GC SOC 386 All Week Assignments Package
GC SOC 386 All Week Assignments Package
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GC SOC 386 All Week Assignments Package
SOC386
GC SOC 386 Week 1 Examining
the Social Work Core Competencies Latest
Details:
In a 500 words reflection,
select and discuss research-informed practice and three additional core
competencies that align with your identity as a generalist practitioner.
Include the following in
your reflection:
- Which of the
competencies do you think will be most challenging for you and why?
- How does the
strengths perspective inform your role as a generalist practitioner?
Prepare this assignment
according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide.
Complete “The Role and
Value of Theories in Social Work Worksheet” according to the instructions in
the worksheet.
While APA format is not
required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected,
and in-text citations and references should be presented using APA
documentation guidelines
Directions: Applying Theory to
Generalist Social Work Practice.(Langer & Lietz, 2014, Figure 2.1)
Reflect on your life and the micro, mezzo, or macro systems that affect your
life. Make a list of all the systems and place them in the correct category.
You do not have to fill all the boxes, however complete at least four in each
section. Langer, C. L., & Lietz, C. (2014). Applying theory to generalist
social work practice. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
List of System:
- General
system (Dale & Smith, 2013)
- Ecological
theory (Dale & Smith, 2013)
- Functional
theory (Dale & Smith, 2013)
- Symbolic
Interaction theory (Dale & Smith, 2013)
- Role theory
(Dale & Smith, 2013)
Dale, O., & Smith, R.
(2013). Human behavior and social environment: Social systems theory. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Micro Mezzo
Macro
GC SOC 386 Week 2
Evaluating Social System Structures Latest
Details:
Human Behavior and the
Social Environment Social Systems Theory and review the Families and Work
Institute website. Read the case example in Chapter 3: “The Strengths
Perspective” in the e-book Applying Theory to Generalist Social Work Practice.
This is the case example from chapter listed below.
In a 500- to 750-word
paper, do the following:
- Evaluate and
discuss the case relative to each of the following concepts: client/social
worker boundaries, roles, suprasystems, interface, inputs, outputs,
structures, and feedback. Give examples from the case for three of these
elements.
- What
interventions from the strengths perspective would you use to assist the
family?
Provide a minimum of three
to five scholarly sources to support your content.
Prepare this assignment
according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide
Rubric
Evaluating Social System
Structures
GC SOC 386 Week 3
Application of Psychosocial Theory to Gerontology Systems Latest
Review all the resources
for this topic and watch the video Alzheimer’s Patient Case Study. Write a 750-
to 1,000-word essay that includes the following:
- What do you
think the role of the generalist practitioner would be for the caregivers
of Alzheimer’s patients?
- Include your
recommendations for coping with the following challenges for the
Alzheimer’s patient and the caregiver: biological, social, cultural,
psychological, and spiritual development.
- Based on the
competencies from the Geriatric Social Work Competency Scale II, discuss
what skills you would most like to gain as a beginning practitioner in the
field of aging/gerontology?
- Reflect on
the knowledge that you gained from watching this video. Analyze why or why
not you might have an interest in working with seniors or the elderly.
This assignment uses a
rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become
familiar with the expectations for successful completion. Prepare this
assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide
Application of
Psychosocial Theory to Gerontology Systems
GC SOC 386 Week 4
Behavioral and Cognitive Theory Worksheet and Analysis
Directions: There are two
parts to this assignment.
Part 1 is to complete the
chart.
Part 2 is a brief
analytical narrative summary.
Part 1: Theory Overview
Chart
Directions:
Provide a brief overview
of each of the following theories in the box next to the theory. List what you
view as the key components of each theory.
Theory Overview and Key
Component of the Theory
Behavioral Learning Theory
Social Learning Theory
Cognitive Behavioral
Theory
Cognitive Development
Theory
Moral Development Theory
Humanistic Theory
Person-Centered Theory
Part 2: Brief Analysis and
Summary
Directions:
In a 300- to 500-word
brief analysis, discuss whether you prefer the process models of behavioral
theorists or the stage models of psychoanalytic theory discussed in Topic 3.
