Reference no: EM132987530

Jeremy is a community support worker supporting Sarah in an alcohol and other drugs (AOD) program. He receives a phone call from Sunny, Sarah's mother, telling him there is a family event coming up and she is trying to decide whether or not to invite Sarah. She doesn't want Sarah around other children in the family if she is still using drugs and asks Jeremy for information. Jeremy tells her that Sarah is still using drugs and that she should probably not be invited to the family event.

When Jeremy sees Sarah next, he sees bruises on Sarah's arms and wrists. Sarah tells him that when her mother came to visit her, they got into a fight over Sarah's drug problem. She also tells him that this happens all the time, so he shouldn't worry about it. Jeremy is unsure of whether to report it or not, as he feels he contributed to the situation by telling Sunny that Sarah was still using drugs. He decided not to report it to you, as his supervisor because he thought he will get into trouble.

The next day, Sarah's counsellor visited the Centre and asked to speak to you about his concerns about Sarah's bruises. As you weren't aware of any incident reports about Sarah, you spoke to Jeremy and asked if he noticed the bruises and if he knew what had happened.

Jeremy then owned up and told you about the incident with Sunny, Sarah's mother.

1. Identify the legal or ethical responsibility that has been breached.
2. Identify the organisational policy, procedure, codes of practice that are relevant to this situation and may inform you on how to respond to this situation.
3. Identify and explain strategies and actions that have to be undertaken to respond to the issue, including investigations, written and verbal communications, possible sanctions that may involve workers and service users.
4. Identify opportunities for change or continuous improvement and how these can be implemented.
5. Identify ways in which the strategies and actions implemented will be monitored and evaluated.