Legal Considerations/Burnout

What are the primary legal considerations that every human service worker must be aware of? How do these legalities help to protect us and our clients?

Although many of you may not have experienced job stress or burnout within a human service agency, you may have experienced something similar in another aspect of your life. Discuss your experiences and how you have coped with stress in the past.

Analyze some of the recommendations for avoiding burnout included in your readings and discuss some that you might want to implement for yourself in the future.

Chapter 14 Understanding Legal Issues

Discussion Questions

Should parents be given full control over their children? If so, until what age? Under what circumstances?

What are the pros and cons of allowing clients to read their own records?

The state makes many intrusions into the privacy of welfare recipients but very few into the lives of children and their parents who receive Social Security. Why do you think this is? Do you think the state has the right to investigate the personal behavior of welfare recipients?

People with criminal records can be kept out of public housing and many kinds of jobs. They can also be prevented from voting. What do you think of this?

Chapter 15 Staying Current and Avoiding Burnout

Discussion Questions

If you were in charge of a social agency, how would you structure it to avoid worker burnout?

Imagine that you are a worker who wants to form a union to improve wages and working conditions. The administrator of your agency calls a meeting to warn workers about the dangers of unions and makes a veiled threat that workers might be fired if they try to form a union. How would you respond to this?

What are some examples of federal and state laws that might contribute to worker burnout?

What are some examples of agency regulations that might contribute to worker burnout?

Describe what you would consider to be the ideal supervisor and the ideal method of supervision.