Essay On Family Court Intervention

As an economically disadvantaged, minority student who ventured out of a small, closed-minded town, I have developed a passion to serve the underserved. Throughout my life, I have been associated with and witnessed the consequences of being a minority. For example, with 1% of my high school identifying

As a child, growing up in a low income household has made me humble and attentive to other’s situations. Similarly, my South Asian family has instilled a strong nature to serve others, which is the reason I have been involved in service learning activities throughout my undergraduate career, such as LIFT – Chicago and Refugee One. Even post-graduation, my work at Wekaw caters to urban underserved populations. In graduate school, I wish to continue this involvement in campus organizations which enforce diversity inclusion, whether it is joining a volunteering club aiding community populations or conducting research with immigrants. This is one aspect of diversity I can contribute to Rosalind Franklin University, and is also why my professional goal is to work in a community hospital serving diverse populations.

My field placement will be at Child protective services in El Paso TX. The department of child Protective Services withholds a wide range of services and responsibilities that include, investigating reports of abuse and neglect of children, provide services to children and families in their homes, providing services to help youth in foster care successfully transition to adulthood and helping children find adoption. There are many subdivisions within the department itself which offers different amenities during an open case with CPS, although these services solely justify the department, there is a unit known as Family Based Services or also FBSS which focuses on resources that will strengthen the family’s privation in order to ensure child safety and wellbeing. The Department predominantly benefits from task groups rather than treatment groups, because the department is on deadlines with each individual case, a treatment group would not benefit for the departments ultimate value which is Family Reunification. If the department is involved with a family for too long this may cause emotional distress on the children as well as the family. Every year in the United States, more than one out of every hundred children are victims of substantiated child abuse and neglect. For instance, in 2006, 3.6 million cases of child maltreatment were investigated, which is a rate of 47.8 per 1,000 children. In that year, nearly 1 million maltreatment claims were substantiated

A Mental Health Court represents a type of therapeutic court that sanctions the mental health population a different level of treatment and opportunities from the “normal” population. The difference between a mental health court and a regular court is that in a mental health court, they are not as concerned with whether somebody is not guilty or guilty of the offense, rather, they are focused on the individual. The Mental Health Court demonstrates compassion and empathy, while still upholding the law. In fact, focus stands as therapeutic interventions as opposed to punishments. The goal is to reconnect clients with a case manager, manage medication and treatment options, and generate stability. Going through the court process, and possible

Educators should critically examine their own values, beliefs, and attitudes related to difference in diversity because we as individuals all have different experiences, beliefs, values and attitudes that can be quite diverse. Staying mindful of this difference is essential in professional practice. For this to really be effective, you need to critically reflect on how your own life events have shaped your beliefs, values and attitudes. Educators must put all assumptions and bias’s aside and keep an open mind when dealing with these differences. For example, by reflecting on your background, you can become aware of biases and prejudices that may impact on your relationship with others from different backgrounds. Once identified, you can then

A married couple, both addicted to drugs, is unable to care for their infant daughter. She is taken from them by court order and placed in a foster home. The years pass. She comes to regard her foster parents as her real parents. They love her as they would their own daughter. When the child is 9 yrs. old, the natural parents, rehabilitated from drugs, begin court action to regain custody. The case is decided in their favor. The child is returned to them, against her will.

The client I chose for this diversity interview is 13 year old Willie Hazzard. Willie is the youngest son of Diane Hazzard. Willie is clearly effected by the many generations of poverty, his mother’s addiction, the neglect due to his mother’s addiction, and his exposure to the foster care system. Willie appears to lack trust, he is hostile, and he seems to be a little too familiar with living on the streets. His lack of trust can be attributed to his mother’s lack of parenting when he was little which caused him to be removed from the only home he had ever known and thrust into the child welfare system. He bounced around to a few different homes and was returned to his mother 6.5 years later so he was never able to plant

When I had told my friends I couldn’t eat breakfast with them on Monday morning they gave me a puzzled look, as we always eat breakfast everyday together. After some confusion I had to tell them sorry I can’t, I have to go to court. I got even more confusion. They probably thought “Oh no what has she done or what happened?” but truth soon be told that I was going there just to watch some court cases. Upon telling them that it was just for an assignment, they all looked relieved that they hadn’t befriended a convict in their first 2 months of college.

