Response 1Respond to at least two colleagues whose classificatio.docx

Response 1
Respond
to at least two colleagues whose classifications differ from your
own by critiquing their classifications. In addition, suggest one
way you might apply each colleague's life-span classification to
your social work practice.
Colleague 1: L
It is important because although; a young person may have held
down a job, and acts mature, they have not yet experienced
enough of life to be considered an adult. The same concept goes
for middle aged people. Although; a middle aged person is
active, and looks younger than their age, they are still
considered to be middle aged. In other words regardless of the
accomplishments of a person, their looks, and vitality, they are
still catergorized in society by their age. Behaviors that might
delay the cognitive, or social aspect of the aging process are
socializing with friends and within the community, and
participating in activities such as swimming, bingo, traveling,
and other hobbies that enhance to cognitive apects of aging.It is
proven that people who continue to be active socially, age
gracefully, and without limits. They also continue to work brain
cells that could eventually die out from dementia, and other
illnesses.. Physically a person might speed up the aging process
by isolating themselves from friends and family, by not
focusing on health and nutrition, and by becoming a couch
potato. When a person does not take care of themselves by
exercising, and watching what they eat, they end up suffering
from illnesses such as diabetes, limit their mobility, and are
eventually confined to walkers, wheelchairs, and medications in
their later years of life.
Colleague 2: E
According to Zastrow & Kirst Ashman (2016), individuals
within the ages of 18 and 65 years are classified as young and

middle adulthood. In as much as this classification has been in
existence and popular, one can argue that, to determine the term
adult hood may not be as easy as it sounds. Adulthood can be
perceived differently from people, considering their culture,
religion, personal belief, and social economic background.
According to Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman (2016), “it is difficult to
pinpoint the exact time of life we are referring to when we talk
about young adulthood”. Some cultures such as the Nigerian
culture, consider adulthood as a period where a child can
comfortably carter for his /herself without seeking the help of
the parents/guardian. Such age range may be around the ages
27to 30. Other cultures perceive young adulthood as the age
where a child can comfortably make good decision in line with
the expectation of older adults.
To replace or improve on Zatrow & Kirst Ashman classification
on young and middle adulthood, I will suggest a classification
of young adulthood and middle adulthood from the ages of 15 to
50. This classification is in line with Buhler theories of young
adult hood. According to Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman (2016),
Buhler’s theory clustered adolescent and young adulthood
together to include the ages of 15 to 25. During this stage,
people focus mostly on building their identity and developing
on their life goals. Children within the age of 15 fall into this
category, sharing similar development with young adulthood up
to the age of 25. The next stage in my classification with
reference to Buhler’s theory, is young and middle adulthood
from the ages of 23 to 45 or 50. According to Zastrow & Kirst
(2016), this age group focuses on accomplishing their goal, and
maintaining their work and family system.
My second classification of young and middle adulthood is from
the ages 17 to 50. This classification is similar to Levinson’s
theory. According to Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman (2016), the
Levinson theory, “broke up young adulthood into smaller
slices”. “People go through stable periods separated by shorter
transitional periods”. Between ages 17 to 22, a person exhibits
choices about adult life, such as having a serious relationship,

attending college or higher institution, seeking employment, and
demanding to move out from home. Within the ages 22 to 28, a
person makes more solid decision on work, education and
relationship. At ages 28 to 33, marriage and children impacts on
the person’s lifestyle or behavior. At the ages of 33 to 40 known
as settling down period, a person makes progress on life set
goals, with more responsibility. Between the ages of 40 to 45,
known as mid-life transition age, a person starts to reevaluate
his/her life and achievement, which may warrant some drastic
life changes, such as divorce and career change. By the ages of
45 to 50, referred to as middle adulthood, people start making
plans for future retirement, and evaluating their legacy.
As a social worker, my outlined classification, will create an
understanding of people’s development and behavior, which
will effectively impact one’s commitment to assist individuals
with peculiar problems. There are people’s behavior and
physical development, that are in line with the expected
development of the clients based on his/her age. My
classification will also encourage an opportunity to effectively
understand the mental value of adolescent children, who
invariably share similar biological, psychological, physical and
social development with young adults within the age of 25.
References:
Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2016).
Understanding human behavior and the social environment
(10th ed.)
.
Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Chapter 10, "Biological Aspects of Young and Middle
Adulthood" (pp. 469-497
Response 2
Respond
to at least two colleagues with a description of whether you see

