Welfare and Drug Testing Policy in the USA
Denunciar
Compartilhar
•2 gostaram•364 visualizações
Welfare and Drug Testing Policy in the USA
•2 gostaram•364 visualizações
Denunciar
Compartilhar
Baixar para ler offline
American Congress adopted the Anti Drug Abuse Act in 1988. In 1995 the policy was further refined and the government started implementing its drug free policy. The drug free policy enforce denial of federal benefits to users, possessors and traffickers from one to five years and the third timers permanently. This included grants, contracts, licensing, loans, but excluded welfare and public housing. In 1996 the government enacted Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, created Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) to make people move from welfare to work, a mandatory state run drug test.
Mais conteúdo relacionado
Mais procurados
Mais procurados(20)
Similar a Welfare and Drug Testing Policy in the USA
Similar a Welfare and Drug Testing Policy in the USA(20)
Último
Último(20)
Welfare and Drug Testing Policy in the USA
- 1. Welfare and Drug Testing in the USA A presentation on communication and barriers
- 2. Background • American Congress adopted the Anti Drug Abuse Act in 1988 • In 1995 the policy was further refined and the government started implementing its drug free policy • The drug free policy enforce denial of federal benefits to users, possessors and traffickers from one to five years and the third timers permanently. This included grants, contracts, licensing, loans, but excluded welfare and public housing. • In 1996 the government enacted Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, created Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) to make people move from welfare to work, a mandatory state run drug test.
- 3. The administration and why it is a concern to the public? Administrative Issue: According to (Israel & Covert, 2015), • The state of Missouri spent $336,297 to test 38970 welfare applicants and found 48 positive results. • The state of Oklahoma spent $385872 to test 3342 welfare applicants and found 297 positive results • The state of Utah spent $64566 to test 9552 welfare applicants and found 29 positive results • The state of Kansas spent $40000 to test 2783 welfare applicants and found 11 positive results • The state of Mississippi spent $5290 to test 3656 welfare applicants and found 2 positive results
- 4. The administration and why it is a concern to the public? Public concern: • The rate of drug test positive is very low than national average of 9.4% drug users. It is not effective enough as a mechanism. • The states are spending huge amount of money to conduct the test while they could spend the money on other programs for people.
- 5. Stakeholders impacting communication Identified stakeholders in the process are • Welfare applicants • The state • The tax payers • The TANF • The testing agency • The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and so on. Each of their interest is different: • Welfare applicant demands welfare • The state needs to deliver welfare opportunities to the righteous and qualified candidate without being biased • The tax payers want a part of their money to go for the poor • TANF wants people to work rather than stay with the welfare program • Governmental laws and other policy bodies want to go drug free
- 6. Communication barriers impacting the addressing of the issue • According to (Smuddle, 2009) in public private issues the communication barriers remain activated in multidisciplinary mode and have wider span of presence to impact the communication. This include • Absence of interagency collaboration and coordination • Absence of dialog with citizens • Absence of public awareness on government welfare and the drug testing • Absence of communicable and universal standards for drug testing, the testing agency, the experience the testing agency to deliver to welfare applicants • Uniform decision making process for welfare applicants
- 7. Cultural considerations impact the issue • According to (Diep, 2015) women drug users fear going to doctor if the babies are taken away from them. Such fears work among drug user parents, pregnant moms and other unemployed ones. The kid will not have food – concerns the people the most. • In another study it is found that people without Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits show higher dependency on drug and are least likely to get a job. • The US is a land of immigrants.
- 8. Ethical considerations • A deep concern raises on the permissible scope of searching, as many believes the drug test is unconstitutional as it is under the scope of Fourth Amendment for unreasonable searches and seizures. • Pledging the body for the bread. • The drug testing decision is mandatory with and without history of drug use, possession and trafficking.
- 9. Diversity skills requirement • Taking advantage of knowledge from the diversity skills to develop communication based on cultural considerations • Educating and motivating staffs, enforcers, stakeholders • Establishment of cultural network • Knowing cultural assumptions • Knowing cultural assimilation.
- 10. Possible outcomes • There is only one outcome based on the communication plan for the issue, people stop being worried about the drug testing for welfare or not. • The diversity issue based on culture is not sufficient. • Agency based stakeholders perspective still remains as very important factor. • Agency interests keep changing with time and developments. • State is right in spending thousands to get below the national average drug test positive cases wiped from the welfare system. Public concern for the same is shaping differently and should not be of much concern. • The constitutional contradiction as iterated, is footed wrong since constitution gives state endless authority and power to continue doing better for its people. State is not in violation but the perception and beliefs are.
Notas do Editor
- According to (Guthrie, 1991) American Congress adopted the Anti Drug Abuse Act in 1988 with the objective to prevent the manufacturing, use and distribution of illegal drugs that approached the task from different angles and mandated the establishment of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. In 1995 the policy was further refined and the government started implementing its drug free policy as research statistics shows that upto 15% of all highway casualties are caused by driving under influence and 23 million Americans and 25% of high school students are in use of illicit drugs. The drug free policy enforce denial of federal benefits to users, possessors and traffickers from one to five years and the third timers permanently. This included grants, contracts, licensing, loans, but excluded welfare and public housing. The 1987’s Family Welfare Reform Act included welfare and public housing. People can be denied welfare and evicted from their house for drug use, possession and trafficking. In 1996 the government enacted Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, created Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) to make people move from welfare to work, a mandatory state run drug test.
- Thus, the functional objective of each are very closely stay while they are still being widely different in their perspective. For example, TANF has a more promotional and awareness building scope while the government laws and other policy bodies scope are deeply rooted into seeing the enforcement of the related laws. Tax payers want a part to go for poor and they are not following up where the funds are actually going or what are the conditions that poors, as they presume, need to fulfill. The stakeholder’s agency theory said due to interest variation the communication gets different.
- There are in fact other barriers that might be encountered when addressing the issues like cultural variations, religious considerations and so on. These barriers ask for increasing use of communication tools and methods like press releases to public affairs, television interviews with agency executives, publications, websites and conferences. “Increased citizen engagement must be supported by a strategy that considers and coordinates all types of interactions from media events and press releases to citizen inquiries and information requests. It must educate the public on how to get information while also allowing them to provide feedback on services and to have a meaningful and understandable measure for how government is performing.”
- people from different culture and places are coming here, few getting green card, few the citizenships and many under the diversity visa lottery programs aside the citizens and local natives. The drug testing is applicable to all, those who have higher propensity to drug use to lower propensity. Culturally the policy appears to be assimilating – the policy is addressing the problem, not the person. A perception grew to become a belief, as part of the culture and it is letting many to self-doubt and to put self-administered confinement in trying the welfare. So, we can see the consequence when planned for positivity is producing some negative situations as well.
- The drug testing decision is not based on the suspicion and it is already popular that the requirement is in contradiction with the Fourth Constitutional amendment. However, people fail to recognize that the not suspicion based drug testing decision is actually for informed decision making and involving more categorically proficient testing methods. Ethically there is no bar in the context to engage highly improved testing technologies. The drug users know that the requirement aims at benefitting them only.