Which theoretical model do
you most identify with in your role as a generalist social worker? Why?
References:
Topic 4: Behavioral and
Cognitive Theory Worksheet and Analysis
Scoring Guide
Grading
Category
Points
Comments
The worksheet includes a
brief overview of each theory included in the
table
0/15
The worksheet includes a
key component of each theory included in the
table
0/15
The worksheet includes a
brief analysis of whether the process models of behavioral theorists or the
stage models of psychoanalytic theory is
preferred
0/15
The worksheet includes a
brief analysis of the theoretical model the student most identifies with and
why
0/15
The worksheet is well
structured and organized
0/5
The content in the
worksheet is accurate and placed in the corresponding theory 0/15
The worksheet includes at
least three to five scholarly resources to support the
content 0/10
Total
0/90
GC SOC 386 Week 5
Assignment Latest
Details:
Read and evaluate “Case Study 2-4” from Case Studies in Social Work
Practice, “Using a Family Systems Approach with the Adoptive Family of
a Child With Special Needs.” Listed below.
Write a 500-750-word
reflection about the case that includes a discussion of the child and family
subsystems, boundaries, social systems, and cultural influences of the family
described in the case. Make a list of the micro, mezzo, and macro systems.
(Ecomap Example: See Figure 2.1 in Applying theory to Generalist Social
Work Practice, 2014 by Langer & Lietz).
This assignment uses a
rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become
familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
Prepare this assignment
according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide. Please include a
introductory paragraph with thesis statement and a conclusion paragraph.
Case Study 2-4 Using a
Family Systems Approach With the Adoptive Family of a Child With Special Needs
T his case study
illustrates the use of a family systems approach to working with a new family
constellation that has been created out of tragedy. This therapeutic
intervention, informed by family systems theory and practice, incorporates
elements of attachment theory and the dynamics of kinship adoption, an
understanding of the effects of complex trauma on individual and family
functioning, recognition of the impact of culture, class, and immigration
status, as well as contextual social factors such as racism and sexism, on the
functioning of the family system in relation to its individual members, as well
as on the functioning of the family in a larger context of community and the
dominant culture. Questions 1. How can family systems therapy help a family
newly formed through adoption learn how to meet the emotional and social needs
of each of its members? 2. Can a family system that has been formed as a result
of grievous loss create a new, more positive identity for the future?
- 4. What is
the best way to help adoptive parents of a child with serious emotional
and behavioral challenges manage their child’s needs while still attending
to their own? What are the special concerns, if any, when working with a
family from a different culture than one’s own? Even though I have been a
social worker for nearly 40 years and a family systems therapist for
almost that long, every time I explore a case using a family systems lens,
I feel a kinship with the very first professional social workers— like
Mary Richmond— who understood well the importance of the family system in
interpreting the psychosocial dynamics of the individual. Although in the
21st century we know a great deal more than our professional foremothers
and forefathers did about the biological basis of human behavior, these
early professionals recognized the importance of observing family members
together “acting and reacting upon one another” (Richmond, 1944/1917, p.
137). The family in all of its dimensions has historically been the
purview of social workers (Carr, 2009; Dore, 2012; Walsh, 2011). Whether
working in child protection, adoption, child guidance, family services,
eldercare, or in a specific setting like a hospital, school, or community
mental health clinic, social workers have recognized that the individual
could only be truly understood in interaction with his or her environment,
the most essential element of which is the family. The Family The
particular case I have chosen to use to illustrate family systems therapy
is that of the Laurent family. The family consists of the father, André,
age 36; mother, Marie Clothilde, age 32; and their adopted son, Michel,
age 10, who is also Marie Clothilde’s nephew. André Laurent immigrated to
the United States as a young teenager when his parents fled Haiti after
the first overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in the early
1990s. They settled in the greater Boston area, where André attended
school and learned to speak English fluently. He graduated from a
technical high school, where he studied information technology, and since
graduation he has been consistently employed in IT services in the
pharmaceutical industry. Marie Clothilde immigrated more recently, coming
to the United States in 2005 to stay with an older sister in the hopes of
finding work to help support her family back in Haiti. Because Marie
Clothilde spoke very little English, her employment options here were
limited. She worked primarily on a cleaning crew that maintains office
buildings at night. Shortly after she arrived in this country, she met
André through a cousin. They married in 2007. Even though André had a
goodpaying job, Marie Clothilde continued to work after their marriage so
that she could send money back to her poverty-stricken family in
Port-au-Prince.
