This student conducted a pie assessment with client Paige Russell. During the initial assessment, the student looked at one particular ethical dilemma along with one particular diversity issue. The ethical dilemma that the student focused on was importance of human relationships, and the diversity issue included discrimination by age. The overall problem that the student assisted the client with was aging out of foster care.
Aging Out of Foster Care
The concept of aging out of foster care is referred to those children who are within the state foster care system and who are still in the system upon reaching the age of eighteen, twenty-one or have graduated from high school (Craft, 2014). The causes of children aging out of the foster care system is usually due to the children not finding a permanent home with an adoptive family, or the state for some reason has not reunited the child with his or her birth family before turning of age. Each state has a different regulation on what the age should be when a child ages out of the system. Many children are not ready to make the transition of being out on their own, therefore, some states have moved the age up to 21 years instead of 18 years (Craft, 2014). If the foster parents or parent chooses to keep caring for the child after he or she ages out, then the child is able to stay in their foster home until he or she is ready to make that step and move out. According to Cunningham and Diversi, many of the difficulties that foster youth face during their transition are known and read about in academic literature, but those who go through the process of aging out of foster care are largely missing from the academic literature (Cunningham & Diversi, 2013). Many children who are in the foste...
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...dependent individual, and if she decides to move out of her foster mother’s house before she finds a better paying job, then unfortunately poverty might become an issue for her.
Conclusion
After assessing the client, the student notice many strengths of which Paige had. The student found that Paige had a great support system that included her foster mother and boyfriend. The student also found that Paige was a very positive person. She had good coping skills, and did not let her situation bring her spirits down.
Using the Person in Environment assessment was very effective for this student. It helped the student gain a better understanding of the client, and it also helped the student know how to answer certain questions without offending the client. The student found the Person in Environment to be an appropriate tool to use when conducting an initial assessment.
One of the biggest misconceptions that we have in our country is that foster care is a great thing; well, it’s not. There are so many flaws in our foster care system to even consider it a good idea. With constant reports of abuse, depression, lack of stability, to even the terrible after effects of the foster care system, like homelessness and incarceration; the foster care system hurts more than it helps. Our foster care system is bad for America, but most of all, our children.
She knows she will never truly experience poverty because this is nothing more than a project but she leaves behind her old life and becomes known as a divorced homemaker reentering the workforce after many years. Her main goal is to get enough income to be able to pay for all her expenses and have enough money to pay next months rent.
Ethical Responsibilities to Community and Society:The last section is about how programs have to meet diversity of families.
This paper will contain research done about foster care, including a brief history and progressing along to the system today. This research interested me because it is a professional career option after graduation. I found both positives and negatives about the foster care system that children and foster parents go through on a daily basis. As the paper progresses I will be explaining these positives and negatives in more detail. Throughout the paper I will be referencing different scholarly sources that explain foster care in different ways. Overall, this paper will show different aspects that the general public may never know about foster care.
There is nearly 400,000 children in out-of-home care in the United States right now (Children’s Right). Just about every day children are being shipped in and out of foster homes and group homes. Most people want the best for children in foster care and decide to take care of them until their parents can possibly recover. The foster care system can have both a negative or positive effect on children, foster parents, and biological parents because of the gaps in the system. Foster cannot not be avoided but the some aspects of the foster care system can be avoided if the missing gaps were filled.
When dealing with an ethical dilemma, social workers usually reference back to Reamers 7-step process to help with ethical decision-making. In the given case study, we meet Lori a bright fourteen-year-old who is smart, involved in school activities, and sports. She has had a non-normative impacted life since she was young, such as her mother dying of breast cancer and father dying as well. She has no immediate family and was lucky enough to be placed in a foster home with a family who loves her and wants the best for her.
For many teenagers, their 18th birthday is an exciting time in their lives. They are finally becoming a legal adult, and are free from the rules and restrictions created under their parents. But not all teens feel the same joy about this coming of age. For the hundreds of thousands of children living in foster care in the United States, this new found freedom brings anxiety and fear. Where will they live after turning 18? How will they get the medications they may need? How will they find a job with little to no experience? How will they put themselves through school? Aging out of foster care is a serious issue among America’s youth. Every year, 20,000 children will age out with nowhere to go, being expected to be able to survive on their own (Reilly 728). Young adults face various obstacles upon aging out of foster care, such as multiple health problems/issues, homelessness, and finding/maintaining a job.
