Question

Describe any possible violations of the NASW Code of Ethics that you identified in the Gabriel Fernandez Case.

Make a list and discuss the Resource Constraints and Ideological Factors that play a part in Child Welfare. These can be both positive and negative.

Make a list with short definitions of the features/services offered through the Intact Families Program. This should be specific to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). You will use the articles, DCFS brochure and any other information you find on the DCFS website.

How would you design a child welfare program that ensured the safety of the most children? Feel free to use a diagram or other visual aids.

In your design, what criteria would you use to determine if the child would be referred to intact family or removed from the home?

Answer 1

1. The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) had a basic duty of enhancing the well being of individuals and help them in meeting their primary needs along with particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty. In the case of Gabriel Fernandez the violations of the NASW Code of Ethics that I found are service Social workers in this case do not elevate the needs of the concern child use their skills and knowledge to help this child despite of the regular complaints by his teacher and other family members. Social workers should have volunteer their time and look at the matter properly. Other thing is they are unable to provide social justice to the child when it is stated that one of the core principles of the NASW is to advocate on behalf of the oppressed, the voiceless, and others who are unable to advocate for themselves and in this case the 8 year old boy who is being continuously harassed by his mother and her boyfriend should be listen when there are clear sign of harassment. Another violation is of Importance of Human Relationships and integrity by exhibiting trustworthiness and support to the child.
2. The factors that can play a major role in child welfare can be
3. More case loads and less workers with major increase in number of children needing help increased day by day and with this needs are also increasing and with minimal resources and funding it s not possible to help each and every child and take care of their welfare and so their is need for more resources. Maintaining the appropriate level of resources for children and families is an ongoing challenge for child welfare agencies for several reasons, however. Many a times, there is a mismatch between services offered and what families actually need to resolve their difficulties. For example, birth parents may be offered parent training classes or counseling when concrete services such as housing assistance or child care are needed more critically.
4. There is another problem of Racial disproportion. According to some studies African American and Latino families are more likely t to be reported for child abuse and neglect and to have children removed from the home due to high poverty rates and other resource problems.
5. The unequal number of children of different color in a foster care is very challenging because of the distinctive developmental needs these children need . From infancy through adolescence, culture and ethnicity play a major role in helping the healthy development of children of color. infants of a particular color may exhibit specific hereditary factors, such as advanced psychomotor and sensorimotor skills, including coordination skills and the ability to manipulate objects, which caretakers must consider to be responsive to children’s needs during this vulnerable stage of development. When children grow in foster family they become aware of differences which might lead to issues at various levels.
6. Another concern is of shortage of people working in the area of child welfare system and there is a need for high work force to help and maintain a balance.

3 In the intact family service program the aim is to work with the families who are at higher risk and have been advices for assistance and monitoring after a child abuse or neglect investigation. This program ensures the well being of a child without the need for protective custody since it provides a in-home service like counselling, domestic violence prevention, substance abuse treatment and mental health treatment along with parenting coaching. During first 45 days, an Intact Family worker will come to your home every week to work with child and the family. The worker will ask about the changes one wants to make while assessing those safety and risk factors that led to your family referral.

4 if I have to design a child welfare program I will first make a list of needs and type of population that exist and then divide those populations and see for which section what kinds of needs are necessary after that I will look for proportion of resources available for each type of different children belonging to different race and also gender and after that I look for best available resources and then make list of who should be given assistance first since considering the task force will be less and then make list of the services like counselling, mental health treatment, abuse problems, divorce problems in families, discrimination problems and then look for best suitable tasks that can be assigned to each of these problems like looking for counsellors and social workers and other practitioners who will be needed in such tasks. Continuous and 24*7 surveillance for child will be ensured with the help of police and social workers and till the time the family problems doesn’t get solved the child will be provided with a new foster home.

5 the criteria that I would use to determine if the child would be referred to intact family or removed from the home will be mental health and abuse faced by the child. If the problems were severe that is messing with the mental health of the child he should be removed from the house and if the problems exist because of other family issues like poverty, of parents divorce than in that case first a counsellor will be provided to see if these issues can be solved while child stay with parents or he needs another foster family.