Social Worker, One Cannot Select

¶ … social worker, one cannot select a school based only on professional reputation alone. Instead, one must examine the school as a whole, and how one's experience there will shape one on a personal level. I want to attend Loyola University because I believe it will provide me a degree of personal development unavailable at other universities, as well as offering me opportunities for professional growth outside of traditional workplaces. I hope to work with underprivileged children, from diverse backgrounds.

Loyola's location, and programs will enable me to immerse myself in my chosen field while I am a student, equipping me with the skills necessary for an effective professional career. I was given the privilege of attending Loyola for a semester in 1989, and looking back on the experience, I have realized that the university is an ideal fit, to help me grow both in knowledge and experience, and progress toward my goals.

While the reputation of a school should not be the only criteria for choosing where one will continue one's education, it should not be ignored. Loyola's reputation for outstanding scholarship, educators, and graduates attracts me as well. Children deserve the best one has to offer and I know that Loyola will push me to excel, and to achieve all I can in and out of the classroom. The benefit of this education will fall directly onto the children I work with, in my ability to better help them.

Question 2 Often, one finds useful experience in unexpected places. My primary work background as been as in management for a fortune 500 company, yet I find that what I learned is highly applicable in working with children. I am detail oriented, organized and extremely skilled at structuring and organizing information. This translates directly to my experience with children and social work, in that it is vital to keep accurate and legal records of many interactions.

I have served both as a substitute teacher for children with learning disabilities and a Court Appointed Special Advocate. In both those positions I learned to work within existing support systems to provide aide to children in need. I became adept at communicating with my fellow teachers, aides, and advocates sin order to relay accurate and detailed information about each child. In addition, I traveled to Guatemala on a medical mission to provide aide to sick children, giving me direct, hands-on experience with crisis situations.

My largest personal weakness is my lack of direct counseling experience, however I realize that without professional training, sometimes one can do more harm than good. In the past, I preferred to offer a shoulder to cry on and unconditional support, leaving counseling to those who have been trained to do it. That said, however, I believe that with training I can overcome this weakness and offer counseling when it is appropriate. My experience has given me the foundation on which to build my education.

Question 3: A Treatment for an eating disorder can be delayed indefinitely, as long as an individual is able to function on an everyday level. However, when an individual is no longer able to function and is given treatment against his or her will, ethical questions are raised as to whether that treatment should be offered even if the patient refuses it. Ultimately, the answer lies in the fact that eating disorders are mental disorders, or disordered ways of viewing the world and one's own body.

One suffering from an eating disorder has an illness just as does someone with diabetes. As such, an individual with anorexia should be treated in the same manner, and treatment should be given without consent, if one is not competent to refuse. Just as one would provide aide to someone in a diabetic coma without their specific instruction, so should one provide treatment, including force feeding, to someone suffering from anorexia who is unable to make a rational choice due to his or her disorder.

According to the National Institute of Health, Doctors are unsure if being subjected to force feeding effects the chance of overall success of treatment. Force feeding tends to come at a point in a the disease where the individual is in danger of death, becoming an ethical issue as opposed to one of treatment. When one has starved one's self so far, one can be judged incompetent to make decisions regarding one's weight.

At that point the choice becomes the responsibility of the doctor, and the doctor must do what will be best for the recovery of his or her patient P.C. Herbert and M. Weingarten discussed this in their essay "The Ethics of Forced Feeding in Anorexia Nervosa." They argue that force feeding should be done as a response to only terminal situations, and that the patient's long-term outcome should be evaluated before proceeding.

The patient must be in a state of emergency before resorting to a procedure that defies their expressed.