Response 2
Respond to at least two colleagues with a description of whether you see social workers as being proactive or reactive in the policy arena. Describe what steps could be taken to enhance the influence of the social work profession in defining social problems and creating social policy. Provide two suggestions on how social workers can make the recommended changes to the policy that your colleague described.
Colleague 1: L
The event that I chose that led to the formation of a social policy was the abduction of Amber Hageman, a nine year old girl from Arlington Texas. She was kidnapped, and murdered in 1996, and her incident gained national attention all over the world. On April 30th 2003 Public Law 108-21 was passed to prevent child abduction, and the sexual exploitation of children. This policy uses the police department, broad casters, and citizens of the state to be on the look out for abducted children. The alert sends out a discription of what the child was wearing, where they were last seen, and the person, or car the child was last seen with or in. This policy has aided in finding many children across the world but, has one clause in it that I would change. The clause states that a child must be at risk for serious bodily harm, or death before an alarm can be issued. I would change this clause because, the child might not be in harms way if abducted. Some children are abducted by people that love them such a estranged mother’s and father;s, and by those that would not harm the child in any form. Just the fact that the child is missing serves as enough criteria to send an Amber Alert out from state to state. As a social worker my role in changing this law would be to use the rational decision making approach by gathering information about the policy, and by teaming up with parents, and people in the community with young children under the age of 17, or with an interest in protecting children om predators and pedophiles. As mentioned in this weeks readings, “Decision makers review the range of existing and proposed policies, identiy all the relevant social goals and values, and study the consequences of each policy alternative”, (Popple & Leighninger, 2015, p.255). This issue would be presented to mayors, and officials within our state and on a local level. However; it could later be presented to representatives of state if nothing is done on a local level. In order for a social worker to be effective in caring out the process of policy change, he or she needs to several skills and strategies. As mentioned in this weeks readings, “They need analytic skills to evaluate social problems, and develop policy proposals, analyze the severity of specific problems, identify barriers to policy implementation, and develop strategies for assessing programs”, (Popple & Leighninger, 2015, p.25-25).
References
Popple, P.R., & Leighninger, L. (2015). The policy-based profession: An introduction to social welfare policy analysis for social workers. (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Chapter 1, ” The Policy-Based Profession” (pp. 5-19)
Colleague 2: L
The event, (technically events) that I chose are the college shootings relating back to the notorious Virginia Tech shooting that has inspired others to the right to bear arms on college campuses. Society felt a need after many college campus shootings for the right to bear arms to protect themselves and possibly others from any repeat in college campus shootings. However, there are others who are trying to prohibit these bills from passing. There are several states that do allow concealed carry on campus (National Conference of State Legislatures, 2016).
I am not fluent in this particular policy however, I would highly recommend that it be required to train and be proficient in handling weapons. I grew up handling weapons and I am also prior military. I believe regardless of how much anyone has handled a weapon it is always with great caution to train to remain safe and proficient.
Social work in this specific policy is to advocate for those wanting the policy to be enacted or to remain enacted and/or advocate for those who are opposed to the policy.
Reference
National Conference of State Legislatures. (2016). Guns on Campus: Overview. Retrieved September 7, 2016, from http://www.ncsl.org/research/education/guns-on-campus-overview.aspx
Response 3
Respond to at least two colleagues by explaining how the policies your colleagues described might relate to the population you selected.
Colleague 1: J
The population I find particularly interesting is women’s rights. Women are half of the world’s population. We as social workers will work with women and need to be informed of policies locally and federally to help aid our clients. The family and medical leave act of 1993 is a United States federal law that requires companies to provide employees job protection and unpaid leave for qualified medical and family reasons such as pregnancy (Region/Country, 2016). The wage gap is an obstacle women are having to over come. The wage gap is an expressed percentage and can be calculated by dividing the median annual income for women by the median annual income for men. As of 2013, women earned 78.3% as much as men did (The Simple Truth, 2016). In today’s society no matter what your gender, you should be paid for the work you do. If a man and women are doing the same work they should have the same salary. Abortion is a private choice that a woman should have the right to make. Abortion is not something I’m personally for but I think that it should be a personally choice of the woman to have one or not. Our government shouldn’t make a women carry a child and birth that child if they never wanted to have a child. We make it more of a punishment for women but it took a man and woman to make that child. Alabama has some of the strictest abortion laws in the United States. We require minors notifies their parents or have a court hearing if they child wishes to not get parental permission. We also never repealed the anti-abortion criminal statute made unconstitutional by the case Roe v. Wade (Alabama Abortion Laws). Alabama has made a few new policy changes in regards to domestic violence. Now in Alabama there is a mandatory 24-hour holding period for anyone arrested on domestic violence charges. The law used to only be for a 12-hour holding period. This is to help keep offenders from being able to get out of jail and attack or kill their victims’ (B.T., 2016).
