Report on Service at Family Support Agency

Introduction

As per the case study, Ruby who is 56 yrs old has grandchildren named Jessie (9yrs old), Paul (7 years old) and Rhiannon (2 years old) is seeking help from the family support agency in order to prevent her grandchildren from going to foster house. The lady has three children Annie (28 years), Sonia (25 years) and Brad (23 years) who are not in condition to handle their children (Jessie and Paul are Anne’s children and Rhiannon is the daughter of Sonia). Anne, who has a history of drug abuse in her past, has not come home since the other night as per children when they rang their grandmother Ruby one night. Anne has started using because of a break up with her boyfriend and children’s father is not in touch because of problems with their mother. Besides this, Sonia met with an accident when she was on a drive with her ex- boyfriend and her daughter’s father. Since then, she in the hospital and her recovery might take weeks to months. The father of Rhiannon doesn’t care to take responsibility for mother and daughter, even for short term. Lastly, Brad, who lives with her mother has depression and is totally contingent on Ruby at material and emotional level. Therefore, Ruby has decided to take support in order to take a legal care for her children, for which she hasn’t sorted out the money affairs.

I and my agency would help Ruby through program of child care and financial support. Through child care, our agency would help Ruby to have legal care rights of the children till their parents are in condition to handle them. By means of program related to financial support, the agency supports programs that would assist the significance related to financial capability. We stimulate programs to take in account sorting and structuring services as well as activities to reinforce the financial capability (Acf, 2015).

Impact of Values and Ethics

Ethics, as per BBC, could be referred to segment of philosophy which deals with the manner in which individuals should live and behave in their respective lives. According to Moody-Adams (1994), ethical problems take care of what is wrong and what is right, what should be done and what should not be done as well as with obligations that individuals should follow. The basic objective related to ethics is to allow individuals to lead pertinent lives (Badiou, 2001). Values, on the other hand, are the protocols by which an individual takes decisions regarding good, bad, right and wrong. They also delineate the significance that is useful at the time an individual has to trade off meeting a particular value over other (Navran, 2015). These values and ethics have major impact in case of Ruby’s situation. All the children are not getting adequate care because of their parents’ issues, whether an involvement in drug abuse or accident. The children are having no communication with their families that might have a negative impact on their moral and individual behavior. As per Smith (2001), ethics from the standpoint of society states that there should be adequate interactions with the family as this would have a huge impact on the ethical perception of the child. For instance, in the case of loving family, caring and sharing are the chief focus areas which would develop and encourage ethical standards of care and giving for people around them. However, in the case of Ruby’s family, it is totally opposite.  The mother of Andy and Paul is under the influence of drug influence which is completely bad for both children. They might also become a drug addict in the future at a young age or get into negative company that might ill treat others and is totally opposite to ethical standards. On the other hand, in case of Rhiannon, her mother is being hospitalized because of the accident and she is not in condition to take care of her daughter. In this case also, the child is getting completely ignored as she does not have anyone to take care of her besides Ruby, not even his ignorant father. This is again a negative ethical situation. The children in above cases might start to develop an ethical structure in which all people are out for them as well as learn that it would be adequate and beat to take whatever you can acquire in any manner possible as nothing would be provided to you. According to Blackburn (2001), negative mindscape can have adverse effects on their present and future lives.

Practice Approach

We, at our family support agency, are using Chenoweth’s generic model of practice. He lays four important principles for a social worker and he needs to follow that. These are cultural sensitivity, accountability, critical reflection and consultation. The social worker should imbibe these principles in the practice they are carrying out on for their clients. He needs to consult in a pertinent manner, takes care that there is no discrimination on the basis of culture, have knowledge about legal or other distinct accountability as well as engage in all the active and reflective procedures related to pre-judgments, biases as well as any potential to misuse or abuse of power (Gray et al., 2012). In Ruby’s case, we at family support agency would make full efforts to ensure that the lady does not have to face any issues related to cultural sensitivity, critical reflection, accountability and consultation. She would have fair and smooth communication and we will help her to have legal rights to care for her grandchildren until their respective mothers are in condition to take responsibility for them.

