Power & Duties of a Social Worker Essay

This paper discusses and explores twain case studies in vagabond to get wind the powers and duties a social moveer acting in a statutory capacity expertness exercise in these cases, how might they be exercised and how might wider principles of welf be practice of law impact on their decision making? It similarly analyses the tensions and dilemmas that may exist, referring to specific legislative provisions, and identify how anti-oppressive practice might enamour the resolution of these case studies. It also demonstrates an ability to chew over relevant law in social start practice and suck a phonationicular and analytical sympathiseing of the service delivery standards and powers and duties of social formers, demonstrate a disciplineing knowledge and understanding of key aras of welf ar law that atomic number 18 signifi stomacht to service users analyses the tensions and dilemmas that arise in the implication of the law in social defecate practice and be able to d emonstrate a commitment to the anti-oppressive practice of social work law.This paper is focused on deuce separate case studiesFirst deterrent example reading scalawag and Lauren hold up two Children named as Makayla aged 18 Months and Christopher aged 5 years. The local Authorities and Childrens Services hit a referral from a relative who is concerned that the Children had witnessed Jack and Lauren fighting. What is much Jack brings people rear to the house who drink heavily and Lauren has left the pincerren alone at to the lowest degree twice to get drugs. When seen the babyren appear adequately dressed, clean, healthy and outgoing, and Christopher is attending groom day intimately days. The house is sparsely furnished but tidy and at that place appear to be a small number of toys. Makayla may hold up a increase delay. She also may put on difficulties with hearing and vision, which have meant numerous medical appointments, some of which have been missed.Second Case Study Gracias speaks with pride of her house in which she and her husband raised seven small fryren and points to the antiques she has collected. She knows the recital of all the antiques she has had longest, but she looks troubled when asked somewhat other items. Her eldest son has looked after her since he retired. She has eleven grandchildren, but she privynot remember their names. He travel in with her after she left the gas on twice and allow a st placer into the house. He fells she could benefit fromre-housing since a stroke come across her left arm and leg means she struggles with the stairs and with bathing, and recently she has begun to let incontinent at night. On the other hand, she still tends to her antiques with great c atomic number 18. He is also concerned that she is still managing her large account of savings and sh ars, which he will take to have access to if he keeps her at home.These two case studies argon mainly different from each(prenominal) other if we field of tuition them with practical approach but certain things potful be discussed at the same time for the both cases i.e. family, approach towards the c ar of children, approach towards the looking after the parents, affects on children when they are ignored.Defining the FamilyA family becomes a family when two or much singulars have decided they are a family, that in the intimate, here-and-now surround in which they gather, in that location is a sharing of emotional involve for closeness, of living space which is deemed home, and of those roles and tasks unavoidable for meeting the biological, social and psychological requirements of the individuals involved.For our purposes in this text we mean by family two or more than people in a perpetrate relationship from which they derive a sense of identity as a family, thus including nontraditional family forms that are outside the traditional legal gather in families not related by blood, marriage, or adoption (C ohen, S., and T. A. Wills. 1985 85)The state of marriageThe family, marriage, and the individual are inextricably interwoven. This simple fact constitutes a major conceptual and practical problem when escorting the prospect of hinderance in a marital problem, for it militates against clarity of thought and purpose.Certainly, conceptual distinctions can be made, and these are of profound importance in the attempts of social scientists to shed light on the dynamics of family flavour but such(prenominal) distinctions tend to rely upon the identification of boundaries that are perhaps seldom recognized, let alone drawn, by the individual experiencing the realities of marital and family life. As the father of modern family studies, Whittaker, J. K. and J. Garbarino. (1983) observed,We know too much about the family to be able to direct it both objectively and easilysome(a) family motives could be considered as creation met by means of a gang of expressive and instrumental op erates, such as child care, and health-related die hards. This applies on both Case Studies.In line with the above, and in recognition of the diversity of modern society, we should emphasize that respect for diversity requires that family be defined openly and broadly speaking so as to include whomever the family itself- with its unique culture, circumstances, and history-designates (Allen and Petr 19988).Practitioners should be prepared to understand and account for the special needs of minorities. As reflected throughout this volume, this means that we need to consider carefully in our practice the dimensions of race and ethnicity, including not solo their significance for forgiving hunt d suffering but also their impact on service delivery. In this run into, Pecora, P. J., W. R. Seelig, F. A. Zirps, and