values and ethics

HUMN 8110 Advance d Social Work Theory and Practice Week 2 – Ethics in Social Work (ES) AJIA MEUX: You got to catch me up. You got to catch me up. You got to walk me through it. First of all, how do you know Jasmine? KENNETH O'NEAL: Through here. AJIA MEUX: Y'all met here? Y'all didn't meet here. I'm going to tell you how I know you didn't meet here. KENNETH O'NEAL: We did. AJIA MEUX: Because the day that she came in — KENNETH O'NEAL: Was the same day I got her number. AJIA MEUX: Lord have mercy. OK . And what, did she end up pregnant like the next week later or what? KENNETH O'NEAL: Probably like a month later. AJIA MEUX: I have condoms now. I have condoms now. I have lots of condoms. I need you to take condoms. Are we done having children? KENNE TH O'NEAL: Yeah. AJIA MEUX: We're done? Absolutely done? KENNETH O'NEAL: Yeah. AJIA MEUX: The last time you had sex did you use a condom? KENNETH O'NEAL: Yeah. AJIA MEUX: OK. 'Cause child support is going to eat your [BEEP] alive when you get a job, do you hear me? I pull my first student about 9:15, 9:30. And most of our student sessions last an hour. I think I only have maybe two students that have half an hour, 45 minutes. Theory definitely informs my practice. It gives me a framework in which to work. I'm not out there fighting blindly trying to help folk. My theory basis is an empowerment approach, which looks at challenging systems for populations that have been historically oppressed. And so, because that's my framework that I work in, then I know that that's what my work needs to look like; that I'm working with students to empower them to take control of their lives and change systems. Now question, have you had DNA tests done for all the babies? Is that your plan? KENNETH O'NEAL: I want t o get that happen. AJIA MEUX: OK. You know DNA tests are expensive, right, unless it's done by the District of Columbia in child support cases, which means that you can get it done for free, but then they'll start the child support process. So what do you want to do? KENNETH O'NEAL: They sell DNA kits at the CVS. AJIA MEUX: Really? KENNETH O'NEAL: For $30. AJIA MEUX: Let's look. That I've never heard before, but let's find out; let's see, DNA kits, CVS. Who told you that? KENNETH O'NEAL: My momma. I asked my mom -- my baby momma. AJIA MEUX: Let's go to CVS.com. Hold on for a second. CVS.com. I did not know that they sold DNA paternity tests at CVS. Wow. OK. $30. There you go. KENNETH O'NEAL: When you take the test, you've got to ship it out. And that 's the cost. AJIA MEUX: Additional $110 laboratory fee required. So basically it's $200, basically. That's what you're going to do? You're going to get that? KENNETH O'NEAL: I'm not sure yet. AJIA MEUX: OK. OK. That's a lot of money. I guess, at least if you come up with the $60 you can buy the kit and then work your way towards the $119 to send it off. KENNETH O'NEAL: Yeah. AJIA MEUX: Yeah. And you'll be able to get the $60 by next week. If you come every day, you'll get your $125. Yeah. So how mu ch time you spending with these babies, Kenny? So I need that. I can't do that and Gestalt Theory and Strengths, and all these different theories meshed together 'cause that'd look a mess and I'd be grasping and all over the place. If I have it as my core framework, then maybe I can pull in some other things when necessary. KENNETH O'NEAL: I just got arrested last Friday. AJIA MEUX: So they may lock you up tomorrow. Where have you been staying, at your Mom's? KENNETH O'NEAL: Yeah, sometimes. I don't like to stay there though. AJIA MEUX: She still live in Deanwood? KENNETH O'NEAL: No. She lives on Minnesota now. AJIA MEUX: So the housing situation is still unstable? KENNETH O'NEAL: Yeah. AJIA MEUX: Yep. You've just been floating for the last eight months, just kind of out there. OK. Well, I'm glad that you've started using condoms. I'm very, very, very, very happy about that. That, I am very happy about, because we don't need to have any more babies if your situation isn't stable. I don't even really know what to do until after court tomorrow. But what do you want to do? Say for instance, you go to court, and they put you on monitoring. Do they only do that in youth cases? They don't do th at in adult cases, do they? KENNETH O'NEAL: Uh -uh. AJIA MEUX: Just youth, huh? OK. Well, say go to court tomorrow and you get out. And your probation's extended, or whatever, but you're out. What do you want your life to look like? KENNETH O'NEAL: I don' t know. Better than what it is now. TWILAH ANTHONY: Kenneth is one of the students who is in one of the higher - functioning classes, meaning he's at the last class to be able to get his high school external diploma. And with that being said, he's a student who's gotten caught up in his surroundings, his community, his environment. And you have a student who is bright and who can obtain a high school diploma, but he can't get here to get it because his environment, whether it's being in a gang, whethe r it's selling drugs, whether it's just getting in with a fit in; it's a safe haven when they come here. But what we don't realize is that when they go out and leave outdoors, they have to survive. And so they have to live like their community lives. And you try to say, "Oh no, they don't have to do that." But you do. You do live like that in order to survive. And it's unfortunate that he's forced to do things that, if in a different environment and the different exposure, he might not have to. AJIA MEUX: Kenny is just so immersed and embedded in that sub -urban culture. He doesn't really feel like he can get out. It feels like this is his life. He's afraid to leave because he doesn't know what is on the other side of that. And so a lot of the work that we 've been doing is like, "What would