Environmental Social Work Organization
A Monthly Club for Social Workers
Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services, 2002 Fred BesthornDiane McMillen
“More people are living near oil and gas development due to the expansion of unconventional extraction techniques as well as near industrial animal operations, both with suggestive evidence of increased exposure to hazardous pollutants and adverse health effects. Legacy contamination continues to adversely impact a new generation of residents in fenceline communities, with recent studies documenting exposures to toxic metals and poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs). Researchers are also giving consideration to acute exposures resulting from inadvertent industrial chemical releases, including those resulting from extreme weather events linked to climate change. Natural experiments of industrial closures or cleanups provide compelling evidence that exposures from industry harm the health of nearby residents” Credit to Author
Current Environmental Health Reports volume 7, pages48–57(2020)
Elsa Mengistu
— Read on www.yesmagazine.org/issue/world-we-want/2020/02/19/environmental-activists-of-color/
Global Public Goods (GPGs) is a variable which serves global agendas due to the necessary use of Intellectual Knowledge house in GPGs as platforms for strategic building in developing countries. As social workers engage with international relations the profession must have access to the most recent research. Often research is housed by gatekeepers. Thus, GPGs should be of a global concern for the way that Intellectual Knowledge promotes strengthened links to Resources for Social Workers to utilize within their; scope of practice, research, and application to practice theory.
Promoting Intellectual Knowledge as global public goods (GPGs) is an important element of the development agenda .
(Sahay , 2019)
Mainstream economics fails to recognize environmental limits to economic growth (Czech, 2013). Thus, Social Workers at an international level must engage with and have access to GPGs to support global social welfare; from a community focus to the varying economic impacts that come from GPGs being gated by a numerical cost.
Weitzer (2015) raises a tone, which seems similar to that of Michelle Alexanders, The New Jim Crow (2010). The importance of writer’s, both academic and not, taking the time to not only deepen their scope but develop an agenda that is indicative of a proclamation is beautiful to me. The importance of the writer’s taking the time to not only deepen their scope but develop an agenda that is indicative of a proclamation is beautiful to me. When academics can guide the audience through Facts (statistical analysis) and at the same time frame, the concept which might bring pause to some in an eloquent way has always moved me.
Environment:
What I write above has sat with me for some time. I reflect that this may be why I find, such as deep interest in anything that intersects with the environment. Because the environment is such a hard topic to research in the traditional way, it moves researchers to conceptualize it in a new way. There is and always will be an art of research.
The analysis of healing or health is conceptual because the science of health is built on the theory of health. There is a flexibility to all that is presented as a widely accepted fact.
The definition of the environment is not concrete because it varies as each person or animal requires an individualized ecological system to feel conceptually pleased. I point out that there are aspects of the relationship between optimal homeostasis within a given environment across a specific population, but consciousness leads to optimal homeostasis to vary.
Push the timeline of science further, and you arrive at a few studies which genuinely sought to analyze the effects of the environment on health. Post-op. Patients healed more quickly with windows than without. Children excel in spaces where they can be curious through nature as allostatic loads reduce as natural elements increase. Walks in nature, lower blood pressure, and collateral. These are all quantifiable measures by current scientific methods. A great example if the reduction of the allostatic load upon children with ASD Diagnosis; sensory overload is not optimal in any environment. Much of us feel similar, too much stimulus, and we need to retreat but retreat to what? If you’re lucky, you can flee and find yourself with access to quiet spaces, natural lighting, and maybe even some greenery. Environmental Justice comes into play when those who retreat are met with an environment that is at the same level of sensory stimuli or poses more factors of allostatic load. For example, you head home to relax, and there is no greenery on your walk home, in a city, you will have buses, trains, airports, neighbors nearby, close proximity to car engines, things like crossways and pedestrian ways built close to residential windows. And we must not forget to mention that one may not even have a home; thus, your allostatic load is constantly going unless you are “homeless” in the deep woods, yet, the deep woods to not pose practicality, which is why we see cities with higher rates for homelessness).
The ecological model used by social work and its focus on vulnerable population provides a useful and holistic vehicle for understanding and responding to this social phenomenon” (Chapter 30, P. 204) I find it helpful to reflect this aspect of the practice of social work as I go on to investigate and reflect upon the scope of a particular social phenomenon; the hunt for sustainability.
Sustainability may not be the methodological approach to solving modern environmental issues. – Stay Tuned for the Followup Post
To provide further insight about my own social and cultural experiences -what serves as the driving force for my passions as a social worker is fueled by the discrepancies individuals face in regards to access- specifically that of which comes from the physical world; or Natural Environment. Having grown up in an upper middle class town in CT, my experience of the Natural world was therapeutic and rejuvenating, I unknowingly reaped the benefits of lacking things such as noise pollution and environmental toxins all of which leads to mental and physical health benefits. Through these experiences and my undergraduate courses in Ecopsychology, I believe that at the base of social welfare is the welfare of the environment. None of the authors focused on the connection between the Natural world and Social Welfare. I seek to advocate for environmental justice. Both as an ancient society and modern, humans have founds means to essentially rape the natural world of its resources and through this process; limit access. When access is limited social welfare is negatively affected producing rippling effects upon every member of the society. To me social welfare is defined as- the collective ability which each individual human has to access resources which allow them not only live but thrive, collectively this serves as a reflection of the overall health of the human cohort. I believe social welfare can be examined through a defined population, this is why the social welfare of high class citizens “haves” (higher socioeconomic level) is often better than the social welfare of the lower class citizens “have nots” (lower socioeconomic level) (Segal, 2007).
