Sandra Santiago is a 20-year-old female of Puerto Rican decent. She is currently in a relationship of domestic violence, consisting of physical, verbal, and emotional abuse. Her mother was abused by her father. Sandra was also molested by her step-brother and there was a point where she wanted to kill herself and her parents. She ran away from home and was placed into a group home when she was 15. She left the group home at the age of 17 and was abusing drugs and alcohol; she went to rehab and has been clean for 3 years. She met her boyfriend in rehab, she did finish high school and she joined job corp. Her part-time job isn’t enough for her to be financially independent, and to date she does not want to seek help with the Department of Social Services for financial and medical help. Sandra stands 5’2” and weighs 90 lbs. She doesn’t eat normally as to maintain her small frame for her boyfriend, she is able to express herself on paper, and is of the Catholic faith. Her parents do not support her emotionally; this has left her with a low self-esteem and wanting to be loved. She also thinks she might be pregnant. Model for Intervention The social worker in the case summary used the “strengths perspective”. The primary goals of this practice it to minimize the weaknesses of the client and focus solely on her strengths and client empowerment as an essential approach. Empowerment comes from valuing oneself, reaching achievable goals, and creating a plan to reach
Utilizing strengths based perspective with clients enables social workers to focus on the client and family strengths and abilities instead of focusing on the client and family’s problems, bad behaviors and pathologies. The strengths based perspective applies six principles that guide the social worker professional in assisting client’s with the strengths based model; we all have areas of strength, but sometimes it takes an unbiased third party to notice and help others clearly see what they are capable of achieving, even in the midst of their crisis.
Social work is very diverse, there is not one sole solution, or strength metaphor which can cover all fields. However, there are assessments which can be applied to certain situations, given the practitioners beliefs. “Accessing Clients Strengths: Clinical Assessment for Client Empowerment” is an article written by Charles D. Cowger, and is based on a mainstream contextual understanding that the primary goal of social work is to assist individuals with their relationship to others, and to institutions in a way to promote social and economic justice with regards to the importance of a client strengths perspective for assessment, which, proposes 12 practice guidelines to foster a strengths perspective(Cowger, 1994, p.262).Theory of strengths assessment focuses on two aspects of empowerment, personal empowerment and social empowerment. Personal empowerment dynamic recognizes the uniqueness of each client and their ability to take charge and control of their lives and their own betterment process. The social empowerment dynamic states that personal empowerment is related to opportunity and that individuals behaviors are derived from society. Through social empowerment, the individual plays a key role in shaping their surrounding and vise versa by having various opportunities and access to certain resources.
Chapter 2 in the Chang, Scott, and Decker textbooks talks about the strengths perspective and how we as social workers can apply this perspective in our practice. The article talks about how everyone has strengths, despite all of their problems. Our textbook talks about how we should always look for the strengths in our client; in addition, it is important that we build off of our clients strengths to help them achieve his or her goal. The article also talks about how social workers that help clients uncover their strengths, begin to see changes in the clients mood (positive changes). Our textbook talks about how focusing on what is going right in the clients life, can help make a client feel respected and acknowledge. If we focus on the problems
As it is geared towards respecting the dignity and worth of every human being, regardless of their current situation, focusing on problems, limitations or diagnoses diminishes a person to a problem-saturated label, which is antithetical to the values of social work. Secondly, the diagnostically driven system which places the social worker in a position of power over the client; social workers determine what is wrong with the client and then determine how best to fix the client’s problems. Strengths-based practice was developed to bring the profession of social work back to its foundation of valuing and collaborating with the client. The strengths perspective continues to be explored and researched today, specifically through the work of the Strengths Institute at the University of
The prevalence of domestic violence in the United States is that it is occurring far more often than many individuals would choose to admit. This form of violence is by no means new and culturally the problem itself does not discriminate, there is no specific criteria that completely omits one from becoming a victim of domestic violence. The dynamics of domestic violence consist of the aggressor utilizing violence to maintain dominance and control over the victim. The victimization that is consistent with domestic violence can come in various forms including, physical, sexual, psychological, mental/emotional, and financial. Domestic violence victimization is a cycle that usually is difficult to terminate by many victims as well as aggressors. Individuals involved in abusive relationships continue to remain in them for various reasons such as, maintaining financial stability, desire or hope that things will change overtime, fear that their abuser, will further harm them for leaving the relationship, embarrassment of their situation, or there may be children involved and the victims wants to avoid some of the harsh realities associated with a broken home. Oftentimes domestic violence victims blame themselves for the violence encountered by their abusers, figuring that if they do things differently the next time, maybe they won’t be victimized again by their partner. Conversely, violence committed by abusers is often self-driven and hinges on very minor actions executed by the
n social work practice, the strengths perspective has emerged as an alternative to the more common pathology-oriented approach to helping clients. Instead of focusing on clients' problems and deficits, the strengths perspective centers on clients' abilities, talents, and resources. The social worker practicing from this approach concentrates wholly on identifying and eliciting the client's strengths and assets in assisting them with their problems and goals (Saleebey, 2006). Nonetheless, Critical social work seeks to address social injustices, as opposed to focusing on individual people's problems. Critical perspective and prevention propose autonomous and democratic organization which allows people previously silent to express their need and expectations. Prevention is based on the principle of empowerment.
