Tamara’s supervisor is a curriculum director (a teacher with many years of experience) who has very limited knowledge about social work. How can Tamara utilize supervision in a positive way? How might she work with her social work colleagues in the system?

Question

Tamara Simms, a 32-year-old school social worker, had worked in a rural community called The Ridge for more than six years, since 1997. She was assigned a case which caught her off balance. There was something going on in the Anderson home that she couldn’t quite grasp. She had concluded from a home visit that the father was neglecting the children. The home had unsanitary conditions. Sarah Jane, a third grader, had the worst case of head lice Tamara had ever encountered and her lips were severely blistered, a condition that hadn’t healed despite treatment. Furthermore, Tamara sensed that there was something more serious going on in the Anderson home. She suspected that Mr. Anderson was involved in internet pornography and she feared he may have involved his children in some way. In spite of her “hunches” she had no clear evidence to report to Child Protective Services. As seasoned as she was, Tamara still “brought her work home” with her. Although her own family needed her, she could not stop worrying about Sarah Jane and her two siblings. Written for a bachelor’s- level capstone or integrative seminar in social work, the case may also be useful for courses in macro- or micro-level practice, diversity, or international social work. The case situation may be useful for discussion of multiple topics such as social work ethics, policy issues (including policy related to crime victims and to undocumented clients), diversity, language, agency settings, crime victimization, and professional use of self. The case also may be appropriate for MSW foundation courses dealing with these topics.

Answer 1

It will be incumbent upon Tamara to continually educate her supervisor about the scope, roles, values, and knowledge base of social work. However, she may be able to draw upon her supervisor’s many years of experience in the classroom, working with students similar to Sarah Jane and Bobby Joe, to help her determine how best to intervene with Mr. Anderson. Tamara (and the other two social workers) can share with their supervisor success stories from their work with families from The Ridge, as well as bring the “hard cases” such as this one to supervisory sessions for discussion and feedback. Tamara and her supervisor can advocate for hiring more social workers, particularly an experienced school social worker at the MSW level who might be able to provide social work supervision to the three BSW level social workers employed by the Timbers Independent School District. Tamara can also utilize her two social work colleagues for consultation and support.