Groups in Need

Groups in Need

•  Chapter Two from Burger and Youkeles (2003)

•  Scavenger hunt exercise

•  Learning strategy: Many of these slides offer questions highlighting various points about the target groups and the controversies in service delivery. This is your chance to think through the issues and test your own beliefs about who should receive services and how to give responsible help.

Introduction

•  Groups of people in need are often called ______or ______.

•  Groups in need change as current public opinion, availability of funding, and political climates shift.

•  Social problems that have long been issues come into the public spotlight and focuses shift.

•  The categories and groups in this chapter are not mutually exclusive. Many people fall under more than one major social need.

America’s Poor

•  How does SSA sets the poverty line, or threshold?

•  Are standards for welfare set locally or on a national level?

•  The ____-______is actually 150% of the poverty threshold (that is how much it actually takes to survive.)

•  Who are the poor?

Welfare System

•  ______determine needs for benefits.

•  FDR’s New Deal created the AFDC which stands for ______, but that program was replaced by the ______which gave us state managed, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF).

•  Major changes included five year limits on benefits and eligibility based on social compliance.

•  Program include food stamps, medical care and low cost housing.

•  What are some of the strongest criticisms of any welfare system?

Unemployed

•  What are the benefits of holding a steady job?

•  What happens to people when the loose their job?

•  Is it always the person’s fault?

•  How does one’s hierarchy of need shift when joblessness hits?

Unemployed Rate and Benefits

•  Unemployment rates reflect those who have recently lost their jobs, but do not account for those who have been unable to find work for an extended period of time and ethnic differences exist.

•  Often unemployment benefits reflect the amount of earning one has had previously and how long one has worked. Usually benefits last 26 weeks.

The impact of unemployment on human services

Burger and Youkeles make the point that long term effects of unemployment may take several years to fully develop. Long term effects include serious mental health problems, physical illnesses and elevated crime rates.

Children in Need

•  Many social problem endanger the lives of kids.

•  The American family is changing, lees time, more single parenting (27%)

•  One in four children live in poverty

Abuse and Neglect Numbers

•  In 2000, three million referrals for child welfare

•  10% experience sexual abuse

•  11% experience physical assault

•  8 % emotional abuse

•  63% neglect

Causes of Abuse and Neglect

•  The text mentions three main causes or at least contributing factors to abuse and neglect. These are:

Foster care

•  Is foster care the answer or just more of the problem for many children?

•  How do courts decide whether a child leaves home or stays?

•  What agency in Illinois is charged with the protection of children?

The Elderly

•  Due in part to aging baby boomers and the increase life span expectancy the elderly population is growing in the US.

•  The need for in-home support grows as people age (14% of those 65-74 up to 48% for those 85+).

•  Challenges include declining health, getting health care, isolation, and poverty

Social Security

•  Social security (OASDI, or old age, survivors, & disability insurance is a program that gives benefits to people who have paid into the system through payroll deductions.

•  SSI (Supplemental Security Insurance) is for people who do not have enough earnings, and are under the poverty threshold.

•  Currently Social security is solvent, but is at risk in 2030 due the projected number of those eligible for benefits exceeding the numbers of people paying into the system.

Healthcare for the Aged

•  1965 brought the creation of Medicare

•  Designed to provide health care insurance

•  Hospital care treatment but not preventive services, very few medications are covered

•  Only pays about 43% of the actual cost and filing complexities often discourage providers from accepting Medicare patients

•  Current lawmakers are striving to correct the flaws and try to keep the system solvent at the same time.

Healthcare for the Aged, cont

•  Medicaid: health services to those with low income or serious disabilities.

•  Two of three elderly people living in nursing facilities rely on Medicaid to pay the bill.

The Dementias

•  Dementia is a group of disorders caused by damage of brain tissue.

•  These changes result in short term memory loss, reduced ability to learn new material, and difficulty understanding abstract ideas.

•  Deterioration is progressive but can be slowed through memory cues, engagement in fun activities, and general good health care

Programs for Elderly

•  Adult day care

•  Meals on Wheels

•  Senior citizens

•  Nursing Homes

•  Assisted living arrangements

•  Legal services (free on SIU’s Campus)

People with Disabilities

Who is included by the definition of the disabled person?

What does Mainstreaming strive to do?

What are the benefits and limits to mainstreaming?

Does society have positive or negative views of disabled people?

Who assists in the rehabilitation process?

Person with Mental Illness

•  ______is a catchall term that includes everything form temporary emotional upsets to long-lasting psychological breakdowns.

