Discussion 1
Do you ever feel trapped by circumstances that you sense you are powerless to change?
As a social worker, you can anticipate having to regularly address clients who feel trapped in adverse circumstances and have no clear direction on how to improve their situations. How do you address the needs of such a client?
Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman (2013) define resiliency as "the ability of an individual, family, group, community, or organization to recover from adversity and resume functioning even when suffering serious trouble, confusion, or hardship" (p. 17).
For this Discussion, you apply the concept of resiliency to the real life scenario of Talia Johnson. To prepare for this Discussion, review the major concepts from your HSBE I course (Chapters 1-9 in Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman).
Then, view the media about Talia Johnson's visit with her social worker. As you reflect on the readings this week, imagine you are Talia Johnson's social worker and consider how you might apply the concept of resiliency to Talia's case. Also, consider how you might apply the concept of resiliencyto social work practice in general.
Discussion 2
When did you become an adult? Was it the day you graduated from high school? Or, was it the day you moved out of your parents' or caregivers' home?
Your description of what it means to be an adult and how and when an adolescent transitions into adulthood may differ from that of your colleagues.
The authors of your course text, Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman, use the term young and middle adulthood to identify the life-span time period between age 18 and 65. This classification distinguishes this time in the life of an individual from childhood and adolescence and from the later years of adulthood. Is the authors' young and middle adulthood classification a useful one?
What is especially useful and not useful about the classification? What changes would you make to the authors' classification to make it more applicable to your role as a social worker? For this Discussion, you analyze the author's life-span classification and suggest ways to improve it.