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SWK 220 Social Work Issues in Client Services |
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Instructor Contact Information |
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Instructor Name: Sheri Narin |
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Office Phone: (336) 599 –
1181 ext. 424, Office Location: L130 on the Person County Campus.
Office Hours are posted by door. Virtual office hour is announced
in the weekly announcement. |
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Email Address: narins@piedmontcc.edu |
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Fax: (336) 598 - 0453 |
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Secretary Phone: Nancy Watts,
(336) 599-1181 ext. 437 |
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Faculty Website Address: http://www2.piedmontcc.edu/faculty/narins
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Course Information |
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Course Description: This course introduces the professional standards, values and issues in social services. Topics include confidentiality, assessment of personal values, professional responsibilities, competencies and ethics. Upon completion, student should be able to understand and discuss multiple ethical issues applicable to social work and apply various decision-making models to current issues. This course is a unique concentration requirement of the Social Services concentration in the Human Services Technology program. |
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Course Objectives:
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Prerequisites and
Co-requisites: None |
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Course Topics: The course will cover the
following topics in the order below:
Part II. Ethical Concerns within Specific Populations or issues
Part III. Professional Concerns
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Specific Course Requirements:
In addition to the requirements for any
distance learning course (see:
http://www2.piedmont.cc.nc.us/DL/hardware.htm for further
information), you will need
access to Microsoft word for submitting assignments. |
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Textbooks, Supplementary Materials, Hardware and Software Requirements |
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Required Textbooks: Congress, Elaine P., (1999) Social Work Values and Ethics: Identifying and Resolving Professional Dilemmas. Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publishers. ISBN: 0-8304-1492-4 |
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Supplementary Materials: None |
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Course Website address: |
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Hardware Requirements: Please follow the hardware recommendations mentioned at : http://www2.piedmont.cc.nc.us/DL/hardware.htm, with the addition of access to Microsoft Word. |
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Software Requirements: You may need Acrobat Reader for some assignments. You can get information on downloading it through http://www2.piedmont.cc.nc.us/DL/plugins.htm. You will need JAVA to access the virtual classroom. There is no cost for the downloads. |
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Assessment and Grading |
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Testing Procedures: Your exams are given through
Blackboard and you have two hours to complete the exam. Once you
have started the exam, you will need to complete it at that time.
There will be three exams, in addition to the initial syllabus quiz
and reference quiz. Each exam will become available the Monday
morning of the exam week and will become unavailable at midnight on
the Sunday of that module. Missed exams cannot be made up. Exams
consist of questions in the following formats: Multiple choice,
fill in the blank, matching, short essay and true/false. |
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Grading Procedure:
Grades are based on the following assignments: Discussion Board participation: 20% The more specific grade
breakdown is as follows:
Introductory activities, to be
completed in the first week of class, and are included in your
grades. These include changing your email address on blackboard,
emailing the instructor, completing a syllabus quiz, and completing
first discussion board posts. This will also include an activity of
references. These activities will help familiarize you with the
class structure and online learning processes and requirements. Each module has specific assignments. See
Course assignments for specific details. ExaminationsThere will be three examinations. The first examination will cover modules one through five and will involve questions that help you apply the learned material. The second examination will cover modules six through ten and will have a similar format to the first exam. The third examination will cover eleven through sixteen and will have a similar format to the first and second exams. The first exam will be during week six (Monday 9/26/2005 to Sunday 10/3/2005). The second exam will be during week eleven (Monday 10/31/2005 to Sunday 11/6/2005) and the third exam will be during week sixteen (Monday 12/5/2005 to Sunday 12/11/2005).
You are encouraged to use the questions under course documents as a study guide for the exams.
Written Projects
Written Projects Mental Health Substance Abuse Child Welfare (Child Abuse, foster care, adoption, juvenile delinquency) Aging (Housing, Elder Abuse) Disabilities HIV and AIDS Health Care Dual relationships There is further information under Module Assignments and under Written Projects on Blackboard.
Group ProjectThe class will be divided into small groups.
Your group will develop a code of ethics for the Piedmont Community
College human services students. The code of ethics will cover
whatever topics your group believes should be included in the code
of ethics.