S. M. Davis, eds. (1996) assert Training practitioners for competence with diverse populations is spirited on the list of corrective initiatives to address inadequacies in social work practice. A critical component of such training is learning how to gain the closely-being of children and families.Promoting Child and Family Well-Being in Perspective of 1st Case StudyTo aid in our understanding of what families and children need to thrive in our society, we have developed a exemplar of needs and resources for family and child wellbeing. The framework is create as a triangle depicting the three interconnected aspects of child and family wellbeing What children need for their optimal Development, What families need to survive and fulfill their functions successfully, and The neighborhood, community, and milieual resources that families and their children require.At the center of the model is the overall goal for family-centered social work practice safeguarding and promoting the well-being and welfare justness of children and their families. We will refer to this framework throughout the paper, so as to highlight key points about promoting ch ild and familywellbeing and safety as well as delineate guidelines and principles for sagaciousness and intervention. The model draws from the contributions of a number of sources in an attempt to show the range of interrelated family and child needs that, when met, assist optimal functioning and development.Resilience, Coping, and AdaptationIn their work with children and families, practitioners can be guided by knowledge regarding resilience, coping, and adaptation-key constructs in understanding human beings and human behavior. Before elaborating on each of these constructs, it is useful to consider the competence centered sight on social work practice, which can serve as a frame of reference for practitioners.Competence-Centered Perspective & Principles of well-being LawThe competence-centered situation builds upon ecology as a metaphor guiding the study of the interactions betwixt living organisms and their environments (Bronfenbrenner 1979). In particular, such a metaph or calls assist to the influence of external environments on the functioning of families as contexts of human development (Bronfenbrenner 1986723). As an orientation to practice, ecology swear outs us to appreciate that human beings are engaged in continuous transaction with their environment furthermore, the ecological hatful go forths insight into the nature and consequence of such transactions both for human beings and for the physical and social environments in which they function (Germain and Gitterman 19965-19).Evaluation in perspective of Case Study 2By offering a broad conceptual electron lens to view human functioning and needs, ecology underscores that social work intervention should address the interface between human beings and their impinging environments practitioners focus on improving the transactions between people and environments in order to sharpen adaptive capacities as well as enrich environments for all who function within them (Germain and Gitterman 199 6).In using such an orientation, practitioners can help bait the actual and potential strengths and resources of individuals, families, and groups while simultaneously seeking to render environments more responsive to the adaptive and coping needs of human organisms (Kagan, S. L. 1995). In addition, workers are helped to understand the relationshipsbetween families and their environments and identify the significant sources of support as well as stress and conflict. They can then assess more objectively the complex someoneal and environmental factors affecting parents and children and arrive at more appropriate interference plans and recommendations.The competence perspective draws from ego psychological science psychodynamic psychology and learning, developmental, and family systems theories. In social work as in other fields, competence is generally defined as the repertoire of skills that enable the person to function effectively. However, a distinction should be made between the notion of separate competencies or skills and the broader, ecological or transactional concept of competence. The latter may be defined as the outcome of the inter be among A persons capacities, skills, potentialities, limitations, and othercharacteristics. A persons motivation-that is, her or his interests, hopes, beliefs, andaspirations, and the qualities of the persons impinging environment-such as socialnetworks, environmental demands, and opportunities (Maluccio 1981).Stress, venture, and Protective Factors in perspective of Both Case StudiesIn the flight of their development, families and children encounter a variety of stresses and fortunes that need to be considered in each interventive plans or work. Stress and riskiness are closely related concepts. As Roskies (1991412) indicates, In spite of its widespread use, there is no single, precise description of the term stress. Saleebey, D. (2002) who is regarded as the father of modern stress theory, focuses on ph ysiological reactions of the human organism in its struggle to resist noxious stimuli or stressors. Along with other theorists, Locke and Taylor (1991157) define stress as the emotional response, typically consisting of fear and/and anxiety and associated physical symptoms resulting from perceived threats to ones well-being or selfesteem. We think of stress as ingrained tension or strain produced in the human being in response to every one or more factors.Risk has been defined as any influence that increases the probability of onset, digression to a more serious state, or the maintenance of a problem condition (Fraser 1997a3). Risk or photograph represents