Parenting and Support Needs of a Multi-Risk Family - Case Study Example

Parenting and Support Needs of a Multi-Risk Family Introduction Assisting families, which live within environments with multi-risk factors such as family violence, poverty, mental illness, teen parenthood, and drug abuse entails that paraprofessionals and professionals must work together in order to provide the most appropriate possible interventions (Powell, Batsche Ferro, Fox & Dunlap, 2007). The recent transformation in social work, results in significant impacts towards delivery of family and child services. Simultaneously, various factors such as substance abuse are placing both families and children at multiple risk that result in negative outcomes. Due to this turmoil, family and child service providers must show great commitment towards family-based philosophy in order to improve the wellbeing of families and children faced with drug abuse problems. Question 1: reason for referral and request for service There are several reasons that the Angela Greer family would request for services and referral. To begin with, the mother needed referrals to enable her to abstain from taking drugs since she was a drug addict. This not only caused harm to her health, but also to the health of the children. For instance, when their second child, Monique was born, she tested positive for cocaine and there were traces of other opiates in her body system as well. Angela needed referral and counseling to help her stop abusing drugs and take good care of the children from the children’s father was currently in prison serving fifteen-year sentence for weapons charges and drug trafficking (Greenspan, 2007). There was a need for her to abstain from taking drugs and focus on how to take care of the children because she was the only one to play this responsibility. In addition, another reason for referral and request for service of this family was to ensure that the children have an access to education and good care. This is because the two children were placed under the care of their grandmother Loretta while Angela was under treatment and counseling. The grandmother lives under fixed income that is insufficient to take care of the children as well as paying school fees for Shantae. The grandmother, Loretta is also old and suffers from arthritis and high blood pressure and this makes her unable to take the children to school every now and then. Requesting for service has highly helped the children to continue with their education as well as catering for school fees the two parents are unable to pay for the fees. Therefore, the reason for referral and request for service is to help Angela abstain from drug abuse and ensure that the children have access to education and taken care of. Question 2: the parents’ wishes The parent’s wishes at the beginning of the service were to abstain from drug abuse. This is because drug abuse had brought negative impacts to the family, for instance, their father was currently in prison due to drug trafficking and weapon charges. After Monique tested positive for cocaine and traces of other opiates in her system, Angela decided to abstain from drug abuse. Angela confessed to the hospital social worker that she was a drug addict and she needed to get help for her drug addiction. She entered into a detoxification unit for a period of a few days and after the detoxification, she was referred to a drug abuse treatment program and continuous counseling. Secondly, Angela’s mother, Loretta wished that the children should have good care and access to education. While Angela was under medication, she allowed regular visits from a Children’s Aid social worker, a developmental specialist, and a Public Health nurse. After Angela came out of her treatment program, she decided to live with her mother and continue with the supervised and supported care for her children. She showed commitment to any of her therapy and counseling as well as remaining open to all social service visits and involving actively with the Children’s Aid Worker (Fox, Dunlap & Cushing, 2004). Question 3: The family strengths Many things take place in our families to make them strong. According to most researchers, nine strengths make our families strong. These strengths include, caring and appreciation, time together, encouragement, commitment, communication, spirituality, adaptive ability, family and community ties, and clear responsibilities (Anning, 2006). After going through the case study, one can identify several family strengths in Angela Greer family, which include caring and appreciation, commitment, spirituality, time together, community and family ties, and clear responsibilities. Caring and appreciation is depicted when Angela’s children were placed under the care of her mother, Loretta, who has been supportive and involved individually since the birth of Shantae. Angela showed appreciation by accepting to move in with her mother and resume the supervised and supported care of the children. She also allowed the mother to remain the legal guardian of the children. The strength of spirituality is highly depicted in this family. Loretta brought up her daughter in a religious home and ensured that she attended church and had close connection with her neighbors. There is also the strength of commitment in Angela Greer family. Angela demonstrated a commitment to her own therapy and counseling. Additionally, there is the strength of time together in the family. Angela and her husband have been staying together since they got married and her mother has been showing continuous support and care to her even if she is married. Community and family ties are another strength depicted in the family. There are continuous tie between Angela Geer’s family and her mother who decides to take care of