This paper will evaluate and analyze an ethical dilemma that was presented in the textbook and the Case Study #1 that will be evaluated for this assignment. The questions that will be answered include what are the ethical dilemmas in the case and are these legitimate concerns for the social worker. In addition, when evaluating and analyzing the ethical dilemma in this case study it is necessary to look at why the social worker is worried about reporting newborns and why she feels that there are injustices and discrimination that come from these policies. Furthermore, as a social worker in this agency I would respond by figuring out what could be done in this situation and what courses of action could be done to change the injustices in the
Ethical Issues in Social Work I will provide practical help for new social workers to help them understand and deal with ethical issues and dilemmas which they will face. There are many ethical issues which are important to social work, but I feel that these are all covered by the care value base. The care value base Was devised by the care sector consortium in 1992, this was so that the workers in health and social care had a common set of values and principles which they would all adhere to. It is important because for the first time the social care sector had a clear set of guidelines from which ethical judgements could be made. The care value base is divided into 5 elements - The care value base covers - Equality and Diversity - Rights and responsibilities - Confidentiality - Promoting anti Discrimination - Effective communication Equality and Diversity Carers must value diversity themselves before they can effectively care for the different races, religions and differently abled people they will come across in their caring profession.
As of 2014, there were over 415,000 children in the foster care system. Foster care is the raising and supervision of children in a private home, group home, or institution, by individuals engaged and paid by a social service agency (Legal Dictionary, 2016). Care givers can be of kin relationship to the child, or may not know the child at all. Group homes are run by a social worker and can house multiple children at a time. These homes are usually regulated by the state and/or government. Children of all ages go through many emotions when their lives revolve in foster care. This paper will discuss the emotions children deal with regarding separation from birth family, the effects of abuse, and the possibility of having to transition out of
“About two-thirds of children admitted to public care have experienced abuse and neglect, and many have potentially been exposed to domestic violence, parental mental illness and substance abuse” (Dregan and Gulliford). These children are being placed into foster care so that they can get away from home abuse, not so they can move closer towards it. The foster children’s varied outcomes of what their adult lives are is because of the different experiences they grew up with in their foster homes. The one-third of those other foster children usually has a better outcome in adult life than the other two-thirds, which is a big problem considering the high percentage of children being abused in their foster homes. Although, the foster care system has most definitely allowed children to experience the positive home atmosphere that they need there is still an existed kind of abusive system in the foster care program that is unofficial but seems to be very popular. Foster care focuses on helping children in need of a temporary stable environment; however, foster care can have negative impacts to the children and the people around them concerning the foster child going through the transition, the parents of the foster child, a new sibling relationship, and problems that arrive later influencing the foster child long-term.
Entering the field of social work you must be prepared to encounter many personalities. Knowing this, you have to become aware of people with different backgrounds and morals. By doing this you will be able to help your clients to the best of your ability, without forcing your personal beliefs or values on to them. A value is a set of rules or or beliefs that affect your every day decisions (Sheafor & Horejsi, 2011). Applying your personal values to every situation is very important, however, you must learn to separate what you know and what is in actuality the best outcome for your client. I will be discussing the ways I feel about the “Vignette’s”, while also incorporating different things I have learned from the readings and class discussions.
The one skill that I used more of was empathy; I wanted the client to know that I understood her situation as well her feelings. At the end of our conversation, I summarized everything that we talked about, especially her want to open up to her parents and express herself to them. She mentioned that she wants them to fell empathy towards her, because the lack of parental empathy that she felt when she was younger, has even affected her in her adult life (Kilpatrick,2005).
Problems in the society such as poverty, homelessness, unemployment, substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, unequal education, family and community violence, and racism all can affect families and impact child welfare and the system itself (Chipungu and Goodley, pp. 76, 2004) There is often a incongruity between the services being offered to children and families in foster care and what they actually need. One example that Chipungu and Goodley (2004) made was birth parents being offered training and counseling when services such as housing assistance and childcare are more critically needed but not available (pp. 79).
In this part of the assignment, I will be reviewing the strengths and weaknesses that were shown when I was using counselling skills on my client. I believe that there were more strengths when I was showing counselling skills compared to the weaknesses that there were.