Category: Social work

I only have to write two pages of this assignment and it will be the introduction and history of homelessness in America…. it will be based off the communities in this link 
https://www.firststepcommunities.org/safeground#:~:text=SafeGround%20is%20a%20safe%20camping,shelter%20and%20transitional%20housing%20resources
Below are the intructions provided by our instructor I will need at least 1 peer reviewed journal.
It is the obligation of social workers to continually look for ways to improve the services delivered to clients. That means we must always be on the lookout for cutting edge or innovative programs at the macro level that approach an old problem in a new way.  The goal of this assignment is for students to experience the process of identifying an innovative program that addresses a community need.
Students will work in groups of 4-5 students. Groups will identify and research an innovative program or approach to addressing a problem related to social work services. Group will write a paper at least 8 pages in length discussing the history of the problem and identifying previous attempts to address the problem. Group will conduct a Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis to identify and discuss the innovative program or approach researched as well as strengths and weaknesses of the approach. Group will propose further ways to improve the program or approach to address weaknesses identified. A minimum of 4 peer reviewed journals are required as resources. Paper should be formatted according to APA 7th edition.
Assignment due by 11:59 pm CST on Sunday of Week 6.
I attached a photo of what we will be talking about so you can add it in the introduction.

Read the following files:Offender Classification Document.docx
Transition Planning Notes I.docx
Engage in the interactive media: Case Study – John the Inmate Transcript Apply what you have learned about engagement, assessment, planning, and intervention (Workshops 3-6), as well as ethical practice, to complete the dialogue successfully.
Take good notes about John’s needs, risks, strengths, resources, and goals, just as you would if you were conducting this interview in a real-world scenario.
Read the follow-up files:Psychological Evaluation.docx
Transition Planning Notes II.docx
Based on the prior interaction and all supporting documents, write a discharge plan for John. It should be between 200 and 300 words in length. Your discharge plan should ensure that John’s needs will be met as thoroughly as possibly once he leaves the treatment facility. Consider the following factors:Living arrangements
Financial needs
Transportation plans
Vocational and/or educational plans
Personal and professional support
Cultural needs and resources
Ongoing treatment needs and plans
Medications and medical equipment needs
Include any other factors you think relate to a discharge plan for this client, such as caring for his spiritual needs, if applicable.
Imagine that one week prior to John’s release, Dr. Brimmer and you (the intern) meet with John to review his discharge plan and discuss termination as noted in Transition Planning Notes II. Dr. Brimmer has worked with John for some time, and you have now been involved on his case, so the termination discussion is an important step in saying goodbye to this client. In the same document you produced to write the discharge plan, write a brief, skilled, and empathetic termination dialogue that is ethical and supports John’s continuing progress as he transitions from the prison. It should be between 200 and 300 words in length. In italics or brackets within the dialogue, describe attending behaviors and nonverbal communication that you could use to support engagement. Include the following talking points:Clarification about the end of the professional relationship
Summary of the client’s accomplishments and strengths
Summary of the client’s ongoing needs
Summary of the client’s discharge plan
Summary of the client’s resources and support people
Well wishes and any positive sentiment
Reference https://brightspace.indwes.edu/d2l/le/content/230437/viewContent/3920943/View

For this assignment, you can use one of the policy analysis frameworks from the book and apply it to the proposal legislation. You can frame it from a perspective on how this would impact clients. Analyze the implications of the impact of the proposed legislation on clients in behavioral health dealing with mental health. Some questions to consider: 
Will this change in policy enhance or harm clients?
Who are the major stakeholders on both sides?
What is the specific solution being proposed?
Why is this being proposed as a change now?
Your analysis should take the form of a well written paper to include references in APA formatting. 
ATTACHED IS THE TEXTBOOK PAGES AND PART 1 TO REFER BACK TO

