Social Workers' Skill to Understand Their Clients' Fears, Dangers and Needs - Case Study Example

Social Work: Maria Case Study Name Institution Date Introduction A social worker is guided by a code of ethics, which they should work under at all times. The social work practitioner is expected to adhere to and manage the ethics and values while handling their clients (BASW, 2012). These guiding principles help the social worker to guide the client through the program in order to face their fears and deal with their ugly ordeals (Bodo University College, 2004). In the case, Maria is a victim of rape at the age of 15 years. This ordeal affects Maria’s behaviours, such as drinking problem, as well as resentments to her old friends who knew the whole issue. Maria’s route course to all these other ugly behaviours is because of the sexual assault that she encountered (Department of Education, 2014). By trying to free and escape from her fears, Maria is entangled in more problems, which are far more stressful situations. The aftermath is that the parents are also affected and concerned about their daughter. Prioritizing on the needs of the client and behaviours In this case, the social worker has to prioritize on the issue of disregarding the family and refusing to go home, as well as the increased intake of alcohol. Prioritizing the two issues will enable the two parties to come to the route course of the whole problem hence being able to manage the problem accordingly. By managing the route course, it will be a half way to overall behavioural changes. Involving other stakeholders in child protection and the society to curb stigmatization is a key way to show that the needs of the victim are prioritized (Department of Education, 2014). The social worker should first familiarize herself with the client. By enhancing a two-way direction communication system, the two parties will get to understand one another and foster a good relationship. The social worker should emphasize on the issue that the client is comfortable with, such as her competencies, skills and likes in a generalized manner. The Social Worker has to address the issue of drinking alcohol at the tender age after fostering good rapport with the client (NASW, 2013). From this issue, the social worker will be able to establish the mainstream of her ill behaviour. After addressing the issue of alcohol intake, Maria would gain trust in the social worker hence able to open up the major issue that is affecting her. At that instance, the social worker should address the client in an accommodative tone where the client would not feel judged for her behaviours. The client should feel loved and cared for hence the need to solve her situation. On the other hand, with the family, that is, the parents to Maria, the social worker has to address their relationship with the young victim. The social worker should also seek to understand their fears and worries about their affected child. The social worker should try to give assurance to the parents and teach them how to handle the young client (BASW, 2012). On that note, the conversation between the family members of the client and the social worker should be of interactive question and answer dialogue. The social worker should seek to get the first-hand information from the parents without hiding some details. Maria majorly requires deep counselling so that she can face her primary fears, which is the experience she had when she was raped at a young age. The fears changed the jovial and social young lady to a drunkard and introvert who preferred not to be at her parents’ home. The key emphasis of the session between Maria and the social worker should be basically in line with how to pass on the rape case. By linking Maria with her first counsellor would enhance even interaction between persons. Connecting Maria with the counsellor she was conversant with would enable her to be comfortable while expressing her fears. This referral was also a good idea (NASW, 2013), which would enable to gain confidence and trust from Maria. Life stage development and application of the theory Life stage development theory was developed by Erik Erickson, where he proposes the human development right from birth to adulthood. The development gives a clear understanding of the different behaviours of the children as they grow and develop towards adulthood. The theory mentions that people develop from oral to anal, phallic, latency, puberty, genitally and old age (Hutchinson, & Oltedal, 2014). The issues in these stages include trust and mistrust, autonomy and shame, initiative and guilt, industry and inferiority, identity and role confusion, intimacy and isolation, generativity and stagnation, as well as integrity and despair respectively (Hutchinson, & Oltedal, 2014). By understanding the entire human development stages with their issues and crisis, the social worker will be able to handle the issue according to adaptive strengths of the individual. At 17 years of age, Maria is at the puberty stage, which is majorly the stage where the humans being get identity and role confusion. In this stage, the teenagers have very many issues about themselves. Therefore, Maria is trying to understand herself to face her fears. Due to issues with her identity, the social worker