43 Essential Policies for Human Services Professionals

Note to Instructors
Acknowledgments
Introduction

Chapter 1: Elizabethan Poor Laws
Chapter 2: Dorothea Dix and the Pierce Veto
Chapter 3: State Eugenic Sterilization Legislation
Chapter 4: Workers’ Compensation
Chapter 5: Immigration Restriction Legislation
Chapter 6: Unemployment Insurance
Chapter 7: The Social Security Act
Chapter 8: Works Progress Administration
Chapter 9: Fair Labor Standards Act
Chapter 10: Japanese Internment
Chapter 11: Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (G.I. Bill)
Chapter 12: Head Start
Chapter 13: Community Mental Health Centers Act
Chapter 14: Civil Rights Act
Chapter 15: Food Stamp Program/Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
Chapter 16: Medicare
Chapter 17: Medicaid
Chapter 18: Older Americans Act
Chapter 19: National Environmental Policy Act
Chapter 20: Supplemental Security Income
Chapter 21: Women, Infants, and Children Program
Chapter 22: Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act
Chapter 23: Housing and Community Development Act
Chapter 24: Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act
Chapter 25: Education for All Handicapped Children Act
Chapter 26: Earned Income Tax Credit Act
Chapter 27: Indian Child Welfare Act
Chapter 28: Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act
Chapter 29: McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act
Chapter 30: Anti-Drug Abuse Act
Chapter 31: Americans with Disabilities Act
Chapter 32: Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act
Chapter 33: Family and Medical Leave Act
Chapter 34: Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act
Chapter 35: Violence Against Women Act
Chapter 36: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
Chapter 37: Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act
Chapter 38: Defense of Marriage Act
Chapter 39: USA Patriot Act
Chapter 40: No Child Left Behind Act
Chapter 41: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Chapter 42: Coronavirus Epidemic and Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act
Chapter 43: Black Lives Matter Movement

References
Index
About the Author

Gerald (Jerry) V. O’Brien, PhD, is a professor in the Social Work Department at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, where he has taught for the past two decades. He received his BSW from the University of Missouri–St. Louis, his MSW from the University of Missouri–Columbia, and his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. O’Brien teaches classes in community organizing, policy analysis, and research and disability studies at both the undergraduate and the graduate levels. His research focuses on disability history and policy with particular emphasis on eugenics as well as metaphor analysis in relation to social injustice and stigmatization. His articles have been published in Social Work, the Journal of Social Work Education, the Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, Metaphor and Symbol, and other journals. This is his fourth book, following Metaphor Analysis in Public Policy and Private Practice: A Social Work Perspective (NASW Press, 2019), Framing the Moron: The Social Construction of Feeble-Mindedness in the American Eugenic Era (Manchester University Press, 2013), and Contagion and the National Body: The Organism Metaphor in American Thought (Routledge, 2018).

I have a few clarifications before I begin. First, although this book lists “43 policies” in its title, this is actually false advertising. One chapter (on eugenic sterilization) focuses on state policies rather than one federal policy, the Pierce veto chapter discusses a proposal that was vetoed, and the chapter on Elizabethan Poor Laws describes the importance of this set of British regulations for the United States. In addition, the book ends with COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter (BLM). These topics were highly important and will continue to affect policies at various levels. They are not policies, but their recent importance necessitates their inclusion in this book. For the most part, though, I have tried to choose those specific policies that I believe are most important for social workers and other human services professionals to be aware of. Many of these policies are important in terms of eligibility for services, or the advancement of social and economic justice and others for their historical effect, or because of the discussions or controversies they give rise to.

Now, if one were to ask a group of rock music aficionados to name the 20 best rock albums or avid baseball fans to give you their list of the 10 best players, you would have spirited disagreement and contentious debate. There would perhaps be more disagreement than agreement. The same is true here. Although most policy instructors would support the inclusion of many of these policies in such a list, there would also be strong arguments for adding others or deleting some of these. I have tried to include the most important policies from the broad range of social work areas (child welfare, housing, aging, disabilities, mental health, and so on), but a number that I would like to have included missed the cut. I have included information on some of these within the related chapters or as follow-up questions in the Instructor Appendix (available by request; see Note to Instructors on page vii).

Approximately half of the book chapters include at the end an example of a policy analysis component in relation to the social problem or policy. In the Instructor Appendix, the second section for each chapter provides questions that require students to generalize particular analysis elements to that particular problem or policy. For some, such as policy goals, this is fairly straightforward. For other examples, however, such as horizontal versus vertical service delivery or social engineering, students might want to review the example provided before attempting to apply the analysis component to a different social problem or policy issue.

Most chapters in this book provide a brief historical overview of the issue or problem along with basic elements or goals of the social policy and some information on effectiveness. It is impossible to go into too much depth in a brief chapter, so I have tried to be as economical as possible. My goal is that the book provides a general introduction to important social welfare policies for students.

It is easy for students and practicing social workers to become callous about politics and policy in an era of increasing divisiveness that too often spills over into anger and contempt. Policies continue to guide both practice and funding; however, and for this reason alone, social workers need to remain policy advocates. Policy is incremental, and victories take time, but they do come with perseverance. As I write these words, the U.S. House of Representatives has just passed The Equality Act (H.R. 5—117th Congress: Equality Act, 2021), a bill that would ban discrimination against people on account of their gender identity or sexual orientation. It is a goal of President Biden to see this bill passed and signed into law during his first term. After more than a decade of stagnant wages and decreased purchasing power, it seems certain that the minimum wage will also finally be increased, although it is still unclear by how much. These gains in social or economic justice may seem painfully slow in coming, but the time and effort it takes to reach them can make them all the more sweet when they do come.