SOCW 6361: Identification of a Policy Alternative Essay.
As an astute social worker and professional policy advocate, once you have selected and identified a social problem, you begin the process of creating and implementing a policy that addresses that social problem. One of the first things you do in the implementation process is an analysis of the social policy you identified. There is always the possibility that the policy created and implemented to address the social problem you identified is not viable for a variety of reasons. SOCW 6361: Identification of a Policy Alternative Essay.In this case, you must explore a policy alternative.
In Part 4 of your ongoing Social Change Project assignment, you identify a policy alternative to the social problem you identified.
Complete Part 4 of your Social Change Project.
Address the following items within a 3-4 page paper:
What is the policy alternative?
What, if any, change(s) in the policy alternative are necessary and where will they need to occur (local, state, national, and international)?
Is this policy alternative congruent with social work values? Explain.
What is the feasibility of the alternative policy (political, economic, and administrative)?
Does the policy alternative meet the policy goals (e.g., social equality, redistribution of resources, social work values, and ethics)?
What are the forces that are for/against the policy?
What policy advocacy skills can be used to support the policy alternative?
How does the current policy affect clinical social work practice with clients?
What changes could be made in the policy to support the needs of clients seeking clinical services?SOCW 6361: Identification of a Policy Alternative Essay.
Provide an update on the advocacy activities your proposed in the Week 6 Assignment.
Make sure that your assertions are supported by appropriate research and reputable resources. In text citations and full references
Resources
Jansson, B. S. (2018). Becoming an effective policy advocate: From policy practice to social justice (8th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning Series.
Chapter 11, “Developing Political Strategy and Putting It into Action in the Policy-Enacting Task” (pp. 372-419)
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Discussion 1
Clinical social work entails the overall health care services in a healthcare facility. This involves diagnosis, treatment, mental illness prevention, and different types of therapies. Social workers that render these services are required to abide by the policies governing their practice to provide high-quality healthcare. These policies also protect the lives of the public. I am interested in advocating for the disabled because they are a group that is subconsciously ignored due to the nature of their condition. It’s also because there is not enough information to the public about their conditions.
Most of the time, disabled people are ignored by society, starved of services, live in self-isolation, segregation, poverty, and even pity. As a result of discrimination, they opt not to go to public places and are not free to fight for their rights that non-disable individual gets. Disabled people face these entire social problems due to the legislation’s failure to protect their rights, ignorance from society, and lack of awareness among others (Kritsotakis et al., 2017). Mainstreaming and universal access for all people with ability will help solve these problems. This means that barriers are preventing them from accessing services to remove to allow equal accessibility. Society should be educated on matters concerning disable people to create awareness hence reduces the cases of discrimination.
The ideas considered for the social change include that; it should be part of the policy of clinical social workers to ensure that disabled people have homes and workforce that facilitate their daily activities. For instance, providing them with workers who will help them feed; go out for shopping or medical appointments. Secondly, social workers should also create awareness to reduce discrimination (Werner & Araten-Bergman, 2017). The government should also create a policy that ensures every entity or social amenities consider disabled people in all their business and social plans. For instance, when building new structures, their strategy should consider people with disabilities.
In a social work setting, the project will ensure that people with disabilities receive proper care from social workers without discrimination as well as highlight the hidden or unspoken problems concerning their entire social lives. This eye-opening project might also promote change in the government enforcement of laws concerning disabilities or even encourage the creation of new legislation.SOCW 6361: Identification of a Policy Alternative Essay.
References
Kritsotakis, G., Galanis, P., Papastefanakis, E., Meidani, F., Philalithis, A. E., Kalokairinou, A., & Sourtzi, P. (2017). Attitudes towards people with physical or intellectual disabilities among nursing, social work and medical students. Journal of clinical nursing, 26(23-24), 4951-4963. Retrieved from
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jocn.13988?casa_token=fmZPZ8pZH3sAAAAA:TGbfiuM9eF5tvZZiXN3hx4_1Mex2TdB161MPCr8PyGTriTlvX_oOV7t596cxYXU9tC68QQbXWUwYQB4UFA
Werner, S., & Araten-Bergman, T. (2017). Social workers’ stigmatic perceptions of individuals with disabilities: A focus on three disabilities. Journal of Mental Health Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 10(2), 93-107. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19315864.2017.1284288?casa_token=yF3pzKg4QMsAAAAA:nFTajGTET2wvqNoNdiLhVA0mL4K4LmaIjPmST0Moj028jv7Wr_MhvrP2sHaT_Xn7Nwhf75Rd5aLHdRcKsg
Discussion 2
A social problem is an issue within the community that makes it difficult for individuals to achieve their full potential. The social problem that is of interest to me is a disability. For many years the community has treated people with disability as an object of fear and pity. Some people believe that people living with disabilities are incapable of participating in or contributing to society and that they mostly rely on charitable organizations as well as welfare. The public views people with disabilities differently from fully human people. They are seen as partial or limited people. The burden of disability is seen as unending. Life with a disabled person is considered as a life with constant sorrows. In addition, the able bodies stand under a continual responsibility to assist them (Arneson, 2018).
