Working with Client X
Introduction
To start with, social theoreticians accept as true that clients range along the continuum from voluntary to involuntary. At extreme end of the field of voluntary clients, there are those who believe in the efficacy and value of social services like counseling and who seek help in order to solve their problems as well as attain personal goals. For instance, spouses might voluntarily seek marital counseling from family service agencies; parents seek assistance to deal with tensions hence avoid abusing children; and substance abusers might voluntarily take part in counseling to lower the frequency of their awful behaviors. In contrast to voluntary clients, involuntary clients are individuals legally mandated to receive such services. They include prisoners as well as clients who are institutionalized in mental health and correctional settings as well as clients mandated by courts to receive the services. Other involuntary services examples include counseling for alcoholics involved in automobile accident, therapy group sessions for wife beaters and parenting skill training for parents who are neglectful. Contrary to what some individuals perceive, working with clients is not difficult. As a matter of fact, in most occasions, it often turns out to be beneficial to different individuals (Kindred, 2010, p.5). The purpose of this paper is to work with a client who in this instance is known as Lady X.
Background Information
This excerpt is about a woman referred to as client X. She is 30 years of age from a country known as Haiti, and where she lives is matter of grave concern in this case. She lives with two of her friends in Dorchester in a second floor building. Besides, she also lives with her baby girl aged 4 months old. She was referred to an X agency by a certain nurse for a baby visit since Client X has an Asperger. The other issue the client had is that immediately after giving birth to her 4 month old baby, she suffered a stroke and this put her life in danger. Therefore, this was yet another major reason she accepted the welcome baby visit institution. The Welcome Baby Visit was a well know program that dealt with cases regarding families that had issues in them and hence, they had to visit in order to learn about resources in the community, get basket gifts and get referrals as well (Hall, 2007, p 25). Client lady X had a husband, the father of her girl, who was, by all means attempting to get custody of the child. As a matter of fact, the husband Y had already proceeded to file a case in court regarding the issue. As such, client X even received a letter saying she had missed to attend a court hearing, though she never got a letter saying she had a court hearing. Also, she raised complaints that her boyfriend Y left her in a critical condition after he stole everything from her including money. Since by then she was unable to take care of herself, her uncle stepped in to take care of her. This is attributed to the fact she was not in any position to make decisions on her own at that time.
Client X has numerous problems, for instance, she does not have money and at the moment, she is not receiving any benefits since at the Welcome baby visit, information is required yet her uncle is unwilling to assume his role as is expected. The friends of Lady X assist with her 4 month old baby, though at times, she is unable to take care of the girl forcing her to call her friends out of work so they can assist her. Already, Lady X has a connection to healthy baby healthy child. She has an advocate who can represent her when she is absent in court and a physical therapist who often visits her. The court as well as helped her through provision of a lawyer in court.
Client X as well has am issue with her family since they have negative attitude of services and believe that everyone who comes to visit their daughter is only interested in getting information and not helping the family.one of lady X’s friend said the family members of X are uncooperative and they have the tendency to waste people’s time since rather than talking out so that problems can be solved, all they do is voice their opinion. An ideal example is client X’s mother. Often, the mother was together with her daughter and two of her friends. However, one day, the visit became chaotic when Client X has 3 visitors at one, who included me from Welcome Baby, an advocate from healthy baby healthy child and her physical therapist. Getting paperwork information was difficult since there are numerous people who made the attempt to acquire information from her as well. This work regarding client X was picked since it is one of the excerpts that is easy to analyze. What is more, the work represents work that is still under exploration as such, very vital. What is more, the work was selected since it did not go as well as it was expected and seemed important to understand ongoing work with the client X.