the children while Angela is under treatment and referral. Question 4: significant concerns for each of the individual family members Each individual family member in the Angela Greer family has his or her own significant concern. To begin with, the two parents, Angela, and her husband need to get help for their drug addiction. According to most family research, parents are drug addicted are unable to develop nurturing relationships as well as stable home environment, which are the most significant factors during child development. In most cases, drug addiction results in separation of the children with their parent and there is need to take them into foster care or under the care of stable family relative. For instance, Shantae and Monique are taken to their grandmother due to their mother’s drug addiction. Furthermore, even if the government does not take the children away from the drug addicted parents, the drug abusing parent such as Angela’s husband might be incarcerated or arrested (Daly, Abela & Council of Europe Publishing, 2007). This action further strains the relationship between the children and the parent thus making the parent-child bond difficult. Secondly, the two children need to have access to education. For instance, Shantae needs a lot of concern to ensure that she attends school regular since according to the teacher’s developmental information, she is a very bright child who has a potential bright future. The two children need to be taken care of and continuous access to education. Most researches indicate that various risk factors such as drug abuse result in negative outcomes of children and thus Children Aid Programs should put much effort in ensuring that all the children in the society have access to childcare and education. Lastly, Loretta also needs medication and financial concerns. Angela’s mother was a single parent and raised Angela with some financial difficulties. Angela is the only child and after she got married, Loretta started to stay alone despite her old age. Loretta is now 62 years of age; she works part-time and lives in the same two-bedroom apartment she shared with Angela. She lives on a fixed income with very little in her budget for extras. Loretta suffers from high blood pressure and arthritis. She has trouble moving freely around her environment and often relies on a cane or a walker when leaving her apartment. Being an old woman with such health problems, she needs to be taken care of. Question 5: Stage of change Prochaska and Diclemente, alcoholism researchers introduced a six-stage change model to help professional in understanding drug addicts’ clients and inspire them to change. This model depends on personal observation on how people modify their problem behaviors such as drug abuse (Fitzgerald, 2011). The sick stages of change are pre-contemplation, contemplation, determination, action, maintenance, and termination. The stage of change in this case study is contemplation stage. Individuals on contemplation stage, they are willing to believe that they have a problem and that there is a need for change. In this stage, an individual recognizes that he or she has a problem and considers the way of dealing with the problem. The individual could be facing the consequences of drug abuse, such as health problem, home related problems, work related problems, influencing them to realize that going this way will cause more harm to their lives. In this case study, Angela realizes that she should boycott drug abuse after she gives birth to a child who tested positive for cocaine and there were traces of other opiates in her system as well. Another problem that influences her to decide to stop drug abuse behavior is her husband who is currently in prison serving a 15-year sentence for drug trafficking and weapon charges. At this stage, an individual realizes that there are severe consequences brought by drug abuse and finds means of stopping such behaviors (Landy & Menna, 2006). After Monique tested positive for cocaine and traces of other opiates in her system, Angela decided to abstain from drug abuse. Angela confessed to the hospital social worker that she was a drug addict and she needed to get help for her drug addiction. She entered into a detoxification unit for a period of a few days and after the detoxification, she was referred to a drug abuse treatment program and continuous counseling. She demonstrates commitment to her own counseling and therapy. People at this stage want to leave behind the bad behaviors and start up a new healthy behavior. This is evident when Angela decides to stop taking drugs after realizing that drug addiction not only affects her own health but also that of her children. The behavior of drug addiction has been also negative effectively affecting the entire since their father in prison serving a 15 sentence for drug trafficking and weapon charges. At this stage, people realize that their behavior is problematic and that they need to change. Question 6: parent-child interactions In this case study, Loretta, the mother of Angela shows good parent-child interaction. I am impressed with the way Loretta shows concern to her daughter and her two grandchildren. During the time Angela was under treatment, her children were left in the care of her mother who has been a supportive and involved person for them since Shantae was born. Loretta further accepts regular visits from a Children’s Aid social worker, developmental specialist, and a Public Health nurse to ensure that the children are taken care of. Am also impressed with the way in which Angela and her husband despite being drug addicts they are taking care of their children. Their daughter Shantae who takes care of her young sister Monique portrays this. Loretta notes that Shantae often helps feed and dress her