Social Work and Human Services

The social worker must understand the working relationship and engagement process between the social worker and the client/consumer. For this assignment, review the case studies provided to you throughout the course. The case studies are located in the Topic 1 folder in MindTap.

Dave Case Study
Florence Case Study
Marta Case Study
Ruth Case Study
Select two cases in different settings (not including the case study/video you used for the Case Management Process assignment). Use these case studies to address the following in your essay:

In 750-1,000 words, citing two to four scholarly sources, address the following:

Describe the similarities and differences between how you would help the client/consumer as a friend in contrast to how you would support a client/consumer as a case manager for each case.

Explain the strategies you would use as a case manager for each case.

Next, describe the skills needed to thoughtfully engage your client/consumer through a change experience, keeping in mind cultural awareness, ethics, and client autonomy. As a social worker, what are the challenges you may experience and the biases you must be aware of for yourself as a social worker in each case?

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.

Benchmark Information

This assignment assesses the following programmatic competency:

BS in Sociology with an Emphasis in Social Work

4.2: Determine the appropriate human service general practitioner strategies for various settings. [MC4]

This assignment is informed by the following EPAS Standards:

6: Engage with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities

7: Assess Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities

ANSWER

Social Work and Human Services

Case Study

As a social worker, it is essential to draw and define the fine line between rendering the services required by the law as either a friend or a social work manager to the clients. Often, consumers and social workers engage in personal situations and make judgments based on the reflective feelings that their consumers emote. The goal of a social work manager is to enhance the clients’ developmental, problem-solving, and coping capabilities (Bodi, 2016). In addition, a social worker is also supposed to link people with systems that provide them with resources, services, and opportunities that allow the clients to better themselves in society. This essay focuses n the cases studies of Dave and Persis, showing the differences and similarities of addressing their situations as a friend and social worker.

Friendly Advice

Dave’s situation seems to circulate around his work schedule as a bartender. As a 49-year-old man and a father of two, it is obvious that the tight and night schedules are not suitable for the family. The wife is seeking a divorce as she feels things are not working out between them, especially with Dave spending much time at work and away from the family. However, Dave feels like the situation could change if the couple chooses to engage in couple’s therapy, a situation in which his wife has not agreed. As Dave’s friend, I would advise him to quit his job and focus on his family. This is because time is of the senses for him, as he is about to turn 50 years old, and a bartender job is not only unsuitable for his age. It is causing more harm to the family, furthermore, the client engagements who are probably young and Dave keeps contact with should change, as this jeopardizes the marriage, making things even worse than they are. Hence, losing the job would be the best approach.

On the other hand, I would advise Persis as a friend not to continue to pursue Ruth’s abortion case. Persis insists that Ruth’s abortion was not warranted and claims there were many different ways she could have avoided her father’s molestation and especially handled the pregnancy incident differently. Persis acknowledges and lectures Ruth on religious grounds terming abortion as a sin, and whatever the circumstances she underwent, she should not have engaged in the ‘evil’ activity. I would advise Persis not to judge her fellow woman, especially one who has been tormented for seven years, who chose to seek an abortion, a move that she thought was meaningful in her life. The same predicament could happen to Persis in the future, and she would need every support in the future.

Advice as a Case Manager

As a case manager, I would help Dave look for a proper counseling session, which would favor both him and his wife to save his marriage and family from splitting. As a case manager, it is my responsibility to contribute to developing and improving social policy (Coulshed et al., 2018). This includes looking for a marriage counselor who suit the system and Dave’s case, that would help him and his wife to try and salvage their marriage, and look for proper ways that would suit their marriage, and help Dave keep his job, or whatever alternative they will discuss as a couple.

In Persis and Ruth’s situation, I would reprimand Persis regarding the approach, breach of private information, and lending judgment based on religion, which is unprofessional for her as a case manager (Coulshed et al., 2018). It is her responsibility to better her life of Ruth and help her find facilities that can help her beat her drug addiction. It is not her work to render judgment on Ruth based on her part, especially since she has no idea what she went through as a child to take drastic measures. I would also report her to the relevant authority for her unprofessional behavior.

As a case manager, there are various strategies that I would use to solve the individual cases concerning Dave and Persis. In Dave’s situation, I would use the client-level intervention approach to understand his situation better. The client-level intervention entails conducting a comprehensive face-to-face assessment with each client regarding their strengths and limitations and of their social, financial, and institutional resources available to them (Fook, 2016). In Dave’s case, the institutional resources would be finding the right marriage counselor to help solve their marriage, which is also his wish and ambition to prevent the divorce from happening.

For Persis’s case, I would use the system-level Intervention, which entails understanding how the agency and environmental systems can both positively and negatively affect clients and intervene at the systems level to optimize these conditions. (Fook, 2016) Persis does not meet these requirements and violates the duty of representing the agency to impact Ruth’s life positively. However, she chooses to judge her and concentrate on the negative aspect of her life, using religion as her basis of argument.

Some of the skills needed to engage my clients effectively would be listening, empathizing, and taking the required necessary actions (Bodi, 2016). For instance, Dave’s situation requires me to listen to his situation and empathize with what he is going through. This will help me get a broader perspective of his case and how to approach the situation using the available resources to restore his life to normality. On the other hand, Persis’s situation requires supervision and action-taking. She needs to be supervised concerning how she is abusing her responsibilities and action taken against her to prevent her from doing the same in the future.

References

Bódi, D. C. (2016). To Be a Manager in Social Work Area. Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov, Series VII: Social Sciences and Law, 9(2), 117-122.

Coulshed, V., Mullender, A., Jones, D. N., & Thompson, N. (2018). Management in social work. Macmillan International Higher Education.

Fook, J. (2016). Social work: A critical approach to practice. Sage.