Overcoming the Difficulties of Frustrations about Sexual Orientation by the Teenager - Coursework Example

 The client I worked with is a fifteen-year-old teenager who is having frustrations about his sexual orientation, difficulty in adapting with his peers and authority. The teenager has a need to be accepted by others, and my purpose was to formulate goals and tasks, as well as use task achievement scaling to grade the percentage of success in endeavors to help in overcoming the above difficulties. This paper discusses goals, tasks to be performed, scaling of task achievement and procedures followed when implementing the tasks. Goals mutually agreed on After interactions with the client, several achievable goals were set. Goals are important as they helping directing energy towards a certain direction. At the micro level, the goal was to help student gain social stability, at the mezzo level, to help student deal with sexual orientation, and at the macro level, the goal was to come up with strategies that help the student deal with conflict, social stability and sexual orientation. Tasks to be performed A task is often seen as something difficult that one is expected to perform. The tasks were divided into three: special tasks, worker or client tasks and relationship to goal tasks. i. Special tasks. Identify youth organization. Join youth organization. Meet with worker from youth organization once a fortnight. Overcome sexual frustrations. Form friendships with peers. ii. Worker or client tasks Worker: look for a gay organization like Pride For Youth (Gay Lesbian Bisexual & Transgender). Client: review and chose one organization to enroll. Client: meet with worker for conflict resolution on behavioral issues. Worker: having worker from agency come to talk with client about HIV/AIDS. Client: join a group that can enhance social skills and relieve stress. iii. Relationship to goal tasks included: relating with peers to gain social stability and help in the formulation of strategies to help deal with conflict problems, social stability and sexual orientation. Task achievement scaling This is an evaluation method to evaluate the extent to which an identified set of tasks has been accomplished (Kirst-Ashman, Kirst & Hull, 2011). The chart consists of three columns; task column, degree of achievement column and rating column. Rating is done from 0-4 where a rating of zero means no opportunity to work on the task, a rating of one means tasks in which no progress was made. Maximum rating is 4 meaning task completed fully. Progress is calculated by multiplying the total number of goals by the maximum rating point (5 goals × 4 points), total ratings on the chart are then divided by this number and converted to percentage. Task implementation sequence The first procedure here is to enhance the client’s commitment to carry out tasks. Involving client on formulation of tasks is important in ensuring commitment. Choosing a task that is easier to perform in order to achieve immediate results (Kirst-Ashman, Kirst & Hull, 2011) will act as a motivating factor as results improve confidence in the fact that a task is achievable. Communication with the client on how important achievement of a task is will help client commitment. What follows is planning the details of carrying out the tasks. First is to establish commitment to perform the tasks. What is to be done and who is to do it represent important parts of planning (Kirst-Ashman, Kirs & Hull, 2011). Another detail is helping the client by reinforcing positive qualities and strengths to enable him know what he is capable of. Role playing can be used to carry out tasks; role can be played by client imitating people he interacts with like a member of authority to be empathetic. Several obstacles were identified in our course, among them meeting with the client. The client being a teenager did not want to meet me, but after talking with him on the phone, he agreed to meet up. The client also felt as if he was unworthy due to labeling, but after much counseling, this was resolved. It was difficult to do socio-academic assessment due to inability to meet family members of the client and the inability to get client’s teachers to talk with. The task plan included the work flow capturing the objectives of each phase. This helps in reviewing accomplishments and plan for upcoming tasks. It had the headings: Task Owner (student’s name), Task Director, Origin Date, Revised, Task Objective, Overview of Task and Importance of the Task. Summary of results I first started by looking at my client’s achievements and successes by asking questions like, “Do you remember when you first came here? What do you think has changed in you?” (Kirst Kirst-Ashman, Kirst & Hull, 2011). This helps client see how far he has come in terms of achievement. I was pessimistic at first as to whether the program would be successful. After analysis of the many available options, the client was able to identify a youth organization that would cater for most of his needs. Pride for Youth (LGBT) is an organization that offers supportive services to the youth for development through education. This enabled the client fulfill most of the tasks satisfactorily. The fact that I only met the client for a few hours each day, at first it was hard to know if the client was just acting for the few hours we were together. I purposed to make sure I try and become part of his life by spending more time together through attending the meetings with the worker from the agency. One of the issues they discussed was about HIV and with time, the client became freer discussing with us how he lived with his HIV positive uncle and the much he knows about the pandemic. After a few weeks, the task of overcoming sexual frustration seemed unattainable. The client was unable to differentiate feelings of friendship and sexual attraction, he could not exactly place attraction, lust and love to the people in his life. What added to this confusion is that he could not identify roles as per his gender. Through the youth organization, he was able to differentiate the different sexual orientations including gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender. He gained knowledge in gender roles and was able to explicitly depict this by identifying similar peers, hence, formed strong bonds with them and even started visiting them in their homes to play games or do homework together (Kirst-Ashman, Kirst & Hull, 2011). Termination did feel a little awkward though, since even at the end of the program, the client was not able to avoid altercations, which led to fights. After a few weeks, the fights had reduced by a certain percentage but increased considerately the last few weeks. It was evident that the client had issues dealing with anger. I had tried to re-evaluate, as well as add that as a task, but the progress in that field was like an ocean wave. It was until too late to help the client, by the time the program was ending, the client acknowledged that he had a problem and I felt that was a stepping stone hoping that his continued visits to the youth organization would help him overcome this (Kirst-Ashman, Kirst & Hull, 2011). Overall, I used the strength-based perspective in helping the client through the milestones. By pointing out his strengths, the client was able to see what he could do, he had been labeled and nagged many times, but after giving him examples of many people who had undergone through the same but are normal. At one time during an informal visit, I invited a friend of mine who had undergone the same problems, and they had a pleasant conversation. On our last meeting, I pointed this out and hoped it would help him through the different obstacles he would undergo when dealing with anger issues (Kirst-Ashman, Kirst & Hull, 2011). I would say, I learned much from this experience, and my opinion without bias is that the client did too. This may change according to different persons because different people would make different evaluations from the case. Throughout my work, I looked at social values one being the importance of human relationships. I felt that I enhanced this in the client as he was able to relate with other peers having less problems with authority. With more practice, I hope I will be able to cover all problematic areas when coming up with goals and tasks. Reference Kirst-Ashman, Kirst, K. & Hull, H.G. (2011). Generalist Practice with Organizations and Communities. Chicago: Cengage Learning. ISBN 840033745, 9780840033741 (5edititon). Read More