these institutions.
3. The social agency as provision for helping people with their
problems: as an integral part of a community’s institutionalized
network of services to the people.

12. Concept of Social responsibility
That the individual has the obligation to contribute to the
common good of the society, on its part, has the
responsibility to facilitate the development of its members,
gives dual meaning to this concept.
Every right carries a corresponding duty or responsibility, to
illustrate this, our constitution provides that “ no person shall
be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process
of law, nor shall any person be denied and equal protection
of the laws; that “the privacy of communication and
correspondence shall be inviolable, and that no law shall be
made respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting
the free exercise thereof.

13. It shall be the duty of every citizen to be loyal to the
Republic and to honor the Philippine flag, to defend
the state and contribute to it’s development and
welfare, to uphold the constitution and obey the laws,
and to cooperate with the duly constituted authorities
in the attainment and preservation of a just and
orderly society.
That the rights of the individual impose upon him, the
correlative duty to exercise them responsively with
due regards for the life of others, and it shall be the
duty of every citizen to engage in gainful work to
assure himself and his family a life worthy of human
dignity.