The Progressive Era: Emerging Concepts of Social Work and Social Welfare from 1900 to 1930
The case is about Marie, a recovering drugs addict who has tried hard to please the authorities to let her have a custody of her four sons, who have been taken away from her. She is argued to be unfit to take care of her children since the children tested positive for drugs test- partially blamed on her former drugs trafficking husbands whose body systems have been eroded by the hardcore drugs. The case study is concerned with the social welfare of the society especially the family. Marie, a single mother and a recovering drugs addict needs help to raise her children. This calls for the intervention of Temporary Assistance For Needy Families, a welfare program designed to assist single mothers together with their children who live in abject poverty. According to Dolgoff and Feldstein (1980), social welfare is non-profit making activities that a society, public or voluntary organizations engage in with an aim of relieving distress and poverty or perfecting the conditions of casualties in the society.
The family should be the first institution to provide social welfare to its members such as the children. It is the fundamental rights of the parents to ensure that the family cares for its members by providing basic needs such as food and security. The case study mainly focuses on the role of the family in providing social welfare to its members and the government’s interventions in case the former fails in its duties. For example, just before Marie underwent for professional counseling, the state government of Connecticut through the Stamford office, intervened and took custody of her four children. The underlying concept in the topic of discussion is primarily pegged on the funding, its structure and the departments responsible for children’s welfare. The historical theme in this case study is the theme of inequality. It is assumed that single mothers cannot fully bring up their children as expected by the state. Furthermore, the state assumes that an individual once convicted of wrongdoing cannot be transformed.
Despite the numerous attempts by Marie to please the authorities that she is on her path to recovery, the latter still doubted her. This is evidenced when Stamford office sent a social worker to check on her state of living. The social worker expected that Marie’s house would be in disarray, the opposite was true. The office went ahead and threatened her that they will file a suit in the court to take full custody of her unborn baby once she delivers. Gender-related issues is one of the problems that the society struggles to debate on. The society argues that females are poorly treated compared to their male counterparts. In this case study, it is assumed that the absence of the fathers to Marie’s children renders her unable to provide for them. This is not the case. During …
