SOCW 2016 FINAL
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SOCW 2061 Final
Donna’s Story From a Problem-Solving Perspective
A
problem-solving perspective in social work is a practice model that entails
focusing on gaining sufficient understanding of the challenges, brainstorming all possible solutions, and offering
these options to a client or patient for them to implement a chosen solution. “Donna’s Story” is the title of a
Canadian documentary that revolves around the life of Donna Gamble, a Native American woman from the Cree tribe,
who struggles to overcome her life of prostitution and drug addiction. Donna is portrayed as a strong, determined, and
resourceful woman, who struggles to overcome numerous challenges in her life
and society to become an influential
Aboriginal counselor of the youths and
adults battling to overcome drug addiction and abuse. A problem-solving
perspective on Donna’s life is represented
by her critical look at her experiences and that
of her family and society.
Abusive Past and Donna’s
Transformation
An
assessment summary of Donna’s life should be done in consideration of her past,
present, and future goals that she would wish to achieve. In the documentary,
Donna reports that she was sexually abused and molested by her uncles when she
was a little girl. The abuses that Donna went through as a child can be attributed to having made a significant
contribution to her deviant behavior as a teen and young adult. It is recommended that Donna enrolls in social work classes that are uniquely tailored to tackle drug abuse and addiction-related counseling skills to further her efforts to become an effective
Aboriginal counselor. As a social activist working with Donna, I would
recommend that she formulate tangible goals for her personal and professional
life as a social worker. These goals would entail ensuring that her children do
not manifest deviant behavior, in addition to providing
that she rehabilitates some prostitutes and drug
addicts and moves them from the streets.
Analysis of Donna’s Life from a Strength-Based Approach
Donna
exhibits exemplary resilience to have her life
not determined by her past, but by her present and future aspirations. A
strength-based approach in social work is a perspective used by welfare workers
to focus on people’s strengths, potential, and abilities instead of paying
attention to their deficits and problems.
Donna represents an extraordinarily
resilient and determined individual committed to ensuring that she continues
learning, growing, and changing to become a better person (Hepworth, Rooney, Rooney, &
Strom-Gottfried, 2016). Her situation
from a strengths-based perspective portrays a woman
with the considerable capacity to inspire
people especially those who have gone through similar life experiences.
A Resilient Donna Fights Back to
Become a Role Model
Donna is illustrated as a strong individual with aspirations to change
her life and the lives of those afflicted by drug addiction and substance
abuse. An essential aspect of the
strength-based approach is the focus on an individual’s self-determination and
commitment to change. Donna is portrayed
as a self-determined individual committed
to self-empowerment. She seeks to see these aspects
manifested in individuals facing drug abuse and addiction challenges in their
lives. It is important to note that the strength-based approach places emphasis
on the establishment of enabling social niches that do not provide
opportunities for stigmatization and
discrimination (Bourdieu
& Nice, 2007). Donna was cognizant of
the fact that as a former drug addict and prostitute, she would face social
stigma and prejudice from members of the society. Donna turns to her mother and
daughters for social and moral support, which is an example of one of the
tenets of a strength-based approach. The best method
or model for working with Donna is enabling social niches to empower
individuals using locally available and accessible resources.
Evidence of Voluntary and Non-Voluntary
Professional Relationships
A
voluntary relationship in social work refers to the situation where community
workers are required to work with individuals who willingly seek their services. On the other hand, involuntary
professional relationships entail circumstances where welfare workers are required to work with individuals who have been
ordered by the courts to attend sessions with them. According to Healy (2014), a majority of social workers are engaged with clients who have been compelled by courts, spouses, partners, and supervisors, or the
threat of punishment. Greene
(2017) states that
unfortunately, a majority of social work approaches and practice models are designed around the notion that individuals
in need of social work services do so voluntarily. It is important to note that a majority of such clients harbor notions of being unwanted, mistrust other
people, and feel generally unsafe in their immediate surroundings. Social
workers should possess the necessary skills, competencies, and knowledge to
promote the establishment of helping relationships between them and their
clients (Howe,
2017).
The Ideal Social Worker
Donna attributes her
decision to change after she received a hug from a total stranger on the
streets when she was a prostitute. Regardless of the relationship type that
exists between welfare workers and their clients, it is the professional
responsibility and duty of the former to ensure that the latter receives
appropriate counseling and care (Moser, 2012). Social workers
should assist their clients in ways that help them live their lives to the
highest possible quality. Social care involves helping
people to live comfortably, maintaining their independence, and leading more meaningful and fuller lives.