There is further information under Module Assignments and under Small Group Project on Blackboard.
HomeworkHomework assignments are given as stated in the module assignments. There is a homework assignment almost every week. Assignments are due by 8:00 p.m. on the Sunday of the week of that module. For example, a module three assignment would be due by 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 11, 2005.
There is further information under Module Assignments on Blackboard.
Discussion Board Assignments Discussion forum assignments include answering questions and responding to other students replies. The guidelines are below:
Criteria for Discussion Questions
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Grading Scale: 1000 to 900= A; 899 to 800= B;799 to 700= C; 699 to 600 = D Below 600 = F
or A = 90% to 100%, B = 80% to 89%, C = 70% to 79%, D = 60% to 69%, F = Below 60% Grading Scale is subject to change
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Academic Integrity |
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In addition to good academic performance, students should exhibit honesty and integrity. If there is any question that academic honesty and integrity are not honored, students may be required to redo assignments in the presence of an instructor-selected monitor. Proof of dishonesty, including plagiarism, will make students subject to disciplinary action. Please consult your college catalog for more information.
Piedmont Community College Plagiarism Policy 7.5.1 PLAGIARISM
Whether intentional or unintentional, plagiarism is “the wrongful act of taking the product of another person's mind and presenting it as one's own" (Alexander Lindey, Plagiarism and Originality, 1952).
The following acts are examples of intentional plagiarism:
Copying material from a published source to avoid having to devise one’s own ideas. Failing to give clear and proper credit to an idea, phrase, or quotation taken from a source. Purchasing a pre-written paper. Having someone other than the stated author complete an assignment, or part of an assignment.
Unintentional Plagiarism occurs when a student provides sources for his or her work, but the sources are cited incorrectly or inadequately. Handbooks with documentation rules for Modern Language Association (MLA) and American Psychology Association (APA), two source documentation styles, are housed in the Caswell County Campus Resource Center and in the Person County Campus Learning Resource Center. Students are also encouraged to speak with their instructors when they are uncertain about documenting their sources in class assignments.
Plagiarism will result in disciplinary action, and repeated offenses will lead to increased penalties that may ultimately result in expulsion from the College, as set out below:
A student who unintentionally plagiarizes will receive a warning and instruction on proper citation, style, and usage for the first offense. A student who unintentionally plagiarizes a second time in a single course will receive a course grade of F in the course in which the student plagiarized. A student who intentionally plagiarizes will receive a course grade of F in the course in which the student plagiarized. If a student receives a course grade of F due to plagiarism, the course instructor will notify the Dean of Student Development using the Plagiarism Incident Report Form. If a student receives three course grades of F due to plagiarism, as determined by records kept in the office of the Dean of Student Development, he or she will be expelled from the College.
Legal Reference: G.S. 115 D-20 History Note: Effective January 20, 2004
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Assignments and Participation |
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Assignments and Projects:
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Class Participation or
Attendance: Regular attendance at all class meetings is necessary for students to learn important concepts. In this regard, the following class attendance policy is established: 1. A student is expected to be regular and punctual in meeting all classes. To receive credit for a course, the student must attend prior to the census point and a minimum of 80 percent of classes, labs and shop hours. Failure to attend class is an absence, regardless of the reason. Absences are counted from the first scheduled meeting of the class, not the first day the student attends. All work missed during absences must be made up to the satisfaction of the instructor. Failure to complete required assignments will negatively affect the student's final grade. 2. A student who exceeds the 20 percent limit of absences may be dropped by the instructor through the eighth week of the semester. If a student exceeds the 20 percent limit after the eighth week, the instructor is authorized to award the student the "I" or "F" grade as warranted by the student's performance. 3. Any exceptions to this policy must be authorized by the instructor.
For this class, your attendance is counted through your participation in the class. You will see a column in the grade book for each week and this will reflect whether you participated in the online course that week. Lack of participation will strongly affect your grades and you may be dropped from the class if there are more than three weeks in which you did not participate.
