Identification of a Social Problem and Identification of a Policy
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SocialPolicyAdvocacy1.docxRunning Head: SOCIAL POLICY ADVOCACY 1
SOCIAL POLICY ADVOCACY 3
Social Policy Advocacy
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Advocating for social policy involves the promotion of human needs to ensure a quality life for humans. Examples of these needs are; security, education, health, and general wellbeing. This article will look at the Petrakis family case where Alec, the son, is left to look after the grandmother, but this plan fails. The problem, in this case, is being addressed by Cindy, who is a beginner as a social worker. In this, she feels guilty for having agreed with Helen to consider Alec moving in to look after the grandmother. There is a range of values being displayed in the problem definition here. One of them is the responsibility; Cindy, the social worker, feels it's her responsibility to ensure that Alec's grandmother is protected from any form of abuse (Laureate Education, 2013). She goes ahead to confess her guilt when she advised Helen to have Alec's move in to stay with her grandmother, who would help to look after the grandmother. Another value portrayed by Cindy is her self determination to speak up for the powerless in society. Social workers should show self-determination in pushing for the empowerment of the powerless in society. She even goes ahead to show that she is willing to move her career focus towards elder justice for protection from elder abuse. This is a show of her selflessness to ensure the wellbeing of others.
Social policy advocacy should aim at the wellbeing of all people in society (Jansson, 2018). Therefore, based on this, what is being omitted is how to help out Alec, who is in his teenage. How can he be helped so that he does not go back to stealing from the grandmother to fund his drug abuse life? Alec could be suffering from his lack of a job to fund his own life, and unemployment as an issue should be addressed. This issue should be addressed to help solve the bigger problem in this situation. Elder security and justice should be advocated for as it is also acknowledged in the audio that we are getting older, and we will one day need the empowerment being made now at a later age.
Reference
Laureate Education. (Producer). (2013). Petrakis (Episode 6 of 42) [Video file]. In Sessions.
Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
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 7,
"Analyzing Problems in the First Step of Policy Analysis" (pp. 204-243)
