Policy in Action: Personal

Policy often has a personal effect. You may have encountered policies that have empowered you, or you may
have encountered policies that have made you feel powerless. The client populations that you will work with
are no different. Policymaking involves social workers acting to identify, formulate, legitimize, implement, and
evaluate social policies.
In this Discussion, you identify one policy that has affected you, a family member, a colleague, a friend, or a
client. How did the policy empower you or a family member, colleague, friend, or client? How has it made you
or another person feel powerless? How does this policy affect social work practice?
Required Reading:
DiNitto, D. M., & Johnson, D. H. (2016). Social welfare: Politics and public policy (8th ed.). Boston, MA:
Pearson.
• Introduction, “Politics, Rationalism, and Social Welfare Policy” (pp. 1–14)
• Chapter 1, “Politics and the Policymaking Process” (pp. 15–38)
Social Work Policy Institute. (2012). Influencing social policy: Positioning social work graduates for policy
careers. Retrieved from https://www.acosa.org/joomla/pdf/InfluencingSocialPolicyBrief.pdf
Use APA 7th edition citation and references, respond to the following questions:
• Identify one policy that has affected you, a family member(s), colleagues, or a client (e.g., Medicaid, Section
504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, etc.).
• Describe how the policy empowered you, your family member(s), or your client to take action.
• Or describe how you understood the policy to be deliberately intended to create a specific result.
• Explain how your understanding of this connection between the policy and its result relates to social work
practice.