Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Kirk Humphrey has called on social workers to form a movement to help address the problems plaguing society.
Humphrey lamented that while the lack of leadership in many Barbadian households causes significant systemic issues in the country, social workers have a major role to play in advocating for social justice.
“We are dealing with a lot of problems that look like unrelated problems, but they are all the same; they are coming from the same place. So, crime is coming from the same place; we are dealing with domestic violence, coming from the same place; deviance in schools is coming from the same place; homelessness is coming from the same place.
“So, people are running around dealing with the manifestations of the challenge, refusing to address the challenge. And I think one of the fundamental roles of the social work movement, and it has to see itself as a movement, is to address these problems at the core,” Humphrey said.
Delivering remarks at the Barbados Association of Professional Social Workers (BAPS) Resilience Award at the Warrens Office Complex on Friday, Humphrey said he believes that the negative behaviour being portrayed on social media was reversing the progress Barbados has made.
“We see on social media people parading children, adults dancing with children, young boys dancing on adult women. We see on social media parents allowing their children to curse and normalise things that are really manifestations of dysfunction as if they are normal and if they are right.
“So when you call it out as a dysfunction, people now see something wrong with you because we have now normalised behaviour that really our society needs to stamp out. And the media needs to call out these persons who are just cropping up and saying things and setting back a whole country,” Humphrey said.
He added: “I saw a family paraded on social media, with two young children on the street, and they still have to live in Barbados after this video goes out. So I am asking myself, when did Barbados come to this? And when did we think it was okay for us to be able to do these things and say these things, and nobody is calling nobody back to order?”
Additionally, Humphrey said social workers must also contribute to Barbados’ climate change fight. He further stated that social workers must also help to address human resources issues in the corporate space.
“So social work should not limit itself now to functioning in the traditional spaces; there has to be a bigger role for social workers. The other thing is this, is that because social work is a human thing, everyone thinks they are a social worker. So everybody could form an organisation, and anybody could say anything about anybody else, no training whatsoever.
“Again, it is coming down to leadership. I really feel the movement has to take greater leadership in this space, and that is why we are amalgamating some agencies to be able to deliver better services to people,” he said.
(AH)
Read our ePaper. Fast. Factual. Free.
