Introduction It is a social workers job to ensure that children are safe and protected, especially in their own homes. This means that a social worker must be responsible for inspecting a child’s safety when visiting a home. Last week’s reading by Ferguson, the group article by Cesaroni & Peterson-Badali, along with the class lectures and Fifth Estate documentary provided an excessive amount of information and examples of how social workers need to protect the rights of children. I found this article difficult to connect to as my family has not been involved with social workers, however it did relate to some of my volunteer experience with Children’s Aid Society and I have definitely learned something. With that in mind, in this paper I will discuss Ferguson’s idea of avoiding vs. forgetting and how this has related to my life and situations I have been placed in. I will then discuss the vulnerability of children including Ashley Smith. Finally, I will mention how last week’s lectures and readings have helped shaped my judgments and opinions to help me become a more assertive person. Avoiding or Forgetting? Ferguson (2011) mentioned the idea of avoiding vs. forgetting. He stated that social workers do not usually forget to check areas of the home, instead they avoid checking these areas as they do not want to invade the privacy of the family. I feel that I would do the exact same thing as this because growing up my family had rules about where the members in the house
* Sources and advice, support and information to help social care workers understand their own role in safeguarding.
Social workers face complex ethical issues in every aspect of their profession. This work is often ethically challenging because it involves direct contact and interaction with individuals who are vulnerable. There are many factors that influence our decision making especially when working with at risk youths, we often face challenges in wanting to take on certain roles to protect our clients. These roles often conflict with our professional obligations. When our personal and professional values conflicts, our decisions may affect the individual, family, group, community and the organization.
Their occupation is based upon advocacy and social justice. In addition to this, it is crucial for the social worker to know everything about child abuse. This ranges from the signs and symptoms of it, to knowing how to react to these situations based on medical and psychological impact. The social workers at Wynona’s House must be resilient and patient. Having these qualities makes room for effective procedures because the psychosocial examinations usually last up to 2 and a half hours. More than one examination occurs each day. Lastly, social workers here must be committed to their work to fully lend a helping
legal duties of the Social Worker and makes it clear that it is their responsibility to ensure that
What is the worst outcome of a case that a social worker is working on? Many outcomes could be horrifying. Injury, rape, but the worst of them all would be death of a child. All the signs were laid out of an unhealthy relationship between mother and son. But it was ignored, and the system that we as tax payers pay to have, to protect the unfortunate, the ones that need a lending hand, failed a 6-year-old child. In the Article I chose to analyze these exact events transpired. The article that can be found in many credible news outlets, found in the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS website, titled Murdered on Bill’s watch: The death of 6-year-old Zymere Perkins must lead to a new era of child welfare accountability. I will analyze the theories that if viewed correctly could have prevented this horrid event.
We as social care workers need to safe guard vulnerable people. When it comes to safe guarding there are laws that protect individual people under the Children’s Act 1989 it states It shall be the general duty of every local authority in addition to the other duties imposed on them by this Part to safeguard and promote the welfare of children within their area who are in need; and, so far as is consistent with that duty, to promote the upbringing of such children by their families - by providing a range and level of services appropriate to those children's needs.( www.legislation.gov.uk).
On September 21, 2015, I met with Ms. Katie, a student in the MSW program at NCSU, to conduct an interview. We met at Starbucks in Cary, in the crossroads shopping center. Ms. Katie’s responses helped me learn and think about social workers in the child welfare social field. As a prospective social worker, my questions were formed based thoughts that I was concerned about my responsibilities in the social work field..
Social workers play many roles in aiding to serve low income persons. A big part of social work is working with the low-income individuals by advocating for income, employment and social policies in hopes to make a difference in families and individual’s lives (Wheeler & McClain, 2015). Advocating in social work is a big part in helping promote economic justice and overall wellness of everyone in society (Wheeler & McClain, 2015). Through the years social workers have remained strong advocators on affordable and safe housing for those in need (Mizrahi & Davis, 2011). Social workers have been the ones who consistently advocate that housing is a need and a basic human right.
'Social workers have a professional and ethical responsibility to (...) interact and intervene with clients and their environments' (Teater, 2010, p.4). According to this premise, the ecological approach in social work interventions offers an effective method of relating children, young people and their families to their environment. It is an approach that allows social workers to intervene in cases where a child is abused or neglected, while providing a good theoretical framework for social workers' direct work. This essay is going to assess the ecological model within a social work practice directed at children. It will stress the importance of this model, and explain its application in today's child protection work.
The job of a child welfare worker appears to be a demanding profession that promotes the child’s safety, but also strengthens the family organization around them in order to successfully raise the children. This child welfare workers work in the system known as the Child Protective Services whose initiative is to protect the overall welfare of the child. The short novel From the Eye of the Storm: the Experiences of a Child Welfare Worker by Cynthia Crosson-Tower demonstrates the skills necessary to deal with the practice of social work along with both its challenges and its happy moments. The novel consists of some of the cases involving Tower’s actual career in social work. In reading the book, I was able to experience some of the actual
O’Dell and Leverett (2012, p.2) writes about this and acknowledges that Getting it right for every child (Scottish Executive,2008) and the Framework for the Assessment of children in need and their families (DH, 2000) take into consideration this perspective. With these polices in mind, it appears that the importance of the social ecological framework have been addressed yet not all practitioners and professionals actively embrace this perspective. In practice, the framework can be used as a constant reminder of a fact that in the social work system is not always practiced; the child is at the centre. The importance of the child or young person is paramount. A child or young person’s wellbeing is not demeaned to suit the system, but the system is there to suit the individual, unconditional of their situation.
Laws in most states mandate that reasonable efforts be provide to families who become involved with child welfare agencies. Social workers, on behalf of the agency toil to provide reasonable efforts to families. Presumptively, reasonable efforts are provided for families to mitigate the issues that brought them to the attention of child protection agency.
I need to start by admitting that this video was difficult to watch! Within a few seconds of watching the video I was reminded of the level of difficulty of the social work profession. As described in the video, Child Protection Services’ role is to protect children from neglect and abuse (Mierendorf, 2000). Similarly, social workers play several significant and complex roles within child advocacy. Social workers need to ensure the safety and well-being of children and be their voice when they are being silenced or maltreated. Social workers need to identify the abuse and address the situation accordingly. This could be particularly difficult when is in the best interest of children to be removed from their
Leaning particularly on examples drawn from developments in recent years within the field of child protection, this paper seeks to engage practitioners, managers and educators in identifying the processes which have come to bear within their own fields of work. It will encourage the development of alternative responses to these processes which build the capabilities and confidence of social workers rather than undermining and deskilling them.
Form a social worker’s perspective food is a human need and a right for everyone no matter a person’s race, sexual orientation, class, and status in society. Social workers understand the cycle leading to hunger in America and the impact it has on children and families. Hunger has divided families and communities by placing certain groups of people at greater risks of food insecurity. According (Coleman, Greogry & Singh, 2014) “More than 1 in 5 children is at risk of hunger. Among African-Americans and Latinos, it’s 1 in 3”. Social workers plays a pivotal role implemented change in society by connecting ethical principles along with the standards of treatment from The Universal Declaration of Human Rights for the safeguard and well-being of society’s oppressed people.