Week 3: Analyzing Social Problems

In Week 3 you are reintroduced to the family case studies you have seen throughout your concentration year. You will analyze the social problems within each family and apply the skill you would use in working with these family members as clients. You are provided with additional media for each family that allow you to use your skills to identify the policy and social problems that are impacting these families. Additionally, you explore policy advocacy skills in relation to your clinical social work skills.

This week you also will complete Part I of your Social Change Project.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

• Analyze social problems related to social work practice
• Apply policy advocacy skills to address a social problem
• Analyze the impact of social problems on social work populations
• Analyze social policies

Learning Resources

Required Readings

SOCW 6361 Webliography
These websites will be required throughout the semester. Become familiar with these websites, especially when doing research for your assignments.

Community Toolbox. (n.d). Chapter 5  Section 3: Social planning and policy Change. Retrieved from http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/promotion-strategies/social-planning-policy-change/main 

Community Toolbox. (n.d). Chapter 5 Section 4: Social action. Retrieved from http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/promotion-strategies/systems-advocacy-and-community-organizing/main

Jansson, B. S. (2018). Becoming an effective policy advocate: From policy practice to social justice. (8th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning Series.
Chapter 7, “Analyzing Problems in the First Step of Policy Analysis” (pp. 204-243)

Midgley, J., & Livermore, M. M. (Eds.). (2008). The handbook of social policy (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Chapter 14, “Critical Social Policy” (pp. 215–235) (PDF)

Required Media

Laureate Education. (Producer). (2013). Bradley (Episode 7 of 42) [Video file]. In Sessions. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 2 minutes.
Accessible player –Downloads–Download Video w/CCDownload AudioDownload TranscriptCredit: Provided courtesy of the Laureate International Network of Universities.

Laureate Education. (Producer). (2013). Cortez Case Study [Multimedia file]. In Sessions. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Note:  The approximate length of this media piece is 2 minutes.

Laureate Education. (Producer). (2013). Levy (Episode 7 of 42) [Video file]. In Sessions. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 4 minutes.
Accessible player –Downloads–Download Video w/CCDownload AudioDownload TranscriptCredit: Provided courtesy of the Laureate International Network of Universities.

Laureate Education. (Producer). (2013). Petrakis (Episode 6 of 42) [Video file]. In Sessions. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 2 minutes.
Accessible player –Downloads–Download Video w/CCDownload AudioDownload TranscriptCredit: Provided courtesy of the Laureate International Network of Universities.

Optional Resources

Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen S. M. (Eds.). (2014). Sessions: Case histories. Baltimore, MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing. [Vital Source e-reader].

MSW home page
Use this link to access the MSW home page, which provides resources for your social work program.

Discussion: Analyses of Social Problems in Case Studies

As a social worker, often you need to use your policy advocacy skills to ensure that your clients are receiving the services that they need. Although you may tend to think of policy advocacy skills as separate from your clinical social work skills, they are very similar. Think of the skills that you would use in working with a client such as Jake Levy. How could you apply these skills to policy advocacy? How will you use these skills to identify the policy and social problems that are impacting these families? In this week’s Discussion, you will continue to follow the Levy, Bradley, Petrakis, and Cortez families to start the process of policy advocacy.

In this Discussion, select one of the four integrated videos and identify the problems experienced by the client(s).

By Day 3

Post your responses to the following:

• Who is defining the problem?
• What values are reflected in this definition of the problem?
• What is being omitted in this definition?
• What other problems do you see that are not being acknowledged?

Be sure to support your post with specific references to this week’s resources. If you are using additional articles, be sure to provide full APA-formatted citations for your references.

By Day 5

Respond to a colleague who chose a case different from yours by addressing the following:

• Describe another way the identified problem can be defined.
• What policy advocacy skills do you think should be used to address the identified problem?
• What makes a social problem a social work problem?

