Read a selection of your colleagues’ posts.

Respond to at least two colleagues who chose a different case from the one you selected by explaining a proactive approach you might develop for a social policy that addresses the problem facing the client in the case your colleagues selected. Explain the steps you think the social work profession can take in ensuring that problems are defined so that oppressed and marginalized groups are represented.

Support your response with specific references to the resources. Be sure to provide full APA citations for your references

Colleague 1: Keylayne

Case Study of Luisa

Luisa is a 36 year old Latino woman. She is from Colombia and only speaks Spanish. She is married and has a 3 year old daughter with her husband and a 10 year old son back in Colombia. She wants to bring her son to the United States. She was on a visa but did not return when it was time. Luisa started the process to bring her son to the United States but Luisa was in a domestic violence relationship. She went to a shelter. Luisa has no family and friends, she does go to church. Due to her having to apply for benefits why she is in the domestic violence program. Luisa is fearful of applying for benefits due to it complicating the process of bringing her son to the USA. She has to be able to prove she can sponser her son alone. She depended on her husband.

Explanation of the effects of the social welfare policies

Luisa wants to bring her son over from Colombia. She has to be able to sponsor him and not depend on welfare benefits. Due to Luisa leaving Hugo, her husband, and staying at the shelter, it is a requirement for all residents to apply for any benefits that can help them while receiving services. It is mandatory. The problem Luisa is facing is she is fearful of using the benefits because it could stop her from bringing her son to USA. Luisa is also conflicted because she depends on her husband, she only speaks Spanish, she has given money to lawyers before, so she does not trust them, and she believes Hugo will try to sabotage her staying in the USA by lying on her. (Plummer, Makris &Brocksen, 2014)

How Policies affect social agencies

Policies are made to usually help clients and no to really hinder them. There are some policies that can conflict with each other. “Policy issues are based on values and interests that are often in conflict. A policy that may be optimal based on the values and interests of one group may be in conflict with those of another group,” (Popple & Leighninger, 2019, p. 51). The policy with Luisa sponsoring her son to the US, says she cannot rely on benefits. She has to prove she can take care of herself and child alone. The other policy is that the program she is in, the client has to apply for benefits to stay qualified. These policies make it hard for Luisa. She is in a domestic violence situation and has to feel force to choose to protect her son or herself and daughter. The worker put herself out there to advocate for Luisa. She offered to help Luisa with research, immigration lawyer, and speaking with her priest. Many times, the worker has to find other alternatives and help the client make tough decisions.

References

Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen, S. (Eds.). (2014). Social work case studies: Foundation year. Baltimore: MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing. [Vital Source e-reader].

Popple, P. R., & Leighninger, L. (2019). The policy-based profession: An introduction to social welfare policy analysis for social workers (7th ed). New York, NY: Pearson.

Colleague 2: Tiffany

Case

I choose the case of Luna. She is a 36 year old who came to the United States from Columbia. She is only able to speak Spanish and requires a translator for all communication. While in the United States she met her now husband Hugo and now has a three year old daughter. She also has a 10 year old son that still resides in Columbia. Luna is working on getting her son from Columbia. One of the things that she has to do is prove that she is financially able to support him. This means that she is not allowed to be on any type of welfare. However Luna and her daughter have been forced into going into a shelter because of domestic valance on behalf of her husband Hugo. One of the rules the shelter has is that Luna would have to apply for all available services offered through the state. Luna knows that this will impair her ability to sponsor her sun.

Policies

I believe there are several different policies’ that are affecting Lunas ability to make decisions. First would be the shelters policy that Luna has to apply for all available resources in order to remain in the shelter. Next would be the immigrations policies that state that in order to prove financial independence she can’t seek out state or federally funded resources.

Luna has been working on getting her son to come to the United States and knows that applying for these services with impair her ability to sponsor him. Because of this she is considering putting herself and her daughter back in harm’s way. She believes this is her only option if she wants her son here. Luna does not have any family or friends in the area to assist her; she does however attend a Catholic church.

Social Worker issue

Having policies like this really makes it hard for a social worker to help someone in Luna’s position. Immigration is so challenging in this country that many people feel like there is no second chance once something bad happens. It seems like there is no wiggle room for the unexpected things that come up in life. One of the things that the social worker offered to do was some research on the new policy that might apply to Luna’s situation. The hard thing with Luna’s case is that immigration is challenging in general. There is most likely not a local person that the social worker can reach out to. A social worker is only one person with very limited resources.

References

Plummer, S., Makris, S., Brocksen, S. M. (2013-10-21). Social Work Case Studies: Foundation Year [VitalSource Bookshelf version]. Retrieved from vbk://9781624580062