Social workers interventions in the case of children suffering from parental substance abuse

Abstract

Social work is about being able to empower other people to transform themselves for the better. Although there are many ways by which social workers use their power to assist others in need. This study has focused on how “intervention” is used by social workers to help those in need especially the children who became victims of parental substance misuse. The problem that activated for this study is that social workers use intervention as a regular tool in their practice, but not many researchers have shown interest to re-examine this part of practice to seek a new way based on what works. The aim of this study is to explore how social workers carry out systematic assessment and apply interventions to safely secure children and young people who are victims of parental substance misuse from a comparative perspective. The object of study is systematic assessment and applied interventions carried out by social workers to safely secure children and young people who are victims of parental substance misuse from a comparative perspective. The objectives of study: 1. To explore how social workers assess the problem of parental substance abuse where vulnerable children are involved as victims. 2. To explore the role of social workers in helping addicted parents to stop using drugs and alcohol in order to protect their children and to find what kind of intervention that works for them. 3. To explore how social workers intervene in order to protect children whose lives may be at risk due to parental substance misuse. 4. To find out from social workers what statutory mechanisms and community resources are available to them in supporting parents who may be addicted to drugs and alcohol. Each of the interviews I conducted with highly experienced practitioners who humbled themselves to become indispensable research participants, have energised this work and boosted the morale of the researcher. In practice, social workers have a professional and ethical responsibility to observe, assess, interact and intervene with clients in a way based on theories and methods shown to be reliable and consistent with social work values. These professional targets have been complied with by using practice based wisdom and previous successful precedents where theories and methods have been applied. When carrying out a research, the methods, which are used, should always be reliable and effective, especially when using qualitative research as used in this study. Research has shown that social workers intervene differently depending on the case at hand and its circumstances. By using empowerment as intervention, social workers can mould the character of the children by teaching them how to help themselves in life instead of waiting to be served all the time.