Resources: Human Services in Contemporary America

Analyze the scenarios in Appendix E and describe the level of prevention each scenario addresses. Do you think the prevention strategy used in the scenario is effective? If not, what would you do differently?

Write a 200- to 300-word response for each scenario.

Appendix E

Scenarios for Week Six CheckPoint

Scenario 1: Violence Prevention in a High-Risk Community

Karyn, a social services worker, is confronted daily with issues such as homicide, suicide, child and elder abuse, battered women, sexual assault, and domestic violence at the community agency in which she works. Her job responsibilities are to build community and agency coalitions to help meet the needs of the community.

One day, an enraged young man storms into the agency demanding to know the whereabouts of his wife, who he had ordered not to leave the house. The wife is cowering in Karyn's office after being referred by her physician for suspicious bruises.

The agency has a procedure for handling potentially violent situations such as this one, in addition to providing a panic button. Someone pushes the panic button behind the receptionist's desk, which brings the police within minutes.

The wife is later transported to a shelter for battered women. The shelter provides classes in self esteem, parenting, and job training and placement. It also assists clients with access to eligible welfare benefits and housing.

Scenario 2: Closure of a Planned Parenthood Clinic

You are a human services liaison in your community's county public health office. Of the 60,000 people living in your county, 12,000 are women of childbearing age. The teen pregnancy rate is above the national average. Of the county's births, 25 to 30 percent are unintended. With an annual per capita income of just over $13,000, most of the population lives below the poverty level.

At your weekly team meeting, your manager announces that the Planned Parenthood Clinic in the county is closing due to lack of funding. Other county family planning providers have waiting lists and cannot take new patients. Team consensus is that lack of accessible and affordable family planning services will lead to more unintended pregnancies, child abuse, and poverty.

You organize a group of other health and human service providers in the county to solve the issue. After much discussion, the public health office decides to offer limited family planning services.

Scenario 3: Caring for the Homeless

You are a case manager in a community mental health center. Many of your clients are homeless and have either mental disorders or substance abuse and health problems.

Health problems among the homeless are exacerbated by their homeless status. Exposure to extreme temperatures and a lack of sanitary facilities, nutritious food, restful sleep, and support networks worsen infections and chronic diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease. The homeless are less likely to take medications for their mental and physical diseases. Most homeless people do not seek health care until they are so sick or injured that they have to be transported to the emergency room by ambulance.

Although there is a community health center in the county, it is not financially or geographically accessible to the homeless. After determining the needs of the homeless population in your case load, you meet with the leaders of all the agencies that provide services to the homeless, including the health center. You learn that there are three shelters, one food bank, and two faith-based initiatives providing services to the homeless.

A collaborative decision is made to provide basic health services in the shelters. The health center will supply the clinical providers, supplies, and equipment; the shelters will provide the space, furniture, and utilities; and the mental health center will provide on-site case management that includes counseling and support groups.