Ant-Discriminatory and Anti-Oppressive Practice - Essay Example

INTRODUCTION The two terms ‘anti-discriminatory’ and ‘anti-oppressive’ practices have been used interchangeably though there being some specific differences. Anti-discriminatory practice seeks to reduce and fight treatment that is perceived to be unequal and unfair and thereby focusing on eliminating barriers that prevent individuals from getting access to services (Aymer and Okitikpi 2009). Anti-oppressive practice on the other hand, goes beyond the aim of the anti-discriminatory practice in that, it focuses mainly on disputing the existing structure of societies and the misuse of power to ensure that certain individuals and groups remain in inferior positions. According to Braye and Preston-Shoot (1995), anti-discriminatory practice has its basis in the social work reformist tradition while anti-oppressive practice is based in the radical tradition. Discrimination mainly refers to the process whereby individuals are treated in an unfair manner and is mostly based on bias and stereotyping, while oppression is not only concerned with the acts of direct or indirect discrimination, but also on the structural dimensions of power and the manner in which these are reproduced in day-to-day social interactions (Dominelli, 2002). In dealing with these practices, the identity concept is fundamental. Identity is mainly perceived as being fluid and not static hence; individuals may fall in the category of oppressors and be oppressed at the same time. There are different identities that are possessed by individuals; which include being black, female, old, lesbian, and having certain disabilities. The nature of social work as a profession calls for the people with strong desires to assist in improving other peoples’ lives to cope with as well as solve issues in their daily lives. These problems range from relationship issues, disabilities, housing, unemployment, substance abuse to even life-threatening diseases. They may additionally be charged with the responsibility of carrying out researches, service advocacy, policy formulation and implementation. Some social workers engage their professionalism in the provision of social services and assistance in the view to improving the social and psychological functioning of children and their families. By coordinating available services, these social workers assess their client’s needs and offer assistance to improve their situations (Shulman, 2010). Shulman further indicates that social workers in schools often serve as the links between students’ families and the school, working with parents, guardians, teachers, and other school officials in ensuring that students reach their academic and personal potential further offering them assistance in dealing with stress and emotional problems. Many school social workers work directly with disabled children and their families in addressing problems such as misbehavior, truancy, teenage pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse while advising teachers on how to cope with difficult students (Shulman, 2010). Social workers have now changed focus to the rich families which are seemingly the neglected group of the society. Many parents of the children in these rich families have gotten themselves occupied elsewhere with daily issues leaving their children in desperate need of help. In their pursuit for the social workers to assist these families, they have been faced with challenges associated with cultural social structure. A susceptible group to the impact of government’s welfare reduction is the disabled persons. Unlike the non-disabled, the disabled will live possessed by individuals; these include being a lone parent, female, old or young, and the poor (Wilson & Beresford, 2000). The perception of most individuals regarding the government reforms is that it is ill-equipped with the initiatives and resources of expanding disabled people’s employment. The Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) insists that the welfare reform of the UK government is taking apart the welfare system. They also view that the impact on most individuals in England will be devastating considering that a huge amount will be taken away from the British economy (Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Scottish Affairs Committee, 2009). The impact of the welfare reform is perceived as being significant and damaging especially on people’s lives, services and the economy in general. Social workers have continually indicated that those affected by the welfare reforms include all vulnerable groups that are marginalized such as the disabled, unemployed, elderly, among others. National Health Service (NHS) and other public services cut imply that most individuals will not get the support that they have been relying on in the past. Instead, the vulnerable groups and the economy will be affected and undermined by the reforms in a number of areas. These include cutting huge amounts from what is currently used to meet the needs of vulnerable groups; like cutting disability allowances or carers’ allowances from disabled individual’s entitlements. Secondly is the