The Social Worker's Perspective on Child

Introduction

The social workers assist families to enhance the relationship and cope with difficult situation like illness, violence, death and others. They are seen to guide families with the help of the counselling process to improve their well-being. In this assignment, the social perspective to be used by social workers in explaining the serious case review (SCR) of C is to be explained. Thereafter, the way inter-agency working to be supported and strategies to be implemented in assisting family of Child C is to be discussed. The social impact and the social strategies to overcome the issues highlighted in the case study of child C is to be explained. A personal reflection on the learning develop from critically analysing the case is also to be discussed.

Assessing the Family

One of the theoretical perspectives which can explain the cause of the occurrence mentioned in the SCR of Child C is social learning theory. The Social Learning theory mentions that individuals in society learn social behaviours by observing as well as imitating people. The process is seen to contribute towards development of language, moral decision-making aggression and others in individuals (Li et al., 2021). The theory is to be used in explaining the current issues faced in the family of Child C because in most instances it was seen that the activities of violence are learned by C’s mother from the familiar circumstances in which she was born and brought up by the parents. The reactive aggression theory is not to be used because it posits that events of domestic violence occur in the family when an individual experience any unpleasant situation such as aversive stimulus resulting in negative emotional response (Abd Aziz et al., 2018). For example, the male partners involve in violence towards female partner in presence of rejection or abandonment from relationship (Anitha et al., 2018). In the current situation, there is no mention of such adverse situation being faced between Child C’s mother and father that led to the development of domestic violence.

The study by Campbell (2019) mentioned that social learning theory position aggressiveness of individuals towards family is learned from operant conditioning and observation of behaviours of their role models. In the given case study, it is seen that domestic violence along with alcohol and drug abuse are common condition being faced over two generations in which Child C’s mother and her sister are born and brought up to lead life. Thus, it can be determined that most of the disputes between Child C’s mother with her mother, sister and partner which led to domestic violence reporting may be caused by operant conditioning and learning from watching the role model. It is evident as her mother and father were deliberatively involved in continuous abusive and violent relations over the year with no intervention from others to manage the situation. As argued by Copp et al., (2019), social learning theory assumes children who have observed as well as experienced abuse during their early years are likely to stay in abusive intimate relationships. In case of Chil C’s mothers, it was mentioned that out of domestic violence they required to shift between home and their grandparents place quite often to be safe. Thus, Child C’s mother is seen to be brought up in an abusive environment making her to remain in such relationship and avoiding to leave her partner with her children to live an abuse-free life.

The limitation of using Social Learning theory in explaining domestic violence cause among Child C’s mother and father is that it mentions causes based on dynamic interplay between environment, person and behaviour. the theory does not consider the influence of motivation or emotion other than references of the past that support violence in families (Sellers et al., 2017). Thus, using this theory fails to inform the influence of emotional turmoil caused among Child C’s mother and father due to their social life or work that led to develop domestic violence at home. The Level of Service Inventory-Revised (LSI-R) is referred to as the assessment tool which is designed to identify the risk of offender’s recidivism and needs regarding criminogenic actions (Davidson, 2019). The tool is to be used in assessing the re-vindictive changes of violence from Child C’s mother and father to determine if the children would be safe within their custody. Since Child C’s sibling is already under his father’s care and though no showing any symptoms of abuse, but the tendency to again execute violence towards his son or others is to be measured to ensure C’s sibling safety.

Inter-professional Working

The presence of domestic violence in the family not only negatively affects the physical and emotional health of the partners but also have negative impact on the mental and physical health of the children (Wallace et al., 2019). This is because domestic violence leads the mother to cause neglect of their children which reduces their efficiency to timely meet developmental characteristics as per age and develop hindered emotional health. It is evident from the delayed speech and vocabulary along with bladder control of C’s sibling which spent his first key 5 years of early age under the parents while C was moved to foster care at more early stage. One of the strategies to be implemented for protecting and supporting the family is Family counselling. This is because family counselling is referred to psychological actions that is taken to assist the family member improve communication with one another and resolve differences to avoid violence so as to live in peace and harmony to support well-being (Gulati and Kelly, 2020). Thus, providing family counselling would help C’s mother and father to resolve the differences and improve behaviour that are leading to creation of domestic violence supporting control of the situation. The agencies to work together in this aspect are social care organisation and healthcare organisations.

