Profession of Social Work

In Reamer‘s article on boundary issues in social work, he identified five different classes of boundary issues, distinguishing problematic boundaries from those that are not, and offering guidelines for practitioners to manage boundary issues that they encounter during their practice. Your tasks in this assignment are as follows:

1. Read Reamer’s article.

2. Read the case study supplied by your instructor, and

• Mark your case study to identify each action by the social worker that constitutes a boundary crossing or a boundary violation.
• Select three of Reamer’s categories in which to place the identified actions. (Note: there is AT LEAST one boundary crossing/violation per category.)

3. Apply key concepts from Reamer’s article to the case scenario provided by the instructor by writing a 4-6-page essay (not including title page, abstract, and reference page) that discusses:

• How each of the social worker’s actions in the case study constitutes either a boundary crossing or a boundary violation, and
• Whether those actions were ethical or unethical based on NASW Code of Ethics guidelines.

Please Note:
1. Both your initial and final drafts of your paper should conform to APA format. That is, you will need a title page with running head, an abstract, in-text citations, and a reference page, for ALL drafts.
Florida Atlantic University
SOW 3302 Profession of Social Work
Ethics Case Study: Juan S.

The social worker in this case study worked at the ABC Children’s Wellness Center. An ESL teacher at a local elementary school referred Juan S. to her. Juan came to the center with his mother, Silvia.

Before seeing Juan and his mother, the social worker called the ESL teacher who referred Juan to her to discuss the case. The teacher reported that Juan was showing little interest in classroom activities or his peers, and always seemed exhausted. He was irritable and frequently became physically aggressive toward classmates who made fun of him for being so small and thin (sometimes calling him “mosquito”). She also stated that he often appeared to be daydreaming, and when she tried to talk to him, he seemed to withdraw further.

Juan presented as a very thin 6-year-old who was small for his age. He spoke very little English. He avoided eye contact with the social worker and would not speak. He fidgeted and then got up to wander around the social worker’s office. He picked up a teddy bear and brought it the social worker, crawled up into her lap and snuggled there. She rocked him gently there while she continued talking to his mother about their financial difficulties, and Juan appeared to fall asleep. She gently woke Juan and tried to put him back on the floor, and as he got down from her lap, he reached up and kissed her on the cheek. He then went back to playing with the toys in the office.

His mother reported that they emigrated from Mexico 18 months ago along with Juan’s 17-year-old brother, Jaime. Juan had lived in a rural village in the Yucatan peninsula with his parents and 3 older siblings until 2005 when hurricane Wilma destroyed their home. The eye of the storm went directly over their village, and when Juan’s father went outside during the calm to survey the damage, he was electrocuted by a downed wire. A few months after her husband’s death, Silvia decided to move with her four children to the city of Monterrey in northeastern Mexico where her sister lived. Two of Juan’s older brothers became involved with a drug gang in Monterrey, and were shot to death in front of their home. Juan was present during that shooting, and barely escaped with his own life. Silvia then made the decision to take her remaining two children to America, and contacted her cousin who lived in Brownsville, TX to help her slip across the border. The cousin was able get someone to smuggle Silvia, Jaime and Juan across the border at the cost of $10,000. They crossed the border on foot and were met by someone who hid them under the hay placed in the feeding troughs of a cattle truck. They were left there for two days without food or water in 98-degree weather while the truck made its way to the Texas-Arkansas border. There they were picked up by her cousin who placed them on a bus to W. Palm Beach Fl where another cousin lived. Silvia must now pay back the $10,000 she owes her cousin.

The mother indicated that the family was having great difficulty financially because, without papers, Silvia and Jaime were having trouble finding jobs, and Silvia was afraid to apply for public assistance. She had recently obtained a job as a housekeeper and nanny for a wealthy family with 3 young children. The family, however, did not pay her each week as promised, and when they did pay her, they sometimes paid less than the agreed amount. Sylvia was afraid to complain because she feared the family might turn her in to the immigration authorities. She was searching for other work but had not found anything. Jaime worked as often as possible either at a local restaurant busing tables and washing dishes or doing short-term landscaping or construction work. Silvia asked the social worker if she knew of anyone else who needed a housekeeper so that Silvia could leave these people.

As it turns out, the social worker was acquainted with the family that Silvia was working for, having provided case management services for them two years earlier when she was working at a hospital where one of their children had an operation. They were demanding and rude at that time, and the social worker could vividly imagine how they must be treating Silvia. The social worker had been looking for a live-in housekeeper/nanny to take care of her own children, and mentioned to Silvia that she might be interested in having Silvia work for her. This arrangement might work out well for both of them since Silvia’s financial and housing situation would stabilize, and the social worker’s children would be taken care of. In addition, the social worker would be available every evening to work with Juan one-on-one in addition to the schedule that was set up for individual and family therapy in the agency. The social worker also was convinced that this arrangement would be especially beneficial to Juan since funding for the services offered at the agency would allow a total of only 12 sessions. She realized that Juan was going to need long-term treatment due to his extensive history of trauma, and she believed that continuing contact with him might help him adjust to his new environment. The arrangement would also be beneficial because he would be spending time in an English-speaking environment, thus improving his ability to communicate in school, and the social worker’s children would be learning Spanish in the home.

As Juan and Silvia started to leave, Silvia mentioned that she hoped she hadn’t missed the bus since another going to her neighborhood wouldn’t come for another hour. Since it was time for the social worker to leave anyway, and since it was only a few minutes out of her way, she offered to take them home. When she arrived at their home, Silvia thanked the social worker profusely, ran into her house and returned with a cake that she had baked that morning. She insisted that the social worker take the cake for her children, saying that she wanted them to think well of her before she arrived for work there.

2. Retain a separate electronic copy of each of your drafts in case the class is selected for the WAC survey, which is mentioned in the syllabus.
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