should understand the instability in the mind of the client. Thus, Maria distances herself hence staying at a friend’s place in order to explore her freedom without the parents’ watch. This stage requires high self-esteem and confidence in order to feel appreciated, accepted and fit in the peer groups (Hutchinson, & Oltedal, 2014). Having been raped at this stage, Maria loses her esteem and confidence. Hence, she is unable to interact freely and relate with the friends. This results in her behaviour of disregarding the old friends and trying to find new ones who would embrace her with her weaknesses. Maria in this context refuses to go back home because she lacked self-acceptance and hence facing role confusion and personal identity problems. Maria segregates herself from her friends hence resorting to drinking alcohol as her stress reliever. The social worker, in the case, understands the psychosocial development and psychodynamic theories proposed by Erik Erikson and Sigmund Freud respectively. The two theories show the reasons why Maria is behaving in such a manner. The two theories guide the social worker on how to handle the situation of the teenage client (Hutchinson, & Oltedal, 2014). Psychosocial development theory explains the identity issues that Maria is facing, which result in the cases, such as being caught riding the bike while drunk. Maria, being in a critical part of life stage, she has to be handled carefully in order to boost her confidence in life once again. At the end of the second session, Maria seems happier and more enthusiastic. As a result, she even requests to make another appointment the following week. This switch in moods and behaviours is explained by the fact that she was in the identity and role confusion stage (Hutchinson, & Oltedal, 2014). The theory gives a clear explanation and reason for the client reactions to different stimuli. Moreover, Freud in his psychodynamic theory gives the conscious and unconscious forces that impact on the behaviours of the clients. Maria unconsciously despises her parents due to her situation. She gives her parents a hard time when she experienced self-conflict. She follow her instincts and feels no remorse for her parents when she goes into hiding, leaving the parents worried and never bothers to inform the parents until she is found by the police officers who took up the case. The theory gives understanding to the reasons behind certain client behaviours and hence strategizing on the resolution tips. A good rapport between the social worker and the client is created differently basing on the two theories where the life stage of individuals can influence their perception (Hutchinson, & Oltedal, 2014). The social worker followed some ethical issues by fostering a professional relationship with the client. The professionalism makes her understand the stand of the client when she did not want to go back home hence, handling the whole issue in calm and brainiest manner. With that decision, the social worker confidently supports her so that Maria would stay in a good environment. Additionally, confidentiality applies when the social worker listens to the client even after getting the information from the parents, which made the client talk about the issue (NASW, 2013). The social worker assesses and manages the risk. For instance, the social worker offers to link with the former counsellor in order to help Maria in her recovering. In empowering Maria, the social worker opens a new page of hope to Maria (BASW, 2012). Maria seems to recover quite fast where her second session was quite successful. Therefore, the social worker, in the case, possesses quality skills necessary in the field. Conclusion In conclusion, a social worker has to understand their clients fears, dangers and needs.by understanding these needs, the social worker should prioritize them but in a professional manner not to discourage the client from opening up. The social worker initializes the conversation with the less inflicting issues such as Maria’s refusal to go back home. The social work theories help the social worker to understand and the client and hence able to handle and help them accordingly. These theories guide and direct the social worker’s practices in their line of duty. The social worker ought to have several skills, such as problem-solving, communication, assessment, as well as critical thinking skills. References BASW. (2012). The Code of Ethics for Social Worker. Retrieved from: http://cdn.basw.co.uk/upload/basw_112315-7.pdf Bodo University College. (2004). Critical Theory and prevention: Implications for Social Work Intervention. Retrieved from: www2.udec.cl/~ssrevi/numero6/Ariculos/Critical_theory_and_prevention.pdf Department of Education. (2014). Child Protection, Social Work Reform and Intervention. Research Priorities and Questions. Retrieved from: http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/19697/1/Social_work_and_child_protection_Research_Priorities_an d_Qu estions.pdf Hutchinson, G. S. & Oltedal, S. (2014). Five Theories in Social Work. Retrieved from: http://brage.bibsys.no/xmlui/bitstream/id/96588/Hutchinson_GS.pdf NASW. (2013). Social Work Case Management. Retrieved from: https://www.socialworkers.org/practice/naswstandards/casemanagementstandards2013.p df Read More