Elizabethan Poor Law - Essay Example

Assignment Assignment According to the teachings of Jesus, English laws were aimed at providing relief to the poor people living within society. It was the duty of the law to provide food and shelter to homeless and sick people in order to bring about welfare and betterment. Under the purview of the Elizabethan Laws established in 1601, there were two kinds of relief provided to the poor – indoor and outdoor relief. The difference between the two is that in outdoor relief, the poor are given a dole of money to live on. However, they are not provided with any homes or other forms of shelter and are expected to live within the homes they already have. The money provided to them was to suffice as their livelihood, and otherwise they were also provided with relief in kind, i.e, in terms of clothes and food. Indoor relief on the other hand was established so that the legislation took control of the plight of the poor and the old people. They were provided with shelter, clothing as well as hospital and medical facilities if they required them. The better approach thus for assisting the poor lies in indoor relief because a number of poor people are not able to gain access to shelter or food at all. Thus, the law must help them to attain food, shelter, clothing as well as other basic necessities. 2. The public assistance provision of the social security act differed from those of the economic opportunity act as social security helped the legislation provide security in terms of jobs as well as food and shelter to the people. It ensured their social life and health as opposed to understanding their work lives and providing them with jobs. The act thus helped to provide the poverty stricken people with a proper social environment within which they could gain access to a proper living environment as well as substantial amount of resources for daily living. 3. Opportunity structures are external factors of the environment which help a group of people gain access to political, social as well as economic aspects of the environment around them. They further help to shape the development of these factions of the people as well. Doug McAdam summarizes at least four key dynamic components of the political opportunity structure: a. the relative openness or closure of the institutionalized political system; b. the stability or instability of that broad set of elite alignments that typically under-gird a polity; c. the presence or absence of elite allies; d. and the state’s capacity and propensity for repression. Thus, each individual’s level of access to opportunity structure shapes the outcome of his or her development according to the society that he or she lives within, with respect to the political as well as social and economic aspirations. 4. Every profession has a certain code of ethics or conduct attached to it. It is important for every profession to have such a code because these ethics help the formulation of social rules and regulations that every individual must follow within the workplace in order to maintain a harmonious environment. Social work is a line of work where people engage in interactions with a large number of people coming from various diverse backgrounds. Thus it becomes imperative to have a code of ethics in order to maintain certain decorum among people from such different cultures and backgrounds. 5. Charity Organization Societies consisted of various charitable organizations that helped the plight of the poor people and in their uplifting for the purpose of bringing about welfare within society. These organizations made use of scientific philanthropy in order to uplift the distressed people. The society thus considered itself to be much more than just a group of people that provided alms or monetary charity to the poor people. They have contributed in majority and have become some of the biggest social reformers or workers in the world today. The Charity Organization Society movement can be compared to the settlement house movement which emphasized social reform rather than personal problems as the proper focus of charity. 6. Discrimination is a very widely practiced phenomenon all over the world. Since earlier times however, a number of efforts have been made in order to eradicate this completely, in terms of gender, sex, sexual preferences as well as poor people. Social reformers have been fighting to abolish the practice of discrimination against various aspects of society. Historically, equal opportunity in the United States was associated with African Americans and, later, women seeking to level out fundamental social inequities. More recently, persons with disabilities, veterans, and the aged have fallen under the protection of equal opportunity. Furthermore, Equal employment opportunity (EEO) policies in theory are administered and communicated to provide an effective and efficient work environment for all employees and job applicants. Although most would consider equal opportunity a recent concept, the true beginning of the idea can be traced to the Fourteenth Amendment (1868). This landmark constitutional doctrine did not address equal opportunity directly, but it did provide for equal protection under the law. 7. Generalist Social Work Practice involves working with clients at all the different levels. In other terms, it means connecting with the clients at the level of attainment of resources, as well as intervening with the organizations in order to enhance their work skills and efforts, and advocating proper distribution of resources. The various components are: Uses a systems or person-in-environment perspective Uses the strengths and client empowerment perspectives Requires multi-systems level intervention (micro and macro interventions) Involves the application of critical thinking skills to the planned change approach/process (assessment, intervention, evaluation, termination) Integrates direct practice with social policy and social work research Is guided by the professional code of ethics Provides the core competencies (knowledge and skills) for beginning level practice in a variety of social and human service settings Serves as the foundation for advanced practice 8. A generalist practitioner needs to be sensitive towards people belonging to diverse backgrounds and lifestyles. He must thus be able to work without discriminating against people on the basis of their race, gender or sexual preference. A great amount of engagement or interaction with people belonging to such culturally and economically diverse backgrounds is a required skill for a generalist practitioner because he needs to be able to bring about social reform among the people without having any qualms in the mind about anyone. He must be able to work with different people as he needs to donate his skills and efforts for the welfare of society. 9. Theory is a very important part of social work intervention because it helps in understanding the basics of social work and how reform actually helps in providing the betterment and welfare of society. Systems theories need to be comprehended to understand how individuals at different levels vary from each other with respect to their needs and wants in a larger continuum. Theories are also important as they contribute to shaping the perspectives of social workers. As a person starts off in helping society, he might not have the proper broad mindset to be able to work with other people. However, by understanding these theories, he is taught on how to deal with culturally diverse backgrounds and groups of people. Lastly, understanding these theories also helps in absorbing various people within society with the use of social experiments. 