discussion

  
Week3 6361 Analyzing Social Problems
Readings
Day 1
• 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.
o Chapter 7, “Analyzing Problems in the First Step
of Policy Analysis” (pp. 204-243)
• Midgley, J., & Livermore, M. M. (Eds.) (2008). The handbook of
social policy (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Publications.Chapter 14, “Critical Social Policy” (pp. 215–235)
(PDF)
Readings
• Community Toolbox. (n.d). Chapter 5 Section 3: Social planning
and policy Change. Retrieved from http://ctb.ku.edu/en/tableof-
contents/assessment/promotion-strategies/social-planningpolicy-
change/main
• Community Toolbox. (n.d). Chapter 5 Section 4: Social action.
Retrieved from http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-ofcontents/
assessment/promotion-strategies/systemsadvocacy-
and-community-organizing/main
Media
Day 1
• Blackboard, Inc. (2013, May 28). How to create and edit
wikis pages [Video File]. Retrieved
from https://youtu.be/vvy7LgC4MXA
• Laureate Education. (Producer). (2013). Bradley (Episode 7 of
42) [Video file]. In Sessions. Retrieved
Bradley Family Episode 7 Bradley Family Episode 7 Program Transcript MALE SPEAKER: I have some great news. They’ve dropped the charges against you. Tiffany, that’s wonderful! TIFFANY: Yeah, it is. Why did they? Drop the charges, I mean. MALE SPEAKER: The state just passed a new law that’s like New York’s Safe Harbor for Exploited Children Act. That means that the courts here no longer see you as a criminal. They see you as a victim, just like we’ve been trying to tell them. Because you’re under age, they agree with us that you were forced against your will to do what you did. TIFFANY: Prostitution. MALE SPEAKER: Right. It means that the law understands that young people like you, girls, boys, you don’t deserve jail time or retention. You need help and services. So that’ll get you off the street. OK. Before you were upset that they were treating you like a criminal. But they’re not anymore. You’re free. What’s wrong? TIFFANY: John T. MALE SPEAKER: The man who used to be your pimp? TIFFANY: I just found out that he got busted. MALE SPEAKER: Ah. TIFFANY: He’s going to be suspicious that he got arrested the same time that I got let out. He’s going to think that I snitched on him, but I didn’t. MALE SPEAKER: We should think about getting you some police protection. No sense taking any chances. Bradley Family Episode 7 Additional Content Attribution MUSIC: Music by Clean Cuts ©2013 Laureate Education, Inc. 1 Bradley Family Episode 7 Original Art and Photography Provided By: Brian Kline and Nico Danks 
from https://class.waldenu.edu
• Laureate Education. (Producer). (2013). Cortez Case
Study [Multimedia file]. In Sessions. Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.edu
• Laureate Education. (Producer). (2013). Levy (Episode 7 of
42) [Video file]. In Sessions. Retrieved
from https://class.waldenu.edu
Levy Family Episode 7 Levy Family Episode 7 Program Transcript FEMALE SPEAKER: How did you find out? MALE SPEAKER: There’s a guy who served in our platoon. He didn’t call. Wrote an email. He said it would bother him too much if he talked about it. Sorry to be the one who tells you that Eric committed suicide last night. The last time I saw him, he said he was adjusting to civilian life pretty well. His girlfriend told me it wasn’t true. She said he told everyone he was doing fine. But the nightmares kept after him even when he wasn’t sleeping. It just tore him up. I guess he decided he’d had enough. He ended it with a service revolver. Marine to the end. FEMALE SPEAKER: I’m sorry, Jake. MALE SPEAKER: Thank you. You know, I spend almost every night in front of the TV, drinking until I can’t remember anything else. But I read that email last night, and I didn’t drink a drop. I just kept thinking about Eric. You know we went through Parris Island together? FEMALE SPEAKER: I didn’t know that. MALE SPEAKER: Yeah. I didn’t turn on the TV, either. I went straight to the computer. And before I knew it, I was reading about veterans and suicide. They say about 22 veterans commit suicide every day, 22. That’s like one every hour. Makes it sound like we’re time bombs. Makes you wonder which one of us is going to go off next. FEMALE SPEAKER: You sound glad that you didn’t drink last night. MALE SPEAKER: Yeah. I’ve been trying to quit for my wife. But that email– you know what else I read online? I checked all over with the VA, but it doesn’t look like they do anything to help prevent suicide. I mean, they offer help if you ask for it, but no prevention. Who’s going to ask for help, right? They train you to be stronger than everyone else, to endure. Asking for help is just not something most men do. FEMALE SPEAKER: Do you need help, Jake? MALE SPEAKER: I need a lot, but not like that. I’m not ready to check out