Response

 Waynnesha Wedlow RE: Discussion – Week 3COLLAPSE

Tiffany Bradley is a 16-year-old female who ran away from home to prevent being raped by her family and ultimately ended up being sex trafficked by a pimp (Plummer, Makris, & Brocksen, 2014). The Safe Harbor from Exploited Children Act was put in place to treat sex trafficked youth as survivors of trauma who should be provided rehabilitation services and not treated as criminals (Williams, 2017). Due to this Act being the reason Tiffany was mandated to the Teens First program, I believe the law defined the problem in Tiffany’s case. When policies are created such as this one, it is likely because there were many advocates fighting against the injustice of charging minors with sex crimes, when adults where forcing them to engage in the act of prostitution. A problem must be analyzed thoroughly to by policy advocates for advocacy to be effective (Jansson, 2018). Looking at Tiffany’s case a social worker can advocate for the need to trauma treatment given her life experiences from the time she was 8 years old to now. She has experienced a lot and has not had any form of support from the adults in her life. 

Initially, Tiffany was going to be charged with criminal sex crime charges for prostitution (Laureate Education, 2013). Due to the Safe Harbor Act going into effect, she was placed in a diversion program, which allowed her to start her healing process. Tiffany experienced exploitation and trauma over the course of many years. When she first began with Teens First, she believed Donald, her initial pimp was her husband. Tiffany’s case is complex and required a lot of work on both she and the social workers part. The values reflected in the definition of the problem in the case of Tiffany are service, social justice, and dignity and worth of a person (NASW, 2017). From the initial meeting with Tiffany the social workers goal was to address the multitude of problems going on in Tiffany’s life. This was done through group and individual therapy along with other resources available at the facility. The social worker made sure Tiffany understood why her charges were dropped and that the law understands the other factors surround youth sex trafficking. The social worker also helped Tiffani learn that Donald is not someone who helped her like she initially thought but is someone who took advantage of her and raped her (Plummer et al., 2014). The social worker defined the problem when explaining to Tiffany why the charges were dropped against her, I did not feel anything was omitted from the definition. The Safe Harbor act covers everything needing to be covered when it concerns youth sex trafficking, as trauma is a huge component of the problems that stem from the effects of it. The Safe Harbor act considered the factors that lead to youth being sex trafficking victims and diversion programs have been created in states that enacted this law (Williams, 2017). 

References

Jansson, B. S. (2018). Becoming an Effective Policy Advocate: From Policy Practice to Social Justice. (8th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning Series.

Laureate Education. (Producer). (2013). Bradley (Episode 7 of 42) [Video file]. In Sessions. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

National Association of Social Workers. (2017). Code of ethics. Retrieved from https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics-English

Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen S. M. (Eds.). (2014). Sessions: Case Histories. Baltimore, MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing. [Vital Source e-reader].

Williams, R. (2017). Safe Harbor: State Efforts to Combat Child Trafficking. Retrieved from https://www.ncsl.org/Portals/1/Documents/cj/SafeHarbor_v06.pdf

Submission and Grading Information

Grading Criteria

To access your rubric:
Week 3 Discussion Rubric

Post by Day 3 and Respond by Day 5

To participate in this Discussion:
Week 3 Discussion

Project: Part 1: Identification of a Social Problem and Identification of a Policy

As an astute social worker and professional policy advocate, you must be adept at identifying social problems that exist in your community or in an agency or organization with which you are acquainted. Once you have selected a social problem, you begin the process of creating and implementing a policy that addresses that social problem.

In this assignment, you identify and describe a current social problem. You also identify a policy created and implemented to address the problem. This is the first part of your Social Change Project final assignment.

By Day 7

Complete Part 1 of your Social Change Project.

Address the following items in a 3-4 page paper:

• Describe a current social problem. How might this problem be incongruent with social work values/ethics?
• How/when has this problem been identified historically, and what were the actions taken to address this concern?
• How have the groups affected by this concern changed over time?
• Describe the policy area related to this social problem.
• Is the policy identified by your group dictated by local, state, or federal statute—or a combination thereof?
• What are the different aspects of the policy?
• How long has the current policy been in place?
• Who supports and who opposes the policy?
• What changes/amendments have been made to the policy?
• Explain how this policy affects clients you might see in a clinical setting and why, as a clinical social worker, it would be important to advocate for change.

Make sure that your assertions are supported by appropriate research and reputable resources.