Social Work Case Study Maria

Jessica is a 30 year-old single female. She has a very low stress job and lives at home with her mother. Jessica has always been a mediocre achiever. She has not graduated college, which has been on and off in attendance for six years. She has very high standards for herself and can be very self-critical. Lately, she has struggled with significant feelings of worthlessness and shame due to her inability to perform as well as her younger brother.

Her boss, Ed, has recommended counseling due to decrease in motivation with job activities. After ten years on the job, he feels the alcohol and drugs are affecting performance levels with low motivation in performing every day job duties. Ed is concerned that she has fallen into depression due to breaking up with her boyfriend.

Maria states that it is difficult to make and keep friends. Maria is someone who likes to please everyone so she struggles socially. Her parents do not really except new people and that is difficult. Maria says friendships are a stress for her when trying to find a balance between friends and family. Bámaca-Colbert, Plunkett, and Espinosa-Hernández, (2011) say that this is a time when adolescents have the basis for their identity and self-concept. For Maria this leads to anxiety and depression due to the difficulty of pleasing her parents and having friends that can her gage social

Her husband was an alcoholic which later led him to become physical and sexually abusive. Alexia recalls times in her marriage when they were happy , but his addiction made things go down the hill that resulted in her current problems. Alexia is a High school graduate from Avoyelles High school. Alexia describes her grades in school and being average. Alexia held two jobs, after being employed at the Avoyelles hospital as a certified nurse for many years, one day Alexia was the pick to be randomly drug tested. It was a very big surprise to that resulted in her being fired and the certification was revoked. She is now a full-time employee as an administrative assistance at a local human service program. She states that she enjoy her job, but her boss gives her trouble every now and . She unsure if she will still have her job after she is done with her inpatient

Angela had just begun her second semester in her graduate program and recently begun a new job, as a case manager working with addicts. Angela stated that she has no time to relax. She works Monday through Friday and attends classes on Friday evening and Saturday morning/afternoon. Angela stated that she wants to do more things with her husband and her father but time is not available. While at work, there is days where she has to stay late to catch up. “Coworkers seem to pile more and more on me. This stress is getting over whelming. I feel like a weight is on my shoulders. I’ve been stressed out before but nothing like this. I’ve never had so much at once before.”

Alice enters my office wanting to work on her anxiety and mood changes. There were some general goals aligned with her assessing a desire to be less anxious and to control sudden mood changes. She also stated she would like to turn her life around, but has no idea where to start. Alice notes she is not bleak. She has enough guts to leave a lot of her shady past behind and enrolled into college.

Over the past years, Inez has held various jobs in various environments. She currently works at a health food store but seems unhappy. Inez admitted to having problems with depression, procrastination, and the negligence of trying harder because of her fear of failure.

Ms. Apple is a 45 year old African American woman who has been a widow for about 4 years. Ms. Apple has three children, whose ages range from 5-12 years old. Ms. Apple has been struggling to keep her family afloat since the death of her husband. Ms. Apple convinced herself that she would not require the extra assistance. However, she realized in attempting to provide alone has not only become very strenuous, but also quite costly. Expenses have become overwhelming for Ms. Apple to maintain, since her husband took care of the finances and was the breadwinner for the family. Ms. Apple has minimal education as she is able to read and write at grade school level. Ms. Apple also has never been employed as she was a home maker. At this

Julia is a successful professional in her mid-thirties who is career minded and very serious about her job. She had been in her current position for ten years, enjoyed her work and had a high level of responsibility. Julia had an excellent, trusting relationship with her manager.

Lanesha is a 12 year old girl that has been having trouble with her temper and her anger in almost every aspect of her daily life. Her medicine and compliance to her treatment plan are no different. As a teenager, she does not want to continually be hassled and bothered. So to avoid this she constantly is telling the providers lies, or in her mind, “what they want to hear.” (http://support.mchtraining.net/national_ccce/case1/Flash/activity1.html). Lanesha has a sense of neglect from her grandmother because she states that she want to act like everything is fine as to appease her Grandmothers temperament. Marietta, also shares in frustration but also has a great deal of added stress as she also cares for her 10 year old grandchild and also her older ailing mother. Marietta exudes many of the qualities spoken by Dr. Horky in her presentation; her own age is taking a toll on her ability to care for Lanesha, she is worried about Lanesha. Due to Lanesha’s age and behavior however, Marietta is experiencing depression and grief. Almost portrays a sense that she has given up, like she has done all that she can. (Horky, n.d.). Other socioeconomic issues are in Marietta’s forefront.

Debbie is experiencing emotional distress, anxiety. As stated in case study she is tearful, has great concern regarding her future.

Maria’s mother fixes her hair everyday and she sends her to the club in order to give her opportunities than she can potentially provide her with. She doesn’t see her father often because he is in jail. Her father has another daughter, but Maria has no relationship with her. In the Boys and Girls club, Maria tends to keep to herself, expressing to us she “does not have any friends here”. She made no mention to us about favorite teachers or advisors but she was very excited to see the director of the Boys and Girls Club in Avondale. When placed in a group, she was able to interact well with the other girls. Maria knew how to operate a computer and mentioned to us her mom was picking up another job in order to buy her an iPhone

I: CM met with client to inquire about updates relating to his housing goals. CM noticed client had a black eye and some swelling on the right side of his face. CM questioned client on what had happen to him and how he got hurt. CM assess program’s logbook for incident report and consulted with the monitors to see if they knew anything relating to client’s well-being. In an effort to educate the client on safety and his well-being, CM explained to the client that is important that he he takes every precaution while using drugs and when confronted with violence. CM continued to assess for PTSD symptoms, substance abuse, and medication compliance.

his worker met with Anthony at home (1405 21st Avenue North apt #1). The interview was recorded and privacy practice were verbally reviewed.

Social workers are faced with different dilemmas each and every day. It is a social workers job to be committed to their jobs and committed to their clients. Social workers are those people who are interested in helping people and helping to improve their lives. All help isn’t good help. Some of the things that social workers decide to do with their clients end up being unethical. As we explore the Jones case study, there are several different unethical decisions that were made. There are a few different dilemmas throughout the case study. Confidentiality, receiving gifts from clients and their family, social media, and also developing relationships (dual relationships). It important for social workers to have the resources such as the NASW and the standards of practice manual. The code gives us a set of values, principles, and standards to guide decision making and conduct when ethical issues arise.