For this assessment, you will take the perspective of a social worker who is meeting with an ethics board to explain ethical issues that arose in several of your cases. You will prepare a report to explain how you responded to various ethical dilemmas. 
Select 3 case study scenarios from the following list to use for this assessment:
Scenario 1: You have been working with a client consistently for a long time. The client surprises you during the holidays by giving you a gift and expresses how thankful they are for all you have done for them.
Scenario 2: One of your clients has a yard care business that has fallen on hard times financially. As a result, the client is unable to pay for services. They are very invested in continuing services and have offered to provide free yard care services in exchange.
Scenario 3: One of your co-workers has come to you for advice about a client they have worked with for some time. The client is progressing significantly toward their goals but has recently expressed romantic feelings toward your co-worker. Your co-worker says they reinforced professional boundaries with the client but admits they have felt similar romantic feelings. You are not their supervisor.
Scenario 4: A client comes to you to find resources in their community for help addressing multiple needs in their life. During your assessment of the client’s needs, you discover that they have a significant substance use issue that is having a negative effect on many of their other needs. When you suggest a referral for substance use services, your client tells you frankly that they have no interest in addressing their substance use.
Scenario 5: A client discloses that they are gay and have suffered trauma related to how their family’s religious beliefs prohibit sexual relations with individuals of the same gender. Your religious beliefs are different from their family’s beliefs. Your client is conflicted and largely continues to believe in the same religious principles as their family, but they have doubts about what to believe.
Scenario 6: You are part of a team in an agency that is putting together an annual report about the efficacy of their services. When the data is collected, the results suggest that the services they are providing are not as effective as hoped. The agency fears that the data could be harmful if released, so they decide to leave out some of the cases they think would unfairly skew the data against the agency. The revised data falls in line with the agency’s goals, so they publish the revised data in their annual report.
Scenario 7: While providing services for a family, you hear your client express a concern about the severity of their spouse’s disciplinary style with their child. Your client mentions that they worry about the yelling and how hard the spankings are and asks you for advice. They tell you that they don’t want you to share this information with anyone because they don’t want to “get into trouble” and have their spouse retaliate against them or the child.
Scenario 8: A family member of one of your clients calls you for help because they are very worried about their loved one, who seems to be in crisis and may be suicidal. In the past, your client provided a release of information so that you could collaborate with this family member, but they have recently asked you to keep the details of their case private from family.
Scenario 9: You are a child welfare supervisor and there are only 2 other child welfare workers in your office. A 16-year-old female client discloses that she is pregnant, wants to explore her options, and expresses that she is thinking about an abortion. She does not want her birth or foster parents to know. Both of the social workers you supervise have told you that they are morally opposed to abortion and are not comfortable working with this client.
Scenario 10: You are staffing a case with your supervisor about a juvenile client who is transgender. During the discussion, your supervisor comments that this individual is likely just seeking attention and will probably bounce back and forth between gender identities. Your supervisor encourages you to avoid conversations about gender and to focus on other aspects of this client’s needs.
Assessment Deliverable
700- to 1,050-word written report
For your assessment, describe the professional behaviors expected of social workers in each of the 3 selected scenarios as if you were explaining to the ethics board how you handled these ethical dilemmas. Include the following:
Identify the values and ethical principles from the NASW Code of Ethics relevant to each scenario and explain why they are relevant in each case.
Explain why each scenario is an ethical dilemma. Identify the ethical principles involved.
Identify your responsibility for professional behavior as the social worker in each scenario. Explain the course of action needed to address the dilemma in each case and how you handled the conflicting values.

For this paper you will begin a very entry level practice in writing a literature review. A literature review synthesizes information from multiple peer-reviewed academic studies on a macro-level topic. From this personal inquiry, choose one topic to read more about. Begin your research by finding and reading at least two current articles on the topic. For this paper, students MAY use popular media articles and do not need to use scholarly journals. We will cover scholarly resources in Week 3 of the term. After reviewing the readings, This will be the first draft of this paper, feedback will be given, and you will have opportunities to edit, refine, and add as the term goes on. Paper Outline
After reading, begin writing using the following outline.
Introduction – What is your topic and why is it important?
Define your Topic – Give a paragraph description of the topic, what it means, and how it impacts families today
Article Summaries – Provide at least one paragraph summary of each article including how it ties to families today.
Conclusion – Summarize and Apply why the topic is important to your future career
*Your completed paper should be 2-3 pages in length.

Vocabulary concept: “umbrella” Organization. Find articles or supplementary materials related to that week’s course content to share, and provide a one-paragraph summary of the new information you learned and how it might impact your future careers.
For full credit, your submission must include the following:
A clearly identified vocabulary concept with a brief (1 sentence) definition. A direct link or APA citation for the outside source you reviewed. A paragraph summarizing the new information and connecting the information to your future career. Paragraphs are typically 3-5 sentences in length and around 100-200 words. There is no limit or minimum for this assignment but you are encouraged to be detailed in your response.

