Social Justice and Advocacy
Raymoni69
ud75-25.docxPART 1
Please review the ACA Advocacy Competencies, linked in the Resources, as well as the articles you located in the library in this unit's study activity.
Think of a client, couple, or family with whom you have worked during your practicum or internship experience, and consider the ways environmental, social, economic, or political factors impacted this client's, couple's, or family's presenting issues. In your post, drawing upon the two articles you located in library, as well as the ACA Advocacy Competencies, discuss how you might work from a social justice or advocacy perspective with this client, couple, or family. In your discussion, include all three levels of advocacy competencies, which include client, community, and public arena, and describe at least one specific intervention you might use in each of these three areas to assist the client, couple, or family. You need to write a discuss of at least 250 word and supported with at least 3 references for this discussion question
PART 2 RESPONSE TO PEER’S POST
Response Guidelines
Client
My client is an 8 year-old male who comes from a home with domestic violence. Throughout his life there has been violence within his environment, and what he knows is violence gets a person what they want. He witnessed his father hold a gun to his mother’s head and threaten to kill her. His father is now in jail. My client is living with his mother and three sisters. He is very angry and is physically aggressive with his younger sisters in the same manner that his father was with his mother. His mother put him in counseling to address his anger and aggression. Unfortunately, since he began therapy his mother has started to date another man who is physically aggressive.
Advocacy
Advocacy involves systems change interventions and empowerment strategies (ACA, 2018). The American Counseling Association (ACA) implemented the Advocacy Competencies as part of their ethical guidelines; these competencies provide counselors with guidance on advocacy (Toporek, Lewis, & Crethar, 2009). The competencies are organized into three levels of intervention: Client Level, Community Level, and Public Arena Level (Toporek, Lewis, & Crethar, 2009).
Client Level-
I assist the client in understanding his environmental influences and help him develop anger management strategies. I then empower the client to put a stop to the ongoing domestic violence cycle and utilize appropriate and healthy coping mechanisms.
Community Level-
Studies confirm that domestic violence follows a cycle and one in every four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime (Kelly, 2013). Since the majority of women have children, studies suggest that 10 million children witness domestic violence every year (Kelly, 2013). Therefore, at the community level I could address this domestic violence cycle by advocating for domestic violence education and anger management to be taught in elementary schools and carry the prevention through high school. Targeting the children who have witnessed domestic violence can end the cycle.
Public Arena Level –
Studies show the cost of domestic violence in the U.S. has exceeded $5.8 Billion per year (Kelly, 2013). At the public arena level, I could advocate for federal or statewide funding to implement mandatory domestic violence education and prevention throughout all public schools. With the education and prevention at the child level, the hope would be the billions of dollars spent each year on domestic violence would drastically decrease. Today’s children would learn how to channel their anger in appropriate ways and understand that domestic violence is damaging. In turn, less children would suffer from domestic violence trauma and anger management problems in the future.
American Counseling Association (2018). Advocacy Competencies. Retrieved from www.counseling.org.
Kelly, D.A. (2013). Advocating for victims of domestic violence: The DVP helps victims, their children, police officers, attorneys, and the court. Los Angeles Lawyer, 36(1), 14.
Toporek, R.L., Lewis, J.A., & Crethar, H.C. (2009). Promoting systems change through the ACA Advocacy Competencies. Journal of Counseling & Development: JCD; 87(3), 260-268.
