Social Workers Responsibilities

For 30 years, advocates, program administrators, and politicians have joined to encourage even more reports of suspected child abuse and neglect. Their efforts have been successful, with about three million cases of suspected child abuse having been reported in 1993. Large numbers of endangered children still go unreported, but a serious problem had developed: Upon investigation, as many as 65 percent or the reports now being made are determined to be "unsubstantiated", raising serious civil liberties concerns and placing a huge burden on investigative staffs.

The most vulnerable individuals are found within the elderly and children population. Children can be impacted tremendously when experiencing situations that may affect their emotional, physical, and mental stage. Abuse can be seen in different forms such as sexual, emotional, physical abuse, and neglect. If any child is exposed to any of these abuse, it is the law to reach out to the proper authorities in order to protect the child’s life. Each state has its own mandated reporting laws and it is important to be able to recognized the protocol and what the law requires in each state.

IntroductionThis paper discusses and explores both case studies in order to find the powers and duties a social worker acting in a statutory capacity might exercise in these cases, how might they be exercised and how might wider principles of welfare law impact on their decision making? It also analyses the tensions and dilemmas that may exist, referring to specific legislative provisions, and identify how anti-oppressive practice might influence the resolution of these case studies. It also demonstrates an ability to study relevant law in social work practice and have a critical and analytical understanding of the service delivery standards and powers and duties of social workers, demonstrate a working knowledge and understanding of key

As a Child Protective Service Supervisor, I believe that all social workers should be required to report abuse and/or neglect. I believe this is a liability issue for all social workers. If they see abuse/neglect occurring and don’t report it, they could be legally responsible if something happens to that child. There are social workers who are specially trained to interview children in cases of abuse or neglect and they should be the people who do so.

Safety is very important when you do social work it could mean the difference between life and death. KVC health systems have many precautions and safety measures that are to be taken.

I agree that forming social relationships outside the boundaries of counseling is an area that I would avoid. However, I must admit being torn during this week’s discussion. While I am a social worker and therefore must adhere to the NASW code of ethics, my current role is that of a family advocate. Which means a direct involvement in very personal family events such as parent-teacher conferences, doctor appointments, court hearings, and therapy sessions. I am not a licensed counselor however the families I work with are dealing with severe issues of drug use, child and spousal abuse, and mental illness of which I am told everything and confidentiality is essential.

From this assignment I became aware that all states in the United States have statutes identifying anyone who must report child maltreatment under certain circumstances. I have been a resident of Pennsylvania for 20 years. This assignment really opened my eyes to a subject I have no put much attention towards until now. To compare Pennsylvania’s laws with other states, I chose states close to the area. I chose to also look at New Jersey, Delaware, New York and Maryland as well.

Child welfare officials are obligated to provide children who have suffered from abuse or neglect with appropriate homes. Unfortunately, The Children’s Rights Organization reveals that there were 4 million reports of child maltreatment in the United States. Based on the overall results, the data concludes that more than 78 percent of the perpetrators of maltreatment were parents acting alone, together, or with other individuals (“Child Abuse and Neglect” 1). When children are removed from their home and placed in foster care, it is also assumed that the children are no longer in danger. Parents who lack training and compassion end up maltreating the children.

As a kid one should be able to have a worry free and stress free childhood. Many children are not allowed this fun time. Children grow up with unloving or caring families causing them to have to cope with problems and fear by them self. A child social workers duty is to help children cope with their problems and place them in better situations. A social worker follows many criterias in providing a child with the appropriate services and interventions such as identifying the situation or problem, planning the steps that should be taken to fix the problem, and following these steps in order to fix the problem.

When I started thinking about my future, becoming a Social worker was never in my plans. I knew that I always wanted to help people; I just never thought I could make a career out of it. When was younger, I spent time working at a nursing home serving them dinner. During my time working there, I was able to get to know the elderly patients and began to enjoy spending time with them, and just being someone, they could talk to. I also worked at a summer camp and an after-school program, which was the first jobs that sparked my interest in wanting to work with children. After working both of these jobs, I strongly felt that I wanted to become a teacher. My academic concentration during my first three years of college was Early Childhood Education,

Child neglect and abuse has gone on for a numerous amount of years, there are three different types of child abuse such as emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. People have been trying to change things to make a difference to protect children from abusers. Children haven't been able to receive the protection they need to stay safe from these offenders because some people argue that offenders have rights, and that some of the laws and new regulations violate these offenders rights and privacy. These people are taking a priority to offenders rights first, when they should be thinking about the children's rights and prioritizing their needs. Offenders have already abused and basically taken away the rights from children when these abusers have

However, in some places there is lack of attention and supervision to those who need our help the most. In some domestic violence shelters, caseworkers and victims do not have boundaries. “Boundaries’ allow domestic violence advocates to justify separating their personal lives from their professional advocacy, and reinforce the unequal distribution of power between advocates and domestic violence victims” (Boundaries in Casework..,Global Public Health, Sep. 2009, p.464) There should be more support and therapy sessions for the children and adults who have been experiencing any type of violence. Many people suffer from mental and emotional problems because they were victims of child abuse. We all should be consider ourselves as advocates against child abuse and keep close eye on children we work with and people around

The dominant narrative greatly shapes the environment of everyone around them even if it is for the bad. Poverty is a risk factor for severe emotional, behavior, and mental disorders (Komro, 2011). I can see it with my clients that I have in my internship which are mostly adolescent boys. Their parents take them in saying that they are having behavioral issues and that they don’t want to talk. I feel like these parents need more training about what to do with their children. I always explain to them that their kids coming in isn’t going to fix the problem. That they need to talk to them, give them direction and nurture them, basically to me is parent them. If parents were to do that they would get a more positive response from their children.

School social workers work within schools to provide a variety of social, emotional, and mental health services to students to support overall success. The intent of this research is to evaluate the significance of having a school social worker available to general education students within the Owatonna High School setting and to examine the gaps in services that may have appeared since removal of this position in 2009. Various related studies were examined to outline a range of ways in which school social workers are used to support student success. During this study, a total of seven employees of the Owatonna School District were interviewed regarding school social work. As a whole the participants identified a large number of gaps

Law has come to play a very important part in social work practice. It can be said that the understanding of law underpins and provides duties and power, whilst understanding the statutory legal requirements is essential for effective, fair, anti-discriminatory practice (Brammer 2007). Due to the shear amount of laws and legislation that have been passed or updated over the last decade, the role of the social worker, metaphorically speaking could be said to have become somewhat of a chameleon, forever adapting to their legal environment, whilst trying hard to remain true to the traditional values of the role of a social worker. It is this conflict between law and social work values that will be analyzed in this paper. From looking at the values that underpin the modern day social worker and then looking at some of the main legislation relating to adult services such as the Mental Health Act 2007, the Community Care Act 1996, Mental Capacity Act 2005 the relationship between these Acts’ and how they sit with social work values will then be discussed.