RE: SOCW6361 – Discussion – Policy Implementation Challenges (WK10)
RE: SOCW6361 – Discussion – Policy Implementation Challenges (WK10)
- Respond to a colleague by offering your thoughts on how multiple factors contribute to the failure of people to implement specific policies.
- In your opinion, do you think frontline social workers are perceived as people who cause specific policies to not be implemented?
Response to Joey,
My thoughts on whether social workers might try to undermine the implementation of specific policies.
Should convicted child molesters be given the same consideration as a victim of sexual assault? My thought about how to treat a convicted child molester is not the same as how you would treat a victim of sexual assault. However according to the NASW, ever person is to be treated fairly and with respect. Personal attitudes towards sex offenders can have an impact on social service delivery, and more specifically, the nature and quality of services provided to them (Bernal & Meza, 2015).
What ethical issues might they confront?
When working with this population there are a few ethical issues that the social worker may face such as; the degree to which treatment programs ought to attend to offenders’ interests and well-being and protecting the community and promoting the interests of offenders as evidenced in such initiatives as mandated treatment, civil commitment, and sex offender registries (Ward & Salmon, 2010).
Discuss how social workers can implement policies that they feel may be against their social work values.
A policy that would be against may social worker values is helping convicted child molesters find a home in a community that do not accept registered sex offenders. Even though I would not want to do this policy it is a form of discrimination to keep a registered sex offender out of a community if they are meeting all the requirements set by law. Such requirements would be that they could not live with 2two miles of where children gather, such as a park or school. “In Miami, Florida the residency restrictions were so strict (2500 feet from schools, playgrounds, licensed day-care centers, and parks) that the only location registered sex offenders’ probation officers would approve for housing was underneath the Julia Tuttle Causeway, a bridge connecting Miami Beach to Miami” (Sexual offender, 2010). This is a policy that should be looked at more closely.
A policy you are aware of that you would have serious qualms about implementing.
A policy that I would have qualms about implementing is letting females into combat arms. I am not saying women can not perform just as well as their male counter-parts in combat arms and many might perform better. Many combat-arms soldiers have indicated a willingness to take any soldier, regardless of gender, who meets the standards to enter this field (Cone, 2016). My only issue with this is the hygiene factor. As a combat arms veteran, I can remember being in the field for three weeks and only having time to use baby wipes to clean up. There are no going back in to take a shower and there are no port-a-potties in the field, only a big tree and a shovel. I have seen males Soldiers come out the field with covered with chigger bites because of having to lay in the grass for days. I would never want one of my daughters to live like we did during my time in combat arms. Only my opinion.
Bernal, M., & Meza, H., (2015). Social worker’s student’s perception of sex offenders. Retrieved October 31, 2018, from t: http://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd
Cone, R., (2016). Leading gender integration. Military Medicine; 181: 4-6. doi: 10.7205/MILMED-D-15-00335
Sexual offender laws and prevention of sexual violence or recidivism., (2010). American journal of public health, 100(3), 412-9.
Ward, T., & Salmon, K., (2010). The ethics of care and treatment of sex offenders; 23(3): 397-413. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1177/107…
