SWK201e: You are a social worker in a Transitional Shelter for families displaced from proper housing. Grace, aged 36 years old: Legal & Ethical Issues in Helping Professions Course Work, SUSS, Singapore

You are a social worker in a Transitional Shelter for families displaced from proper housing. Grace, aged 36 years old, is a single mother with two young children, aged 7 and 5 years old respectively. After years of suffering family violence perpetrated by her husband, she finally decided to file for a divorce and left the home with the children.

Grace and her children were admitted to the TS as tenants, with the goal of helping the family obtain a Housing and Development Board (HDB) rental flat soon. Prior to admission, you had gone through some of the compulsory regulations that every tenant must abide by.

As tenants, they are not authorized to let another person stay over in the unit at night. This is to ensure the safety and security of all the TS tenants. Those who breach the regulations could face eviction from the TS.

Three days ago, a tenant from another TS unit, Mdm Abdullah, came to lodge a report. She alleged that Grace was observed to have allowed a stranger to stay over in her unit for two nights. Mdm Abdullah felt very uneasy and worried about her family’s safety. So, she decided to lodge a report at your office.

You proceed to conduct a spot check on Grace’s unit and found a young woman named Margaret in the unit together with Grace. Margaret is not registered with your office and there is no authorized record of her visiting the unit in the past. Grace explained that Margaret is also a victim of spousal violence and she had sought refuge with Grace after being threatened with harm by her husband a few days ago.

Margaret then showed you some bruises on her arms and limbs and told you they were afflicted by her husband. At her wit’s end and desperate for help, she called Grace for advice. Grace, being concerned about Margaret’s safety, had asked her to stay with her temporarily at the TS. She had planned to bring Margaret to apply for a Personal Protection Order soon.

Grace apologized to you for having breached the regulation of letting an unauthorized person stay over in the TS unit. She is worried that her family will be evicted from the TS.

• Identify, analyze, and clearly discuss the ethical problem that is presented in this case.
• Using the Ethical Principles Screen (EPS) Model, examine how you would resolve this ethical problem. You have to apply every principle in the EPS. If a particular principle is not relevant in the case, you have to explain why it is not relevant