The Presenting Situation:
Everything changed for André and Marie Clothilde on January 12, 2010, the date
of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Marie Clothilde spent frantic days
after the disaster trying to find out what had happened to her family.
Eventually, through a family friend, she learned that her entire family in
Port-au-Prince had been killed, with the exception of her sister’s son, Michel,
who was dug out of the rubble of the extended family home still alive two days
after the earthquake. With the aid of her priest, who is also Haitian, she was
able to locate Michel in a makeshift orphanage in Port-au-Prince and arrange
for him to come to this country. Michel, who lost his only parent and
grandparents in the earthquake, along with his uncle, aunt, and two young
cousins, was still in shock when he arrived at Logan Airport in Boston in April
2010, to begin a new life in a strange country with adoptive parents he hardly
knew. Marie Clothilde was struggling emotionally as well. Her family had been
decimated in the earthquake, and she barely had time to process the loss when
she was confronted with an emotionally distraught child to care for. She
assumed the role of mother, a new one for her, and relinquished the role of
wage earner because Michel required all of her time and attention at home.
André, feeling he needed to make up financially for Marie Clothilde’s lost
income and not a little displaced in his wife’s attentions by his new son,
began to spend more time at work. Marie Clothilde enrolled Michel in the
neighborhood elementary school, but her inability to speak much English
prevented her from fully communicating what had happened to Michel with school
personnel. Thus, school personnel, who placed Michel in a mixed class of
children who were nonEnglish speaking, were totally unprepared for the problems
he began to manifest. For one thing, Michel was unable to sit quietly at a desk
for any length of time. He would begin to pace the classroom and, if requested
to return to his seat, would begin screaming and thrashing about, pulling at
his hair and babbling in Haitian Creole. If a teacher attempted to touch him to
guide him back to his seat, Michel would shrink away, sobbing and crying,
flailing his arms and shouting about petro loas (evil spirits) who were
possessing him. At these times, Marie Clothilde would be summoned to the school
and told to calm Michel down or take him home until he gained better control of
himself. One day Michel became so out-of-control, alternatively cowering under
his desk, crying and shaking uncontrollably, and striking out aggressively,
cursing at anyone who tried to come near him, that the school contacted the
mobile crisis team from the child and adolescent inpatient psychiatric unit at
the local hospital. In consultation with André, who had rushed to the school
from his job, and Marie Clothilde, the mobile crisis team recommended that
Michel should be hospitalized briefly for further evaluation. Although many
Haitian people believe that the kind of serious emotional and behavioral
disturbances that Michel was exhibiting are caused by a curse from a loa
(sometimes spelled lwa ) or evil spirit who is upset at being disobeyed, André
and Marie Clothilde recognized that Michel’s problems were likely related to
the severe trauma and multiple losses he had experienced back in Haiti. Fortunately,
because the greater Boston area has the fourth largest Haitian population of
any city, including those in the country of Haiti, the community hospital where
Michel was admitted belongs to a behavioral health network that supports a
mental health team of Haitian Creole– speaking professionals. The child
psychiatrist on this team, Dr. Odette Jean-Baptist, evaluated Michel in the
hospital and diagnosed posttraumatic stress disorder suffered as a result of
the complex trauma he experienced during and after the earthquake in Haiti
exacerbated by the process of immigrating to the United States and adjusting to
a radically different life in a strange new family, school, and community. Dr.
Jean-Baptist prescribed a short course of a mood stabilizer to help Michel
manage his explosive outbursts and scheduled regular follow-ups to monitor his
response to the medication. She also made a referral to the local children’s
mental health agency, where I am employed, for ongoing family treatment to help
Michel integrate into his new family and to help his adoptive parents learn
ways to support their son as he mourns his former life and embraces his new
one.