reassessment of several sickness benefit claimants (Talbot-Smith, 2007). The system put in place has been perceived to be flawed. The cuts on housing benefits will also affect the disabled individuals in a disproportionate measure. Fourth, the welfare reforms will require the lone parents to resume working when their youngest child reaches five. In addition, the new scheme on child maintenance will not be affordable to several single parents. Fifth, the financial support of families with children who are disabled and those caring for their partners will be reduced. Sixth, housing benefit changes have resulted in payment reduction annually. Individuals who are claiming local housing allowance and the claimants below the age of 35 will lose a lot of money on weekly basis. Those facing the cut also include tenants from households believed to be under-occupying their homes (Klein, 2006). Both the anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive practices remain relevant and applicable regardless of the existing welfare reforms. The existence of vulnerable groups that include the disabled people, job seekers, lone parents and the young people make the practices to be significant and relevant. The cuts and the reform changes on the disability living allowance and those of other groups translate to more oppression on individuals primarily due to lack of jobs and housing. Survival is difficult since individuals will not receive the support they have been relying on. The social workers still have a key role to play regardless of the changes put in place. They have to ensure that the remaining percentage after the cut is distributed equitably among the deserving. With the disabled being required to work instead of solely relying on benefits, the social workers will required be to ensure that they are not discriminated or oppressed in the work places. They ought to have good working conditions and be rewarded accordingly (Butler, 2011). However, the number of social workers working in support capacity will be reduced, as service users will have to take control of their own decisions concerning how their personal budgets are spent. As part of the government strategy to cut costs, professional interventions will be minimized. In the current climate, the service users will be empowered to do most of the tasks themselves. They ought to be provided with skills that will empower them and increase their confidence. The service users are provided with a personal budget without a comprehensive support plan in place. Hence, they will have to develop the know-how themselves. On their part, the social workers will work with the needy ones, especially those with complex needs. The role of the social workers though not outdated will be reduced considerably by the welfare reforms (Hill, 2003). Young (2000) highlighted that oppression is a category concepts and possesses five conditions that include exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism and violence. Social workers in their profession have to deal with these conditions so as to counter discrimination and oppression while discharging their duties. For the social workers to reduce the exploitation of the marginalized, together with following the set out procedures in rendering their services, they have to employ with the anti-discrimination and anti-oppressive principles. Butler (2011) indicates that social workers have to endure some discriminating working conditions so as to offer their services to the needy and oppressed people. The task of assisting service users to make sustainable change in their lives is highly challenging to the social workers and sometimes discouraging. For instance in marginalized groups, the challenge takes a broad spectrum of analysis. Some range from issues raised by the media to families being resistant to the services offered by the social workers. In spite of having social welfare reforms in place, it has not been an easy drive for the social workers to implement the set reform policies. Low or absent political will to implement the social welfare reform policies for political purposes has been costly for the social workers. Hill (2003), while describing how to understand social policy indicated that regardless of a strong social welfare reform policy being in place without the befitting political will for implementation, social service users will continue to languish in the hands of social workers who will have little to offer. Consequently, providers of psychosocial support to individuals, families or vulnerable populations to cope with chronic and acute illnesses and AIDS have had to endure a lot due to the discrimination meted on the vulnerable groups. While applying the anti-discrimination principle found on the social welfare reform policy, the social workers have been able to reach these discriminated people either in their families, at schools or in other social gatherings. Nevertheless, this being the situation and a challenge, social workers have been able to counter the discrimination and oppression ‘punishments’ that are meted out on the service users unnecessarily. The UK has set out clear policies on