The Plight of Marginalized Communities in Australia

Discuss about the Community Development Project for Squalor Safety.

Australia is known for its community based campaigns, initiatives and projects that strives to alleviate the plight of people especially the community members through imparting education or initiating projects that focuses on woman empowerment or projects that are targeted to alleviate health condition among the aboriginal population in Australia (Frost, Hristova, Steketee & Tolin, 2013). These are reflective of the community issues that concern the people of Australia. On such illustration of community campaign is Hoarding and Squalor Safety Cleans vs Enforced Cleans in the community. The community research project on hoarding and squalor safety cleans vs enforced cleans was conceptualized with the aim of addressing the issues of cleanliness in Australia. According to the Catholic Community Services statistics it has been found that more than 1 million Australians are prone to hoarding and squalor types of behaviors in their private sphere (home). Between the span of 2009 and 2012 there has been a rise in the number of people who have been associated with various community programs to deal with the hoarding and squalor issue. The referrals of this programme are not limited to the housing support programs and at the same time mental health recovery (Hepworth, Rooney, Rooney & Strom-Gottfried, 2016). People who have to live in a squalid living environment should be acknowledged and supported that would enable them in managing the behavior so that they would be able to inhabit safely with the minimal risk and the community (Lawrence, 2016).

Community organizing is an important as it has the power to bring in transformation in the community that would strive for the common good of the society. In addition to it, another key objective of community organization is to turn citizens into strong leaders who are associated with the community-based organizations (Baldwin, 2016). This practice is embedded historically, philosophically in the core concepts of the public life that includes the organization, relationships, leadership and power. It has been found that people who live in the hoard or are engaged with squalor work are associated with a broad range of career. They are usually part of the marginalized sections of the society or may at the verge of homelessness. (Ife, 2013). Hoarding refers to the behavior by a person that is evidenced in the vast collections of the different items and objects that have been discarded (Hepworth, Rooney, Rooney & Strom-Gottfried, 2016). On the other hand, squalor refers to the living environment. It has been found that if a person hoards animals or organic matter, the hoarding environment would eventuate. The hoarding behavior in a person and the low health status of the person occurs along with other mental health conditions (Brisbane, 2014). Social work practice and community development projects have focused on the importance considering the person who is the victim of hoarding at the epicenter whilst resolving the issue (Padgett, 2016). The person should be considered an important part of action decision making and planning. It has been found that if a person who has been found to be compulsively hoarding would be reluctant towards items that they would be able to see extensions of themselves. The purpose of this essay is to identify  and  apply key community  development concepts  and  frameworks to  a  project  and  demonstrate integration  to  social  work practice. 

Hoarding and Squalor Safety Cleans vs Enforced Cleans

Squalid environment and hoarding behavior do not reflect on the financial position of a person or the concerned community. It is considered a behavioral mental health that needs to diagnose or that it can be treated (Parry, Harryba & Horsfall, 2015). It is reported that prolonged exposure hoarding will lead to squalor. Some of the potential risk that can be caused due to hoarding and squalor in a person’s life is personal safety, mental health, disability, sanitation, housing and building safety (Ife, 2013). In Australia, the social workers need to abide by rules, regulations and work ethics enshrined by the International Federation of Social Workers and Internal Association of Schools of Social Work. The aim of the social work profession is to ensure empowerment and freedom of people for enhancing their well-being. It has been found that hoarding living behavior and squalid conditions can pose severe challenges in the lives of a person that requires laws, policies and looking into the daily requirements (Parry, Harryba & Horsfall, 2015).

As a community development researcher, I would be committed to the well-being of the human kind and would adopt methods that would maximize the development of the human potential and satiation of the needs of the human beings through a commitment in working with the First people of Australia (Healy, 2014). My goal would be to enable people achieve the best levels of their personal and social well-being. I would aim for positive change in the community that would foster the growth and perpetuate the development for the human beings. Adherence to the ethical guidelines indicates that there needs to be the identification of the ethics and values that underscore the ethical social work practice. The core value of professional social work is to respect the human dignity and in providing human service for the fulfillment of the autonomy, justice and the well-being of the person. For example, I was respectful towards the team members as well as my supervisor. I would engage building the community for the common good and the key objective would be the cultivation of the citizens as leaders (Rothman, 2018). For example, I would encourage the community members through my supervisor to initiate activities that would mitigate hoarding and squalor (AASW – Australian Association of Social Workers, 2018). As a community development researcher, I would be respectful and non-judgmental towards whilst engaging with my supervisor and my teammate. For example, my role in this project is to create a database that would be an outcome of the primary data collection, official records possessed by the officials in the area especially seeking help from the social workers. In addition to the primary data records, the already existing secondary data sources would also enrich the database (Payne, 2016). This database would be helpful for the future researchers who would be working on similar area. 

