Critical Thinking Questions | New Directions in Social Work

Answer the questions below.

Use the case file Sociogram, and Town Map to inform your consideration of the questions below.

As both a neighborhood resident and a community social worker, you have a role conflict. For example, as a neighborhood resident faced with an ongoing nuisance, your impulse is to band together with your neighbors, who want the problem quickly resolved. But as a social worker in this neighborhood, you have to be cognizant of the concerns of everyone, and act ethically. You also have an obligation to your employing agency, whose interests may be different than your personal priorities and the interests of the affected individuals and other community stakeholders. Name at least two conflicts that you see between your professional obligations and your identification with the Alvadora residential neighborhood.
As a social worker, it is important for you to think about the natural alliances that form between systems, as well as the inherent conflicts. In this case, what are the natural alliances between stakeholders? Where are different groups’ interests in conflict?
Once you have undertaken these tasks and have a general idea of the contours of the problem, ask yourself, “who is the client?” Is it the population of people in Riverton who are experiencing homelessness? Just those individuals who have sought services at the community mental health center? The neighborhood stakeholders who have asked for your help? The leadership of the mental health center where you are employed? Your definition of who the client is will make a difference in your assessment—the next phase of the process.

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Your Quick Bio

You have recently moved to Riverton, social work degree in hand. You are renting a home with two roommates in a neighborhood known as Alvadora, on the west side of town. And you are about to find yourself with multiple roles, as both a community organizer and a resident who understands your neighbors’ concerns about the environment created by some of the homeless clients living on the streets.

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