Review the ethical scenario provided below and write a 250 word minimum rationale identifying how you would address it as a school social worker. You must cite the NASW Code of Ethics to support your rationale.
You receive a referral for two children ages 6 and 7. The father is a high school graduate, while the mother dropped out of high school when she became pregnant with her first child. The family has been referred to you for possible medical neglect. The 6 year old son was diagnosed with late stage neuroblastoma of the eye.
neuroblastoma is a solid cancer that manifests outside of the cranium, and occurs most commonly in infancy and childhood. Early symptoms of neuroblastoma are usually fairly obvious. The referral by the school nurse states that the parents should have seen the symptoms and sought medical care. By the time that the child was seen in the local emergency room, the cancer was so advanced that it was identified as fatal. The local hospital was ill equipped to care for a patient with neuroblastoma so far advanced, so they called in experts to help determine the course of care. The family was requested to take the child to numerous time-consuming appointments to try a series of treatments. they committed to the appointments, but with time, increasingly failed to attend.
Teachers report that the family has begun to dress the child in solid white clothing at all
times. The parents have also been seen praying over the child and conducting a series
of traditional rituals in the mornings when they drop him off at the school. The family
has shared with the school nurse that they hold strong religious and cultural beliefs and
that they choose to keep their child in his normal routine for his remaining days,
instead of going back and forth between the hospital and medical appointments.
The school nurse and teachers believe that you should report this to the authorities and
perhaps have the child removed from his parents so that he can receive quality care for
his diagnosis.
What should you do as the social worker in this situation? What is your first step? What
part (s) of the NASW Code of Ethics apply to this case? Why?
