Social Work Project: Hoarding, Squalor, Community, and AASW Ethics

This essay explores the issues of hoarding and squalor from a social work perspective, emphasizing the importance of safety cleaning within communities and the impact on both individual well-being and public health. It reflects on the author's personal values and ethical responsibilities as a social worker, highlighting the role of social workers in raising awareness, providing support, and addressing the mental health aspects associated with hoarding and squalor. The project aims to address the lack of awareness and action from councils and communities, advocating for the implementation of safety cleaning practices over enforced cleaning and aligning with the AASW code of ethics to promote respect and social justice. The essay also touches upon the existing research from American literature due to their extensive knowledge on the topic.

Running head: SOCIAL WORK
Social work
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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1. The people who are living in a squalid living environment are required to be acknowledged
and they are required to be supported in order to be able to manage their behavior so that they
can avoid the risk and live a safe life in the safe community. While going through the journal
articles I found that there are huge amount of population in Australia that are living a life at
high risk and they are suffering from the hoarding disorder. This is resulting in putting the
life of the residents at risk. They are suffering from the risk of squalor and some health risks,
fire hazards, eviction and homelessness. The hoarding behavior is the persistent accumulation
of and it is the lack of the ability to relinquish, large numbers of objects or living animals that
results in extreme clutter in and around the premises in which we live. This poses a huge
threat to the people who are living in the community. This behavior not only endangers the
life of the humans but also endangers the lives of the animals (Birnbaum & Lach, 2014).
2. The people who are found to engage themselves in the activity of hoarding acquire things
or animals from the external sources while the others might accumulate it passively over
years without relinquishment. The safety cleaning is important in the community. Cleaning is
different from safety cleaning. The cleaning must be done by using the things that will
maintain the sanitation factors. In a community the spread of the diseases might result in
causing it epidemic. In cleaning the hygiene and sanitation is not kept in mind. The cleaning
involves regular cleaning without proper sanitation and sometimes without proper hygiene. A
community includes many people therefore in order to keep the entire community safe, a safe
cleaning is essential.
3. Before a social worker I am a normal human being who dwells in a society and in a
community. As a human being it is my sole responsibility to keep the place clean where I
live. It falls under the code of ethics. The code of ethics expresses the values and the
responsibilities which are integral to, and which characterize, the duties and the
responsibilities of every individuals towards the society. As a person I should be first one to

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follow the rules before instructing others to follow the rules. Safety begins at home. As a
normal citizen I should maintain the rules of living in a society and I should maintain the
cleanliness. I should not practice the activities of hoarding and squalid that might pose a
major threat to the lives of others who live in the same community.
4. I chose this project as in the contemporary world the people are not aware of the harsh
effects of having an unhygienic environment. The people should be made aware of the worst
consequences of the activities of hoarding and squalid. I am a social worker and it is my duty
and responsibility to make the people aware of the risk that can be caused to lives of the
human beings due to the lack of proper cleanliness.
5. This project will help the people who are practicing the activities like hoarding and
squalor. Hoarding occurs due to self-neglect and squalor affects due to the environmental
neglect. It includes the refusal of help and it refuses isolation. It includes the seeming of the
lack of concern by the person with regards to their situation. This project includes the need of
having a clean environment and the serious threats that are attached while not having such
environment. It is consider to be mental disorder. This has be rectified by an individual from
within. The project can help the persons having this mental condition to rectify himself.
6. There are many issues that have served as a major cause of initiating this project. It has
examined from the perspective of the council, from the perspective of the community and
from the perspective of the individuals who are practicing hoarding and squalor. The council
does not show keen initiative in many areas against the activity of hoarding and squalor. Still
in many places there are no such actions treatments arranged for the persons who suffer from
this syndrome and there are no such awareness made by the council. This project might make
the council realize the need for making the people aware of the side effects of this syndrome.
From the perspective of the community this project is essentially important as it states the

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harmful threats that are attached to the lives of all the individuals living in a community.
From the perspective of the persons who are having this syndrome this project enables them
to understand the risks they are bearing every day because of this practice and the things they
should do in order to avoid this.
7. The social workers in this case have a major role to play. They have the responsibility to
make the people aware of the risk that are related to the activities of the hoarding and squalor.
This is considered to be a syndrome and therefore the social workers are required to analyze
the cause of the syndrome and target the audience who are affected with this syndrome. They
are supposed to educate those people with proper remedy in order to overcome this
syndrome.
8. The enforced cleanliness is the careless cleaning of the environment. Safety cleaning
involves the method of cleaning using the cleanliness techniques. It involves maintaining a
list or inventory of all chemicals used and disposing safely of un-used or expired chemicals
and treating them in order to avoid the spread of germs from them.
9. The AASW code of ethics is relevant in this project. It identifies the values and the ethics
that underpin the ethical social work practice. It provide a guide and standard for the social
work conduct. It makes the social worker realize his or her duty as a social worker and as a
normal resident of a community. It serves as a guide to the social worker on the duties they
should perform in order to eradicate the threats attached to uncleanliness from the society
(Reamer, 2015).

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References and Bibliography
Barsky, A. E. (2017). Social Work Practice and Technology: Ethical Issues and Policy
Responses. Journal of Technology in Human Services, 35(1), 8-19.
Birnbaum, R., & Lach, L. (2014). Teaching about what ethical social work practice means:
Responsibility starts with schools of social work. Intervention 2014, 140, 37-43.
Bowles, W., Boetto, H., Jones, P., & McKinnon, J. (2016). Is social work really greening?
Exploring the place of sustainability and environment in social work codes of
ethics. International Social Work, 0020872816651695.
Gebhardt, J. A. (2016). Quagmires for clinical psychology and executive coaching? Ethical
considerations and practice challenges. American Psychologist, 71(3), 216.
Lennon-Dearing, R., & Delavega, E. (2015). Policies Discriminatory of the LGBT
Community: Do Social Workers Endorse Respect for the NASW Code of
Ethics?. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services, 27(4), 412-435.
Reamer, F. G. (2015). 18 Ethical Issues in Social Work. Social workers' desk reference, 143.
Reamer, F. G. (2015). Clinical social work in a digital environment: Ethical and risk-
management challenges. Clinical Social Work Journal, 43(2), 120-132.
Voshel, E. H., & Wesala, A. (2015). Social media & social work ethics: Determining best
practices in an ambiguous reality. Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics, 12(1),
67-76.