Some people believe that disability is an illness that can sometimes be fixed, cured, or an abnormality to be corrected. Tragic disability is those with no possible cure or where attempts to cure fail. People with disabilities are viewed as a burden to others, society, and themselves. This is true, especially with people with mental disabilities. The political perspective has been reflected in the majority of the legislative changes. Numerous bills have been passed in order to expand the rights of the disabled people in social services, transportation, and other areas of public policy. However, the laws have not been effectively implemented. There has been relatively little compliance with the affirmative action requirement of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, (Benokraitis, 2019). The attempt to assure the civil rights of disabled individuals has remained an unfulfilled promise.SOCW 6361: Identification of a Policy Alternative Essay.
Conclusion
The policy advocacy that can be used to address the problem of political leaders includes enabling access to all mainstream programs, services, and systems. Individuals with disabilities have the usual essentials for well-being, economic, and social security. These needs can be meet through mainstream services and programs. Mainstream is the process by which the government ensures that people with disabilities participate equally with others. The social justice implication of this approach is to decrease discrimination.
Reference
Arneson, R. (2018). Four conceptions of equal opportunity. The Economic Journal, 128(612), F152-F173.
Benokraitis, N. V. (2019). Affirmative action and equal opportunity: Action, inaction, reaction. Routledge.
Discussion 3
Policy Agenda
The agenda for a proposal might be built skillfully and expertly but some of the issues in the proposal are avoided or fails to excite the decision makers. Some of the issues might not capture the attention of the decision makers because of the complexity, high cost of implementation and priority (Capella, 2016). Social issues are considered complex by decision makers because they have numerous causes interlinked making it challenging to implement like the issue of poverty that affects many people but still cannot be considered a priority. Social issues are also expensive to implement due to their wide scope making it challenging to prioritize, allocate resources and sequencing (Sriram, 2019). Politicians in the policy agendas like the G8 may cast out issues like poverty and disability from their policy because they may not help them win in their elections and fails to consider them as priorities though they affect a significant percentage of the population.
Decision makers, donors and sponsors conduct their operations through prioritizing, sequencing and allocation through budgeting and that makes some of the issues rise to the top of agendas while others fail to gain prominence (Jansson, 2018). Issues that are considered of low priority fail to be added in decision makers agenda not because they are unimportant but because they are poorly understood (Capella, 2016). Since the decision makers are the final people to approve the agendas, then the evidence provided may fail to convince and may not consider the issues as important. Some issues might appear essential by those suggesting but the decision makers fail to approve them because they fail to meet their set expectation.
Issues that receive significant attention to the decision makers indicates that they are interested and believe they can be of importance when included in the agendas. The development of policies that attract the decision makers shows that they are within the main objectives of the decision makers and they are willing to offer support to get all required resources to incorporate in the agendas. The issues included in the agendas are those prioritized based on decision makers objectives and also available resources. Since allocation and prioritizing are problems faced by decision makers, then it makes it easier for them to implement those that interest them (Jansson, 2018).SOCW 6361: Identification of a Policy Alternative Essay.
References
Capella, A. (2016). Agenda-setting policy: strategies and agenda denial mechanisms. Organizações & Sociedade, 23(79), 675-691. https://doi.org/10.1590/1984-9230713
Jansson, B. S. (2018). Becoming an effective policy advocate: From policy practice to social justice. (8th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning Series. Chapter 6, “Committing to an Issue: Building Agendas” (pp. 176-203) Retrieved from: https://www.academia.edu/39301281/Becoming_An_Effective_Policy_Advocate_From_Policy_Practice_To_Social_Justice_by_Bruce_S._Jansson
Sriram, M. (2019). Financial Inclusion: Agenda for Policy Intervention. Vikalpa: The Journal For Decision Makers, 44(4), 163-166. https://doi.org/10.1177/0256090919900395
Discussion 4
PRESENTING AND DEFENDING POLICY PROPOSAL
As a policy practitioner I know I am dealing with a group of policymakers who are less sympathetic to the various needs of vulnerable populations due to their interests or other reasons. Presenting a policy proposal to persuade these policymakers to make changes to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) will require me to have very effective and efficient strategies for presenting and defending my policy proposal. I will use the strategy of media advocacy to present my policy proposal and combative persuasion to defend the policy (Jansson, 2018).
