Bio-Physical Assessment - Case Study Example

Bio-Physical Assessment Presenting the issue Dalia is a biracial female; her parents are a mix of African and Irish descents. She is 14 years old and the last born in a family of five with both parents included. She lives with her parents in middle-class suburbs. During her early childhood, she was diagnosed with sickle cell anemia disease; fortunately the disease has been under control for the past two years. Her psychological issues start in middle school due to neglect by her parents because of their work schedules. Demographic information Dalia is 14 years and of female gender. She is a biracial teenager of African and Irish parents. Being a minor her marital status is unmarried. Her parents have been married for 25 years. She is a middle school student with no other academic achievements or certificates. Dalia is the last born in a family of five with both parents inclusive of that number. Current living situation Dalia and her parents live in middle class suburbs. Her father is in the creative arts field and has no specific work schedule. Her mother is an executive who dedicates most of her time on work related issues. Her older sister is in college and her older brother lives in another state. Birth and development history Dalia was born 14 years ago and she was diagnosed with sickle cell anemia during her early childhood period. She has been hospitalized multiple times during her childhood due to the complications of sickle cell anemia. As of present, her condition is under control and she has not experienced any serious sickle cell related case for the past two years. School and social relationship She is in middle school and just about to join high school. Her parent describes her character before middle school as good natured and easy going girl who enjoys co-curricular activities. They further describe her behavior towards her peer as participating. Dalia changes her character and behavior to argumentative, physical altercation, verbal combative and always irritated. She has developed a highly sexualized interaction with her male friends and physically threatening attitude. Family members and relationship She is the last born in a family of five her parent integrated. She has an older brother and a sister .Her relationship with her mother is strict and she sees her as controlling and mean. Her parents have a tense relationship and constantly disagree on issues about her and other family issues. She believes that, her mother is too controlling and always too busy at work. She acts impulsively to get the attention of her mother or to piss her off. She is a daddy’s daughter and he let her do anything without giving it a second thought. She has an unfavorable relationship with her sister whom she perceives as the most favored one in her family. Her sister is excellent academically and very popular which contributes immensely to her relationship with her. Her relationship with her brother is favorable. He is among her favorite among the family. Health and medical issues Apart from her childhood sickle cell anemia disease, she is a healthy 14 years old. Psychologically she feels left out and abandoned by both her parents and siblings. Her parents are never present and consequently spend most of her time alone or with her friends. Her behavior change is as a result of her parent lack of time for her. She changes her behavior as a way of getting her parent’s attention. She uses a fake ID to purchase alcohol and get tattooed to annoy her mother in addition She abuses alcohol with her peers to deal with her loneliness. Spiritual development Before middle school Dalia’s spiritual development was normal and her interaction with her parent and peers was normal. Her behavior changes in middle school so do her spiritual development. Her relationship with her parents changes and she becomes verbal and physical combative. Her change in behavior alters her spiritual growth negatively. Social, community, and recreational activities She shows no interest in participating in any extracurricular activities. She terms them as “corny and boring”. She spends most of her time with her friends drinking and doing what misled adolescents do. She uses a fake ID to purchase alcohol with friends. Her social activities revolve around her friends, substance abuse and misbehaving. Strengths, capacity and resources After the 12 weeks of therapy, Dalia emerges as a strong willed teenager. She agrees to change her character and behavior and dedicate her time to school. She is a capable teen counselor and consequently accepts a role of a camp counselor in a day camp meant for the summer. Her resources include her own determination and her parent support through spending more time with her. Conflict resolution is the main strategy employed in this bio-psycho-social assessment. This assessment is based on conflict resolution skills in the family conflicts. Dalia’s situation is that of lack proper communication between her and her parents. Improving on communication and child-parent contact eventually solves this problem. In this assessment Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of needs (Maslow, 1968) is the most appropriate. According to this theory, human need is arranged in a hierarchy according to their importance. Those needs need to be fairly satisfied for advancement to the next level of needs. Dalia’s case shows the effect of satisfaction of social needs from her parents. She feels unloved and neglected by her busy family. The use of Engagement and assessment skills during the assessment is very important. For a complete bio-psycho-social analysis these skills are necessary in the evaluation and documentation of the case presented. Engagement skills are useful in interacting with clients during counseling. Dalia’s main challenge is inadequate parent-child contact. This inadequacy leads her to impulsive her behavior of substance abuse and sexual exploration with her male peers. Her adaptability to a new school environment also brings about another challenge. Transition from middle school to high school is a major transformation for her. Her behavior and character changes during middle school for lack of parent-child contact. Dalia determination to change is her strength. After the therapy sessions, she is determined to change and prioritize on her high school education. Her role as the camp counselor for a day summer camp indicates her inner understanding of the problems and ways of solving them. Increase of parent-child contact according to the assessment is the important factor for conflict resolution within a family environment. Dalia’s parent makes several changes to their work schedules to increase their time with her. On her part she is to put more structure and effort in her school schedule and engage in social activities like counseling (Glynn, 1983). Dalai being a biracial teenager, research on raising biracial children should be conducted. The research explores how parents navigate the issue of mixed race during courtship and raising their biracial children. Issues concerning assimilation and acculturation of the biracial children are addressed in this research. The research also covers race and social privileges for biracial children (McClure, 1996). Regulation of working hours for employees is among polices that could impact on this case. Imposing laws governing the maximum number of hours that are legally acceptable would reduce long working hours. Advocating for parental availability for their children is primarily the basic social change in this kind of cases. Most home-alone adolescent children results into vices that make them feel less alone like substance abuse and sexual exploration (Segrin, 2005) Her argumentative behavior towards authoritative figures and acquisition of fake ID are the main legal issues in this case. These issues are mentioned briefly in the case with no follow up on the same. Evidence based practice can be integrated in this kind of situations by using evidences to counsel clients. This practice is only applicable in situations where conclusive evidences can be evaluated to make. In this case there is enough evidence to make conclusive assessments. The case does not provide the follow up on Dalia’s progress. There is no indication of her progress after the therapy. The case ought to have made further inquiries about the Dalia behavior and her parents’ availability. This follow up on her case is to evaluate the effectiveness of the therapy and the resolutions suggested by the counselor. The results of this case should be used for future counseling of other adolescents having similar problems. The strategies use in this study should include a brief research on the client to have a better understanding of the client. References Glynn, T. J., Leukefeld, C. G., & Ludford, J. P. (1983). Preventing adolescent drug abuse: intervention strategies. Rockville, Md: Dept. of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration, National Institute on Drug Abuse; Maslow, A. H. (1968). Toward a psychology of being (2d ed.). New York: Van Nostrand. McClure, F. H., & Teyber, E. (1996). Child and adolescent therapy: a multicultural-relational approach. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace College Publishers. Segrin, C., & Flora, J. (2005). Family communication. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Wilmshurst, L. (2011). Child and adolescent psychopathology: a casebook (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications. Read More