Gay-For-Pay Case Study

Case Analysis: Gay-For-Pay

Introduction
This case takes place in Wichita, Kansas, a midsize city in the Midwest. Located in Wichita is the Wichita Center for Families (WCF), an agency that provides a variety of services for at-risk families and youths. Alicia Hall is a 25-year-old MSW student from Wichita State University, currently interning within the "youth-at-risk outreach unit" at WCF. Alicia has 2 years of bachelor level case management experience with adults with mental illness and has a passion for the LGBT community. Alicia receives weekly supervision from the clinical director of WCF, Pete Anderson under the supervision of, the and. Nancy Gerard, a licensed professional counselor supervises Alicia's day-to-day practice. Alicia oversees

Alicia is in a bind because she wants to give the kids the right to self-determination but she also wants to protect them. According to the NASW code of ethics, "social workers respect and promote the right of clients to self-determination and assist clients in their efforts to identify and clarify their goals. Social workers may limit clients' right to self-determination when, in the social workers' professional judgment, clients' actions or potential actions pose a serious, foreseeable, and imminent risk to themselves or others" (NASW, 2008). When Alicia reached out to Pete Anderson, the clinical director of WCF, to seek advice on how to respond to the group, his response was that she not tell them what to do but help them come to their own conclusions. However, this is also an issue of confidentiality being that it is inappropriate for her to share this information with anyone else unless she informs the group of this disclosure. Therefore, if Alicia wanted to report these incidents to law enforcement, then she would need to inform the group which would cause the group to no longer feel like they can trust her with the information that they

This strategy would allow Alicia to fulfill her responsibility as a social worker in protecting the clients that she serves and possibly keep them away from danger. However, contacting law enforcement could create a negative effect on the entire LGBT community being that the state is conservative and already has opinions about this population. It would create more of a rift between RAY and WCF as well as cause the members of the group and those part of RAY to not have a place where they feel understood and accepted. Another disadvantage is that Alicia would be going against her supervisor's wishes which could negatively affect her pursuit of her