According to Greene
(2017), social control from a
sociological perspective entails the provision of welfare services based on
defined social values and behavioral norms.
The Purpose of Child Welfare Service
Child welfare refers to
the services designed to ensure the safety of children by monitoring the family’s ability to support and care for them
successfully. All governments have the responsibility to support and
coordinate the provision of services aimed at preventing the neglect and abuse
of children (Fay,
2014). Various services to ensure the well-being of
young ones are designed to help the families that require assistance to care and protect their children (Howe, 2017). Child welfare services are responsible for arranging
for children to live with their relatives or foster families in situations
where the parents cannot assure their safety and wellbeing. Donna’s firstborn child was taken by child welfare
services and put up for adoption, as mentioned earlier because she was
considered incapable of assuring the child’s safety and wellbeing. She reports
that her new goal in life is to end the cycle of generational domestic violence,
drug abuse and addiction that afflicted her family to ensure that her children are not exposed to similar risks she
encountered when she was young.
A Dysfunctional Family and Unattended
Childhood
Timely intervention of child
welfare services could have helped Donna escape sexual abuse and molestation by
her uncles in her childhood (Moser,
2012). Consequently, Donna could not have turned to drugs and
prostitution as a coping mechanism to deal with
the trauma of growing up in a dysfunctional family. Donna states that
she held strong resentment against her mother for leaving her and her siblings
unattended for weeks. The existence of effective child welfare services could
have helped Donna and her siblings move from the harmful environment into a more favorable one. The absence of an effective child welfare measure also
facilitated the sexual abuse and molestation Donna suffered as a child.
Structural Argument of Donna’s Situation
The generational cycle of
domestic violence, drug abuse, and addiction was the principal causative agents of Donna’s past and present experiences in
life. Donna reports that her uncles used to give her money after sexually
molesting her, which she would then use to buy eateries from the store; this
was her coping with mechanism against the
trauma. Donna’s mother says that she was also sexually abused, and upon reporting it to her mother, she was accused of
asking for it, which made her seek
alternatives to adjust with the predicament.(Glanz, Rimer, & Viswanath, 2008). When candy and other sweet confectionaries failed to
console Donna, she resorted to other more “effective” coping mechanisms that
were readily available to a 15-year-old
girl on the streets, and that is how she started using drugs, became an addict,
and began working as a prostitute to earn a living on the streets.
Donna Believes in Her Strength
Donna lived in a society that was conditioned to accept
aboriginals as naturally predisposed to drug use and substance abuse, a belief
that acerbated her situation (Payne,
2015). Donna believes that women have much
potential to solve the issues affecting
them directly; all they need is empowerment. She finally qualified as a counselor for aboriginals, recovering drug addicts, and prostitutes
seeking to leave the streets. Donna is driven by
feminist philosophies in her quest to change lives, especially for
recovering drug addicts and prostitutes, as illustrated by her incessant
commitment to even visiting inmates in federal penitentiaries.
Donna perceptions about her situation did not act as an inhibitor towards her
desire to turn around her life. The use of failures and weaknesses as a source of
inspiration and learning experience is the main
emphasis of rehabilitative social work.
Personal Reflection on Donna’s Life
Donna’s story is
extremely insightful for the various risk factors that aboriginals face as a
community and the reasons behind what is
considered as endemic drug abuse
and addiction problem. Donna demonstrated exceptional resilience and
determination that enabled her to overcome
insurmountable challenges in her life to become an integral member of her
society, committed to helping people deal with similar problems she had
encountered in her life. Donna’s story provides social workers with useful
insights into the various approaches that can be effective in various settings. For example, enabling social niches
was extremely effective in Donna’s situation, which helped access locally
available resources to help her cope with the challenges
she encountered in her path to recovery. Self-determination is demonstrated to
be an integral component of changing one’s life, especially when faced with the challenge of negative social
labeling, discrimination, and stigmatization.
No Change is Possible Without the
Will
Donna’s situation
illustrates that a strong will to endure and survive adversity is as important
as the approaches used by welfare workers to help individuals recover from
various problems that they encounter in life. Changing one’s life for the
better is demonstrated to be a holistic process whereby an individual seeks to support not only from self, but also from the
immediate family, friends, community, and society in general. Support systems
are demonstrated to be extremely vital in recovery from various socially
unacceptable behaviors and practices. Donna’s story provides the viewer with a
unique perspective on some social challenges that isolated populations face
while tackling issues that might seem inconsequential, but they impact people’s
lives adversely. As a social worker, Donna’s Story is inspirational and
motivational because it exhibits a case that can be emulated in designing novel
practice approaches.
References
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