The other strategy to be implemented in regard to SCR of Child C is admitting C’s mother in alcohol rehabilitation centre who is mentioned to be actively involved in alcoholism. This is because due to her alcoholism one of the disputes with her sister was raised in which she harmed her by throwing a bottle of vodka in the presence of her child without thinking he could be harmed. The alcohol rehabilitation centre provides psychological and physical assistance in helping individual overcome alcoholism to lead a normal life (Youngson et al., 2021). The possible limitation of inter-agency collaboration is conflict between the aims, values, vision and objectives between two or more organisation for controlling a single social cause or situation. It creates difficulty between the agencies to work together at the same pace in managing situations (Bajpai, 2018). In case of Child C’s case, the issues were not faced as police and Children Social care organisation were seen to working at same pace in managing the situation and outing the children under foster care for safety. The other limitation faced in inter-agency working is lack of enhanced resources among all agencies to play the role and responsibilities allocated to them. This creates differences in the ability of each organisation to play active part in controlling any difficult and hindered social situation (Sayogo et al., 2020).

Social Impact

The differences in race of the partners in the current condition such as C’s father belonging from BAME (Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic community) would have led C’s mother avoid reporting of the domestic violence to seek assistance from Family Nurse. This is because of the fear that the partner belonging from the minority community to be assessed under institutional racism which would disrupt their family by making the father away from the children (Best et al., 2020). In another case, if the partners reporting and confronting domestic abuse were people from culture were oppression from men over women is considered to be social custom would not have reported regarding the incidence and asked for assistance from social care workers. This is because such women feel it would against their custom to take actions and others in their cultural society would abuse them for their actions (Dosdale and Skarparis, 2020). In contrast, if the partners represented in the case study were people who were mentally disabled (either or both), then their interaction with the statutory services may not have happened. This is because mental disability would lead the partners unable to have enhanced cognitive ability to critically think and understand the occurrence of abuse to be reported to authorities for seeking assistance (Dammeyer and Chapman, 2018).

Social Work Practices

One of the social practices for intervening and supporting families with domestic violence is ensuring the abuser is kept away from the family to avoid further occurrence of abuse and to ensure safety of the family. This is to be achieved with effective intervention from the police and legal authorities who would apply legal charges against the abusers to be proved in court to make the individual remain away from the family to avoid causing further abuse (Dowling et al., 2018). However, failure to execute the action would lead to repeated abuse of the family from the abuser which would make them live in fear and anxiety (Idriss, 2017). The other social practice to support families with domestic abuse is involving with health professionals to assess the physical and emotional health of each of the family members. This is to determine the hindrance to cause to each member due to the abuse so that effective actions can be taken to control the negative health consequences which is important for the family’s well-being in long-term (Su et al., 2021). However, failure to execution the action would led the family members being abuse live with hindered mental trauma which would later impact them to develop negative emotional and mental state such as depression, stress, anxiety and others (Femi-Ajao et al., 2020).

The social practice to be taken in supporting families with mental health issues like one suffered by Child C’s mother’s grandmother is identifying their health issues by social workers and offering them information about the services available for them to overcome the health problem. This is because it would help the individual in making informative decisions to attend care in managing their mental health which they may have perceived to be normal course of life (Dowling et al., 2018). The social practice to be implemented to support overcoming substance misuse (C’s mothers is active drinker) is to provide individuals involved in the act medical support in overcoming the habit. This indicates medication such as disulfiram, naltrexone and acamprosate used for avoiding alcohol dependence mentioned by the NICE is to be used for people who are involved in alcohol substance abuse (NICE, 2021).

