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SOCW 2061 A1

Student’s Name

Institution Affiliation

Course Title

Instructor’s Name

Due Date
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SOCW 2061 A1

Social Activism and Social Justice

One contemporary social activist in my country is an employee of The Parkwood

Regional Children and Family Social Services Agency (CFSSA), based in Brantville, Canada.

Karen has been a social worker with this agency for three years. She is tasked with promoting the

agency’s primary goal of supporting children in the Brantville municipality, with around thirty

thousand residents (Heinonen & Spearman, 2010). As an employee of CFSSA, Karen’s mandate

is to promote its operations and create social change to the social injustices the agency deals

with. Specifically, Karen’s mandate is to institute a social change against the neglect and abuse

of children and protect them from such abuse by supporting their families with essential services.

Karen and her organization use protection against child abuse and support for families as the

main methods to create social change (Heinonen & Spearman, 2010). By supporting families,

they are sure that children are protected against most forms of abuse, but if support is

insufficient, the agency takes children in its care as a protective measure against abuse. My

personal reflection is that social activism in social work is essential to rally people behind the

goals of social change; for instance, activism helps one to acquire people’s support against child

abuse, enabling people to assume any measures against child abuse readily.

Social Walk in My Community

After taking a walk in my community where social work agencies are prominent, I made

several observations. First, most social workers in the agencies use generalist skills whereby the

practitioners involve families, communities, and other organizations to advance their social work

goals and objectives. The generalist skills perspective is essential as it entails viewing the

strength of people towards requesting their support from the point of their understanding of what
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their communities need. Additionally, the social workers engage the different individuals,

groups, and organizations better by first educating and counseling them to elicit better

engagements towards realizing better results for the social changes they advocate for. Through

generalist skills, activities associated with “helping” and “social justice” are similar since

individuals, families, and groups are involved, making it difficult to differentiate them. It was not

the first time being in the neighborhood, and although I was aware of the services provided, I did

not recognize the service providers. The integration of locals and organizations with social

workers through the generalist skills perspective makes it easy to receive services without

knowing the source. I noted that people using the services are quite appreciative of them, and

they seamlessly offer their support and involvement whenever they are required to provide input

as they are similarly beneficiaries.

Ethical Choices

In Sally’s case, a minor, and I would inform her that despite the confidentiality

perspective, my decision to maintain a secret would depend on what she says. For instance, if it

is the case of her brother hurting her or not attending school, I would inform her parents to

ensure the issue does not deteriorate. Social workers are allowed to break confidentiality with

their clients if they perceive a situation is likely to cause harm to the client, or the client is likely

to cause harm (Harber-Iles, 2011). Therefore, my analysis of this situation reveals that it would

be unethical for me to consent to her requests, despite my friendship with her. Social workers are

bound to maintain professional relationships with their clients, and I must make Sally understand

that she has to be safe in whatever she tells me, regardless of whether it will be a secret between

us or I will communicate it further to help her (Stephenson, 2000) Besides, the CASW/ACTS

Guidelines for Ethical Practice (2005) provides that social workers have an obligation to protect
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children who are at risk of harm by reporting whatever causes them harm to the appropriate

authorities, starting with their parents and others.

Karen’s Roles in “Case Study: A Day (and Night) in the Life of a Social Worker”

While working for CFSSA, Karen assumes several roles in her work as a social worker.

One of the roles she assumed was a designated on-call worker. Karen’s goal in this role was to

answer and address all after-hours emergency calls that the hospital’s receptionist receives

(Heinonen & Spearman, 2010). Karen performed exemplary well in her role, as evidenced by her

reaction to one case of two children, Barry and Melanie, wandering out of their apartment

building at night. Using her role, Karen managed to secure emergency accommodation for the

children at Gayle’s place while under the apprehension of her agency. Karen’s performed well,

considering that she acted fast to protect the children from any harm, and even when Gayle

offered her place for accommodation, Karen checked it and ensured the children were

comfortable (Heinonen & Spearman, 2010). Karen’s relationship with her workmates is cordial,

and this can be seen through her phone calls to the police regardless of the time of the night.

Karen’s professional relationship was appropriate to her role. As a trained social worker, she

restrained from making conclusions but planned for further interviews to establish any issue.

This professionalism enabled her to show understanding and empathy by first ensuring that the

children get a safe emergency accommodation before talking to their mother, Tanya, whenever

she returns. Karen’s most effective action was first reacting to the children’s plight and securing

their accommodation in a comfortable place, which she ascertained before leaving the two

children (Heinonen & Spearman, 2010). The only action that would have made Karen’s action

more effective is to interview the children’s mother more deeply at the scene instead of

postponing it for the following day.

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Personal Awareness – Applying Generalist Social Work Concepts

Name:

Strengths: Motivation and focus.

Challenges: Impatience and

over-ambition.

Relationships: Love relationship with family

and friendship relationship with peers.

Community resources and connections: finances,

information, and goodwill.

When supporting individuals struggling with various issues, this chart is helpful to guide

people on the procedures of help or assistance that they should seek. For instance, one should

first seek to solve challenges personally before seeking the assistance of family members and

peer friends. If these two fail, they can obtain support from the community. This type of practice

appeals to me as procedures are essential to achieve any goal in life, even in social work. A
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social worker can apply their generic set of assessment, planning, and intervention skills in all

settings. However, some situations may call for specialized skills, but such skills only come

second after the generic criteria seem ineffective.

Theory in Practice

In Karen’s exertions involving the two children, Barry and Melanie, wandering outside

their apartment, Karen gets to the site to establish why they are left outside with no adult

accompanying them. When she gets to the site, other people accompany them, including Gayle,

who offers to accommodate them for the night until their mother, Tanya, comes. Gayle also

explains that she has previously provided emergency foster care for Parkwood Agency

(Heinonen & Spearman, 2010). Karen applies the cognitive-behavioral theory as a social worker

tasked with protecting children's interests by ensuring they are not exposed to any danger or

harm. This theory entails using thoughts, emotions, behavior, and other aspects that affect how

people feel, considering that such feelings are easily exhibited through behavior. Using this

theory, Karen judged and concluded that Barry and Melanie were comfortable being left under

Gayle’s care. Karen also gets to Gayle’s place to evaluate its safety for the children, which

applies the same cognitive-behavioral theory to evaluate Gayle’s reactions, enabling Karen to

ascertain that Gayle is a safe option for the kid’s emergency accommodation (Heinonen &

Spearman, 2010). The cognitive-behavioral theory acted as the best option for Karen in her

situation. Karen drew on her micro knowledge to engage with Gayle, the police, and the two

children to help them secure emergency accommodation for the night. Karen applies anti-

oppressive practices by cordially dealing with Tanya when she comes back, regardless of the

level of risk that she had placed her children on.

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References

CASW/ACTS Guidelines for Ethical Practice (2005). Canadian Association of Social Workers.

Retrieved from http://caswacts.ca/sites/default/files/attachements/CASW_Guidelines

%20for%20Ethical%20Practice.pdf

Harber-Iles, M. (2011). Important concepts in social work ethics: Respect, self-determination,

confidentiality, empowerment, and social control. Kamloops, BC: Thompson Rivers

University.

Heinonen, T., & Spearman, L. (2010). Social Work Practice: problem solving and beyond.

Nelson Education Ltd.

Stephenson, M. (2000). Final Report: Executive Summary of “In Critical Demand: Social Work

in Canada Report. Canadian Association of Social Workers. Retrieved from:

http://www.caswacts.ca/en/critical-demand-social-work-canada-volume-1-final-report-

2000