The Importance of Community Organizing and Leadership

I felt I am not compatible for this project. It was a learning experience working with my teammate as I learnt the value of coordination (Frost, Hristova, Steketee & Tolin, 2013). I was able to live up to the expectations of my supervisor and she was contended with the work I have done on collecting the database. She informed that this work will be further used for developing research projects and implementing slight changes in the policies for the community development.

Missed part: My values

• What are my values (respect and nonjudgmental)
• Why they are important to me and in this project with example and reference.
• What I have learned in this project??? Example and reference.

The Ecological Theory or the Ecological Systems Theory refers have had a long history in the scholarship and praxis of social work. Ecological Systems Theory can be traced to the multiple intellectual sources that are specific to the organismic biological ecology, human ecology and the social survey movement in social work and the information theory. Ecological theory comprises and adds to the humanistic dimensions to the social and the general systems theories (Wannen, 2016). The essence of the ecological theory is that people interact in real life and the territorial habitats that have a renewed emphasis of the social work. The theory is concerned with the web of life that is present between the systems and the subsystems. An ecosystem would comprise of people, their lives and the situations in their life and the issues of dysfunction and well-functioning behavior that is an outcome of the interaction. The ecological model is applicable to the different situations and the client may be a corporate person, an individual, community or the welfare service system (Thompson, 2017). There is another behavior that is identified with the ecological model in which the attributes of the person-client relationship. There is subsystem within the larger environment for the sufficient and the inequitable exchanges. The ecosystem of the client comprises of the community researcher, the client, the family or the significant other of the client, the neighborhood and the entire community (Forde & Lynch, 2015). The ecosystems theory emphasizes that the social functioning of the client is interdependent on the environment considering that the client is an intrinsic part of the ecosystem. Unlike the traditional models of social work practice that may view hoarding and squalor as individual pathology, the application of the ecological framework to the present condition would be helpful in locating that hoarding and squalor is an outcome of the malfunctioning of the ecosystem. For example, in the light of the research, I would try to understand the ways hoarding and squalor is an outcome of the system (Rothman, 2015). This theory would not construct the client as deviant or pathological. At the micro level of the project, I can see that the individuals exhibit the tendency of collecting substances and they will forget to discard them. These huge volumes of the items are hoarded that will impair the functionality in the domestic sphere (Netting, Kettner, McMurtry& Thomas, 2016). On the macro level, it can be witnessed that there is negligence of the household maintenance both at the internal as well as the external level. For example, the community members were not at all careful in taking care of their household. As a community development researcher, I feel that the ecological theory is in consonance with my values as a social worker. This is because I do not believe in labeling or shaming my clients and shift the burden hoarding and squalor on them (Tattersall, 2015).  

Understanding Hoarding and Squalor Behavior in Australia

The term community participation refers to the involvement of the community in a community development project. People will participate in projects that would empower and would allow them to exercise their agency. People would not be interested to participate in projects that have detrimental effects on their lives (Teater, 2014). Community participation is deemed as important for the programmes concerning emergency sanitation in situations people are not aware about the implications of filthy surroundings and the sanitation facilities that needs to be implemented to respond to the problem. In this project, I was assigned the role of community development researcher and I was not directly interacting with the clients. I had the opportunity to engage in an active participation with the supervisor. For example, I was engaged in the needs assessment of the community development research by providing my inputs about the different strategies for the programme and through the prioritization of the goals (Rasmussen, Steketee, Frost, Tolin & Brown, 2014). I felt quite responsible in working in the research project as I learnt the importance of working with a team, sharing the responsibilities and compensating for the lacunae of the team members. For example, in case a team member was not aware about the nuances of the problem of hoarding and squalor I shared my knowledge with them to enrich the data (Hepworth, Rooney, Rooney & Strom-Gottfried, 2016). I respect the commitment and vision of my supervisor towards the project. For example, she was motivating us to deliver our best performance throughout the project (Burt, 2017).