a heightened probability of negative outcome based on the comportment of one or more factors such as genetic, biological, behavioral, socio-cultural, and demographic conditions, characteristics, or attributes (Fraser 199710). Examples of environmental risks are family dysfunction, child abuse, parental illness, and, above all, poverty.Protective factors are those internal and external forces that help children resist or ameliorate risk (Fraser 1997a13). Rutter (1985600) further defines defensive factors as influences that modify, ameliorate, or alter a persons response to some environmental hazard that predisposes to a nonadaptive outcome. Problem-solving skills, a sense of self-efficacy, and an internal locus of control are examples of internal forces found in resilient children and youths. Examples of external forces are the strong family movement of a caring, supporting adult in the family and a safe and ancillary school set- ting.As Benard (1997) explains, schools can provide a protective environment for many youths and children through the caring and support and high expectations of teachers and other school personnel as well as the opportunities available for meaningful connection in the life of the classroom, school, or community.Under certain conditions the interplay between risk factors an d protective mechanisms leads to successful coping and adaptation An individual is able to bonk so long as the balance among risks, stressful life events, and protective factors is manageable. alone when risk factors and stressful life events outweigh the protective factors, even the most resilient children can develop problems (Werner 198980).Through her longitudinal, life span study of 618 children, Werner (1994 and 1995) has demonstrated the role of protective factors within the family and community, such as socioeconomic supports, in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. As considered in subsequent chapters, social workers can play weighty roles in promoting resilience in children and youths. In particular, in confederacy with the concepts delineated in the preceding section, the constructs of risk, stress, and protective factors suggest several interrelated themes that can help guide social work practice withfamilies and children mankind beings are engaged in ongoing, dyn amic transactions with theirenvironment and in a continuous process of growth and adaptation. adult male beings are open systems that are spontaneously active andmotivated to achieve competence in their coping with life demands and environmental challenges. Varied environmental opportunities and social supports are necessary tosustain and promote a human beings efforts to grow, to achieve self-fulfillment, and to contribute to others. abstract supports should be matched to the human beings changingqualities and needs in order to maximize the development of her or hiscompetence, identity, autonomy, and self-fulfillment.Intergenerational Aspects and Principles of eudaimonia Law In perspective to Case Study 2Throughout human history and across societies, parents have relied on the all-embracing family, especially grandparents, for help in care of their children. Such conviction is becoming increasingly problematic, due to such factors as the geographic mobility of families and, ab ove all, growing societal problems in such areas as housing, poverty, substance abuse, and family violence. In addition, there is an increasing proportion of mothers at an early age, including early adolescence the families of these youngish mothers are often struggling with their own issues, problems, and challenges.It has been estimated that, as of the early 1990s, between 2.3 and 4.3 million children lived in the homes of relatives without their parents (Everett 1995). The U.S. Bureau of the Census (1995) reports that approximately 3.9 million children were being raised in grandparent-headed households in 1995. While affinity caring is more common among families of color, it is seen also among white families. As extensively considered by Hegar and Scannapieco (1999), phylogenetic relation care is a complex phenomenon-whether provided through informal arrangements or through state supervision. According to these authors, among the issues to be considered are thefollowing How sho uld formal relationship care differ from informal care arranged by the families? Should phylogenetic relation care be classified as any out-of-home care or family preservation? Should foster families licensure or certification be required of kinship families?How long should the state subsidize office with kin?In view of the above, practitioners need to give increased attention to the intergenerational aspects of family and child Welfare Law services. In particular, agency policies and programs should recognize the crucial role of grandparents in caring partially or fully for their grandchildren, including teenage granddaughters who are pregnant or have children of their own. Since they face multiple tasks during a crucial phase of their own development, parenting grandparents need a social service system that responds to their needs.As recommended by the Child Welfare League of the States (Child Welfare League of the States 1994 National Commission on Family promote Care 1991), following are some of the strategies that are especially crucial in promoting intergenerational interventions offering services to the parents as well as the grandparents to meet their own needs as caregivers as well as the childs needs, providing adequate monetary supports, especially in view of the precarious financial conditions of many grandparents, supervise the childs placement in kinship care, so as to ensure the childs well-being as well as address the needs