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Punctuality: |
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Course Ground Rules |
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1) Please contact your instructor with any problems or concerns! 2) Participation is required and you are expected to communicate with other students in team project. 3) You are responsible for learning how to navigate in Blackboard, and for asking for assistance when you are having difficulty. Address technical problems immediately. 4) Keep abreast of course announcements. There will be a weekly announcement posted Sunday evening or Monday morning for that week, and other announcement may be made as well. You should check the Blackboard site at least three times a week for new announcements. 5) Observe course netiquette at all times, etc. 6) If you choose to drop the class, you must complete a drop form. If you do not complete the drop form you will receive an “F” in the class. Guidelines for Communications |
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Guidelines for Communications |
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Email: · Always include a subject line, with your name, the course number and the topic of the email. · Remember without facial expressions some comments may be taken the wrong way. Be careful in wording your emails. Use of emoticons might be helpful in some cases. · Use standard fonts. · Do not send large attachments without permission. · Special formatting such as centering, audio messages, tables, html, etc. should be avoided unless necessary to complete an assignment or other communication. · Respect the privacy of other class members. |
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Discussion Groups: · Review the discussion threads thoroughly before entering the discussion. Be a lurker then a discussant. · Try to maintain threads by using the "Reply" button rather starting a new topic. · Do not make insulting or inflammatory statements to other members of the discussion group. Be respectful of other’s ideas. · Be patient and read the comments of other group members thoroughly before entering your remarks. · Be cooperative with group leaders in completing assigned tasks. · Be positive and constructive in group discussions. · Respond in a thoughtful and timely manner.
a. Clarity b. Specificity c. Usefulness to student (will it help the student to get a better grade on next discussion question?) d. Balance - does the feedback point out strengths in the discussion as well as areas of weakness? e. Helpfulness - Does the feedback provide resources to assist student in further research? The following is an example of “A” quality work. The discussion board question was, “What do you think are the most common mistakes made by social workers working in child protective services? What causes these mistakes to be made? How can these mistakes be avoided or reduced? Remember to consider the role of other agents or agencies in these decisions and the multiple party responsibilities in these situations.” The student’s answer is below: I believe that some of the most common mistakes made by social workers working in child protective services are: “misidentifying serious cases, wrongful removal of children, inaccurate and incomplete data entry for tracking abuse and neglect and monitoring children in foster care, not establishing relationships with the families to make the necessary decisions, and hurting the children that they are supposed to protect.” I read an article that didn’t speak too favorably about child protection workers, but I believe the points made are very real. The article states that low salaries, high turnover rates, and staffing shortages put pressure on the remaining staff members of the agencies; this causes insufficient time for workers to establish relationships with the families and make the necessary decisions to ensure safe and stable permanent placements for the children. The heavy caseloads breed errors in documentation of case information. Another mistake is the unnecessary removals – misidentifying serious cases or wrongful removal of children. The article calls it “defensive social work.” It stated that child protection workers are possibly trying to protect themselves from liability (danger creation theory); if they question the safety of a child, they remove that child, which is also what they do when they actually identify safety risks for children in identifiable, abusive homes. It has been identified as the “better safe than sorry” mentality. Some child protection workers do not want to be held accountable for “inappropriately returning a child to an abusive parent” for fear of liability. What is most unfortunate is the fact that children can and are being hurt by abusive parents and/or child protection workers alike.
I think it is important to provide some additional oversight of child protection cases; have some form of checks and balances to ensure effective and efficient service provision. Agencies should address the recruitment and retention of its child protection workers so to ensure that the children and families are not being shuffled from one worker to another; this would increase the familiarity of the cases and reduce the number of cases per worker. Also, adequate documentation should be kept to help back up the claims of child abuse and neglect. Adequate documentation can also help in identifying what interventions are working within the agency and with the child protection workers. And, what I think is most important to the accuracy and efficiency of providing services to children and families is to engage in self evaluations at the agency and personal level. Agencies can evaluate whether or not their vision, mission, and values all support creating better results for children and families. Child protection workers can evaluate who they are, including, what their morals and values are, what biases they may have, and what drives them to do what they do. Regular self evaluations are necessary for providing children and families the best possible assistance and can also ensure better results for children and families.
