Issues of the Service Plan Development - Essay Example

Service Agreement: Assessment / Case Plan and Change Strategies Abstract This paper is a discussion of the service agreement I had with my client. It outlines the main things in the service agreement and the processes that led to the development of the service agreement with my client. Key words: service plan, client Service Agreement Introduction In this paper I outline the details of the service plan I had with my client named Salama. Working with Salama to develop a service plan was the most challenging experience I had. First, it should be noted that my client was traumatized with the events that led her to migrate to Canada and finally at Wings of Providence. She is a young woman with three children and battered by her husband. Further, she did not have knowledge and skills to develop the service plan that was going to help her and her children, despite her nursing degree. Therefore, Salama did not have much interest at first in development of the service plan. However, after much convincing she agreed to participate with me in the process of developing the service plan. The fact that she agreed to contribute to the making of the service plan together with her articulation and wise contribution makes me think that the process of making the service plan was effective. This is because the ideas and wishes of my client were encompassed in the service plan including identifying issues, setting goals, developing action plan, setting timelines, and estimating the outcomes. However, since Salama was a new migrant with no legal documents to work in Canada, we realized that we needed to look for the documents from the relevant authority before she could start working as we had planned. Thus, in future I would ensure that my client has the necessary documents to enable work according to the plans and therefore, avoid misses in meeting the timelines set. Further, because of the nature of my client having children and having no one to babysit them, we had to look for a babysitter first before she started looking for work. This was also an oversight in our planning because it delayed meeting certain goals and timelines and where we managed to meet timelines and outcomes were not as expected in our plan. Since I was the expert in the area of service planning, I made most of the suggestions that were included in the service plan. Salama on her part could only expound and seek clarification on what each goal implied in respect of her welfare. Nevertheless, her contribution was highly valued especially in the area of work and how she wanted to meet the goals that were set in the timelines. On my part, I believe that the goals that were set in the service plan are within reach of my client since they are all directed towards facilitating her stay in Canada. The goals are primarily aimed at improving the welfare of my client so that she can settle into a normal life in the new country where she has come to. For instance, the goal of securing a job is already on course with granting of legal documents and permission to work in the country. After securing a full time job, she will be able to provide support to her family by purchasing furniture and other household belongings that will enable her to have a comfortable life. Furthermore, she will be able to get affordable babysitting services for her children because she will be having a full time job. Similarly, the goal of taking short courses is well within reach because she can use the part of her salary to attend short courses before she is allowed to work as a nurse in Edmonton. Nevertheless, Salama might be faced with challenges in securing work permits as soon as possible and this will derail the plans to secure a full time job. Additionally, finding babysitting services in the country is hard and therefore, it might take some time for her to be able to find affordable service for her children. Another challenge is that Salama is supposed to undergo refresher courses to bring herself with the operations in hospitals in Canada since the system here is totally different from the one in South Africa. Arguably, this will impact her ability and morale to pursue further plans since she is still affected by the events of domestic violence and she does think that education cannot help her to overcome the effects of domestic violence that she underwent in the hands of her abusive husband. Also, because Salama is a young woman, she might fall into the trap of getting involved in another relationship with men, and this is likely going to affect her plans of becoming a financially independent woman. Therefore, I will need to work on the issue of emotional needs of Salama because leaving her without consolation and support might cause her to fall to temptations. I will also need to persistently encourage and advise my client to continue pursuing the goals as laid down without despairing. Furthermore, I will assist her in looking for relevant documents and permission to ensure that she does not take a longer time before she can start to work in a full time job. This will make her concentrate on her plans and forget the events of domestic violence that she went through. I also intend to indentify an organization that is going to support Salama with her emotional counseling and support to help her overcome the challenges of staying as a single mother. During the process of creating the service plan, I encouraged my client to participate in the process and gave her the liberty to make and amend suggestions on the issues and goals that were supposed to be achieved. In most cases, I included her opinion in making the goals for her. I tried hard to formulate her suggestion into achievable goals by asking her to come up with a different goal that she wanted to achieve whenever I realized that some of her goals were somehow unachievable. For instance, she had suggested that she wanted to become a great politician in Canada and help all women in South Africa who were being battered by their husbands. This was a good goal but it was unachievable in short term (Zastrow, 2009). After giving advice to her on why she needed to focus on short term goals first, she agreed that we should not include that suggestion in our goals since she could not achieve it within one year because she did not have enough resources to enter into politics. Since I was dealing with a young woman who had been battered by her husband, I noticed that she was very sensitive to the issues of relationships and openness. She wanted her information to remain confidential as much as possible. I, therefore, asked her to suggest ways in which I could keep the information that I had collected from her. I also asked her to name the situations that she considered offensive to her when the information that I had could get to another person. She mentioned a situation such as using her as an example in a seminar was a most offensive situation because she could not imagine her being thought of as a young educated woman who entered into a dysfunctional relationship only to be battered and abandoned by her husband. Therefore, I swore to her that I was going to keep all information related to her confidentially. Another ethical situation arose when we were discussing the achievements that she wanted to have. Most of the achievements that she aimed at were well beyond her reach, but mentioning it to her directly offended her, therefore I used to let her talk without interrupting and thereafter changed the topic without making any reference to what she had just said. This made it possible for me to avoid confrontations with my client (Zastrow, 2009). I used various skills while interacting with Salama, which I believe were instrumental in effective relationship with her. Salama is an articulate and talkative person, thus my listening skills came in handy as I carefully listened to her talk. Further, my communication skills also were useful because I had to carefully and slowly explain to her each and every thing that we were planning together. Another skill that I used while assisting Salama was time management. Since we used to meet regularly, I had to plan my time well so that I exhaust everything we wanted to do on each day. I also taught Salama how to keep time by insisting that we observe time and come some minutes before our agreed time. Additionally, I used compliment abilities to encourage Salama to participate in the process of planning and executing the plans we had put in place. I always thanked her for her contribution and this made her to be more at ease when talking with me. I also respected her opinion and avoided rebuking her when she made disparaging remarks about men. Instead I tried to explain her that her case was an isolate one and it did not mean that all men are like her former husband who used to assault her. Similarly, I used my skills to convince her to forget what had happened to her, and embark on a new chapter of her life by thinking on ways to improve her situation and that of her child. Even though it was difficult to bring her to accepting the situation, she later accepted and decided to live a free and normal life. In conclusion, my work with Salama gave me an insight into how people can be filled with bitterness but come to accept their situation and move on with their life. Developing the service plan was somehow challenging because at first Salama did not want to cooperate with me because she thought I was only after exploiting her situation for my benefit. But I managed to convince her that I had good intention for her and all that I was doing was meant to benefit her and her children. However, the situation gave me an opportunity to exercise my skills and knowledge to help others deal with a difficult situation. I also got to learn about resilience and compassion because all that I was doing was to bring the Salama and her children back to normal life besides making her forget the traumatizing experiences she had back in her home country. References Zastrow, C. (2009). Introduction to social work and social welfare: Empowering people. Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Read More