I am a social work intern at a Jewish elementary school in Kew Garden Hills, Queens. It serves grades K-8, and is coeducational. Teachers at the school refer most clients to me when children display problematic behaviors during the school day.
I want the paper to be about a girl in 7th grade that would always run away during school bc she lived down the block – she would come late, never show up, or leave school with out permission
she was threatened so many times she would get kicked out of school if she didn’t stop
they had a meeting with her, me ( social work intern ) my supervisor, her parents and principle
principle asked her if she was going to change and she sat there saying no-
her parents are very messed up
lots of abuse at home( emotional )
school didn’t want the liability and if she wasn’t even going to try they couldnt keep her so they kicked her out
she is someone I’ve been working with since the beginning of the school year and really cared about and i knew kicking her out would go down hill for her
but principle couldn’t allow her to stay ( especially when she wasn’t even willing to try and stick to the school rules )
now she’s home not going to school this year and keeps calling ycq ( the school ) for them to send her work to keep up
but the school is frustrated and doesn’t have the extra time to be doing that
she’s meeting with a therapist who we’ve been in touch with to see if she is ready to come back
the therapist doesn’t think she is ready and they are considering putting her in a foster family bc her parents are so messed up
they don’t think she will get better if she stays at home

Assignment 3: (LEVY PAPER) This assignment has five distinct parts:

1) Describe a problem between you and a colleague, agency, parent or supervisor, over a client or group. This model does not apply to conflicts between you and the client.

PROVIDE BACKGROUND ABOUT THE AGENCY. NEXT, DESCRIBE THE PROBLEM SITUA TION.

2) Summarize it in one sentence.

EXAMPLE: THIS IS A CONFLICT BETWEEN THE SOCIAL WORKER, THE FAMILY, AND THE PRINCIPAL REGARDING AN OUT OF DISTRICT PLACEMENT; THE FAMILY BELIEVES THAT THE STUDENT SHOULD REMAIN IN THE SCHOOL; THE SOCIAL WORKER BELIEVES THAT AN OUT OF DISTRICT PLACEMENT IS BEST, AND THE PRINCIPAL REFUSES TO SEND OUT OF DISTRICT BECAUSE IT IS TOO EXPENSIVE, BUT BELIEVES THAT THE SCHOOL IS NOT AN APPROPRIATE PLACEMENT.

3) Analyze it by applying Levy’s model of values classification & 4) Create a chart according to Levy that classifies the conflict from each of the parties’ respective values.

HERE YOU ARE CREATING A CHART OF THE PREFERRED CONCEPTIONS (PC), PREFERRED OUTCOMES (PO), AND PREFERRED INSTRUMENTALITIES (PI) FOR EACH PARTY TO THE CONFLICT.

5) Explain the entries in the chart.

USE A NARRATIVE TO EXPLAIN THE POSITIONS OF EACH PARTY. BEGIN W/THE SOCIAL WORKER – EXPLAIN THE SW’ERS PC, PO, AND PI – IN ONE PARAGRAPH AS A NARRATIVE.

6) Enter a resolution

AS THIS CLASSIFICATION MODEL IS NOT MEANT TO PROVIDE RESOLUTION, ENTER ANY RESOLUTION OR SOLUTION THAT OCCURRED SINCE THE CONFLICT, AND HOW YOU UNDERSTAND THE CONFLICT AS A RESULT OF USING THIS CLASSIFICATION MODEL.

III. Conflict Between Personal and Professional Values (Session 5)

1.What is the social worker to do with personal values in the professional context? 2.Factors that influence personal values, with a particular emphasis on religion. 3.Dealing with personal values and ethics and their interface with professional values

and ethics.

Readings:
Levy, C. (1976) Personal vs. professional values: The practitioner’s dilemma. Clinical Social Work Journal, 4 (2), 110-120.

Linzer, N. (1999) Resolving ethical dilemmas, Chapter 3.
Loewenberg, F.M. (1988). Religion and social work practice in contemporary American

society. New York: Columbia University Press. Chapter 3.
Danzig, R. (1986) Religious values vs. professional values: Dichotomy or dialectic? TheJewish Social Work Forum, 22, 41-53.

Osmo, R.; Landau, R.. (2003). Religious and secular belief systems in social work: A

survey of Israeli social work professionals. Families in Society 84:3, 359-366. Reamer, F. (1982) Conflicts of professional duty in social work. Social Casework, 63,

(10), 579-585.

HELPFUL NOTES:
Levy, C. (1974) The value base of social work.

Levy (1973), suggests that in order for social workers to begin their work at whatever medium, there must be (a priori) an already agreed upon understanding of what type of values will influence their work. This priori is not developed in a series of arbitrary words or codified examples, but from a set of preferences derived from the knowledge base of social work that will hopefully address all manner of possibility in regards to ethical practice outcomes. The breakdown of this priori is discussed in three pieces: the preferred conceptions of people, the preferred outcomes for those individuals, and the preferred instrumentalities involved in the practice itself

While a number of different values may fill whatever category, or preference, being discussed, there has to be a somewhat agreed upon (universally understood) perspective of what those preferences look like to clinicians in practice. Some examples could be:

Preferred conceptions of persons or, “People are…”: responsible, capable, unique, and have the potential to change

Preferred outcomes or, “People should be able to…” : acquire legal assistance, seek medical care, have equal opportunity, and the right to self-determination

Preferred instrumentalities or, “As a clinician, I should be able to/ it’s important that I…”: respect my clients right to refuse treatment (Levy, 1973, p. 39-41).

The preferences or concepts are created by the consensus of a social worker’s knowledge base as well as the social worker’s awareness and understanding of what preferred behavior should resemble. We can then argue what a social worker in practice should believe in and highlight those values used as well as clarify emerging worker-bias which may hinder the foundations of those ideas.

*In order for us to describe something, we must also be able to describe what it’s not*