social workers as being proactive or reactive in the policy
arena. Describe what steps could be taken to enhance the
influence of the social work profession in defining social
problems and creating social policy. Provide two suggestions on
how social workers can make the recommended changes to the
policy that your colleague describe
d.
Colleague 1: L
The event that I chose that led to the formation of a social
policy was the abduction of Amber Hageman, a nine year old
girl from Arlington Texas. She was kidnapped, and murdered in
1996, and her incident gained national attention all over the
world. On April 30th 2003 Public Law 108-21 was passed to
prevent child abduction, and the sexual exploitation of children.
This policy uses the police department, broad casters, and
citizens of the state to be on the look out for abducted children.
The alert sends out a discription of what the child was wearing,
where they were last seen, and the person, or car the child was
last seen with or in. This policy has aided in finding many
children across the world but, has one clause in it that I would
change. The clause states that a child must be at risk for serious
bodily harm, or death before an alarm can be issued. I would
change this clause because, the child might not be in harms way
if abducted. Some children are abducted by people that love
them such a estranged mother's and father;s, and by those that
would not harm the child in any form. Just the fact that the
child is missing serves as enough criteria to send an Amber
Alert out from state to state. As a social worker my role in
changing this law would be to use the rational decision making
approach by gathering information about the policy, and by
teaming up with parents, and people in the community with
young children under the age of 17, or with an interest in
protecting children om predators and pedophiles. As mentioned
in this weeks readings, "Decision makers review the range of
existing and proposed policies, identiy all the relevant social

goals and values, and study the consequences of each policy
alternative", (Popple & Leighninger, 2015, p.255). This issue
would be presented to mayors, and officials within our state and
on a local level. However; it could later be presented to
representatives of state if nothing is done on a local level. In
order for a social worker to be effective in caring out the
process of policy change, he or she needs to several skills and
strategies. As mentioned in this weeks readings, "They need
analytic skills to evaluate social problems, and develop policy
proposals, analyze the severity of specific problems, identify
barriers to policy implementation, and develop strategies for
assessing programs", (Popple & Leighninger, 2015, p.25-25).
References
Popple, P.R., & Leighninger, L. (2015). The policy-based
profession: An introduction to social welfare policy analysis for
social workers. (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
Education. Chapter 1, " The Policy-Based Profession" (pp. 5-
19)
Colleague 2: L
The event, (technically events) that I chose are the college
shootings relating back to the notorious Virginia Tech shooting
that has inspired others to the right to bear arms on college
campuses. Society felt a need after many college campus
shootings for the right to bear arms to protect themselves and
possibly others from any repeat in college campus shootings.
However, there are others who are trying to prohibit these bills
from passing. There are several states that do allow concealed
carry on campus (National Conference of State Legislatures,
2016).
I am not fluent in this particular policy however, I would highly
recommend that it be required to train and be proficient in
handling weapons. I grew up handling weapons and I am also
prior military. I believe regardless of how much anyone has

handled a weapon it is always with great caution to train to
remain safe and proficient.
Social work in this specific policy is to advocate for those
wanting the policy to be enacted or to remain enacted and/or
advocate for those who are opposed to the policy.
Reference
National Conference of State Legislatures. (2016). Guns on
Campus: Overview. Retrieved September 7, 2016, from
http://www.ncsl.org/research/education/guns-on-campus-
overview.aspx
Response 3
Respond
to at least two colleagues by explaining how the policies your
colleagues described might relate to the population you
selected.
Colleague 1: J
The population I find particularly interesting is women’s rights.
Women are half of the world’s population. We as social workers
will work with women and need to be informed of policies
locally and federally to help aid our clients. The family and
medical leave act of 1993 is a United States federal law that
requires companies to provide employees job protection and
unpaid leave for qualified medical and family reasons such as
pregnancy (Region/Country, 2016). The wage gap is an obstacle
women are having to over come. The wage gap is an expressed
percentage and can be calculated by dividing the median annual
income for women by the median annual income for men. As of
2013, women earned 78.3% as much as men did (The Simple
Truth, 2016). In today’s society no matter what your gender,
you should be paid for the work you do. If a man and women

