The Nexus of Life Skills and Social Work Practice

Abstract

Life skills refer to a large group of psycho-social and interpersonal skills that promotes mental well being which leads to healthy and productive life. Life skills help to actualize potential competencies into desirable behaviors. Life skill is in existence from the very beginning of human race, and academically identified through various disciplines like social work and psychology. Life skill education emerged as a universal notion and a topic of wide discussion in recent years. WHO promoted and popularized life skills with diverse objectives, like prevention of substance abuse, bullying, AIDS, drug abuse and promoting positive mental health. The core components of life skill was recognized and incorporated long back in the social work literature. But these skills were not been termed as life skills but as core social work concepts which is evident in its methods, techniques and practice. The specific ten core life skills proposed by WHO are being practiced by the social workers in different contexts in varying degrees. This paper is an effort to revive the importance of life skills in social work practice and read the life skills in social work perspective.

Keywords: Life Skills, Social Work, Mental Health, WHO

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