Reference:
Alabama Abortion Laws – FindLaw. (n.d.). Retrieved September 08, 2016, from http://statelaws.findlaw.com/alabama-law/alabama-abortion-laws.html
Bterry@waaytv.com, B. T. (2016). Changes to domestic violence laws in the state. Retrieved September 08, 2016, from http://www.waaytv.com/appnews/changes-to-domestic-violence-laws-in-the-state/article_581f00c4-c92c-11e5-94d2-676e98313c02.html
Region/Country, B. (2016). FMLA (Family & Medical Leave). Retrieved September 08, 2016, from https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/benefits-leave/fmla
The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap (Spring 2016). (n.d.). Retrieved September 08, 2016, from http://www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/
Colleague 2: L
Hello Everyone,
The population that I selected is the HIV population. These people are infected with the (human immunodeficiency virus) which is spread through unprotected sexual contact, and the sharing of hypodermic needles. In some cases, this virus can also be contracted through blood transfusions. This virus weakens the immune system, and makes a person vulnerable to other diseases. People with this disease are often isolated, discriminated against, and are faced with homophobic attitudes. People with this disease are also often marginalized, and oppressed citizens within their communities and society.
In recent years the state has passed many policies pertaining to the Protection of people with HIV, and the protection against the transmission of HIV to other people. The majority of states have put in place laws that punish HIV positive people who expose others to the virus even if they use precautions. In Minnesota, state law, (609.2241) was passed concerning the transmission of HIV. A person who knowingly harbors an infectious agent commits a crime which may be prosecuted as an assault, murder, attempted assault, or attempted murder. The second state law that I chose is made relevant in many states, especially in the state of Pennsylvania. State (Act 148) is about the confidentiality of people who are infected with the HIV virus. Pennsylvania law prohibits health -care providers, and social service providers form disclosing HIV-related information without the permission of the subject, except in certain limited instances. Both of these policies were fortunate enough to be passed by the senate. “Senate considers bills based on the order in which they come from the committee”, (Laureate 2013). The state level is not the only level that a policy can go through in order for it to be made a law. As mentioned in our readings, “Once debate concludes, and amendments if any, are made the house votes on final passing of the bill”, (Laureate 2013). With that in mind, their are also policies that pertain to HIV infected people on the federal levels. Federal law (section 504 ),prohibits health and human services, providers or organizations that get federal funds or assistance from discriminating against people living with HIV/AIDS. And last but, not least the Ryan White Care Act (101-381) sought funding to improve avaliability of care for low- income, uninsured, and under insured victims of AIDS and their families. Getting these policies passed on the state and federal levels not only help people infected with HIV/AIDS, but it proves that changes can be made on behalf of the people that really need them, if outsiders work hard to consider the benefits. Passing of a policy on the state and federal level is not the end of the policy change procedure. Afterwards is the implementation process begins. ” The implementation phase is generally a time of filling in the details through regulations, personnel, procedures, program guidelines and other specifications, all of which shape the policy”, (Popple & Leighninger, 2015).
The relationship between the policies, and the population that I chose is that they serve as guidelines, and laws to prevent discrimination, protect confidentiality, and suppress the spread of the infection intentionally, or unintentionally. These laws prove that some policies that are put in place to help a population of people, usually branch over to protect those that are not directly involved.
References
Laureate Education (Producer). (2013). Legislative process {multimedia file}. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
Popple,. R., & Leighninger, L. (2015). The policy-based profession: An introduction to social welfare policy analysis for social workers. )6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Chapter 1, “The Policy-Based Profession” (pp. 5-19)
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