Cultural diversity continually grows, and as a counselor, it is my job to remain culturally competent, through keeping abreast of empirical research methods and educating myself on current sociocultural developments. Admittedly, I enjoy working with diverse populations; I easily transcend cultural, spiritual and socioeconomic differences. I have many friends from various faiths, ethnicities, and cultural backgrounds. There is a definite need for empathy and empowerment within the cultural sphere; human interactions are vital to our wellbeing, and acceptance of others cultural differences is helpful to understanding one another.

One of the larger changes in our workforce is that the employee population is becoming more and more diverse. The U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics states that the workforce in 2014 was made up primarily by Caucasians coming in at 79%. African Americans, Asians, American Indians, Alaska Natives, and race list as “other” made up the additional working population (BLS Reports, 2014). Although when looking these different races individually you wouldn’t think that they are a large part of the population. But when you are talking about 21% of our workforce, that is a large number. Looking at the number of people by race actually work is also very interesting. Native Hawaiian 70%, Pacific Islanders 66%, Hispanics/Latinos, Asians 64.6%, Caucasians 63.5% , 63.3% of people descending from two or more races, African Americans 61.2%, and American Indian and Alaska Natives 59.6% (BLS Reports, 2014). Over the last three years our school as went from being a primarily caucasian school to a school with a diverse population. I believe this has made our school strong and offered more of an opportunity for the students and staff to emerge and understand the diverse culture we have all around us. Understand and teaching our students will make a student population that will themselves be more knowledgeable and understanding of the

Throughout my career, I have dealt with a very diverse population of individuals. In the beginning of my career in the helping profession I worked as a houseparent in a residential facility for troubled youth. I lived with and counseled a group of young women that came from a variety of socioeconomic and racial backgrounds. From there, I moved on to casework with a local department of social services. At that time I was involved with case planning and management with families who had their children placed in foster care, or were at imminent risk of placement outside of the home.

When helping clients, it is important to be aware that diversity issues may be encountered everywhere. According to Barker (2003) diversity is defined as, “Variety, or the opposite of homogeneity…usually refers to the range of personnel who more accurately represent minority populations and people from varied backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities, and viewpoints,” (pg. 126).

Custody cases can be hard on everyone involved and it is often seen that courts tend to favor the mother in custody cases. The truth is that custody is decided by what is in the best interest of your child or children. This can involve a lot of factors and employment should only be a small part of the deciding factors. Having a job or not having a job should not be the deciding factor in any custody judgement, however you may find that whether you can or can not financially care for your children will be a factor.

I am grateful for the opportunities to be a part of all of these situations. Had I not been exposed to the harsh realities of human behavior, I don’t think I would appreciate what caused these scenarios to happen. A great example of how diversity has impacted me, is in the infancy stage of my paralegal career I never thought that I would be able to work with sex offenders and the first couple were very challenging and I often let my thoughts get the best of me and found myself judgmental and even bitter towards the sex offenders that I worked with. However, after I got to know some of the offenders, I then saw them as someone’s son, someone’s friend, someone’s sister and most important, someone one of value. While I do not condone the impulses that they acted on to put them in the legal troubles they were in, I had never considered what had happened to them that could have cause the deviance in them to act out what they had. Everybody deserves to be seen as a human being and everybody deserves acceptance. This is a very specific example of why the field of social work is so important to me. Diversity isn’t just about race, gender, religion and sexual orientation; it is by definition the variety of different things. So, I strive to accept diversity as a whole and promote understanding and acceptance of not just race, gender, religion and sexual orientation, but also mental health and the issues that hinder the human

Although I have made many positive changes these last few years, there is always room for growth. I found this apparent, as I have witnessed outstanding role models through the university. There is simply no ending point or “final” destination, when it comes to growing and working on your own faults. Therefore, I hope to take what I have learned from my past and college, and be able to continue to find ways of dealing with diversity in a professional manner. Knowing this, it is both exciting and frightening experience, especially knowing the many situations that are to come. However, I hope that I can take each encounter, and be able to learn to become the best role model a teacher can be for each student. I hope that each student, no matter their background, can feel as if they are welcome and accepted into the classroom. I also believe that the university has made tremendous strides to make this possible, especially assigning us classes that directly deal with diversity. In opportunities of mentoring, volunteering, and observations, I have been able to experience early on what it means to be a role model, in a diverse setting. The topic of diversity and this method of currere are extremely important, not only for myself, but also the students of the future. To understand diversity, you have to understand yourself. It is not a simple