In the use of media advocacy, I will use both print and broadcast media to present the changes I would like to be made to the Americans with Disabilities Act. For my strategy to be effective, I will wait for specific events like the International Day of Disabled Persons to present the reforms I want to the media (Hill et al., 2020). During this time, the topic will be more relevant and the use of mass media will help to bring to attention all the injustices the disabled people face. This will encourage a countrywide public debate on the injustices the disabled people face, people will debate on employment issues and statistics that I present to them, and everyone will be aware of the concerns my policy is proposing and this will call for policy change. I will not have to deal with stubborn and self-centered policymakers. The public outcry will force them to make the changes to ADA.
I will use the combative persuasion technique to defend the changes in the Americans with Disabilities Act. SOCW 6361: Identification of a Policy Alternative Essay.In this technique, I will use persuasion like national strikes and demonstrations to call for change in ADA and this will influence policymakers to make the necessary changes to avoid the consequences of strikes and demonstrations (Jansson, 2018). In this technique, I will use the help of human rights activists and support groups for persons with disabilities to urge policymakers to support us and make the necessary changes for the social and economic good of the disabled.
References
Hill, M., & Irving, Z. (2020). Exploring the World of Social Policy: An International Approach. Policy Press.
Jansson, B. S. (2018). Becoming an effective policy advocate: From policy practice to social justice (8th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning Series.
Discussion 5
Post a description of how social workers use power resources in their social work practice and advocacy.
Social workers use power resources in their social work practice and advocacy to engage policymakers in purposeful actions that can help people to advance their rights, human dignity, and opportunities (Nouman et al., 2020). These power resources help social workers to secure the adoption of a policy proposal by changing the state legislature and changing policies. Social workers can use political power, person-to-person power, substantive power, procedural power, and process power (Jansson, 2018).
In the use of political power resources, social workers individuals and groups join political groups or elected positions to promote their values and self-interest of special groups or people with special needs like the disabled in society. Social workers use the person-to-person power resource to secure the adoption of a policy. In person-to-person tactics, social workers exert their power in their discussions with policymakers. In this tactic, social workers can employ expert power where they display their knowledge and personal credentials to convince others to support and adopt their policy proposal (Jansson, 2018). They use coercive power in this tactic to give threats if their policy proposal is not supported. Social workers use reward power to promise inducements like supporting a candidate in campaigns who supports their policy proposal. In substantive power, social workers may shape the content of a policy proposal to elicit support from a specific group of persons. In this tactic social workers may use vagueness or change policy to get one person’s support in the adoption of a policy. Social workers may use procedural power to gain support or change for a policy proposal like through the use of a parliamentary technique where a social worker may route for a proposal increasing its chances of enactment. Social workers use process power through influencing the tenor, tempo, and scope conflict deliberations to get their proposals enacted (Jansson, 2018).SOCW 6361: Identification of a Policy Alternative Essay.
Select a type of power resource you would use in your practice and advocacy.
I would use the person-to-person power resource to seek support for the adoption and enactment of my policy proposal and employ coercive power and reward power. Coercive power may be when I threaten to strike.
Describe the ethical issues or concerns in using the type of power resource you selected
In routing for the support, adoption, and enactment of my policy proposal through the person-to-person power resource I will employ tactics like coercive power and reward power which may be unethical. The use of coercion is unethical because the other party will be under duress to support my interests. If the party under coercion chooses to take legal actions against me I can be charged under a duress crime. In the use of the tactic of reward power, I will cause an unethical behavior of the other party to earn the reward because the person will shift his or her attention away from work obligation and focus on the reward (Hoefer, 2019).
References
Hoefer, R. (2019). Advocacy practice for social justice. Oxford University Press.
Jansson, B. S. (2018). Becoming an effective policy advocate: From policy practice to social justice (8th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning Series.
Nouman, H., Levin, L., & Lavee, E. (2020). Working through barriers: Shaping social workers’ engagement in policy practice. The British Journal of Social Work, 50(4), 1107-1125.SOCW 6361: Identification of a Policy Alternative Essay.