Joining the Family System:
Through contracts with the state Department of Mental Health designed to
prevent long-term out-of-home placement of children and adolescents with
serious emotional disturbances, my agency offers family-based services to
children and their parents in their own homes, in community settings, or in our
offices, depending on the family’s preference. If a child is already in a
psychiatric placement, as was Michel, then we meet with the family in the
placement setting and include in our first session the mental health
professionals working with the child there. In this case, Dr. Jean-Baptist joined
us to offer her insights regarding Michel’s diagnosis, his current psychosocial
functioning, and her team’s recommendations for his further treatment. As if
sensing my unspoken concerns about the Haitian culture’s belief regarding
disability, especially mental disability, as something the individual has
brought on himself, a punishment for offending the spirits or God in the case
of Haitian Christians, and how this belief might affect Michel’s parents’
response to his illness, Dr. Jean-Baptist explained to them in lay terms in
both Haitian-Creole and English how experiencing profound trauma can alter the
functioning of a person’s brain, particularly in children whose brains are
still developing and thus are uniquely vulnerable to the physiologic changes
that take place in response to high levels of traumatic stress. This
explanation helped alleviate André and Marie Clothilde’s expressed concerns
about their ability to parent Michel, particularly when I explained how I would
be working closely with them to figure out the best ways to help Michel manage
his own emotions and behavior. I added that I would also be connecting them
with community resources that could offer them support with Michel into the
future.
Assessing Family System
Dynamics: As a therapist working from a family systems perspective, it was
important at this point to join with the parents to support their capacity to
adequately meet their new son’s needs by becoming part of the family caregiving
system so that they did not feel so alone and overburdened. Although Marie
Clothilde had extended family ties to Michel that would help sustain her
commitment to him during the challenging work ahead, André had no such ties,
and I was concerned that his emotional investment in Michel might be more limited,
particularly if he experiences Michel as coming between him and his wife. This
dynamic is frequently seen in family systems when one parent, usually the
mother, becomes so invested in caring for a child with special needs that other
family members, often the father and the child’s other siblings, feel shunted
aside with their emotional needs going unmet. This dynamic could be complicated
by the patriarchal tradition in Haitian culture that lays the burden of caring
for a child with a disability solely at the feet of the mother. There is a
great deal of shame and stigma associated with having a disabled child in
Haiti. If a child is born with a visible disability, the father may leave the
home and take up with another woman, who will become pregnant and bear a child
without a disability, thus proving that the father is not the cause of the
child’s impairment. As a result, disabled children in Haiti are often raised by
single mothers. Knowing this, it will be important for me to assess the degree
to which André and Marie Clothilde ascribe to these beliefs and determine how
to keep André engaged with his new son so that Michel’s care is not left
entirely to his wife.
Strengthening the Adult
Partner Subsystem: I knew I must also find ways to help André and Marie
Clothilde communicate openly about their own needs and feelings so that Marie
Clothilde does not begin to feel overburdened by Michel’s care and André
doesn’t feel closed out of the mother-child subsystem in the family. A common
strategy in practice informed by family systems theory is working to strengthen
and develop what is called the marital subsystem in the traditional family
therapy literature, but what could more accurately be termed the adult partner
relationship , as it can also refer to unmarried same-sex or opposite-sex
partners. This strategy is also important in a single-parent household,
especially when the parent has formed a co-parenting alliance with one of the
children, usually the oldest girl. The idea here is to establish and support a
family hierarchy in which the adults are in charge, and to ensure that the
adults have a relationship with one another that is separate from their roles
as parents. Developing such a relationship requires open, clear communication
of needs and feelings, as well as mutual understanding and support. Family
systems therapists believe that a solid adult partner relationship is the key
to a family system that responds adequately to the needs of all of its members.
