Integrative Client Assessment

Integrative Client Assessment

            This is an integrative client assessment for a 39- year old male. He is a low- income individual who can only afford to go to a free medical clinic. The assessment identifies the client’s issues and then proposes a treatment plan to address the detected problems.

Medical Issues

            The client complains of constant, chronic pain in his chest andlowerback. He has occasionally reported the issue on his visits to the local free community clinic for which he has been referred to a physician. However, he is unable to afford a doctor’s appointment and can only rely on over-the-counter medication whenever the pain becomes unbearable. His family remains concerned that the pain could point to a bigger issue, but they feel helpless due to lack of financial resources to support the patient with the required care.  

Cognitive Issues

            The patient has no cognitive issues of note.

Behavioral Issues

            The client has a history of alcoholism, which he has battled unsuccessfully. He also leads a sedentary lifestyle and does not engage in any significant physical activity. The family is concerned with the client’s alcoholism and have believe that it is necessary that he enrolls at a rehabilitation facility.

Educational/Vocational Issues

            The client did not graduate from high school and neither did he get a GED. He says that he grew up in abject poverty and was forced to drop out of school to work and earn an income to support his family.

Emotional/ Psychological Issues

            The client reports suffering bouts of depression, which have increased in frequency since he lost his job 2 years ago due to downsizing at his previous place of work. The family believes that he needs professional help to manage his emotional and psychological issues.

Legal/ Housing/ Economic Issues

            The client lives in a run-down housing unit with his wife and children. They sometimes lack running water and the roof leaks when it rains. The client is currently jobless, while his wife does odd jobs to sustain the family. However, he states that he is willing to work again and is actively looking for a job. For sustenance, the family occasionally relies on food stamps to survive.

Family Issues

            The client and his wife have been constantly disputing since he lost his job. He reports that his wife often picks up fights with him and brands him lazy since has no form of employment. The client grew up in an abusive household where his father would constantly abuse his mother before completely abandoning the family when the patient was eight years old.

Strengths and Limitations

            The client has several strengths that will aid his treatment regimen, which include the fact that he does not have any cognitive issues and he is willing to get back to employment. However, the client’s alcoholism and past failure at quitting could have adverse impacts on his recovery journey.

Resources in Community

            The client could use a host of resources available in his community to improve his situation. The resources include Medicaid support, local employment agencies for work, and the local labor office for unemployment support.

Treatment Plan

            The treatment plan for the client must consider his identified needs. First, the social worker should link him and his family to the local social security offices or other agency to help with the eligibility process and enrolment into Medicare. It is important to get the client insurance coverage so that he can receive the much-needed medical care. In the meantime, the social worker should work on getting him a physician’s appointment where he can receive a medical examination. In addition, the social work should also link the client with an alcohol treatment program to help with his alcoholism, as well as a counsellor to assist the client work on his emotional and psychological issues. Further, the intervention must incorporate a long-term perspective. In this case, the social worker should assist the individual in finding a job, working with him to locate resources to help him find a job with assistance from local employment agencies and websites that list employment opportunities. Most importantly, the engagement with the client must consider his needs and those of his family, both in the short-term and long-term.

            A social worker must recognize the interconnectedness of a person and the environment. Therefore, the assessment of the client’s needs should incorporate systems theory as a micro model to assist in developing the most appropriate client treatment plan. The principle considers an individual from the perspective of complex and interrelated systems. A person’s thoughts and behavior are thus influenced by factors in their environment including their family, living situation, and community networks, among others. The implication for social work is that practitioners must assess all the relevant factors in the system and work around them to ensure a healthy and supportive environment for the client.

Austin, M., Anthony, E., Knee, R., & Mathias, J. (2016). Revisiting the relationship between micro and macro social work practice. Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services, 97(4), 270-277. https://doi.org/10.1606/1044-3894.2016.97.33

            In this article, the authors explore the relationship between social work practice and micro and macro social work practices. The paper acknowledges that the diversity of practice in recent years has led to the abandoning of the micro and macro approaches. The authors note that social work practitioners might only rely on a singular context such as behavioral perspective, family systems perspective, or an empowerment and recovery perspective, which can be limiting when seeking a solution. However, the micro approach is an eclectic process that seeks to solve problems while working with individual clients, families, or groups in a manner cognizant of social diversity and which seeks to promote and restore economic and social justice. It is important for a social worker to develop the skills necessary for the micro approach, such as the ability to build rapport with the client, address diversity, exercise cultural competence, and the apply ethics and values in decision-making. Further, the micro perspective also demands the competence to perform a comprehensive biophysical and spiritual assessment. Ultimately, the authors demonstrate the need to implement the micro perspective as well the skills needed for the approach in a case.

            The micro perspective could prove useful in assessing the client and developing an appropriate treatment plan. The intervention is useful for assessing the client due to its focus on building rapport with the client and working with them to find solutions for the identified problems. Using the approach will thus make it possible to develop a holistic perspective towards the client and to develop a comprehensive solution to promote social justice and economic wellbeing. Therefore, the micro perspective will help to ensure sensitivity to the client and entrench a holistic perspective to his situation.