young sister and seems to be very skilled when it comes to settling her down to sleep. Shantae also rarely leaves her younger sister alone and this depicts that there has being a very good child-parent relationship Angela and her children, which Shantae emulates. Question 7: parent support needs There are other specific parent support needs as separate from the child’s service needs in Angela Greer family. For instance, the parents need continuous professional therapy and intervention to help them stop abusing drugs. Angela also needs guidance and counseling to help her overcome the stress of her husband who is in prison serving a 15 - year sentence for drug trafficking and weapon charges. After the release of her husband, Angela will also be in need of a social worker to help her husband get help for his drug addiction. Angela is currently facing challenges in raising the children alone since her husband is in prison due to financial problems and therefore, she needs financial support apart from the child’s service needs (van Sluijs, van Poppel, & van Mechelen, 2004). She also needs financial support to cater for her ongoing treatment and therapy. Loretta on the other hand also needs parent support needs separate from the child’s service needs. She is too old to take the children alone after the disappearance of her daughter Angela. With the absence of the their mother and their father being in prison, there is need of parental support for the two children since their grandmother is unable to take care of the alone. Loretta also needs support apart from the child’s service needs. This is because she is now 62 years old and she works part time and she stays in the two bedrooms she used to stay with Angela and since then she has not yet moved into a better house. The old grandmother lived on a fixed income with very little in her budget for extras. Loretta also suffers from high blood pressure and arthritis thus there is a need for her to be given medication support apart from the child’s service needs. Question 8: pieces of information that determine readiness for change Angela portrayed her readiness for change after the birth of Monique. When Monique was born, she tested positive for cocaine and some traces of other opiates in her system as well. After Angela noticed this consequence of drug addiction, she told the hospital social worker that she wanted to get help for her drug addiction. This showed that Angela was ready to change her bad behavior to healthy behavior. She accepted to enter into a detoxification unit for some days before she was referred to substance abuse treatment program and an ongoing counseling. Once she got back to her children and her mother, Angela made very great progress towards her change. She demonstrated great commitment towards her therapy and counseling. Angela remained open to all service visits and was highly involved with the Children’s Aid worker thus portraying that she was ready for a change. In addition, Angela accepted parenting support as well as community programs. All these pieces of information about Greer family signaled readiness for change (Bunton, Baldwin, Flynn & Whitelaw, 2006). Question 9: services that I would arrange for the family I would arrange for several services for this family to ensure that the well-being of the children and the parents is catered. I will arrange for a time-limited cash to assist the family meet its fundamental needs such as clothing, food, and housing among other needs. I will also arrange for transitional services to assist the family become independent (Olson, Ceballo & Park, 2004). This will include vocational training, vocational rehabilitation, ensure childcare, and postsecondary education. Lastly, I will arrange screenings for concerns related to mental health, drug abuse, and family violence, as well as referrals for accessible services to address these family issues. All these services will aid in assisting the children to enjoy a better life and have access to education since education is the key to a better life. References Anning, A. (2006). Developing multi-professional teamwork for integrated childrens services: Research, policy and practice. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Bunton, R., Baldwin, S., Flynn, D., & Whitelaw, S. (2006). The ‘stages of change’model in health promotion: science and ideology. Critical Public Health, 10(1), 55-70. Daly, M., Abela, A., & Council of Europe Publishing. (2007). Parenting in contemporary Europe: A positive approach. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing. Fitzgerald, H. E. (2011). International perspectives on children and mental health. Santa Barbara, CA [etc.: Praeger. Fox, L., Dunlap, G., & Cushing, L. (2004). Early intervention, positive behavior support, and transition to school. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 10(3), 149-157. Greenspan, S. I. (2007). Developmental morbidity in infants in multi-risk-factor families: clinical perspectives. Public Health Reports, 97(1), 16. Landy, S., & Menna, R. (2006). Early intervention with multi-risk families: An integrative approach. Baltimore, Mar: Paul. H. Brookes Pub. Co. Olson, S. L., Ceballo, R., & Park, C. (2004). Early problem behavior among children from low-income, mother-headed families: A multiple risk perspective. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 31(4), 419-430. Powell, D. S., Batsche, C. J., Ferro, J., Fox, L., & Dunlap, G. (2007). A Strength-Based Approach in Support of Multi-Risk Families Principles and Issues. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 17(1), 1-26. van Sluijs, E. M., van Poppel, M. N., & van Mechelen, W. (2004). Stage-based lifestyle interventions in primary care: are they effective?. American journal of preventive medicine, 26(4), 330-343. Read More