Peer 1 Shamika:
How many people are negatively impacted by the current social policy? Is there a ripple effect from these consequences? If so, how does it manifest?
The policy I chose is social security. If we take a look at this policy, we are able to identify some of the hiccups with social security. Per research, it states women receive social security more often than men. Women tend to live longer than men, so they need as much retirement as possible (Garland, 2021). Even with that being said, men receive more benefits monthly than women. We can view this as a negative impact to social security policy. It is no secret that women are more likely to struggle with retirement savings than men (Hagen, 2022). Based on these negatives alone, consequences are for sure to follow. Although millions of individuals receive social security, many others are denied on a daily basis. This can be viewed also as a negative that affects those suffering with disabilities, along with a loss of wages when denied. The trickle-down effect if individuals left struggling to survive. Some of those may face homelessness, repossessions, foreclosures, and more. Poverty is not farfetched from the reality unfortunately. With a higher number of wealthy beneficiaries in the system, benefits are paid out more rapidly, acting as a further drain on social security reserves (Csiszar, 2023). Once again, we have another issue that clearly is witnessed with the social security policy and its negative impact. Funding for social security will diminish further if these impacts aren’t acknowledged and rectified.
References:
Csiszar, John. (2023). 9 Biggest Problems Facing Social Security in 2024. Retrieved from https://www.gobankingrates.comon January 10 2024.
Garland, Susan. (2021). A Woman’s Guide to Making the Most of Social Security. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com
1
Clicks: Alison Duncklee on January 20, 2024.
Peer 2 Mike:
What forms and mechanisms of oppression and discrimination result from the policy you’ve selected? Discuss a case study that illustrates the negative impacts of the policy.
As a recap, the policy I have selected for my term project is the United States Housing Act of 1937 as amended through December 29, 2022 (United States Housing Act, 1937) and I chose this because it laid groundwork for states to engage oppressing those convicted of drug related crimes by limiting their eligibility for subsidized public housing intended to assist those vulnerable and in need.
According to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (2022), it is legal to discriminate against felons in many of the same ways it was to discriminate against African Americans. Once you are a felon, housing discrimination, denial of food stamps, ineligibility for certain public assistance programs and denial of the rights to vote or serve on a jury are all legal. As one of my peers pointed out, certain states do now allow felons access to some of these services, but that does not negate the point that they do not have to and not all states do. In fact, many federal policies specifically remove rights such as these, and although some of them do allow states to wave these restrictions, it is still a legalized option for oppression, and it also sets the stage for stigmatization.
Bernard (2020) did a study to examine the inhibitors to ex-offenders attaining housing. In this study she noted the United States Housing Act of 1937 was amended in 1988 with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 which required public housing authorities (PHA’s) to include language in their leases which prohibits tenants or people living with the tenant to engage in criminal activity on the property or elsewhere, opening the door for eviction if anyone living at the property is charged with a crime anywhere. This act also allowed PHA’s to make their own determinations regarding the eligibility of housing. In 1990, the National Affordable Housing Act of 1990 (NAHA) permitted the consideration of the criminal history of all potential household members when considering eligibility and the Housing Opportunity Program Extension Act of 1996 then made it a requirement of all law enforcement agencies to comply with criminal record requests made by PHA’s. It also encouraged PHA’s to evict tenants even suspected of drug related criminal activity.
As you can see, the policies which guide eligibility for affordable housing have been structured in a way where it is legal to discriminate against those with criminal histories, especially drug related criminal histories, and in some cases it is even required. Therefore, policies at the federal level regarding this population have exacerbated their risk of recidivism because housing insecurity.
References
Bernard, J. D. (2020). Key inhibitors to ex-offenders obtaining permanent housing. Walden University – Scholar Works. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=10601&context=dissertations
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. (2022, November 29). Race and collateral consequences. NACDL. https://www.nacdl.org/Content/Race-and-Collateral-Consequences#:~:text=%E2%80%9COnce%20you’re%20labeled%20a,service%

Using your research topic and/or question and the literature you have collected for your research study proposal, prepare for an interview where you can connect with someone in the field who is familiar with your topic.

What kinds of topics are covered in the agency policy manual? Identify at least one policy that promotes social work professional practice and describe it.
As a leader in social work, would you recommend any changes to that policy? Why or why not?
Please use Client policy Maintains patient confidentiality according to Company’s Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance policies and procedures.
The Notice of Privacy Policy tells you about our duty to protect your health information, your privacy rights, and how we may use or disclose your health information.
How to Make a Complaint When receiving treatment from the agency , you have the right to make a complaint if you believe any of your rights have been violated or you have other concerns about your care in this program.
I have been provided crisis response hotline number in the event of a crisis situation. I understand the crisis hotline is available seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
Please use the NASW Code of Ethics as a source. https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics-English#:~:text=Rather%2C%20a%20code%20of%20ethics,their%20actions%20can%20be%20judged.

Please briefly introduce the character for your case study. This character can be fictional or non-fictional, so long as you are able to apply course concepts to the character (so no characters based on other planets or in futuristic settings, please!). I do not recommend picking individuals from your personal life, as you will be going into detail about personal aspects and struggles of your character. 
Your introduction should include the name of the person you’ve selected, who they are (e.g., celebrity, character from a TV show, etc.) and why you picked them. 
Please check the discussion board to make sure another student has not already picked your character. 
If you’d like, you may go ahead and post a link or attach your case study presentation draft with this info, so you can receive feedback directly on your presentation draft. 
Here is a sample completed Character Case Study on prezi – https://prezi.com/view/gbcarWpEulkOFMUKkyKy/