Harrison, J., VanDeusen, K., & Way, I. (2016). Embedding social justice within micro social work curricula. Smith College Studies in Social Work, 86(3), 258-273. https://doi.org/10.1080/00377317.2016.1191802

            In this article, the authors recognize that a significant number of practitioners in the United States follow the micro practice in their work. They then stress on the need to reconcile social and economic justice with the micro settings. Consequently, a social worker must remain sensitive to diversity, while also working to end oppression and other social injustices. Harrison et al., (2016) thus identify three areas of focus to help practitioners in enhancing economic and social justice namely; increased practitioner self-awareness, an increasingly justice-focused engagement, and client advocacy. The strength of this article is that it proposes an approach that advocates for the enhancement of micro practice through the integration of social and economic justice for better outcomes. Therefore, it is a more holistic approach compared to the traditional perspective.

            The recommendations to integrate social and economic justice into micro practice could enrich the client experience. It helps social workers to have a better engagement with their clients and to ensure that they are in a position to self-sustain long after the intervention. In addition, incorporating social and economic justice in the engagement helps to address the underlying issues that the client may be facing and which may not be immediately clear at the first point of contact. Therefore, the practitioner will consider the client’s socioeconomic context as a critical determinant of the treatment and recommended intervention. The practitioner will thus be self-aware throughout the engagement, while emphasizing justice for the client and his family.

Knight, C., & Gitterman, A. (2018). Merging micro and macro intervention: Social work practice with groups in the community. Journal of Social Work Education, 54(1), 3-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/10437797.2017.1404521

            The article calls for social workers to go beyond the micro perspective and merge it with the macro perspective when working with groups. In pursuing a group approach, the authors note that it is possible to not only achieve individual empowerment but also community change. At the heart of this approach is social advocacy that seeks to liberate marginalized groups as well as mobilizing oppressed individuals to challenge social systems that disenfranchise them. According to Knight and Gitterman (2018), the integration of family and groups in the intervention is important since they are part of the environment within which an individual exists. The strength of this approach lies in its emphasis on structural social transformation and focus on community solutions. However, such a strategy might not be as effective considering that the needs of the people in a given group might not be homogenous.

            Undoubtedly, the macro approach that is applicable to group and family practice is useful in assessing and recommending a treatment plan for the patient. It would guide the pursuit of social justice and empowerment of the client and his family so that they are able to effect changes in their environment. The perspective would be useful since it emphasizes changing the group’s situation, which is beneficial to the individual client. Consequently, the engagement with the client would need to consider his family and community since they are part of the client’s environment and have significant implications on the outcomes of the individual. Therefore, the group intervention approach would beneficial for the client.

Craig, S., Betancourt, I., & Muskat, B. (2015). Thinking big, supporting families and enabling coping: The value of social work in patient and family centered health care. Social Work in Health Care, 54(5), 422-443. https://doi.org/10.1080/00981389.2015.1017074

            In this paper, the authors illustrate the importance of social work in the implementation of patient and family centered care (PFCC). Social workers are important as they are able to use empathy, build relationships, advocate for patients, and provide practical assistance in ways that other professionals may not. They think holistically, thus enabling patients and their families to cope and maximize the available resources in support of PFCC. Therefore, social workers contribute to the attainment of holistic health outcome for patients. They are a critical part in the care system as they support clients and their families to address their non-medical needs, such as financial challenges and other social determinants of care. This article demonstrates the importance of social workers in the care system and their contribution to people’s welfare and wellness. The arguments that the authors make have important implications for the practice of social work.

            The article is relevant to the current client scenario as it positions the social worker as a critical individual in promoting the client’s health and overall wellness. Therefore, the practitioner must work to enhance the client’s wellbeing in all aspects. Furthermore, the authors point to the need for interdisciplinary collaboration with other professionals when engaging with a client. Therefore, it promotes the need to determine all the client’s necessities and link the individual with the proper resources so that they can receive the appropriate assistance. Further, the social worker will need to provide continuous support to the client’s family as part of the effort to provide PFCC.

References

Austin, M., Anthony, E., Knee, R., & Mathias, J. (2016). Revisiting the relationship between micro and macro social work practice. Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services, 97(4), 270-277. https://doi.org/10.1606/1044-3894.2016.97.33

Craig, S., Betancourt, I., & Muskat, B. (2015). Thinking big, supporting families and enabling coping: The value of social work in patient and family centered health care. Social Work in Health Care, 54(5), 422-443. https://doi.org/10.1080/00981389.2015.1017074

Harrison, J., VanDeusen, K., & Way, I. (2016). Embedding social justice within micro social work curricula. Smith College Studies in Social Work, 86(3), 258-273. https://doi.org/10.1080/00377317.2016.1191802

Knight, C., & Gitterman, A. (2018). Merging micro and macro intervention: Social work practice with groups in the community. Journal of Social Work Education, 54(1), 3-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/10437797.2017.1404521