anti-discrimination and anti-oppression principles especially on the marginalized individuals of the society. For a social worker to offer gainful assistance to a disabled who is employed, he/she has to work closely with the employing entity. Acting as an intermediary becomes a greater challenge to the social worker if the employer of that disabled least regards the welfare reforms. As such, this becomes an insurmountable challenge to the social worker while attempting to apply the policies and principles. Regarding the definition and description of anti-oppression and anti-discrimination and how much they occur, their significance for social work practice needs to be researched. Mullaly (2007), clearly portrays that this is both personal and political. Mullaly further adds that, social problems have to be acknowledged and that they are linked with the existing society’s larger structures. This results in different kinds of oppression among people including the marginalized. Every social worker therefore, has great responsibility to recognize the intersecting nature of oppressions. The attitude of a social worker has to be non-judgmental and unbiased. When social workers operate through an anti-oppression view, they are able to understand individual experiences that are lived and subjective. It is in this view that social workers have successfully been able to change individuals in to society’s valuable members. Having understood the various structural factors that mainly result in oppression and marginalization, social workers have worked these factors round for the benefit of the service users. According to Sakamoto and Pitner (2005), a social worker ought to always be reflective, focus on raising consciousness, empower individuals and understand the experienced subjective realities. Conclusion The UK government can utilize social welfare reform in their contribution towards poverty as well as reducing the challenges faced by the social workers while executing their mandates. Though the situation has changed, there continues to be evident challenges faced by social workers. As social administrators continue to develop and implement programs to address issues such as child abuse, homelessness, substance abuse, poverty and violence, culture, individualism and political influence play a great role in the social wellbeing of a society. When political will fails, researched and analyzed policies, programs, and regulations that identify social problems and suggest legislative and other solutions also fail to be implemented (Carpentier, 2010). In this regard, it is my view then that welfare reform policies when implemented, can secure societal improvement that is real. The practices of the social workers though still in place in the UK may have reduced and may continue to reduce drastically due the social welfare reforms being implemented as service users have been empowered to carry out most of the tasks themselves with social workers stepping in only when it is necessary. Since the reform policies will take time to be fully implemented, the remainder of the social workers will therefore have to work extra so as offer services to those in need. Reference list Aymer, C & Okitikpi, T 2009, Key Concepts in Anti-Discriminatory Social Work, SAGE Publications Ltd, London. Braye, S, & Preston-Shoot, M 1995, Empowering Practice in Social Care, Open University Press, Buckingham. Butler, I 2011, Social Work in Trial: The Colwel Inquiry and the State of Welfare, The Policy Press, Great Britain. Carpentier, MC 2009, The Skills of Helping Individuals, Families, Groups and Communities, ICC Macmillan Inc., USA. Davies, M, 2000, The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Work, Wiley-Blackwell, USA. Dominelli, L 2002, Anti-oppressive Social Work Theory and Practice, Palgrave MacMillan, New York. Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Scottish Affairs Committee, 2007, Poverty in Scotland: Second Report of Session 2007-08, Vol. 2: Oral and Evidence, The Stationery Office. Hill, MJ 2003, Understanding Social Policy, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Germany. Klein, R 2006, The New Politics of the NHS: From Creation to Reinvention, Pearson Education, UK. Lago, C & Smith, 2003, Anti-discriminatory Counseling Practice, SAGE, London. Mullaly, B 2007, “Oppression: The Focus of Structural Social Work”, The New Structural Social Work, Don Mills: Oxford University Press, pp. 252–286. Sakamoto, I, & Pitner, R, O 2005, “Use of Critical Consciousness in Anti-oppressive Social Work Practice”: Disentangling Power Dynamics at Personal and Structural Levels. British Journal of Social Work 35, pp. 435–452. Shulman, L 2010, Occupational Outlook Handbook, ICC Macmillan Inc., USA. Talbot-Smith, A & Pollock, A 2007, The New NHS: a Guide, MPG Books Ltd, Great Britain. Thompson, N 1997, Anti-discriminatory Practice, Macmillan, Basingstoke. Wilson, A, & Beresford, P 2000, “Anti-oppressive Practice”: Emancipation or Appropriation? British Journal of Social Work 30, pp. 553–573. Young, I, M 2000, “Five Faces of Oppression.” In M. Adams, Readings for Diversity and Social Justice, New York: Routledge, pp. 35–49. Read More