Prevalence

In any given year it is estimated that ____% of adults and ____ % of children and adolescents in the US display serious emotional disturbances and are in need of treatment.

Trends & Current Problems

•  What major changes have impacted the location of mental health services?

•  Have medications made a difference?

•  Are medications overly prescribed and used to deal with everyday stress?

•  Should the rights of the mentally ill person to self-direct, including whether to take anti-psychotic medications be supported?

•  What about the rights of people to be safe from harm?

•  Are most psychotic people truly a danger to others and self? Who decides?

Substance Abusers

Have you ever known someone who struggles with an addiction?

Are addictions biologically based or a product of lack of will power?

Is it possible that any habit can develop into an addiction (e.g. video games, credit card usage, gambling, over-exercising)?

What are the primary concerns

•  Alcoholics

•  Heroin addicts

•  Cocaine addicts

Conflicting Approaches to the Drug Problem

•  Three approaches are

Interactions between Legal and Therapeutic Approaches

•  Mandated treatment

•  “By the way could I have a letter showing I’m in treatment?”

•  Some are opting for incarceration followed by monitored release into halfway or treatment facilities.

Crime

•  Do people’s lives lead then to turn to criminal acts to survive?

•  Are some people born “bad”?

•  Can anyone actually be reformed or rehabilitated?

•  What most directly influences recidivism?

Criminals

•  One source of data on crime is that reported to the FBI.

•  It reflects crimes that are reported to law enforcement officials.

•  The other main source is victim’s surveys

•  This data generally reflect much higher numbers of crimes than the amount reported to police.

A shift in policy

•  During the 1980’s public sentiment tended towards tougher penalties and truth in sentencing laws.

•  The US is second in the world in incarceration rates with violent crimes not property crimes leading the way.

Juvenile Offenders

•  Commit a large percentage of serious crimes

•  > one million juveniles are arrested each year

•  One of the strongest predictors of violence is reading ability.

•  What are Wilson’s characteristics of juvenile offenders?

•  Violent offenses are being committed by younger and younger children.

•  Juvenile correction program range from in home supervision, informal or formal probation, halfway houses, boot camps, and mentoring programs

Adult offenders

•  Are we too soft on crime?

•  Is the system unfair to the minority and the poor?

•  Can wealthy people “purchase” a verdict?

•  Should negative life circumstances be accepted as legitimate reasons for committing crime?

•  Services? Probation, Prison

•  Who can benefit from the correctional strategies and who does not?

Persons with Mental Retardation

•  Most authorities consider an IQ under __ to be the indicator for mental retardation

•  Causes include: (Four)

Classifying Levels of Retardation

•  Based on both ______tests and tests of ______.

•  Divided in to four groups

•  See table 2.1, p 113, for more details

Low expectations?

•  Educators now believe that low expectations for academic and life skill performance have hindered potential development.

•  Training should not focus on disabling label but instead focus on the needed skills.

Homeless

•  A special group of the poor

•  Although some homeless have been with us through history, the rapid rise began in the mid-1980’s

•  How many homeless are there:

•  It may depending on who is doing the counting

Who, why,

•  Page 116 offers the stats

•  Single men are the largest group

•  36% of the homeless are families with children

•  Why

•  Poverty, affordable housing, domestic violence, mentally ill, addictive disorders, un and underemployed

Helping the Homeless

•  Rescue missions

•  Public shelters tend to cost more to operate than private ones.

•  Private source cannot keep up with the need.

•  Underlying problems seem untouched, just focusing on sheltering

Persons Living with HIV/AIDS

•  What is AIDS?

•  The epidemic

•  1981 clinical oddity

•  1993 13 million people worldwide infected with HIV

•  Who are the victims of AIDS?

Transmission, and Prevention

•  Sexual practices that lead to semen to blood or blood to blood contact

•  Can be through needle sharing

•  Health care worker must use universal precautions to prevent infection and accidental spreading

•  Prevention focuses heavily on education

Care for People with AIDS

•  Informational hotlines

•  Educational materials

•  Counseling for AIDS patients, families and at risk peoples

•  Assistance in location health care providers

•  Transportation

•  Assistance with insurance coverage, housing, and civil rights issues

Coping

•  Imagine the experience of having a friend or relative with AIDS.

•  How would you cope with the stigma?

•  With the pending loss?

•  With the medical costs?

What kind of help for whom under what kind of circumstances?

You have been asked to think about target populations for humans service in the US today. While the text is a great resource for facts of figures, this tutorial tried to encourage you to think about the choices being made.

How does the information and your thoughts about it continue to shape your idea of contemporary helping?