you like your life to look like? And can you, in small steps, try to do something different -- really small steps, like, can you just not go to the neighborhood?" I challenged him once if he could go down to the National Mall and go to a museum. And he almost freaked out. He's like, "I don't know anybody down there. Why would I go down there? I don't know anybody." "You don't have to know anybody. But can you just go?" Then it was, "There's nothing but white people down t here. How are they going to look at me?" I was like, "There's black folks down there too. There's lots of people down there." So the work that we do is just around, "You can change this. And you can do it incrementally. But you can change it, because you have power. The power just comes from who you are." So we build on the strengths that they have, which is Strengths Perspective. So we build on the strengths that they have so that they can be empowered to move forward. TWILAH ANTHONY: The way that the me tropolitan, the DC area affects what we do here and effects especially the social worker aspect of it is a lot of the students that come to us are definitely disadvantaged students -- low -income homes, often parents are, unfortunately, drug addicts or peopl e who have been incarcerated, meaning most of their family life has just been in disarray. And that's not all. But it's often most. And with that baggage coming in, the social worker has to hit the ground running, because you have to be very knowledgeable of skills and resources to use to be able to navigate through their area in which they live in. AJIA MEUX: There was a situation in which I had an ethical dilemma with Kenny O'Neal.

When I first started, Kenny had personal relationship with one of the st aff members here at the school. Not personal meaning romantic, but personal meaning a personal relationship. And this staff member ended up having Kenny live with them in that person's home. That person became angry with Kenny because of Kenny's behav ior, which he's been exhibiting his whole life, and went off on him, and put him out of her home. Kenny didn't want to go live with her from the beginning, but Kenny has a difficult time saying no to people, even when circumstances don't benefit him. It's really, really hard for him to say no. And he had shared with me that he didn't want to live with her, but he didn't have an option at that point. And the issue made me very, very, very angry and uncomfortable because that person -- because of the role th at person was in, she created a dual relationship -- not even a dual relationship. It was just so many relationships going on at that point. I actually couldn't help him resolve the challenge. I spoke to the staff member. And I said, "At no point can we ha ve our students living with us. At no point do we need to create these dual relationships with clients where we assume the role of mother and teacher and boss and landlord. All of these things, they're conflictual. And at the end of the day, the person who loses out is the student, because they don't really have any power in this situation." I think the issue that most social workers deal with this the issue of transference and countertransference and not really knowing how to process through that and end up clean on the other side. When you come to me, you bring a lifetime worth of experiences to me. And there's always going to be something in another person that triggers one of those experiences, right? And you can have a response to that person based on those experiences, and not necessarily based on the person themselves. And so that's transference, when we talk about what a client brings to you as a worker. Well then, what countertransference is based on everything, all those experiences that you're bringing, I am now having response to those that have nothing to do with you as a client. But now I'm bringing my experiences in here. That is what happens, I think, often for social workers is the experiences that clients bring us, us getting wrapped up i n those experiences, and then that triggering our own experiences. And the relationship is no longer clean for lack of a better term. There's several students in here that I love to death that I love. I love their babies. I love their personalities, becau se their personalities are like mine, or their personalities are like my cousins, or things like that. And what transference and countertransference sometimes doesn't allow is for me to be able to do the work with you necessary. And maybe that work is setting boundaries for you that I can't do any more because I'm so comfortable with you. Or now I speak in a way that is too familiar. And now we don't have a relationship that is a client -worker relationship. Now, we have a friend -friend relationship, or we have a mother -daughter relationship, or we have a sister -sister, or a best friend relationship. And that doesn't let or allow the work to happen clearly. We're glad you're back. I don't think you've had a group of people that were more happy to see you than we were on Monday. OK. We were like pressed like, "Ahhh, he's back." OK? So I'm just very glad that you're back. And I hope beyond hopes that court goes well tomorrow so that we can start planning; so we can start planning to do some different th ings. OK. Yeah. We can't do anything until after tomorrow. So why don't we do this? Why don't we touch base tomorrow, okay, when court is off of our minds, and we know what the outcome is? If you don't come on Friday or Thursday then we'll know what happe ned. Is anybody going to court with you? Let's ask Miss Anthony to write you a letter. KENNETH O'NEAL: I got Jeff to do it for me. AJIA MEUX: OK. Good. Good. All right. So let's touch bases tomorrow, all right. © Laureate Education, Inc.