Social Work And Related Social Justice Issues

Social work practice and advocacy has expanded from a community effort to an international undertaking. With a global perspective the need to make change happen is contingent on the work completed. Advocacy as a social work principle is intended to be action against a societal injustice and technology has provided the ability to do so. As a social work professional in child welfare there are many needs that have to be advocated for to including funding and reform of system misalignments in order to change towards a more empowering intervention. In circumstances such as this, technological advocacy can play a critical role in rectifying the social injustices. By understanding the evolution of social work advocacy, current practice, and prospective

This comes under S.12AA of the 1968 Act (as inserted by 1990 Act) where carer’s can request and independent assessment of their need at any time and the Local Authority must comply with this. The local authority during the assessment must have regard to the carers ability to care for the person in need and the views of the carer and the person in need must be sought throughout the assessment process but only where practicable. Under this act Paul can request an assessment of his ability if he feels he is not able to care for his father and feels like residential care would be the best option for him.

Social workers are often on the forefront in the fight against any form of oppression as against the marginalized society. These demanding but oftentimes unappreciated efforts are often addressed through the conscious use of skills and knowledge of the problems being solved against. When such oppression is however committed against them within the organization where they work, the social worker seems to be mum about the situation, or their efforts perhaps are rendered inutile. North America social workers experience this form of oppression within the social service institution. For this reason, I examine the arguments why the social workers need to be aware of the existence of this unique form of oppression. In order to eliminate oppression in the social welfare workplace, the social workers, in their pursuit of social change, must have a competent understanding of the theory around racism and oppression.

Along with social work goes along with social justice. Social work should be engaged in social justice efforts and that’s no exception for Cynthia. She works incredibly hard to advocate and makes sure that her clients have equal access to transportation, housing, programming, education, employment, and any other resources that they have the desire for. Each client has the rights to equal treatment in all aspects of life. Alberta Health Services is very client centered, and making sure that the clients wants what they are advocating for.

The children’s parents both agree that they cannot provide a suitable safe home life for their children. The children are now living with their grandmother and they are happy and thriving. Although there is concern that her health will have an impact on her ability to care for the children long term and the local authority has recommended adoption for the children. However, the grandmother also has two other grown up children, one of whom is an adult. These relatives support the grandmother and have agreed to look after the children in the future if the grandmother can no longer do so.

Social work tries to influence the overall quality of life to improve it as well as addressing inequalities and aiding those in need. Similarly, a social policy does the same in providing principles and course of actions to help social workers achieve in improving their clients’ lives. Social workers can provide evidence supporting inequality issues and the impact they have on the public. They also test out the social policies in practice to prove whether they are efficient and generate new provisions within policies to make it better effective in aiding clients. In the same matter, social policies enable social workers to incorporate its principles into practice to support clients during their dilemmas. Social policies direct the formulation

Policies and procedures are essential in outlining the structure of agencies. They help guide practice and influence professional relationships between social workers and clients. My field placement is at The Bridge for Youth. It is a safe space for youth ages 10-17 in the Twin Cities who have nowhere to go. They help hundreds of youth get off the street into a shelter, and aim to help them transition to a better suited environment. Our programs for runaway and homeless youth are free of cost and available 24/7/365. Aspects of our program include a 24-hour crisis hotline, crisis shelter, counseling, and transitional living. Two policies that are relevant to my placement are the Minnesota Statue 120 and Title VII-B of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. The Minnesota Statue 120 is a state level policy regarding school attendance, absenteeism, and truancy. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (PL 100-77) was the first and only major federal legislative response to homelessness. Title VII-B focuses on youth experiencing homelessness.

The relevance of this problem to social work is that social workers are able to advocate for these children. The lack of mental screening of children placed into foster care is becoming a concern. There is a growing need for thorough observation and identification of children with emotional and behavioral issues. In order for children to get the proper help and care they have to be properly examined, diagnosed, and treated. Adolescents in foster care are all assigned a social worker who is to advocate for them. Social workers would attempt to improve child welfare practices and policies (Pecora et al., 2009). As the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs) developed long-term relationships with foster care children social workers would have

I have been exposed to social justice issues since I was young. Back in Vietnam, my father discussed with us a lot about political issues, like how people’s rights to express themselves are oppressed and that the government does not take care of its citizens and the corruption runs rampant in Vietnamese government. Throughout the time growing up, I have been familiarized with news about police brutality, unregulated toxins in food and other products that cause health implications, government’s slow reaction to natural disaster that affects people’s lives, and weak law enforcement on environment issues. These problems happen so constantly that I accepted it as a part of life and never thought any further than the fact that they exist.