yet. I got a baby on the way. ©2013 Laureate Education, Inc. 1 Levy Family Episode 7 I found out something else. I was reading about this veteran who committed suicide in another state. And they started this program in his memory that brings other vets together to help each other. FEMALE SPEAKER: Peer counseling? MALE SPEAKER: Yeah, that’s it. And I spent the whole rest of the night thinking, why don’t we have something like that? We should be reaching out to all vets, not just those who are already getting mental health services. I’d even volunteer to get something like that going. FEMALE SPEAKER: Well, that’s a great idea. But we’d need to find the money for a program like that. I mean, our budget is maxed out. We’d have to lobby the state legislature for the funding. MALE SPEAKER: Well, I’ll do it. I’ll write the letter. I want to try. FEMALE SPEAKER: Well, OK. MALE SPEAKER: I can’t let Eric go without doing something for him. For me, too. Levy Family Episode 7 Additional Content Attribution MUSIC: Music by Clean Cuts Original Art and Photography Provided By: Brian Kline and Nico Danks ©2013 Laureate Education, Inc. 2
• Laureate Education. (Producer). (2013). Petrakis (Episode 6 of
42) [Video file]. In Sessions. Retrieved
from https://class.waldenu.edu
Petrakis Family Episode 6 Petrakis Family Episode 6 Program Transcript FEMALE SPEAKER: So APS has closed the Petrakis case, and they’re not recommending any action at this time. CINDY: What? But Alec stole from his grandmother. Drugs, money. FEMALE SPEAKER: And you put that in your report, and APS closed the case. CINDY: But he left town. Aren’t they going to go after him? FEMALE SPEAKER: The APS isn’t the police. CINDY: I just– I feel like I let down Helen. It was my fault for going along with her idea to have her son move in to take care of his grandmother. FEMALE SPEAKER: I understand how you feel, Cindy. Tell me, what did you learn from this experience? CINDY: I’ve learned a lot, that’s for sure. I mean, between this case and school. FEMALE SPEAKER: What do you mean? CINDY: I’ve been researching a paper on elder abuse. I had no idea there were so much abuse among elders, like this case. FEMALE SPEAKER: Did you read about the Elder Justice law? CINDY: Yeah, it’s great. It only just passed, but it’s going make a difference. I mean, APS gets more funding, and they’re going to start up forensics centers to help improve expertise on elder abuse. FEMALE SPEAKER: It’s been a long time coming. I really hope this makes a difference. CINDY: Me, too. You know, ever since I got this case and the stuff I’ve been reading, I’ve been thinking, I might want to work more with this population, maybe move my career in that direction. FEMALE SPEAKER: Really? CINDY: Yeah. I would never have thought of it before. But once you see the problem up close, elder abuse stops being just statistics. It gets a human face. I think my own grandparents, you know? They need to be protected. ©2013 Laureate Education, Inc. 1 Petrakis Family Episode 6 FEMALE SPEAKER: Well, if you go that way, you’re going to be in demand. We Baby Boomers aren’t getting any younger. There’s going to be a need for good social workers. Petrakis Family Episode 6 Additional Content Attribution MUSIC: Music by Clean Cuts Original Art and Photography Provided By: Brian Kline and Nico Danks ©2013 Laureate Education, Inc. 2
Optional Resources
• Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen S. M. (Eds.). (2014).
Sessions: Case histories. Baltimore, MD: Laureate
International Universities Publishing. [Vital Source e-reader].
As a social worker, often you need to use your policy advocacy skills to ensure that your clients are receiving the services that they need. Although you may tend to think of policy advocacy skills as separate from your clinical social work skills, they are very similar. Think of the skills that you would use in working with a client such as Jake Levy. How could you apply these skills to policy advocacy? How will you use these skills to identify the policy and social problems that are impacting these families? In this week’s Discussion, you will continue to follow the Levy, Bradley, Petrakis, and Cortez families to start the process of policy advocacy.
In this Discussion, select one of the four integrated videos and identify the problems experienced by the client(s).
Analyses of Social Problems in Case Studies this is a discussion: 
Post your responses to the following:
• Who is defining the problem?
• What values are reflected in this definition of the problem?
• What is being omitted in this definition?
• What other problems do you see that are not being
acknowledged?
Be sure to support your post with specific references to this week’s
resources. If you are using additional articles, be sure to provide full
APA-formatted citations for your references.