Human service workers and criminal justice system

In the given case there is argument whether human service workers can provide psychotherapy treatment to the people. Because the social workers may have good intention for helping the needy people but at the same time they are not professional in providing psychotherapeutic counseling. The initial issue was that state police office had shared the information with licensed clinical social worker but at the same time the later do not have authority to gather such information.

It is also true that an individual cannot identify the needs of psychotherapeutic counseling unless a professional or social worker counsels the subject. A licensends social worker are people who have a licenses that authorizes them to practice social work, and this includes but not limited too social service helping individual take part in group or communities in any of the fields of social case loads, social group work, social welfare as community organizations, doing social work research, education and social welfare administration. Therefore the licensed clinical social worker is right person to provide human service to share information about people who need psychotherapy treatment.

The practice of social work in North Carolina and many other states has been defined as a professional outreach activity that helps individuals, community enhancement, and groups put together their capacity of social and economical functioning socially and professionally with applications of majority social work values, all principles and their main techniques in most areas such as dinical social work, social service, social planning, social work consultation, administration, and social work research to one or more of the following.

1. Helping individuals obtain tangable services, 2. Help different communities or groups provide or improve social health services, 3. Counsel with individual families and or groups that need their help. Social work requires knowledge of human development and behaviour study, in social economics, and cultural institutions and forces. Social work practice would also include teaching of all relevant subjects and matter of conducting research into problems of conflict and human behaviour. The Court suggests one last policy justification: since psychotherapist privilege statutes exist in all the States, the failure to recognize a privilege in federal courts “would frustrate the purposes of the state legislation that was enacted to foster these confidential communications.”

The Court’s failure to put forward a convincing justification of its own could perhaps be excused if it were relying upon the unanimous conclusion of state courts in the reasoned development of their common law. It cannot do that, since no State has such a privilege apart from legislation. The Court concedes that there is “divergence among the States concerning the types of therapy relationships protected and the exceptions recognized.” “The reasons for recognizing a privilege for treatment by psychiatrists and psychologists apply with equal force to treatment by a clinical social worker such as Karen Beyer. Today, social workers provide a significant amount of mental health treatment. Their clients often include the poor and those of modest means who could not afford the assistance of a psychiatrist or psychologist, but whose counselling sessions serve the same public goals.”

The human service providers assist the criminal justice system because existing of the criminal justice system is not enough to help all the people in the society (Stojkovic, Kalinich, & Klofas, 2012). The criminal justice system should give value to the human service providers who got license from the state. Even they are human beings like personnel of criminal justice system. It is mandatory to believe the licensed social workers for well being of the society at large. “Licensed social workers” may also provide “mental health services”, so as long as it is done under supervision of a licensed clinical social worker. And the training requirement for a “licensed social worker” consists of either (a) “a degree from a graduate program of social work” approved by the State, or (b) “a degree in social work from an undergraduate program” approved by the State, plus “3 years of supervised professional experience.” Conclusion

The licensed clinical social workers are privileged for counseling the psychotherapeutic patients because the professional psychotherapists may not be easily accessible for the patients. The mental health of the society can get enhanced if law gives necessary permissions for the licensed social workers to counsel the needy patients. In the given scenario, the court had considered the roles and responsibilities of licensed social workers and understood that they are eligible to provide psychotherapy counseling to the people in the society. The licensed human service providers are helping the community against the issues of mental health. But at the same time they are advised to take informed consent from the patient or guardian about psychotherapy counseling. From the given case it is also understood that the law had understood the value of human service workers and their importance in psychotherapy treatment for the infected persons in the community.

References

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/95-266.ZD.html%29
Stein, T.J. (2004), The role of law in social work practice and administration, Columbia University Press, New York. Stojkovic, Kalinich, & Klofas. (2012). Criminal justice organizations: Administration and management (5 ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.