Formulation and Hypothesis
According to psychodynamic theory, Freud articulates that during childhood, girls are often unaware of themselves as such they turn from their original love objects and their mothers once they discover men are there for them. This is clearly witnessed in the case when client X got pregnant at a point in her life and separate from her boyfriend. Based on psychodynamic theory, from client X’s case, there are a couple of possible hypotheses. To start with, it is important to conclude her family relationships are poor or that she has problems with family members. This is supported by the fact her mother was not happy with her and disagreements or chaos erupted when a number of visitors went to see her in her welcome baby visit bed. Additionally, the other possible hypothesis is that client X was financial unstable as such, unable to support herself. It is because of this fact that at some point, she got assistance from her uncle, friends and mother. Nevertheless, such help only served to add more chaos into her situation since her family thought that instead of her friends assisting her, their major objective was collecting information from her. The other aspect that proves client X was financial unstable is the fact she was not able to hire her own lawyer without assistance from the court. In fact, when she had a case filed against her in court by her boyfriend, she did not have funds to hire a lawyer; as such, the court did that on her behalf. Moreover, the other possible hypothesis in the case is how welcome baby units can be beneficial to mothers who have just giving birth yet they are experiencing problems. In this instance, welcome baby unit appears to have helped client X to a large extent (Berzoff, Flanagan & Hertz, 2011, p120). In respect to analysis of Client X, while at welcome baby visit institution, the deduction can be made that she faced some strengths as well as difficulties in terms of cultural, ecological ad developmental factors, ethical issues and social justice. Regarding her strengths, ecological conditions were friendly to her. It is because of this fact that she was able to get support from all corners starting from her uncle who offered support in the upbringing of her child, friends who visited her at welcome baby visit and more so, her mother who supported her while she was at welcome baby visit. Cultural factors as well were an advantage to her. Culture, most of the time emphasizes that a woman of thirty years is supposed to be happily married and living with her family happily (Simmons, 2009, p. 3). Cultural beliefs however for her never deterred her from separating with her boyfriend who had even gone to the extent of stealing almost everything from her in the course of one of their disagreements. As such, had culture been very strict, then client X would have had a difficult time dealing with her situation as well as handling her baby. In respect to development factors, this is also a strength or rather, advantage to client X. Development of children often follows systematic stages. This is to say there are some stages when babies pose so many problems to their mothers (Trad, 1987, p 68). In such a case, client X has not been seen to go through various problems concerning her baby except the stroke she suffered immediately upon giving birth to the baby. Developmental factors as well articulate the fact there are some things restricted to adults. Some of these include dependence on friends, relatives and parents. In such an instance, client X did not bend low to such rules and this proved to be a major strength for her as it helped her pull through the difficult conditions she was facing.
Reflection
In relation to the excerpt on client X, there was an intervention strategy or plan that came up and helped the client to solve most of her issues. An effective strategy that arose was that the client should be given the freedom to express herself. This played the integral role of helping her relieve her stress and depression that she also gave in to (Chui & Wilson, 2006, p 108). Secondly, provision of support both financially and emotionally was another intervention plan that arose. Third, the other plan was making sure client X frequently receives guidance and assistance from a physical therapist. Since this client was real, a plan or several plans came up with the aim of reducing the problems faced by client X. The responses witnessed in the situation reflect the plans above since client X was given all the freedom she needed to express herself. She also had the chance to choose what she wanted to do when she wanted to do it. This is clear when she was given the opportunity to select people and friends to visit her at welcome baby visit. The other response seen in this case was the client was issued with financial support. Besides, she had a lawyer assigned for her by the court to assist her solve he issue with her boyfriend. A physical therapist was as well hired to help her relieve possible depression (Rolf, 1993, p 5). All these were evidences of financial and physical support given to client X.
Conclusion
Understanding and the assessment of reactions and responses during this work at welcome baby visit are crucial. There are numerous occasion where everything was perfectly done while in others, not everything went well and as expected. First, client X was financially unstable as such, he could not cater for her maternity fees. The financial assistance offered to her however helped her relieve possible financial challenges that she might have faced (Chenoweth & McAuliffe, 2005, p. 13) secondly, the push for physical therapist for the client was beneficial as it played a central role in helping her relieve stress and depression she would have faced. Besides, hiring a lawyer helped her settle her court case and was a major contribution to client X. Nevertheless, there were some situations that might have been handled differently. For example, the large number of visiting the client at once to offer her physical and moral support should have been controlled. This is attributed to the chaos it led to and this might have increased rather than decreased the depression of client X.
References
Berzoff, J., Flanagan, L. M., & Hertz, P. (2011). Inside out and outside in: Psychodynamic clinical theory and psychopathology in contemporary multicultural contexts. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Chenoweth, L. I., & McAuliffe, D. A. (2005). The road to social work & human service practice: An introductory text. Southbank, Vic: Thomson Learning.
Chui, W. H., & Wilson, J. (2006). Social work and human services best practice. Leichardt, N.S.W: Federation Press.
Hall, C. (2007). Constructing clienthood in social work and human services: Interaction, identities, and practices. London [u.a.: Kingsley.
Kindred, M. (2010). A Practical Guide to Working with Reluctant Clients in Health and Social Care. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Rolf, J. (1993). Risk and Protective Factors in the Development of Psychopathology. Camb. U.P.
Simmons, C. (2009). Making marriage modern: Women’s sexuality from the Progressive Era to World War II. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Trad, P. V. (1987). Infant and childhood depression: Developmental factors. New York u.a: Wiley.