The Sanchez family faces significant bio-psychosocial problems. The issues range from drug and substance abuse, language barriers, economic challenges, and hunger. Therefore, the Sanchez family has been struggling with immigration challenges with Mrs. Sanchez’s nephew and Emilia, their older daughter facing challenges of hunger. The presence of Joey and Roberto in the house is making this worse. While the family’s concern is to address their problems, it is imperative to integrate social work practices in creating sustaining relationships, understanding their needs, barriers, community resources, and cultural orientation. The clinical case analysis evaluates the development of Sanchez’s family members, focusing on Mrs. Celia.
Phase One: Clinical Case
Mrs. Celia is a primary focus in Sanchez’s family clinical case. She has been married to Hector for more than forty years. Also, Mrs. Celia is an immigrant who has been in the country for almost twenty years. Thus, she is responsible for her family, has worked far away from home, and takes much responsibility for cooking for children. Celia takes great responsibility for her children and grandchildren. She manifests the desire to stay close to her home and family members. However, Celia has not developed significant proficiency in the English language to the level of her husband. This case of language barrier is a substantial detriment to her ability to develop sustained relationships. Without proper language interaction, it becomes a challenge for Mrs. Celia to offer optimum care to her family members. For example, she has been ill on several instances and thus needed her son to accompany her to the hospital and help with interpretations and translations. The Sanchez family has Emilia, Junior, Gloria, Vicki, Carmen, and Alejandro. They also pride themselves on Joey as their grandchild. Mr. Sanchez is a family patriarch.
Phase TWO: Critical Case Assessment
Existing Resources to Help Celia
The primary resource that exists is the job at the grocery. If Celia starts working in the grocery, she will interact with the English-speaking community. Thus, she needs a job in restocking the grocery to help her earn a livelihood source and learn how to speak English. For this reason, Celia would have the opportunity of visiting the social work officers in town. The move would help her connect with more resources in the area.
Celia’s Strengths that can help address her Problems
Celia manifests loyalty. Therefore, she is a loyal person, which helps her strive to realize unity in her family. She can use her loyalty to make her support system more reliable. Also, Celia spends more time taking care of her family. She is hardworking, caring, and devoted. Thus, these strengths can help her learn more about the English language and help them earn a living.
Emilia’s Strength
Emilia emerges as a caring person. She is the oldest child and has considerably taken care of her siblings. Similarly, Emilia’s caring nature has made her relate well with others. If she gets the care she needs, Emilia will embrace positive change and grow in her areas of need.
Building a Working Relationship
The primary goal of social work is to build a working relationship. Therefore, I would understand the needs of Celia and her family needs and examine the potential barriers and family dynamics. Would develop a positive relationship and make Celia understand the importance of engaging in social work intervention. The critical issues to work on would be helping her speak English proficiently and get a job to help the husband support the family.
Empower the Client
In my locality, Emilia could join a rehabilitation center. Thus, she would benefit from the six-month programs as an inpatient and deal with her drug addiction recovery process from drug addiction. Also, Emilia could search for employment opportunities available in the locality.
Significance of Individual, Family, and Cultural Identities
The Latino culture allows people to take care of their families without assistance from anyone. Understanding this cultural orientation would help guide Celia to receive food donations from the government and support the husband not to skip meals.
Ensuring that there are no obstacles in Sanchez Family System
The Sanchez family and Emilia are close-knit. Therefore, Emilia feels the need to help support the family, especially when dealing with their problems. As a result, Emilia will likely neglect her personal needs and growth. She also lacks employment experience, given that all her life, she has been helping take care of her siblings.
Barriers that Could Impede Celia’s Ability to Achieve her Goals
Celia’s most significant impediment is Celia’s nephew, Roberto. He emerges as a barrier in the growth process of the entire Sanchez family. Thus, Roberto lives in the house and exhausts the scarce resources that the family has at their disposal. Given that he is not working, he creates the demand for help in the Sanchez household. Also, Celia could face the challenge with the immigration personnel because Roberto is an illegal resident. All these contribute to the lack of adequate income, preventing Celia from learning English in a proper and structured setting.
