Professor of Social Work Delivers Keynote at International Conference on Wellbeing
Published February 16, 2022
By Darlene Muguiro
UTEP College of Health Sciences
Dr. Bruce Friedman, professor of Social Work, delivered a keynote for the 2nd International Conference on Business, Management and Social Sciences (ICBMASS-22), hosted by the National University of Science and Technology in Islamabad, Pakistan, February 8th to 10th. The virtual conference focused on integrated solutions toward meeting the World Health Organization’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, specifically those related to health and wellbeing. Researchers from across the globe were in attendance, covering topics within the categories of media, communication and wellbeing; organizational and individual workplace wellbeing; crisis and disaster management; global health; social integration and community wellbeing; child and adolescent wellbeing; socioeconomic wellbeing; and family and interpersonal relationships.
At the beginning of his presentation, “Social Integration and Community Wellbeing,” Friedman offered an ecological systems perspective to community wellbeing and how it relates to social integration. According to Friedman and Allen (2021), systems theory allows practitioners to look at clients holistically to understand their condition. Friedman invited the audience to consider the interplay of community, groups, family, the individual, and internal systems, and to assume that wellbeing is the natural state of all humans and human social organization and that all human social behavior is purposive.
Later in the presentation, Friedman shared the nine basic steps to conduct community-based participatory research (CBPR) and taught attendees how to define community through the community and asset mapping processes and power analysis. Finally, he also described three tools for change: Lewin’s Force Field Analysis (forces for change and forces resisting change are in constant tension with one another; change can only happen when driving forces are strengthened or resisting forces are weakened), the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) Analysis, and the Logic Model (defining inputs, processes, outputs, and short-, intermediate, and long-term outcomes).
For more information about ICBMASS-22, please visit: https://icbmass.nust.edu.pk/
Reference: Friedman, B.D., & Allen, K.N. (2021). Systems Theory. In J.R. Brandell (Ed.), Theory and Practice in Clinical Social Work (3rd ed.). Cognella.
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