Case Scenarios Read

Case Scenarios Read the following scenarios. Answer, in a 50- to 100-word response, each of the following questions: Scenario 1 Sophia has been removed from her family and placed into foster care for the second time in the last 2 years due to her mother’s ongoing substance abuse.

Sophia has missed many days of school and often comes to school dirty and wearing clothes from the day before. Sophia’s mother does not think she has a problem and blames the system for once again taking her daughter. 1. What can a human service professional do to help this family?

They can have the family go to family counseling; also have the mother take substance abuse classes or to a drug rehab program. Then go talk to the foster care center and talk to Sophia and see why see is missing school and wearing dirty clothes. The human service can tell Sophia if she want to go back home she need to go back to school and get good grade and wear clean clothes to school then she can go back home with her parents Sophia would be my first focus because kids are most vulnerable.

I would place Sophia in temporary foster care and set up biweekly meetings to understand her point of view of her current situation.

I would also check her school attendance. And see if she needs some counseling to talk to someone about how she feels. We have a duty to protect that child not only from her living situations but also by placing her into a caring, loving family that will not allow this to happen. If she eventually comes to realization that this temporary situation could become a permanent situation maybe she will engage in the services offered and take things seriously the second time around, but never allow her to think it’s too late to make a change with her life.

2.

How might the family’s previous involvement with the child protection system affect their willingness to engage in services the second time around? The family’s previous involvement could be that they were not informed of why their child was being taken out of their care and they are just upset about the whole situation of having her taken away. The case worker could have just taken the child and gave no explanation or propose a plan to help the family provide a stable environment for their daughter which would make anyone unwilling to engage in services. I would hope that the mother would realize the longer it takes her to seek help and stay clean the longer it will take for her daughter to return home. If she eventually comes to realization that this temporary situation could become a permanent situation maybe she will engage in the services offered and take things seriously the second time around, but never allow her to think it’s too late to make a change with her life.

I am sure the child is very insecure of the Human Services at this point.

Especially due to the fact that she has had so many issues with them in the past, and nothing has been done, at least nothing that was making a positive impact on her future. I personally feel having a closer relation with this child and building up trust may be a very positive approach. Social service workers are helpers. One asset that we possess in this profession is the ability not to judge.

In this profession, just like our lives, we see people progress and regress. It does not stop our willingness to help.

However, we do change our tactics to help these individuals with each failed attempt. Scenario 2 John has been homeless for most of his adult life. He is often seen on the medians of busy intersections asking for food and money or wandering through the park talking to himself. John used to seek housing in a homeless shelter but often chooses to sleep in the local park.

During the winter, the local homeless coalition attempts to talk to John about staying in the shelter but he refuses.

Staying out in the cold has led John to being hospitalized on several occasions, but he maintains that he is better off without anyone’s help. 1. If you were a case manager for the homeless coalition what would you do to try and help John seek appropriate housing during the winter months? I would try to talk to John to see what happened all through his life and why he is homeless and why he refuses to stay in the shelter. There could be a mental or emotional underlying issue that could factor his reasoning with himself.

I would try my best to offer John alternatives such as appropriate housing or shelter, along with assigning him to a case worker to follow up with and seek for resources.

I would try to offer counseling and build that trustworthy client-caseworker relationship in order for him to understand and believe there are better ways to live in this world. Identifying the skills he may lack as well. It’s obvious John may be suffering from depression, lack of trust, and low self-esteem. The longer John remains in this state of mind it will be hard for him to get all his needs met. Adults, children and youth who have Developmental Disabilities are offered programs that range in intensity and setting according to their needs and desires – from highly supervised residential programs to job coaching and supported living. The Network strives to protect the welfare of individuals at-risk in numerous ways.

I feel getting John involved in an organization like this one where he was taken care of and receiving meds I feel he would be on the path to a healthy happy life.

In this case it would be good to know what disciplines John most likely fit into. Psychology would be my choice. I would attack his mind and behavior for a solution. 2.

How does John’s outlook about receiving help affect his ability to get his needs met? John has too much pride in his self to accept the help he needs. He is already got it set in his mind that he can make its own his own without any help from anyone. He thinks this is a handout to him. Many homeless have this mentality and they live day to day on the streets.

John (as well as the many others) need to be reminded that these programs are here to help and are not a handout in any way, most of the programs that are out there for the homeless are set up to assist those in getting back on their feet and off drugs and the street. This is going to be a process in which we may have to take baby step to get the job done.

First we must get John to trust us, and let him know we are his friends looking out for him. We must get him to a doctor, get him medicated and get his mental illness under control so he understands us and his situation better.

I believe after those two steps we will see huge improvements in him, and I’m sure he will also want to make great changes in his life. . Resistant means they have to attend but they don’t participate, they miss their appointments, So, We want to give John whatever services he will accept. Scenario 3 Juan often runs away from home because his parents constantly fight and often blame him for their issues.

Juan runs away for 2 to 3 days at a time and will do this at least once a week. When he is at home, he typically does not follow the rules and will yell at his parents and siblings.

Juan has a history of defiant behavior, but his home environment has often been chaotic. Juan’s parents have been through family counseling, but they feel it was not helpful and are reluctant to do it again. Juan sometimes will run to a local group home that takes in runaway youth. 1.

If you were a counselor at the group home, how might you work with Juan to get him to stop running away from home so that he is not sleeping on the streets? I would try to talk to Juan to ask him why his parents are fighting about and why does he think he is the blame.

Then ask him has he ever sat down and had a talk with his parents to see if he can help them out being he is the oldest in the family. I would try to get Juan to understand that the only blame he should take responsibility for would be any deviant behavior that he does. His parents fighting and him being blamed for it is just a way for them to pass the buck onto him and make him feel bad. He is not responsible for his parents fighting and once he can realize that and put measures of emotional protection he would not feel the need to run away. However I would encourage Juan to seek positive ways to handle and deal with the stress from home, whether becoming involved with sports or other positive groups.

Juan would be offered therapy and anger management classes. Trying to figure out what makes him the angriest and we both figure out a solution to the problem so that he can remain in his home every night and learn the importance of rules as well. . Parent’s sometime worry when they don’t know where their kids are, therefore, causing arguments.

I would show him ways he could be an influential key to the other kids in the house.

2. How might you try to work with the family even though they have participated in family therapy previously and did not find it effective? I would try talking one on one with each family member. Since I have already talk to Juan, I would talk to his mother to see what she has to say and how she feels. Then I would talk to his father to see if he has been in Juan’s life from birth to now. After talking to the parents then I would talk to his brothers and sisters to see how they feel about him.

Once I have completely talked to everyone I can understand what really happen or have a whole picture of all the problems.

Then I will bring the whole family together and let them express how they really feel and how they want to stay a happy family. Encourage the parents to understand and accept the fact that there is a problem in the home and it starts with them. As a counselor there would be weekly follow up visits with the family. The family would be offered resources and as a whole we all work together to find a solution to the problems inside the household.

I am a firm believer that one should never give up.

And as a human services worker, I will never give up on a patient or a family. Maybe, they weren’t ready to change with the first session, I feel we must give up all we got in order to show change and get a positive result. To break the ice, I would start by asking questions like, “What do you see the problem being? ” This gives the parents some since of control in helping the problem. I would suggest marriage counseling to stop the arguing. There has to be another reason for their arguments other than Juan running away.