Deck 13: Understanding Legal Issues

Question 1

No human service worker can avoid contact with a multitude of laws. State two reasons for this assertion.

Answer 1

• Most human service programs were created or are supported by some public law.
• Most human service programs receive funds enabled by a piece of legislation.
• Many clients of human service workers receive, or are entitled to receive, benefits under one or another law, e.g., Social Security, Medicaid, TANF.

Question 2

Explain the terms "full due process" and "partial due process." How were the rights to due process affected by the 1996 Immigration Act and the Personal Responsibility Act?

Answer 2

Due process means that, under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the US. Constitution, individuals are entitled to "due process of law," including the right to receive notice of the charge, the right to counsel, the right to present evidence and witnesses, the right to cross-examine witnesses, the right to a written statement of findings, and the right to trial by judge and/or jury, before they can be deprived by the government of life, liberty, or property. Laws provide partial due process where there is less potential harm to an individual, or when a full-blown judicial hearing would be very costly. Generally they grant an administrative hearing and notice of charges, and perhaps assistance in preparing and presenting the case. Most human service organizations give partial due process in a dispute with a client. Due-process rights were significantly eroded in 1996 by both the Immigration Act and the Personal Responsibility Act. Immigrants who are deported or imprisoned have no right of appeal, and recipients of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), are not guaranteed a right of appeal against unfavorable decisions by the federal law, although states may still allow it.

Question 3

How did institutionalized mentally retarded people secure their right to adequate treatment?

Answer 3

The first "right to treatment" lawsuit was Wyatt v. Stickney in Alabama in 1971. The court ordered the state social service officials to provide a specified quality of treatment for institutionalized mentally retarded people. In 1982, the U. S. Supreme Court established, for the first time, constitutional rights for people committed to institutions for the mentally retarded which guaranteed a minimum level of training and development.

Question 4

Why do human service workers have to be concerned about criminal background checks?

Question 5

How have the battles over abortion rights and the Patriot Act affect people's rights to privacy?

Question 6

The homeroom teacher was correct in stating that allowing a student to see her school record would violate the confidentiality of all those teachers in the past who had written their impressions of the student.

Question 7

Adoption records are available to all adoptees in the U.S. when they reach the age of 21.

Question 8

A doctor or nurse has a choice in deciding whether to officially report a case of suspected child abuse.

Question 9

"Privacy" is defined as

A) the right to the sanctity of one's own home.
B) the right to be left alone.
C) the right to do as one pleases, free from the judgment of others.

Question 10

Clients have no legal right to privacy unless a federal or state law on privacy covers the agency's operations.

Question 11

The professional codes of ethics of social workers, doctors, and psychologists give adequate protection to clients' rights to privacy.

Question 12

The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizure, does not apply to computer data.

Question 13

It is good practice to have clients sign several blank consent forms so when the worker needs to make referrals later on, he or she needs not to bother the client with unnecessary red tape.

Question 14

When a law requires that clients have access to their records, most agency workers tell their clients about this.

Question 15

There are certain legal limits on privileged communication.

Question 16

Most human service agencies offer the client partial due process when they are embroiled in a dispute with that client.

Question 17

Clients have due-process rights to appeal a decision when they feel a welfare department has treated them unjustly.

Question 18

One research study found that one of the results of an open-access policy to records, allowing clients to read their own records, resulted primarily in

A) much shorter but less useful records.
B) records that had far less speculation and hearsay.
C) constricting workers so they tended to hide or omit very relevant but disturbing data.
D) workers not keeping records or keeping their own informal records.

Question 19

When a worker must deny a client some benefit that the client has applied for, the conscientious worker immediately

A) encourages the client to face reality.
B) assures the client that the decision is irreversible.
C) re-explains several times why the client was refused.
D) informs the client about the appeal process or alternatives that might be available.

Question 20

Since the concept of the "right to receive treatment in the least restrictive setting" has been widely accepted by the courts, school officials cannot simply turn away a wheelchair-bound youngster by saying they do not have adequate ramps or bathroom facilities for him or her.

Question 21

The right of a person to refuse treatment, even if he or she is mentally ill, is clearly guaranteed by the Constitution and state laws.

Question 22

Recently the government has curtailed peoples' rights to protest unjust agency practices by not allowing legal service attorneys to help them file

A) criminal suits.
B) domestic suits.
C) child advocacy.
D) welfare law.
E) class action suits.

Question 23

A human service worker should not encourage a client to appeal an agency decision, because the agency must have had sufficient reason for the action it took.

Question 24

Criminal background records sometimes contain false information.

Question 25

Confidentiality can never be violated.

Question 26

The Patriot Act protects peoples' privacy.

Question 27

School officials, especially when in the presence of school-based law enforcement officials, routinely give students a Miranda warning prior to questioning them.

Question 28

The legal assurance that a person who is placed in an institution that promises to give treatment, does, in fact receive treatment is called:

A) a criminal suit
B) the right to refuse treatment.
C) informed consent.
D) the right to treatment.

Question 29

The mental patient's liberation and welfare rights movements

A) were criminal suits.
B) helped expand clients' rights.
C) established the right to treatment.
D) helped enforce informed consent.