Ethics and Boundaries Practicum: Serving Children and Their Families Whose Lives Intersect With Urban Realities
As service and treatment providers, how do we ensure that we are engaging, serving and using treatment approaches that recognize the experienced traumas that many children of color, particularly, African American are encountering? In a recent study conducted by Devin English, PhD, a psychologist at Rutgers University revealed that black teens in their study experienced racial microaggression an average of five times a day; showing symptoms of “short-term depression, difficulty sleeping, loneliness and anxiety”. Dr. English., explains that the reason, in part, that, “microaggressions are so insidious is that a lot of times, white people can see them as not real, or not a big deal,”. This raises the question, Are children of color being treated for race-based trauma? We want to ensure that we are making decisions around services that are safe, culturally relevant, and ethical. NASW’s Code of Ethics helps us to ensure that we are making ethical decisions while maintaining healthy boundaries. This workshop will look at the intersection of race, trauma and toxic stress, and if not addressed when providing services and treatment to children of color, could present ethical challenges to social work practice.