of the kinship family, and encouraging practitioners to appreciate and respect each the childs and familys cultural, racial, and ethnic identity.In addition, there needs to be attention to the ongoing psychosocial issues that many parenting grandparents experience as they are faced with their own basic physical, emotional, and financial adjustments (Poe 1992), the interaction between parents and grandparents, with its potential for frustration and conflicts, the issue of permanency planning for children placed with re latives, and the parents own need for help in connection with their own problems as well as their functioning as parents. Various authors consider these issues in detail. For example, Poe (1992) offers implications for policy and treatment in the situations of black grandparents.Doucette-Dudman and LaCure (1996) present guidelines for helping grandparents and social service professionals cope with the challengesinherent in grandparent parenting. Generations United (1998) offers recommendations and strategies for dealing with economic supports, health care, education, child care, and legal issues in the situations of grandparents and other relatives raising children. Maluccio (1999) describes intergenerational approaches to helping families at risk, such as foster grandparent programs, mentoring of young mothers by elderly persons, and having older adults work with families experiencing child abuse or neglect.Child-Focused and Family-Centered Practice In perspective of Welfare Law he arty acetify Practice requires that we maintain a principal focus on the child within a family-centered context. As discussed more extensively elsewhere, such a focus suggests that, in most cases, the child can top hat be helped by regarding the family as the central unit of service or focus of attention, whenever and as much as possible. Human beings can outstrip be understood and helped within their significant environment, and the family is the most intimate environment of all. It is here that the child develops and forms her or his identity and basic competence.The family has the potential to provide resources throughout the life cycle, especially as its members are sustained and support by various services (Germain 1999). The familys own environment can be employed as the arena in which practitioners intervene to help strengthen communication, parenting skills, and parent-child relationships.As reflected throughout this volume, we consider the following guidelines as especia lly pregnant in implementing child-focused and family-centered practice at that place is emphasis on prevention and intervention strategies that reduce stress and risk and promote coping and resilience in children and families. Practitioners must understand the relationship between race/racenicity and issues such as family norms, child-rearing practices, childhood and family poverty, discrimination, and funding of social services. Assessment and intervention focus on the familys transactions with its kinship system, school, community institutions, and other social networks that affect its functioning. Intervention strategies are directed not only toward engaging the family in treatment but also toward changing the socialsystems that influence it. There is emphasis on case management strategies and community-based approaches that help empower conquerable clients (Rothman 1994). Many parents can be helped to become rehabilitated or to plan responsibly for their children through fam ily treatment approaches as alternatives to placement of children out of their homes or as methods of speeding up the reunification of placed children with their families. For example, birth parents of children at risk can be empowered through the use of group training. When children are separated as a result of hospitalization, imprisonment, foster home placement, or residential placement, family ties between them and their families should be preserved as much as possible, through such means as consistent parental visiting. The inherent bonds between children in care and their parents may continue to be important for most parents and children long after they are physically separated for either short-term or long-term periods. Foster family, group care, or residential placement of a child should be seen as a part of the overall service rather than as the service-as a tool, rather than as an end in itself. In line with this, there should be efforts to have parents, foster parents, o r other child care personnel regard themselves as partners in a shared undertaking, with common goals and mutually supportive and complementary roles. A major source of help often can be the familys extended kinship system. (Danzy and Jackson 1997) as in situations involving parental substance abuse. As another example, in many cases the extended family, with agency support, can help a parent avert placement or reduce the duration of placement in an unfamiliar setting. usual aid groups, such as those for vulnerable adolescents, gay and lesbian youths, intimate abuse survivors, or bereaved children, can be therapeutic as well as empowering (Gitterman and Shulman 1994).ReferencesAllen, R. I. and C. G. Petr. 1998. Rethinking family-centered practice. American ledger of Orthopsychiatry 684-15.American kind-hearted Association. 1998. Assessing Outcomes in Child Welfare Services Principles, Concepts, and a Framework of warmness Indicators. Englewood, Col. AHA, Childrens Division.Benard , B. 1994. Applications of resilience. Paper presented at a conference on the usance of Resilience in Drug Abuse, Alcohol Abuse, and Mental Illness, December 5-6. Washington, D.C. Cited in D. Saleebey 1997.Benard, B. 1997. 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