Challenging for You Personally as a Human

¶ … challenging for you personally as a human services professional based on the topics covered in the video carousel. Describe two strategies you might employ to address these challenges. Be specific and provide examples.

Personal challenges

One of the most common frustrations expressed by social service professionals is the intransigence of government bureaucracy. It can be very difficult to treat clients with critical needs and to have to wait before real change can even begin. For example, in the area of domestic abuse, it can take a tremendous act of courage for a woman to even entertain the thought of leaving an abusive situation. However, once she does she may be discouraged by the fact that she now has to apply for assistance like food stamps, welfare, or for other programs that are necessary so she can transition from her current, unlivable situation to a better way of life. Current cutbacks in government programs have further hampered the ability of social workers to fully deploy all of the resources necessary to make real changes in clients' lives.

However, clients themselves can also present sources of frustration for the social worker. Part of the cycle of abuse is that males who abuse females often try to 'make up' to their spouses or girlfriends, telling them that 'this time, it will be different.' Women believe this, and after a social worker has labored hard to create a situation in which it is possible for a woman to leave her abuser, the woman may go back to the man. This is especially frustrating when legal charges are involved. A woman may recant her testimony, even when the social worker is afraid that the woman is physically in danger by going back to the situation.

Law enforcement can be a third frustration. Although awareness about abuse is growing, because of the fact that women seldom press charges against their abuser the first times they are abused, the police may grow hardened and not take the complaint particularly seriously. Even judges may be reluctant to separate a father from his children, if there is only evidence of spousal abuse. The social worker must act as an advocate for his or her clients, and must be able to explain the psychological tendencies that create specific behaviors in clients who are in the cycle of domestic abuse to other individuals in the justice system who might not fully comprehend this fact.

As John Musick points out in his testimony, although the social worker treats the individual, social phenomena like domestic abuse is not merely caused by individual pathologies. Domestic abuse is facilitated by macro social pressures, such as economic situations that cause women to feel as if they are better off remaining with their abuses, a world in which women's incomes drop precipitously after divorces, and a world in which patriarchical constructs reinforce traditional, stereotypical relationships between the genders.