Zainia and the Difficulties of Immigration - Case Study Example

Social Work- Zainia’s Case al Affiliation: Social Work- Zainia’s Case Introduction Zainia is a thirty-four-year-old woman from Afghanistan who moved to Australia two years ago in the company of her family. She is married with three children namely; Afzal aged thirteen, Samia aged nine and Farhou aged four. Ever since they arrived in Australia Zainia’s husband has not yet secured employment and thus he has been stressed since he cannot raise income to fund for his family and as a result he has been subjecting Zainia to domestic violence now and then. The situation has escalated to the point it is affecting Zainia psychologically since most of the time she is been seen by her children crying without saying a thing. The last incidence of violence that Zainia experienced was so intense to the point the neighbours heard the altercations between the two and alerted the police. It is from that point that Zainia separated with her husband as she moved to a refugee camp together with her children to seek solace from the violence she has been subjected to repeatedly. Zainia’s children are currently not attending school since those amenities are not available in the refugee camp. At this instance, as a social worker I intend to build a relationship with Zainia with the assistance of an interpreter since she does not understand English so as I would be able to assess her condition, develop a contract as well as devise an elaborate intervention plan that will be aimed to help her out of the problems she currently encountering (McInnis-Dittrich, 2014). The process will be divided into four main phases whereby the initial stage will be sourcing for an appropriate interpreter who will be able to link Zainia with me to ensure I get all the relevant information that I require from her. The ideal interpreter for this case should be able to understand Zainia’s native language and preferably of Afghanistan origin to understand better other cultural ramifications in Zainia’s case. The next step will be conducting an assessment of the situation Zainia is currently facing. After all the inherent issues have been outlined a contract plan of how we intend to address them will be developed by coming up with a problem prioritization scale that determines which problems needs to tackle first in the order of their urgency. The last step will involve an intervention plan to the issues outlined with an aim of ensuring Zainia gets back to her normal happy life (Humphreys, 2000). Assessment The primary objective of social work is to empower the client by instilling confidence and knowledge in the person so as to enable him/her to make rational judgment. Additionally, social work is a strength-based problem-solving plan that addresses the inherent issue through analyzing the information provided to ensure the right intervention measures are implemented for the benefit of the client. In this particular case Zainia has confirmed that her main problem is domestic violence that she has been experiencing ever since they moved to Australia, lack of income, her children not attending school as well as separation with her husband (Kock, Kerckhove, & Vens, 2014). Problem Prioritization To ensure that we are going to implement contract planning and intervention efficiently it will be prudent for us to develop a problem prioritization scale that will outline which issues and needs should be tackled first based on their urgency. Since Zainia is facing some problems, the problem prioritization scale will be handy as it will give an outline of the order to be followed in addressing the inherent issues in the case. The range is ideal since it can determine which problem has the highest potential to change and thus be treated first. Zainia’s problem prioritization level can be reviewed in Appendix A. Based on the scale Zainia’s problem with domestic violence scores the highest with 28/30 concerning its potential to change. The score is because Zainia had been living all her life peacefully until two years ago when they moved from Afghanistan to Australia. The change of life and hard economic times subjected her husband to unemployment a fact that made him distressed a reason he would often engage Zainia into domestic violence now and then (Holosko et al., 2013). Ecological-System Perspective Biological Assessment Zainia is still healthy despite the slight bruises that the beating from her husband has caused her. In some instances like the last time, she was involved in the same the situation was so adverse that she encountered severe body pains. However, it is worth noting that no serious health condition has developed as a result of the violence her husband has been engaging her all this time. Psychological Assessment The primary problem that Zainia has been encountering all this time is the emotional and psychological distress that domestic violence has been causing her. Zainia has been traumatized for the entire period since her husband started being hostile towards her. Given the fact that he has not been explaining to her the reason she was subjecting her to all that pain Zainia has developed psychological problems since she is been seen by her children always crying whenever she is alone. She has been hurt emotionally by a person she trusted most but who has turned against her. The emotional distress that she has been undergoing all this time has caused her quality of life to deteriorate since she is not at peace anymore. Additionally, she is been burdened with the issue of her children not attending school as well as the fact that her family has been separated as she no longer lives with her beloved husband (Davies, 2013). Social Assessment The social life of Zainia has significantly diminished since she no longer enjoys the bond with her husband as they have separated. The fact that her family is no longer intact like it used to be previously had adversely affected her since the cohesion and feeling of oneness is missing and now she is living in a refugee camp away from the people who care about her family. That notwithstanding, her children are no longer attending school as social amenities at the refugee camp are limited thus denying them a chance to increase their knowledge of their new environment (Congress et al., 2013). Zainia only speaks the native Afghanistan language thus it is difficult for her to socialize and make friends with people in her new environment since she can barely utter a word in