Social workers were among the first professional family separators. Social workers are still professional family separators.
We’ve always separated children from their immigrant parents. (It’s how we got our start.) And today the war on drugs allows us to do it to citizens.
We’ve always separated children from their immigrant parents. (It’s how we got our start.) And today the war on drugs allows us to do it to citizens.
And, although we often say that “cops aren’t social workers,” we actually have systems that force social workers to be more like cops every day.
And we’ve often shared the same goals, even though our methods differ.
And we’ve often shared the same goals, even though our methods differ.
The goals of social control/management and public safety are shared between cops and social workers. While our terminology may differ, these aims are shared.
And there are, of course, cops who are more therapeutic that MSWs; MSWs more punitive than cops.
And there are, of course, cops who are more therapeutic that MSWs; MSWs more punitive than cops.
But I think we are kidding ourselves as a profession is we minimize the real power that we hold and wield over people’s lives every day. Sure, we can be “client-centered” and support “self-determination” but we are agents of the state too.
And there are limits to this. And we see it every day when it comes to our role as mandated reporters, but also in how we are beholden to our referral sources in the context of service provision. These externalities remind us that we don’t just focus on the client’s needs.
Both of these specifically make us the perfect first line for law enforcement in the war on drugs. The lack of training around drug use in our profession make us wholly unprepared as reporters to distinguish between problematic/non prob use among parents. And families suffer.
The fact that many of the services we provide are for clients who are coerced/mandated by referral sources such as the CJ system, child welfare, social services set us up to be the middleman in systems of control. Is client-centeredness feasible?
What happens to confidentiality? Can relationships/alliances can truly be "therapeutic"?
What if we subvert the referral source? What happens to our steady stream of clients?
What if we subvert the referral source? What happens to our steady stream of clients?
OR WERE THE REFERRAL SOURCES OUR REAL “CLIENTS” ALL ALONG?!?