Oppression, as defined in class (Akuoko-Barfi, 2015) is when superior groups put down and mistreat minority groups. People of minority groups have been burdened and worried by the dominant population for years. This paper will focus on different aspects of social work discussed in chapter four by Baskin “Structural Social Work as Seen from an Aboriginal Perspective” (2003), as well as in chapter six by Yee, J.Y “Critical Anti-Racism Praxis: The Concept of Whiteness Implicated” (2005). First, in regards to the perspectives of chapters four and six, and how these perspectives will be used to guide social work will be further examined. Furthermore, the chapters will be compared and contrasted to provide a critical analysis of each. This paper

In our text, Introduction to social work and social welfare, Zastrow defines a variety of ways to reduce crime and delinquency. He categorizes these strategies in three topics; Increasing or decreasing sentences, reforming the correctional system, and preventing crime in the first place (pg. 321). I believe that each of these are crucial in limiting crime but they are not always realistic. Some examples of improving increased/decreased sentencing includes, instituting swift and certain punishment, imposing harsher sentencing, separating repeat offenders from society, getting tougher on white-collar crimes, creating uniform sentences, decriminalizing public offenses, and imposing stricter gun control. I agree that harsher punishments reduce crime in the idea that if a criminal is in prison/jail they cannot commit crime in the communities, but the reality is that sending and holding someone to prison is expensive. Reforming the correctional system can be used inane attempt to prevent a first time criminal to steer away from further crime, or give someone the opportunity to see/live a better life/future. I think this is an excellent way to stop criminals from breaking the law. Just like the textbook describes, if a teen runs aways from home, and

In summary, our group has mixed emotions on the role of social workers in social policy change. Our emotions range for enthusiastic excitement and anticipation to feels of being overwhelmed and frightened with the prospect of assisting vulnerable individuals on a more global stage. As one of our group members wrote, Rome and Hoechstetter (2010) very eloquently state that it is the "ethical responsibility" of a social worker (who owns such innate convictions), to advocate for individuals and policies that reflect desirable, positive social outcomes (p. 108). Our group is confident of our individual skills as advocates and with the notion that as social workers we can be called upon to make social policy change on a smaller local level and look

Social Work is a field of interest to me because of the positive effort it contributes to society. Within the social work profession individuals are striving to improve the welfare of those in need of assistance. Social Workers assist a variety of individuals; from children, young adolescents, older adults, mentally ill, substance abuse individuals, and many other minorities; as in LGBT members, veterans, homeless people, and low socioeconomic status individuals. The broad mix population fascinates me because within this field one will always be able to work in a flexible environment. Social Work is used in multiple settings as in hospitals, nursing skilled homes, mental health and substance abuse clinics, schools, correctional facilities, community centers, child welfare agencies, employee assistance programs, and private practices.

Activism can be in a variety of forms. It can be done by joining a protest, in signing a petition, writing a letter to the mayor, or as simple as attending a meeting. I consider this attending this summit as a form of activism because it allows me to be informed. I also know knowledge is power and can be used effectively to address this social problem. In this case I attended this summit which is considered and informative in helping me with advocacy efforts. In Hoefer (2006) notes that “Social workers must be involved in advocacy practice…If social workers do not act as advocates their policy ideas, values will not be well represented in policy-making”(p.21). I found this statement to be powerful and important to me because I came to the summit

Social Work’s core philosophy and values are centered around social justice and social well-being. Oppression, injustice, discrimination, and violence are antithetical to the social work profession. Social Work believes in strength-based approaches and the person-in-environment perspective to cater the needs and welfare of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society at large. Generally, the target populations for social work are vulnerable, marginalized, and oppressed people; however, social workers provide services to people with a wide range of problems, such as poverty, addiction, mental illness, etc. to empower them to meet their own needs. Historically, the social work profession started its operation by providing neighborhood