The Impact of Adoption on
the Family System: In addition to cultural and adult relationship
considerations, there are issues around adoption, particularly the adoption of
an older child with special needs, which I must be aware of in working with the
Laurent family. At the point that I met with the family in the hospital, I knew
nothing about the couple’s desire to have children of their own, whether this
was something that they had wished for but had been unable to conceive, or
whether they had decided not to have children, which I thought was rather
unlikely given the high value placed on children in Haitian culture. In family
systems practice in adoption, it is essential to understand a couple’s
intentions regarding childbearing and what their efforts have been to have a
child of their own. For some people, the inability to conceive and/or carry a
child to term is viewed as a personal failing with accompanying self-blame and
depression, making the emotional investment in an adopted child more
challenging. When a kinship adoption is thrust on a couple unexpectedly, as was
the case with André and Marie Clothilde, there is little or no time for them to
consider what the addition of a new member will mean to their family system and
to prepare for likely changes. If one partner is more eager to adopt a child
than the other, particularly if the lessinvested partner is simply going along
with the adoption to please the other person or to salvage their relationship,
then the addition of a child to the family system through adoption can result
in a significant shift in the partner relationship. Adoption of an older child
also brings its own challenges to the family system. Although Michel is a
member of Marie Clothilde’s extended family, she has not seen him since he was
a toddler and can only surmise about his prior upbringing in an extended family
household that included not only her sister, Michel’s mother and a single
parent, but also her mother and her father who was an alcoholic, as well as her
older brother, the only wage earner in the family, his wife, and their two
young children. Like approximately 80% of Haitians, the family was very poor
and lived in the section of Port-au-Prince known as Cité Soliel, an infamous
urban slum. Marie Clothilde knows from her own experience that the primary
school that served Cité Soliel children before the earthquake was a ramshackle
building lacking in basic resources such as electricity and running water. The
cost of uniforms and textbooks made sending any but the eldest male child
prohibitive for families like hers. She isn’t sure just how much schooling
Michel actually had back home but, like many Haitian immigrant parents, she is
anxious that he should be placed in a classroom based on his age rather than
his prior educational experience or ability. She is unfamiliar with the special
resources available to children with Michel’s challenges in the Boston-area
community in which the Laurent family lives and, again like many immigrant
parents, relies on school personnel to make the best decisions for Michel.
Helping the Family System
Incorporate a New Member: Marie Clothilde’s unfamiliarity with the local
education system provided me with the opening I needed to engage André, who, as
a result of having gone to high school in the area, was more familiar with the
system and at ease with school personnel. Appealing to André’s authority on the
local education system not only increased his involvement with Michel and his
special learning challenges but also brought him back into an alliance with
Marie Clothilde on behalf of their child, as together, with my coaching and
support, they worked with the special education staff at Michel’s school to
obtain a full educational evaluation and design an Individualized Education
Program (IEP) to meet his learning needs. Under the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), parents are entitled to be considered full
partners with special education personnel in contributing to planning the IEP.
Strategies to Strengthen
the Parental Subsystem: My experience in working with immigrant parents, many
of whom come from cultures that place educators on a pedestal, is that they are
often hesitant to question the decisions of school staff or to advocate for
their child if they feel his or her learning needs are not being met. This
seems to happen more often when the child’s learning is impacted by serious
emotional and behavior disorders. As is true in most states across the country,
we are fortunate to have a very effective educational advocacy group in
Massachusetts, the Professional/Parent Advocacy League (P/PAL), for families
whose children have mental health challenges. P/PAL can arrange for a legal
advocate who is thoroughly familiar with education law to accompany parents to
an IEP planning meeting if they are at all concerned that their child will not
receive appropriate or adequate educational services from the school. If I am
working with a family with a child with a serious emotional and/or behavior
disorder, I routinely put them in touch with a P/PAL representative, who is
usually an experienced parent of a child with similar challenges who offers
support and information about local resources. P/PAL also sponsors
psychoeducation groups that meet weekly in specific locations throughout the
state for parents whose children are struggling with mental health concerns. In
addition, the organization holds picnics and other fun events for families who
may feel more comfortable socializing with other families with similar
childrearing challenges. One of the most significant changes in family systems
practice in recent years is the recognition that the families we work with are
embedded in networks of community supports and services that can be tapped to
strengthen the family system in myriad ways. Family systems work used to focus
almost completely on the nuclear family system, the constellation of dad, mom,
and kids. As this constellation changed markedly over the past several decades
to encompass a variety of family forms, family therapists recognized the need
to broaden their purview, first to include extended family members and close
friends in their therapeutic interventions, then to add to the family’s network
in more creative ways. Nowadays, rather than expecting the family to meet one
another’s emotional and social needs exclusively, family therapists assess a
family’s life cycle stage and locate resources that can support the family in
their current developmental process. For example, in working with the Laurent
family, which has suddenly moved from the couple stage, with its focus on the adjustment
of the marital subsystem, to the addition of a new family member, a child with
special needs, I looked for community resources that could support them in this
process. In addition to introducing them to P/PAL to help them navigate the
education system, I also put them in touch with Adoptive Families Together
(AFT), which, as the name suggests, is a grassroots organization of adoptive
families, many of whom have adopted children with special needs and challenges.