English. It further complicates the matters as she cannot ask for assistance whenever she is in need. Additionally, language barrier acts as a hurdle for Zainia to integrate and make friends in her new environment thus subjecting her to loneliness as she has no friends in her current environmental setting (Pack and Cargill, 2015). Contract Planning The next phase of our meeting is to implement a settlement plan that will allow us to prioritize the tasks that we ought to undertake to accomplish the objective of the social work by outlining when and how they ought to be implemented. Since Zainia has identified domestic violence as the key problem she is currently going through and the problem prioritization scale has indicated the same then it is prudent that it will be tackled first in the order outlined in the prioritization scale. The timelines of all other tasks are also outlined together with the deliverables from each step. Intervention Since the problems that Zainia faces involves her entire family; the intervention plan will focus on a mezzo client system. The objective of the system is to empower Zainia together with her family to facilitate their problem-solving process. Power-Shared Relations To ensure the client enjoys maximum benefits from the intervention process a realistic and equal form of professional relationship will be set up between the social worker and the clients to allow her to be empowered and self-determined over her condition. In that way, she will be permitted to take control of her situation and thus enhance the potential of Zainia in making positive advances with her issues. The relationship will be professional and moral in nature with the social worker only entitled to assist the client to get over her problems while adhering to social values and ethos. Competency Based Assessment The objective of this stage is to enable the social worker and the client to do an in-depth evaluation of other contributing factors that might be facilitating Zainia’s powerlessness to overcome her tribulations. For instance, in Zainia’s case it is evident that the fact that she is an immigrant in Australia makes her vulnerable to the issues she is currently facing as she is not conversant with the legal channels to follow in order to ensure justice is done. That notwithstanding, the language barrier has even complicated the matter since she cannot freely socialize with other people to seek assistance or explain to them her problems. Additionally, the fact that she is a Muslim woman she is obliged to be submissive to her husband no matter the situation thus she ought to have endured the frequent assault from her husband. The factors outlined above have contributed to blocking Zainia from benefiting from external resources that would have addressed her problems (Lishman, 2007). Normalization Conversely, we will try to analyze other environmental problems that would have contributed to the current situation that Zainia and her family is undergoing. Perhaps the issues they are facing are societal or casual in nature, for instance, now that Zainia is a Muslim woman she ought to be submissive to her husband. Thus, no matter how bad she is assaulted that should not cause any alarm as their culture or rather religion has provisions for such incidents. On the other hand, having moved to Australia just two years ago made them vulnerable to poverty since it prudent that immigrants would not secure employment opportunities in foreign countries quickly unless under exceptional circumstances (McClennen, 2010). Collectivity for Mutual Aid This phase will involve subjecting Zainia to interact with other individuals who have experienced or are currently experiencing similar issues like her to enable her develop a sense of courage that she is indeed not alone. That feeling of togetherness with other victims of similar problems will empower her and facilitate positive change in the journey towards recovery. She will be taken through a counselling session that will tend to reconstruct her psychological condition that seems to have been affected by the frequent assault from her husband in a bid to assist her have confidence back in her marriage and especially her husband. Ideally, the man should be counselled to ensure he is rational in his acts despite the distress he is undergoing due to lack of employment he should not extend that anger to his wife (Roberts, 2002). Conclusion Throughout the social work with Zainia, the process has been holistic with all phases that were implemented focusing on the primary objective of helping the client to overcome her current situation. Values and morals have been emphasized during the entire process to enhance professionalism in social work as well as instill confidence in the clients to come out and seek assistance in future whenever similar issues arise. The process involves an in-depth assessment whose outcomes were utilized to determine the appropriate intervention mechanism to be applied to ensure the client overcomes her problems. References Congress, E. P., & González, M. J. (2013). Multicultural perspectives in social work practice with families. New York, Springer Publishing Company. Davies, M. (2013). The Blackwell companion to social work. Hoboken, Wiley Blackwell. Holosko, M. J., Dulmus, C. N., & Sowers, K. M. (2013). Social work practice with individuals and families evidence-informed assessments and interventions. Hoboken, N.J., John Wiley & Sons. Humphreys, C. (2000). Social work, domestic violence, and child protection: challenging practice. Bristol, UK, Policy Press. De Kock, C., Van Kerckhove, C., & Vens, E. (Eds.). (2014). Social Work in an International Perspective: History, views, diversity and human rights (Vol. 2). Maklu. Lishman, J. (2007). Handbook of practice learning in social work and social care knowledge and theory. London, Jessica Kingsley. McClennen, J. C. (2010). Social work and family violence theories, assessment, and intervention. New York, NY, Springer. McInnis-Dittrich, K. (2014). Social work with older adults: a biopsychosocial approach to assessment and intervention. Boston, MA: Pearson. Pack, M., & Cargill, J. (2015). Evidence discovery and assessment in social work practice Palvin, F., Crawley, J., & Baos, P. J. (1980). Perspectives in Australian social work. Bundoora, Vic, Pit Pub. Roberts, A. R. (2002). Handbook of domestic violence intervention strategies policies, programs, and legal remedies. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Read More