Person Reflection

In analysing the case study, the initial learning gathered is that I understood the different theoretical perspective present regarding family or domestic violence in social studies. It led me to improve my understanding of the different course and environment along with the way varied partner interactions are responsible for development of the domestic violence. The study leads me learn regarding the way active inter-agency working can improve families suffering from domestic abuse and the challenges faced by workers in inter-agency working. It helped me to improve my understanding about the aspects to be focussed while performing inter-agency working so that the barrier or challenges could be resolved strategically to deliver enhanced care. The study also helped me learn regarding differences in race, disability and culture influence reporting of domestic abuse. It is important for me to understand which factors are to be further focussed so that better identification of domestic abuse among minority families can be achieved to offer them extend support required to improve their well-being. The study helped in improving my understanding about the various agencies to be collaborated in avoiding domestic abuse in families and assisting children in the abused families to get better as well as safe places to stay.

Conclusion

The study concludes that social learning of the C’s mother in the early childhood by observing her parents to be involved in domestic abuse may have influenced her to involve in abuse towards one another with her partner. The challenges faced in inter-agency working are differences in aims and values among institutions, resource shortage, hindered role and responsibility management and others. The social actions to be taken in overcoming domestic abuse avoiding the abusers to be near the family. The involvement of social services is necessary in tackling individual with mental health issues and medication are to be arranged as a part of social practice in helping individuals overcome substance abuse.

References

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• Anitha, S., Roy, A. and Yalamarty, H., 2018. Gender, migration, and exclusionary citizenship regimes: Conceptualizing transnational abandonment of wives as a form of violence against women. Violence against women, 24(7), pp.747-774.
• Bajpai, A., 2018. Working with Children: The Processes and the Model and Its Replication. In From Exploitation to Empowerment (pp. 71-136). Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore.
• Best, D., Van Wersch, A. and Carthy, N., 2020. ‘It’s like drowning and you can’t get out’; the influence of intimate partner violence on women with chronic low back pain. European Journal of Counselling Psychology.pp.45-78.
• Campbell, J.C., 2019. Wife-battering: Cultural contexts versus Western social sciences. Sanctions and Sanctuary, pp.229-249.
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• Davidson, J.T., 2019. Gender and the Level of Service Inventory. The Encyclopedia of Women and Crime, pp.1-4.
• Dosdale, C. and Skarparis, K., 2020. Supporting survivors of sexual violence and abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic. British journal of nursing, 29(20), pp.1159-1163.
• Dowling, C., Morgan, A., Hulme, S., Manning, M. and Wong, G., 2018. Protection orders for domestic violence: A systematic review. Trends and issues in crime and criminal justice, (551), pp.1-19.
• Femi-Ajao, O., Kendal, S. and Lovell, K., 2020. A qualitative systematic review of published work on disclosure and help-seeking for domestic violence and abuse among women from ethnic minority populations in the UK. Ethnicity & health, 25(5), pp.732-746.
• Gulati, G. and Kelly, B.D., 2020. Domestic violence against women and the COVID-19 pandemic: What is the role of psychiatry?. International journal of law and psychiatry, 71, p.101594.
• Idriss, M.M., 2017. Not domestic violence or cultural tradition: is honour-based violence distinct from domestic violence?. Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 39(1), pp.3-21.
• Li, S.D., Xiong, R., Liang, M., Zhang, X. and Tang, W., 2021. Pathways from family violence to adolescent violence: examining the mediating mechanisms. Frontiers in psychology, 12, p.204.
• NICE 2021, Alcohol-use disorders: diagnosis, assessment and management of harmful drinking, Available at: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg115/ifp/chapter/treatments-for-adults-who-misuse-alcohol [Accessed on: 14 December 2021]

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