Phase Three: The Client System
The foundational goal of a social worker is to assess Celia’s strengths and the challenges she faces in achieving her goals. Celia shows significant traits that can help her sustain a positive relationship. She is caring and responsible. The strengths are evident in how she takes care of her facility and struggles to adopt her grandson Joey. All these strengths are instrumental in helping the goal of social work. Thus, Celia would collaborate with the social worker through her loyalty. The outcome would be the success in working with a community in fostering her relationships and thus learning to speak English proficiency. Celia is also adaptable. She can adjust to the environmental situation and encourage her family to support her. For this reason, she will establish different mechanisms of working in the locality and engage other community members. In the long run, Celia would achieve her goals.
However, the most significant barrier between Celia and her growth is cultural identity. Celia comes from the Latino cultural group that beliefs in carrying the burden of everyone provided they are in the family. As a result, she lives with Roberto, an illegal resident, and does not work. She cannot allow him to engage in any economic activity, thereby creating more constraints on her family resources. Therefore, Celia cannot have the space to focus on her personal growth. All these affect her efficacy in realizing her goals.
Celia lives in a community that can support her. Significant rehabilitation centers and social workgroups can help her daughter Emilia recover from drug addictions. For this reason, the formal and informal resources are opportunities and material support that the law provides for people suffering from a wide range of social problems (Rodríguez and Ferreira 2018). Celia can approach the social worker with her nephew Roberto for help in this case. The social worker would understand the options in helping him acquire legal residence permits and thus participate in social and economic activities. Learning a language becomes effective through community interactions. The community has significant resources such as church groups that Celia can join and learn more about productive lives. Interacting with these communities would be substantial to the language learning goals.
Celia and the social workers should emphasize honesty. The element of transparency is critical in achieving unity of purpose. The social worker would focus on working towards openness. As a result, the social worker would encourage Celia to be honest with her feelings, fears, disappointments, and challenges. A natural environment creates the opportunity for success. Understanding the cultural perspectives of Celia would help to map different approaches that would help in realizing success.
The intervention plan to change the focus points is to develop a method for success. It is imperative to change the goals of the social work practice and focus on helping Mrs. Celia Sanchez develop a relationship with her family. There is a need to understand the Sanchez family’s needs, the potential barriers to addressing the issues of drug addiction with Emilia, the concern of Roberto acquiring legal residency status, and improving the economic welfare of the family. The goals will align with the cultural orientation that Sanchez Family embraces and the community resources at their disposal.
The social workers should understand the family dynamics and their challenges. For this reason, it is significant to address the mechanisms that will help in knowing how religion affects this family. Also, I will examine how culture influences the choices and lifestyle of the family.
I will find a translator f to help create a common ground for all of us. Celia will understand everything I say and present any suspicion when I speak in English, and she starts thinking that I will take her daughter away from her. Changing the translation strategies will make sure Celia understands the rehabilitation process and allow her to be comfortable with her goals of learning English, obtaining adequate food for her family, ensuring that Hectors takes care of his health. She will be more concerned with helping her nephew and adopting her grandson. The strategies to help Mrs. Celia achieve all these will be to allow her access to the food bank from her church with the knowledge of her husband.
Phase Four: Mapping the case
Biological Lens
The biological dimension embodies the influence of different biological systems in an individual’s life. Other genetic predispositions and environmental variables influence the individual’s well-being and health (Burns, Dannecker, and Austin 2019). The Sanchez family details multiple struggles that they face as Hispanic immigrants. The biopsychosocial perspective portends how the social worker can utilize the angle of biological and psychological dimensions. Understanding the physical health of Mrs. Celia resonates with the bio-psychosocial lens where the increased worrying, stress, and concerns that she has for other members of the family can affect her mental health. The overall physical development that Mrs. Celia face requires a referral to mental health practitioners for therapy. Celia’s mental health behavior manifests through increased stress because of the economic challenges, lack of food, and her nephew’s illegal resident status. There are several instances that Celia and the family have gone without adequate food.