10. Societal problems need to be curbed only when people come together and formulate solutions as to how they can be mitigated from experience altogether. For these reasons, there are various public as well as voluntary agencies that help to provide a foundation for the assistance of other people. However the primary difference between voluntary and public social service agencies is that the voluntary ones are not for profit organizations, working privately for the welfare of the people. The public social service agencies have been set up by the government with a view to increase the standards of living of the people within a community. 11. The number or percentage of poor people helps to indicate the welfare that is taking place within a society or community. If the percentage decreases then it means that the number of social service units and agencies that have been established in the particular areas, have helped to decrease the poverty levels by providing the basic amenities for living. Moreover, it also helps to indicate whether or not these people are being given opportunities of employment which will further help to raise their standards of living. When the number of poor people goes down, then it shows society’s commitment towards welfare because it becomes evident that measures are being taken in order to counter the issue at hand. 12. Five factors that are related to homelessness are decline in public assistance, divorce, domestic violence, drug and alcohol related problems and loss of jobs. Various measures can be taken in order to intervene into these problems and provide solutions for the same. Every state should have poverty benefits for the people in terms of public assistance in order to provide welfare for the purpose of relief provision from poverty. A number of families get divorced leading to excessive homelessness and in order to solve this, social service agencies must be able to provide homes for distressed women and children so that they can provide them shelter for a period of time before they can get back on their feet again. Domestic violence needs to be reported and people suffering from the same should also be taken care of in special homes. There already are associations like rehab centers for the purpose of rehabilitating individuals from drug and alcohol abuse. Lastly, joblessness calls for the need for employment opportunities which need to be catered from the government and other public agencies. 13. The four frameworks that are used to understand a person’s mental health are: a) social framework – this helps to understand the social environment of an individual and how he or she may be affected by the same, mentally. b) political framework – the political framework helps a person realize his needs with respect to others within the same community, thus deciding his mental state. c) economic framework – the economic aspect helps a person to determine his livelihood as well as contribution to society, thus determining his mental state again. 14. Managed care is when companies try and control the cost of health care for their employees which allows them to provide for medical facilities and health benefits as well as provide the patient with a quality life most of the time. However, the main advantage from the point of view of the client or the company is that it is being able to increase its goodwill by providing health care benefits to the employees and thus can increase its labor force by attracting more and more people towards the company. The primary demerit would be that the company would be held responsible if anything goes wrong and if these benefits are not provided for. The main advantage for the employees would obviously be that they are getting such benefits without having to pay for them; thus they are like perks and requisites for them. However, sometimes employees might get locked in with bad doctors that are not able to take good health checkups and thus create discrepancies in taking care of the patients. 15. The various components of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 1909 have had a great impact on health sector of the country’s economy. One of the components is to provide health insurance premiums for only children. However, Congressional report found that passage of the health care law prompted health insurance carriers to stop selling new child-only health plans in many states. Of the 50 states, 17 reported that there were currently no carriers selling child only health plans to new enrollees. Thirty-nine states indicated at least one insurance carrier exited the child-only market following enactment of the health care laws. 16. Every family plays a crucial role in deciding the way that most children adopt during their adolescent years. Substance abuse can also be the result of a negative family dynamic as members in the family may adopt negative thinking from the influence of the abused members. The first role is of the addict who is the user and abused and the center of attention within the family. The mascot may hind the recovery of the addict as he might make jokes at his expense and make him feel embarrassed or angry. The hero is the person in the family that takes the responsibility to try and keep the family strong through the tough time that it is undergoing. The scapegoat within the family is the member that tries and distracts the members from the activities of the addict in order to gain attention from the others. 17. Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Children and Families (DCF) define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or other caregiver that results in harm, potential for harm, or threat of harm to a child. Child Abuse Prevention Program is a prevention program and the Child Abuse Intervention Department provides an intervention program for medical treatment and other facilities for children suffering abuse. 18. The continuity theory of normal aging states that older adults will usually maintain the same activities, behaviors, personalities, and relationships. Activity theory emphasizes the importance of ongoing social activity. The developmental theory of aging defends that aging is a result of development, that aging and development are regulated by the external factors of the environment. Socioemotional Selectivity Theory is a life-span theory of motivation. Social exchange theory is a social psychological and sociological perspective that explains social change and stability as a process of negotiated exchanges. 19. The social views of criminal behavior is the most consistent with social work practice theory because the activities and intentions of a criminal and his conduct needs to be understood by the realms of society in order to deal with how it affects society at large and only then can social workers try and make efforts in order to counter the issue and help these criminals improve themselves with respect to the environment and externalities around them. 20. It is important to understand traditions, culture, values of rural communities because if people have to work in those areas then they need to adapt the backward mindset of the people living in these areas. They do not have developmental values when it comes to thinking and in order to adapt their lifestyle and bring about change in the way that they live and think, it is important to not undermine their cultures and traditions and instead understand them and then through social workers, help them understand how it is vital to either give something up that does not fit well into today’s society, or adopt something new into their lifestyle. Works Cited Bloy, M. The 1601 Elizabethan Poor Law. Retrieved December 7, 2011, from http://www.victorianweb.org/history/poorlaw/elizpl.html Read More