Works Cited:
A Critical Look at Child Welfare: Defensive Social
Work,
Alexander, R., Jr., Understanding Legal Concepts That Influence Social Welfare Policy and Practice, 2003, Brooks/Cole Publishers. ISBN: 0-534-59661-4
Child Welfare:
Improved Federal Oversight Could Assist States In Overcoming Key
Challenges GAO-04-418T,
The following is a response to another student’s post. This response is also “A: quality work: I can understand your concern for the safety of others when a threat of harm has been established. My only concern is that maybe we (me included) are forgetting that sometimes people say things out of anger and with a limited vocabulary or means to express themselves completely. For instance, a mother speaking about the way she feels when her adolescent daughter stays out all night without calling. The mother, out of pure anger says, “I am going to strangle that child when I see her!” Do you automatically report this information to the authorities or the Department of Social Services? I wouldn’t. What I would do is reflect back to the client the message that I am receiving. I might follow up with, “It sounds like you are angry with your daughter because of her behavior. Is strangling her something that you would do?” Not saying that this mother would not strangle her daughter, but she may have used those terms for lack of better word choices. Like using the terms, “I could kill ‘em.” I think it is important to get as much information from the client as possible. Now if the mother says to you, “When my daughter walks in the door, I am going to walk up to her, put my hands around her neck, and choke her until she can no longer breathe and falls over lifeless” there is definite reason to be alarmed and to contact the authorities. Sometimes clients don’t have the “words” to express themselves or their feelings. They use what they know…regardless of how incriminating it can sometimes be. Just something to consider.
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Chat: · Introduce yourself to the other learners in the chat session. · Be polite. Choose your words carefully. Do not use derogatory statements. · Be concise in responding to others in the chat session. · Be prepared to open the chat session at the scheduled time. · Be constructive in your comments and suggestions. |
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Web Resources: American Psychological Association, Electronic References, 5th edition of the APA Publication Manual, 2001, Retrieved 21 July 2005 from http://www.apastyle.org/elecgeneral.html
Learning Resources Center, Online Services For Distance Learners, Piedmont Community College, Retrieved July 21, 2005 from http://www2.piedmont.cc.nc.us/DL/online_services.htm
Blackboard Student Support The North Carolina Conference of English Instructors offers this site with support information for online learners. North Carolina Conference of English Instructors, CEI Blackboard Support, North Carolina Conference of English Instructors web site, Retrieved 21 July 2005 from http://www.nccei.org/blackboard/students.html Netiquette, Or How to Mind Your Manners When Using E-Mail, Virginia Shea, Netiquette , May 1994, http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html, Netiquette Home Page, Retrieved 21 July 2005 from http://www.albion.com/netiquette/index.html |
| Library |
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The Piedmont Community College Library Website
includes links and services for: an online catalog, basic library
information, Help, electronic resources, distance education library
services, interlibrary loan, instructional services, citation help,
reserves, searching the web, and periodicals. http://www2.piedmontcc.edu/lrc/ |
| Students With Disabilities |
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If you have a learning or other disability, and you want to request special accommodations to ensure equal access to education at PCC, please see Shelly Stone in the Office of Student Development, 599-1181, ext. 210. The information that you provide Ms. Stone will be kept confidential. |
| Student Success Center |
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Piedmont Community College now offers a comprehensive package of services to assist students with their academic success. The Student Success Center, located in G-204, provides a variety of free learning support services, including computer access, tutoring, supplemental instruction, study groups, and other academic services. Visit or call Gloria Bennett, Coordinator of the Student Success Center, at 599-1181, ext. 276 to access this valuable student resource. |
| Syllabus Changes |
| A statement that any necessary changes to the course syllabus will be sent to the student by e-mail and posted on the bulletin board. |
| Technical Support |
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Libbie McPhaul-Moore, 336-599-1181, ext. 445, mcphaul@piedmontcc.edu Earl Stenlund, 336-599-1181, ext. 225, stenlue@piedmontcc.edu may be able to assist you with troubleshooting access to Blackboard and navigation of Blackboard. The College does not provide technical support for any problems with your ISP accounts or software, to include AOL. |