AFT not only offers parent support groups throughout the greater Boston area,
but also sponsors an online discussion group, which adoptive parents can access
for information, advice, and general support. Families who join AFT receive a
free copy of In Their Own Words . . . Reflections on Parenting Children With
Mental Health Issues: The Effect on Families , a book written and published by
members of this organization. Because this book is available only in English,
which Marie Clothilde is unable to read comfortably, we agreed that André would
read a chapter to her each evening after Michel had gone to bed, and they would
discuss issues the material raised, noting any concerns they wanted to bring to
our by-then weekly meetings together.
Addressing Individual
Member Concerns From a Family Systems Perspective: As I noted previously,
there is a large Haitian population in the greater Boston area, which luckily
means that many resources are aimed specifically at the Haitian community in
the area where the Laurents live. Because I had concerns about Marie
Clothilde’s response to the deaths of nearly her entire family in the
earthquake, which I felt she had delayed facing because of her need to attend
to Michel’s mental health issues, I hoped to locate a support group for Haitian
women who had experienced similar losses in that tragedy. The Association of
Haitian Women in Boston, an advocacy organization for Haitian women, was able
to refer Marie Clothilde to a women’s group that met locally through the
auspices of the Cambridge Haitian Services Collaborative. I also learned of an
extensive women’s literacy program offered by this organization, which could
help Marie Clothilde become more fluent in English, enabling her to better
negotiate the various service systems on behalf of her son. In making these
inquiries and referrals, it was essential that I actively engage André in the
process in order to maintain balance in the family system and to honor the role
of the husband and father in Haitian culture. My agency runs an ongoing
father-son group in our community for fathers of boys, ages 10 to 15, who are
struggling with emotional and behavior challenges. Most, though not all, of the
dads in the group live apart from their sons and are seeking ways to strengthen
the attachment with their boys. It is primarily an
activities-recreation-adventure group that draws heavily on the many arts,
education, and sports-related resources in the greater Boston area. I thought
since parent-child attachment is one of the ever-present themes in this group,
it might also be appropriate for André as an adoptive father seeking to build a
relationship with his new son. One of the two male leaders of this group is a
Haitian American social worker, Emile Richard; the other is an African American
psychologist, Ed Gaines. André was hesitant about joining the group with Michel
given the boy’s emotional and behavior challenges, but he agreed to meet with
Emile and Ed to see if the group was a fit for him and his son. As it turned
out, André and Emile were distantly related through their mothers, which
cemented André’s willingness to try the group. From the group leaders’
modeling, André learned some effective strategies for managing his son’s
behavior in public situations, as well as attunement skills to help Michel
build capacity for self-regulation. André connected with several of the other
fathers in the group, and a small group of them with their sons, all around
Michel’s age, began meeting in a local park on Saturday mornings to play pickup
soccer. Through the fathers’ group, which occasionally met at a local sound
recording studio, André and Michel discovered a mutual love of Kompa (in
English called compas ), the traditional music of Haiti. They often listen
together to old LPs made by Kompa artists like Nemours Jean-Baptist and Rene
Saint-Andre that were given to André by his father. Michel wistfu
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