Engagement

We, at family support agency believe in building relationships with our client Ruby, who contacted for help and support. Besides this, individuals of all age groups, including working parents, teenagers who have left their homes, who need help in financial matters etc. are the main clients of our agency. They are self referred and referred both, as our satisfied clients help in increasing our client base. Ruby is a self referred client and we, or family support agency ensure that she would get adequate service. There won’t be any discrimination on the basis of culture, accountability, consultation and critical reflection. No pre-judgments, biases as well as misuse of power would be done (Hancock, 1997). Ruby who needs help in acquiring legal care rights of her grandchildren can meet us in our office anytime between 8 am to 8 pm.

Assessment

Ruby needs legal care rights, to prevent her grandchildren to go to foster home. Also, she has not sorted out finance for this matter. Through our child care program and financial support program, it is our goal and responsibility to provide her help and make her assist regarding the ways she can get the same. We have qualified and experienced staff that would provide adequate guidelines. Beginning with collecting appropriate data related to the issue and helps her with counseling session; we will get to the core of the issue. We will collect facts about why she should get care rights through medical certificate of Sonia, a blood report explaining Anne is under drug abuse and history of Anne. Then, we would provide and help her in the way about what she can do for solving the issue. After that, we with our experienced financial experts will help Ruby to sort finance related problems. Lastly, we and our legal experts will help her in applying for legal rights in the court and be with her till she gets permission for the same.

Implementation

Implementation is a process of collecting data and dividing duties among client and workers (Hancock, 1997). We, at family support agency ensure that Ruby would get the legal care rights in a smooth manner. We would be always there for her. The problem arising with court issues would all be handled by our workers. Ruby just needs to reach in court on the time and date provided. All formalities related to paperwork would be the responsibility of our workers and Ruby just has to read them and provide her signature. The same can be provided as per the convenience of her (email or manually). However, she needs to help us in collecting the information and facts related to Anne drug abuse history and reasons that she is again on the same course. She also needs to accompany us to the hospital so we can get the medical certificate of Sonia without any problem. Also, as per our finance experts’ advice, Ruby needs to sort the finance and the team will help her in the same. This is essential to show in the court that she can provide both emotional as well as material to children in an ethical manner.

Evaluation

After hard efforts of both parties, we finally are able to transfer the legal care rights of children to Ruby. Even the children are happy to be with grandmother, which would fill the emptiness in their lives. Everything went in a smooth manner, though, as anticipated, we did face certain challenges related court dates. But, our motive of making Ruby satisfied with our service is fulfilled. She now knows and understands the way she can handle and sort finance.

Closure

This is the time of termination (Hancock, 1997). Now the mission is finished and everything has been completed in a right manner and Ruby has got what she wanted, we want to say goodbye to Ruby after taking her feedback on the whole criteria and expects her to come back in case of any issue in the future.

References

Acf. (2015). Financial Security.  Available from http://www.acf.hhs.gov/program-topics/financial-security-0 [Accessed: 6th November, 2015).

Badiou, A. (2001).  Ethics.  New York: Verso.

Blackburn, S. (2001). Being Good: Introduction to Ethics .  New York: Oxford University Press.

Moody-Adams, M. (1994). “Culture, Responsibility and Affected Ignorance”. Ethics, 1(4), 291-309.

Gray, M., Midgley, J., & Webb, S.A. (2012). The SAGE Handbook of Social Work. Washington, DC: Sage.

Hancock, M.R. (1997). Principles of Social Work Practice: A Generic Practice Approach. New York: Psychology Press.

Navran, F. (2006). “Doing  Right  While Doing  Good”. Associations Now  Volunteer  Leadership Issue, pp.  16-19.

Smith, T. (2000). Revaluing Ethics: Aristotle s Dialectical Pedagogy. Albany: State University of New York Press.