Community strength is defined in terms of the resources possess by the community secondly it connotes to the well-being of the individual. These resources are concerned with the economic capital, human capital and the social and the institutional capital. Community strength comprises of amoral dimension related to the community by identifying the democratic nature of the society (Mataix-Cols, 2014). For example, being a community development researcher I was not directly associated with the participants in the community however, my involvement is instrumental in shaping the policies (Healy, 2014). It has been found that people suffering from hoarding and squalor do not consider hoarding as a problem because they enjoy collecting articles and objects and feel those are important for them (Burt, 2017). Therefore, I suggested that clutter from the community could only be eliminated with proper service along with the involvement of the community in realizing the veracity of the problem. For example, the community members were sensitized about hoarding, squalor, and the harmful consequences it can bore on a person and the community (Reamer, 2013). 

The Role of Social Work and Ethical Guidelines

The notion of social capital in community development project refers to the binding factor develops between the people in the group and the societies through sharing their experience, beliefs, philosophies and their ideals (Reamer, 2013). According to Coleman social capital is contingent on the social structures that pervades between people by enabling people to adopt actions for strategies that would empower developing strategies that would empower them (Burt, 2017). Therefore, social capital is dependent on the human relationships that exist between the people to strengthen the community network (Lawrence, 2016). Given the nature of the community development research, the community members can be involved in the project by providing them adequate knowledge about the implications of hoarding and squalor and the ways they can mitigate the problem. I conveyed to my supervisor that the community members should be rewarded for the change in positive behavior so that they can curtail this negative practice of hoarding. For example, the community members can be acknowledged in a public gathering and honorarium may be provided to them as a recognition of their behavior (Rasmussen, Steketee, Frost, Tolin & Brown, 2014). 

Neoliberalism is characterized by the rule of the market where a private enterprise is not bound by the government irrespective of its social implications on the environment (Spolander et al, 2014). In a neoliberal state, there is more emphasis on promoting the private owned enterprises rather than the intervention of the government in providing for the marginalized sections of the society (Spolander, Engelbrecht & Pullen Sansfaçon, 2016). In a neoliberal climate that is defined by the absence of the fair prices on the goods, it is found that the community members veer towards enforced cleans that are cheap, easy and can be accomplished quickly rather than the safety cleans that can turn out be costlier, time consuming and resulting in longer outcomes (Padgett, 2016). Neoliberalism has another implication on the project, as there may be shortage of adequate staff and funding that pose impediment in the progress of the project (Morley, 2016).

According to previous studies on hoarding, social workers need to be careful whilst working with the hoarders and the squalors (Payne, 2015). Australian Curtin University has reported that people who are engaged in hoarding find it difficult to sustain their attention and the different aspects of decision-making (Beckett, Maynard & Jordan, 2017). For the hoarders everything that is possessed by them holds value for them and therefore, it is difficult to convince them in discarding the items. Therefore, it is considered to complex and challenging to work with people who are compulsive hoarders. According to the AASW for a professional social worker being ethical amounts to respecting the client and collaborating with the client in resolving an issue. There is a need to incorporate strength-based and the person-centered approach in promoting the social change. In regard to this community development research ethical guideline like not disclosing the personal details of the clients, seeking informed consent of the community members and taking into consideration confidentiality will govern this research (Kenny & Connors, 2017). I would subscribe to the principles and the aspirations enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other conventions that have been derived from the Declaration where we would work with the individuals, groups and the communities for both policy reform and the advocacy programmes for the achievement of equitable access to the economic, social, environmental and the various other resources. I would abide by the ethical guidelines enshrined in the AASW that upholds the democratic principles like belief in the equal value of all human beings, remain committed towards the respecting others that includes equity, fairness and the justice (DuBois & Miley, 2013).

Adopting Ecological Systems Theory in Social Work Practice

Conclusion

This community development research taught me to respect people with different views and understand them from their perspective. I learnt the importance of respecting the team mate who are associated with the project and taking into consideration their views in continuance of the project. I leant the ways to critically reflect on the issues and identify the structures that contributes to hoarding and squalor rather than shifting the blame on the individual. There needs to be a thrust on public awareness regarding hoarding that can influence the lives of the people in a positive manner. There needs to be an acknowledgement that hoarding problems cannot be resolved forcing people to acclimatize to the societal standards and norms of cleanliness. It has been found that there is paucity in the research and guidance on working with hoarding. As a professional community development researcher I believe in being non-judgmental and respecting the community members without making them feel alienated from the research. Strength-based and person-centred approach that would be helpful in dealing with issues related hoarding and an ecological theoretical framework would appropriate. The ethical issues enshrined in AASW would be abided throughout the course of the research. 

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