are doing the same work they should have the same salary.
Abortion is a private choice that a woman should have the right
to make. Abortion is not something I’m personally for but I
think that it should be a personally choice of the woman to have
one or not. Our government shouldn’t make a women carry a
child and birth that child if they never wanted to have a child.
We make it more of a punishment for women but it took a man
and woman to make that child. Alabama has some of the
strictest abortion laws in the United States. We require minors
notifies their parents or have a court hearing if they child
wishes to not get parental permission. We also never repealed
the anti-abortion criminal statute made unconstitutional by the
case Roe v. Wade (Alabama Abortion Laws). Alabama has made
a few new policy changes in regards to domestic violence. Now
in Alabama there is a mandatory 24-hour holding period for
anyone arrested on domestic violence charges. The law used to
only be for a 12-hour holding period. This is to help keep
offenders from being able to get out of jail and attack or kill
their victims’ (B.T., 2016).
Reference:
Alabama Abortion Laws - FindLaw. (n.d.). Retrieved September
08, 2016, from http://statelaws.findlaw.com/alabama-
law/alabama-abortion-laws.html
[email protected]
, B. T. (2016). Changes to domestic violence laws in the state.
Retrieved September 08, 2016, from
http://www.waaytv.com/appnews/changes-to-domestic-violence-
laws-in-the-state/article_581f00c4-c92c-11e5-94d2-
676e98313c02.html
Region/Country, B. (2016). FMLA (Family & Medical Leave).
Retrieved September 08, 2016, from
https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/benefits-leave/fmla
The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap (Spring 2016).
(n.d.). Retrieved September 08, 2016, from

http://www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-
gender-pay-gap/
Colleague 2: L
Hello Everyone,
The population that I selected is the HIV population. These
people are infected with the (human immunodeficiency virus)
which is spread through unprotected sexual contact, and the
sharing of hypodermic needles. In some cases, this virus can
also be contracted through blood transfusions. This virus
weakens the immune system, and makes a person vulnerable to
other diseases. People with this disease are often
isolated, discriminated against, and are faced with homophobic
attitudes. People with this disease are also often marginalized,
and oppressed citizens within their communities and society.
In recent years the state has passed many policies pertaining to
the Protection of people with HIV, and the protection against
the transmission of HIV to other people. The majority of states
have put in place laws that punish HIV positive people who
expose others to the virus even if they use precautions. In
Minnesota, state law, (609.2241) was passed concerning the
transmission of HIV. A person who knowingly harbors an
infectious agent commits a crime which may be prosecuted as
an assault, murder, attempted assault, or attempted murder. The
second state law that I chose is made relevant in many states,
especially in the state of Pennsylvania. State (Act 148) is about
the confidentiality of people who are infected with the HIV
virus. Pennsylvania law prohibits health -care providers, and
social service providers form disclosing HIV-related
information without the permission of the subject, except in
certain limited instances. Both of these policies were fortunate
enough to be passed by the senate. "Senate considers bills based
on the order in which they come from the committee", (Laureate
2013). The state level is not the only level that a policy can go
through in order for it to be made a law. As mentioned in our

readings, "Once debate concludes, and amendments if any, are
made the house votes on final passing of the bill", (Laureate
2013). With that in mind, their are also policies that pertain to
HIV infected people on the federal levels. Federal law (section
504 ),prohibits health and human services, providers or
organizations that get federal funds or assistance from
discriminating against people living with HIV/AIDS. And last
but, not least the Ryan White Care Act (101-381) sought
funding to improve avaliability of care for low- income,
uninsured, and under insured victims of AIDS and their
families. Getting these policies passed on the state and federal
levels not only help people infected with HIV/AIDS, but it
proves that changes can be made on behalf of the people that
really need them, if outsiders work hard to consider the
benefits. Passing of a policy on the state and federal level is not
the end of the policy change procedure. Afterwards is the
implementation process begins. " The implementation phase is
generally a time of filling in the details through regulations,
personnel, procedures, program guidelines and other
specifications, all of which shape the policy", (Popple &
Leighninger, 2015).
The relationship between the policies, and the population that I
chose is that they serve as guidelines, and laws to prevent
discrimination, protect confidentiality, and suppress the spread
of the infection intentionally, or unintentionally. These laws
prove that some policies that are put in place to help a
population of people, usually branch over to protect those that
are not directly involved.
References
Laureate Education (Producer). (2013). Legislative process
{multimedia file}. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
Popple,. R., & Leighninger, L. (2015). The policy-based
profession: An introduction to social welfare policy analysis for
social workers. )6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

Education. Chapter 1, "The Policy-Based Profession" (pp. 5-19)

Response 1Respond to at least two colleagues whose classificatio.docx

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Response 1Respond to at least two colleagues whose classificatio.docx