The, The And Social Work

For over centuries, the only form of punishment and discouragement for humans is through the prison system. Because of this, these humans or inmates, are sentenced to spend a significant part of their life in a confined, small room. With that being said, the prison life can leave a remarkable toll on the inmates life in many different categories. The first and arguably most important comes in the form of mental health. Living in prison with have a great impact on the psychological part of your life. For example, The prison life is a very much different way of life than what us “normal” humans are accustomed to living in our society. Once that inmate takes their first step inside their new society, their whole mindset on how to live and communicate changes. The inmate’s psychological beliefs about what is right and wrong are in questioned as well as everything else they learned in the outside world. In a way, prison is a never ending mind game you are playing against yourself with no chance of wining. Other than the mental aspect of prison, family plays a very important role in an inmate’s sentence. Family can be the “make it or break it” deal for a lot of inmates. It is often said that “when a person gets sentenced to prison, the whole family serves the sentence.” Well, for many inmates that is the exact case. While that prisoner serves their time behind bars, their family is on the outside waiting in anticipation for their loved ones to be released. In a way, the families

When working in a field of expertise the experts in that area need to know what defines that field. Social work, with its roots over a hundred years old, started out simply offering assistance to others, has grown and changed, and is currently reconnecting with its roots (Bisman, 2004). Bisman (2004) emphasizes the importance of being an advocate of justice and keeping the field focused on the “social” part of social work. This push to keep social work focused on the needs of others defines social work today. Social work focuses on providing aide to the needy and increasing awareness of those that are oppressed.

This piece of writing is going to demonstrate an understanding of diversity, difference and also discuss the implications for social work practice. It will include an understanding of theories and concepts in relation to diversity where it will address the needs of diverse communities, individuals and groups, exploring differences in relation to culture, ethnicity, gender, age, sexuality, social class and economic wellbeing. It will also demonstrate an understanding of principle of working in an anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory way.

Incarceration has grown so much in the past three decades. Majority of these prisoners are parents to small children. More than ever, we need the cooperation between corrections, health and human service to work together to help these prisoners to get back to a good life. As we know incarceration and probation occurred in 1813 when Judge Peter Thatcher began placing youthful offenders under the supervision of officials. He also helped drunks and other unfortunates by bailing them out and provide “friendly supervision” to help them to

Social workers’ commitment to social justice means they want everyone to have a fair and equal opportunity to an assessment. In line with fairness, social workers should tell carers about their right to refuse an assessment as their permission, and not the person receiving care, is needed before the carer’s assessment can commence. In addition, social workers, bound by legislation regarding confidentiality and information sharing, must reserve the carer’s right to privacy whilst uphold their right to a fair hearing. This is achieved by only disclosing carer’s personal details to 3rd parties with consent, unless a safeguarding concern arises.

Research has revealed that a father’s involvement in his child’s life greatly improves the child’s chances for success. Helping incarcerated fathers foster stronger connections with their children (where appropriate) can have a positive effect for children. What is needed is stronger training of social workers and prison personnel to help males with bonding and effective parenting skills. Prisons also need to work on reorganizing visiting spaces in prisons because they are not always

However, inmates with children are perhaps the most affected by the pains of imprisonment as the separation and loss of contact to these children effect both the parents, children and all loved ones close by. According to a study done by Joseph Murray (2005) titled, The effects of imprisonment on families and children of prisoners, "imprisonment of a partner can be emotionally devastating and practically debilitating", causing a "loss of income, social isolation, difficulties of maintaining contact, deterioration in relationships, and extra burdens of childcare can compound a sense of loss and hopelessness for prisoners’ partners (para 7)”.

While confined, fathers have little to no interactions with their families. Communication is limited to timed phone calls, mail, and timed visitations. For prisoners in relationships or who are married, the communication may decrease over time. McDowell (2007), as cited in (Day et. Al, 2005), sample of 51 male prisoners, more than half of them reported that little to no visits from their partners while incapacitated. As well, they reported that they barely spoke to their significant other and didn’t receive any mail. According to Rose & Clear (2003), a contributing factor in decreased contact among prisoners and significant others is due the inmate being transferred to another correctional facility. For prisoners’ children, Tasca (2015), examined the negative impacts of prison visitation among children of prisoners. In her study, she stated that two factors shaped children’s experiences during visitations: institutional environment and the parent-child relationship. By conducting interviews with mothers of children with an imprisoned parent, Tasca (2015), found that around 65% of the children reacted negatively to the visit often having emotional outbursts, acting out, crying, and having some poor attitudes. However, one-third of the children displayed positive attitudes displaying increased excitement to see their fathers, improve attitudes and increased

Some of the challenges in the perinatal care in the correctional setting include lack of prenatal care prior to incarceration, drug or alcohol dependency, psychosocial problems or lack of outside family support, victim or transgressor of past abuse or violence and the psychological challenges of being incarcerated. For many women, the reality of being in the prison system can be devastating; the separation from family, which often includes their own children, and friends can cause depression, anxiety and fear. Personal physical safety is also a concern, as prison is often described as having its own “culture”, structure and hierarchy,

According to the prisons inspectorate, the ‘health’ of a prison should be measured according to safety, respect, purposeful activity and resettlement (HMCIP, 2013). Choose one of these factors, and using academic research to support your argument, discuss to what extent this represents a critical element of imprisonment in contemporary society.

This, in this author’s opinion, contributes to the stigma and social isolation of having a parent in prison. In cases where the child of the parent being incarcerated is currently enrolled in formal education, taking the child out of his/her community with familiar friends and activities would only cause disruption to their lives.

One change in a family system experiencing incarceration that affects grandparents is the difficulty maintaining family ties with the incarcerated individual. Travis, McBride, and Solomon, (2005) state that factors such as the presence of security guards, the time it takes to visit inmates, difficulty of coordinating visits, and geographic location of the prison all hinder the ability for family members to maintain ties with the incarcerated family member (Travis, McBride, & Solomon, 2005). These particular challenges in visitation are difficult for family members, such as grandparents, to

Mental illness has become one of the most rapidly growing diagnoses to date ranging from clinical depression to Schizophrenia. It has become a worldwide epidemic and has created a shortage of specialized workers. As the shortage of veteran mental health workers declines, the amount of recent college graduates increase. Additionally, as more individuals aim to obtain a Social Work degree many have been reluctant to enter the mental health field due to stigmas and negative attitudes surrounding mental health patients. This has brought up the question of whether or not students within social work department and students not in social work would be comfortable working with individuals who have been diagnosed with a mental illness. In order to successfully answer this question the University of Tennessee conducted a study which included three types of students: those who were actively in social work classes, those who had other majors but were still in Social Work and those who were not in social work classes. This study not only measured the student’s willingness to work with mentally ill individuals but also measured their attitudes regarding the concept of mental health.

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.

On the first page of Keith-Lucas’s, So You Want to be a Social Worker he makes note of how Christianity and social work share a lot of the same values, because of this the practice of social work can be viewed as a form of ministry. For example, most social workers, no matter their religion believe that all people have worth, and see a great importance in the showing of understanding and kindness towards them. Through my studies in APS 101, at Redeemer University College, I have learned that social work was brought up by the Church; I never knew of this relationship. This new knowledge makes me eager to learn more about the field, and the ways in which I can use it to serve not only my neighbors, but God himself, through its missionary characteristics.