Wagner (2005) summarizes how labels not only categorize and create a means for distinguishing generalizable information about a person, but also contributes to how information (labels) can be actually be misinformation- consequently leading to stereotypes and negative self-perception. Due to the fact that children cannot choose things like, who they are born to, where they are born, what socioeconomic status they have, exc. I feel it is up to the government to impede upon and into the framework of our society; as much as needed- in order to make sure access to resources is fairly distributed…
The 🗞 and 📺 are not where you want to to get information from… with that being said, scholarly research is costly. #socialworkers can’t advocate without access to research & yet we. lose access to peer reviewed academic articles when we no long hold a connection to the #academic world•
“Despite the lack of robust empirical evidence, a growing number of media reports attempt to link climate change to the ongoing violent conflicts in Syria and other parts of the world, as well as to the migration crisis in Europe…Our results indicate that climatic conditions, by affecting drought severity and the likelihood of armed conflict, played a significant role as an explanatory factor for asylum seeking in the period 2011–2015” (Abel et. Al, 2019)
Students who leave their homeplace environments left with trauma should be met with an education system that is sensitive to cultivating therapeutic sensory environments. Connecticut should implement a preemptive program that treats trauma in a cost-effective way and through a multidimensional treatment method such as the methods of ASI, which can be integrated into the everyday aspects of the classroom. with the theme of trauma and environment, displaced children experience trauma, possessing a heightened fight or flight response to a stimulus. A highly effective approach for treating sensory symptomology such as ASD diagnosis in children has been, Ayres Sensory Integration Intervention which is an Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) that goes beyond a purely medical model and considers physiological, psychological, and social effects of the diagnosis (Schoen, 2018). The duality to these diagnosis and treatment methods such as ASD diagnosis experience poor therapeutic intervention from pharmaceuticals alone (HHS, 2017) in support of this, refugee children as a minority group within the state are less likely to get adequate healthcare and diagnosis.
Excerpt From Fall 2019 Personally written literature review*
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Environmental Justice is a topic of global welfare – environmental social work is and must be on the rise. #educatingsocialresponsibility & #socialworkers is challenging as our education tends to lean away from #STEM & #statisticalanalysis and not to mention 👋 I don’t feel confident in my ability to #analyze this robust topic through my #academics which is sad • BUT I make up for it by researching on my own time 🕰
I did not learn the flaws of the criminal-justice system in law school or college or by reading about it. I grew up knowing the flaws and how it was disproportionately impacting the black community. It’s not academic for me.
-Kamala Harris
This quote continues to resonate with me as I answer the questions as to what brought me to environmental justice. The wealth of #deepnature or Deep Ecology … an ecological and environmental philosophy promoting the inherent worth of all humans- later this within modern society and it came to be; my values and ethics simply didn’t understand how our modern society built in such a way that takes nature from who it inherently belongs to be forever interconnected with…
“Deep ecology argues that the natural world is a subtle balance of complex inter-relationships in which the existence of organisms is dependent on the existence of others within ecosystems…Human interference with or destruction of the natural world poses a threat therefore not only to humans but to all organisms constituting the natural order” (Deep Ecology definition)
The relationship between health and nature is a hard topic to research. There are a vast amount of variables that limit the rigor of studies on the subject. Have faith, there is some evidence. The way I see social workers engaging with this at a macro level is questioning why more funding is not going into this topic. The theory is there. Yet, Economic value or incentive to the answer question of deep ecology is not. Economic value is rooted in cultural values. When we don’t value the specific population, we also don’t appreciate what it is they lack. The house on the ocean, in the mountains, within profound secluded nature, is costly. That cost is the outcome of the way we value those spaces… even if we can’t quantify why.
Thought provoking! Would you say a person has a higher chance of having a positive feedback loop with his/her/their environment…
Thank You!. Will DO!
Thank You!!!! It seriously means so much to know people are enjoying my thoughts within this space. Nice to meet…
Keep these good articles coming.
There has been an attempt to turn an actual conversation, which at one point was modern, into some post-modern hype. The children protesting are not posing some satirical Modest Proposal (Jonathan Swift, 1729) esque archetype. They are disturbed.
The ongoing public conversation about the environment is grounded in the ancient dichotomy of man versus nature (Harpers Forum, 1990)
This quote rings true today. Policymakers, social advocates, and researchers are bound to an endless loop of rhetoric built around supposed here say. The trendiest of gossip is thus the oldest of gossip. You can almost hear the aristocrat women of the poor houses roll their eyes and whisper, can’t you?
“The children really shouldn’t be living in these conditions” is the logic that persuaded the acceptance of social welfare. Those with money, power, and knowledge, are doing their best to meet the needs of our most vulnerable. Privilege doesn’t come without sympathy, but it inevitably comes far removed from answers or solutions.
Were so perplexed by the modern state that even radical ideology is absent. How long do humans stay entranced by our inability to solve the unsolvable? It seems irrational to believe that funneling more money into the system will bring about any inventive solutions to the “environmental crisis,” especially when we continue to seek out solutions through what sits here in our laps and in our pockets. We, leaving the fate of society in the hands of our computers and not turning to each other to decode this iceberg, are collectively losing.
Do we make it out before Freud’s ice burg (1915) melts away? Can we see into and out through collectively self-actualizing?
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