Domestic violence is when physical, mental, economical, and other forms of abuse happen between romantically engaged couples inside of their homes. The typical person who is affected by domestic violence tends to be the female in the relationship however, the male can also be the victim. You do not hear much about men being victims of domestic violence because of the culture of masculinity in America today. The target is typically the person who does not hold any power in the relationship. So if a man is the victim then he seen as having no power which in our culture happens to tell the male than he is not a man and should be ashamed of themselves.
Well, how about we stop blaming and we do something about it. If anyone has the power, it starts with you and it starts with me. It starts with us. Not tomorrow, but now. Right this second. So many of us crave love, but we do everything in our power to try to destroy it. We do everything in our power to find everything, but love. We search for fulfillment in temporary things. Love is way deeper than the surface. It is much deeper than something that comes and goes. I am not sure what it is, but I know what it is not. Love thrives in the foundation of its roots, and you cannot create it if you don't search for its layers deep in the soil—way beyond what is seen. You are always, always searching for better and better and never content with what you have because you don't pick what you have with your soul. If you would even entertain something that is not the best for your soul, you are settling. That is why I don't believe in options. I wouldn't even know where to begin to try and divide my soul, giving parts of it to different people. I would never be fulfilled. Love never left. We have left it. If you pay attention, you'll
There are many similarities between Bob Marley’s songs and the Biblical book of Exodus. Bob Marley’s songs “Exodus” and “Africa Unite” connect his tribulations and dissatisfaction with his life with the Biblical book of Exodus while his seemingly aloneness and his tribulations throughout his life seem to connect with Moses. The Biblical book of Exodus begins more than 400 years after Joseph; his brothers and the pharaoh he once served have all died. Egypt is under a new leadership that is threatened by Jacobs’s descendants. The new leaders embark on a crusade to subjugate the Israelites, forcing them into slavery and eventually declaring that all Hebrew boys must be killed at birth in the Nile River. However, there was one Hebrew mother
1) What is Domestic violence? According to http://www.stopvaw.org/what_is_domestic_violence2 domestic violence is a pattern of abusive and threatening behaviours that may include physical, emotional, sexual violence. The purpose of domestic violence is to establish and apply power and control over another. Domestic violence is that it’s clearly an act of anger or frustration that someone has either physically or mentally used against someone or thing. From past knowledge I have identified that 80% of women (worldwide) are the victims to Domestic violence and the Men are predominantly the accusers. As in New Zealand we have a moderate amount of crimes committed and 25% of them are abuse. 84% of men are arrested for domestic violence 16% are women.
“I object to violence, because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent”, quoted by Mahatma Gandhi. Violence is defined as an unjust or unwarranted exertion of power or force to intentionally injure, damage, or destroy something or someone. Amongst the various types of violence, there is one in particular that has been causing an ongoing debate within societies across the world; this certain type of violence is known as domestic violence. Domestic violence, also known as intimate violence or family violence, is a pattern of violent behaviors that are being used by an individual in a relationship to control his or her partner.() This act of abuse can come in many different forms, such as physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, or psychological abuse, and can affect not only the victim, but anyone that he or she may come in contact with.
Domestic violence is defined as “a pattern of behavior which involves violence or other abuse by one person against another in a domestic setting, such as in marriage or cohabitation” (Domestic Violence , n.d.) Domestic abuse has serious long term consequences, and can affect anyone. Whether you are a man or woman, rich or poor, black or white, domestic abuse still occurs, it is predominately impoverished women who cannot afford a good lawyer and feel they have no way out. These women are scared and have no money or means to defend themselves. There is a big elephant in the room when it come to domestic violence, women are too embarrassed to talk about it, and often those aware don’t know what to say so they ignore it. Unfortunately, domestic abuse against women does not stop once she gathers up enough courage to leave her abuser, the abuse continues by means of emotional trauma, custody battles, and difficulty in the system.
Another journal article focusing on differences in domestic violence in Canada and Quebec by Douglas A. Brownridge(2002) has an interesting result in relation to occurrence of domestic violence and socio-economic status and education. It compares results collected from Quebec and rest of Canada. It finds that women with higher education experienced lower violence in Quebec but women with higher education experienced higher violence in the rest of Canada. This might be because of the notion of liberal views held in Quebec by males, and therefore would feel less threatened by highly educated women. This could also be because of the man is financially dependent on the
As Andersen's consulting business continued to grow, tensions within the firm mounted. The consultants, who were contributing more to profits than the auditors, felt that they were subsidizing the audit partners. Consultants began to realize that they were underpaid relative to their market opportunities. Auditing partners resented the fact that the consultants wanted a higher share of the profits. The auditing partners, who controlled the managing board, made few concessions to the consulting partners. In response, a number of the top consultants left Andersen for other firms or to start their own consulting businesses.
An epidemic is sweeping through America unacknowledged. It’s not contagious, but rampant in all communities. It is not Ebola, Sars or Influenza yet, it is still a silent predator lurking secretly behind closed doors. Domestic violence kills. The facts are startling; one in every four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime, and those are just the cases that are reported. In the past weeks, America’s eye has been fixated on the NFL and the Capital Justice Departments prosecution of Adrian Peterson, Ray Rice and Greg Hardy. They were all indicted on allegations of domestic violence and abuse. Each year, another stack of players are arrested, or “caught” with a history of domestic violence, abuse and/or animal cruelty charges. The NFL’s reaction is typically reactive and falls short of transmitting a message of concern for the victims. Moreover, the NFL and Americans have opted to sensationalize Peterson, Rice and Hardy as isolated poster-boys for domestic violence, rather than reflect and appreciate that this is a larger socio-cultural problem.