Hector Sanchez’s family has many stressors. The family is dealing with several issues ranging from lack of adequate food, economic challenges, drug addiction from the family members, and adoption of the grandchild. Notably, the nephew’s presence in the family exposes them to risk. Therefore, the biological signs that stressful factors are affecting the Sanchez family include the deteriorating health of Mr. Hector and the increased concern of Mrs.
Psychological Lens
The emotional stability of the Sanchez family requires intervention dimensions that address the connection of the mind and body. The social work phenomena should focus on regulating the emotional stress of Mrs. Celia and other members of the family to avoid mental health issues. As a result, the social worker should enhance the resilience of Mrs. Celia to ensure that she responds to her situation and recover appropriately.
The presence of social support functions would affect the Sanchez family positively. From the tenets of the learning theory, Mrs. Celia would access knowledge that influences their emotional and cognitive development. The social worker would suggest different measures that would allow Celia to start working in the grocery store, access information on how to help her nephew, and establish effective measures to adopt her grandson. The reinforcement system would help Celia access food aid from the local church and learn to speak English proficiently. She needs these environmental factors to achieve her potentials.
Mrs. Celia Sanchez worries about the welfare of the family. According to Knight and Gitterman (2019), bio-psychosocial intervention promotes a comprehensive intervention mechanism for families experiencing different clinical challenges. Mental instability and health care issues that emanate from lack of adequate resources present a growing threat to the quality of life of individuals. Through psychosocial intervention, the Sanchez family can get rehabilitation services for Emalia. Admission to the rehabilitation center would help her recover from drug addiction. Mr. Sanchez could ac seek medical intervention. He could visit a physician who would diagnose his problems and prescribe medications. Mrs. Celia would engage special workers to help her manage a myriad of challenges by accessing the food bank from Our Lady of Guadalupe church and accessing other opportunities to succeed in adopting her grandson.
Social Lens
The impact of the increased social strain on the community is guaranteed. The social dimension embodies mechanisms through which the individual relates within the community (Rodríguez and Ferreira 2018). In the case of the Sanchez family, different groups, institution s and agencies determine their interrelations. The lack of Mrs. Celia to speak English proficiently impacts her interaction within society. Social workers need to advocate for economic and social justice in ensuring that the Sanchez family accesses food aid from the church. Moreover, the social worker can suggest different approaches to support Roberto and overcome the immigration restrictions’ challenges.
Emalia and Gloria suffer from deprived social and economic independence. Emilia subjects herself to helping the other with house chores. As a result, she suffers by compromising her education rights, ends up growing with negative peer pressure, and starts abusing drugs and experiencing teenage pregnancy. One of the most incredible goals is for Emilia to reestablish her relationship with the family, secure some vocational training and get a job to support her and the son.
The ripple effect of Mr. Sanchez and his family in the broader community emerges from principles of the person in environmental trajectory. Everyone deserves equal social and economic opportunities (Macdonald and Deacon 2019). There is a need for the individuals in the Sanchez family to have social and economic opportunities to present them from increased suffering. Thus, the client’s environmental problems affect the interrelationship between the person, his family, and the community. Such people tend to contribute to the negative development of the family. The social level of Mrs. Celia indicates the overall interaction with her family. She manifests care and continues to engage with them to fulfill her desires.
Spiritual Lens
Religion and spiritual beliefs affect the well-being of a person. Religious institutions have a set of practices that determine the quality of life a person gets. Mrs. Celia can get social and emotional support from Our Lady of Guadalupe church. The church also teaches different approaches to life. However, there are instances where the church has affected various family members. Gloria considers divorce after sustaining domestic violence in her marriage. However, she cannot execute divorce for fear that the church teaches against it. She understands that divorce will taint her relationship with her parent, who may not be happy if she defies the church’s teachings.
Adults living in stressful situations tend to manifest emotional breakdowns. They lack hope in life and start withdrawing from people. The lack of interpersonal relationships and interactions exposes people to further physical health issues like constant headaches, high blood pressure, and cardiac problems. Celia’s cognitive and emotional development needs attention. It is significant to refer her to a psychologist to conduct tests that determine any emotional instability that she may be experiencing.
Phase Six: Intervention Plan
The short-term goal is to develop a relationship with Celia and her family. The ties will yield better outcomes in understanding their needs, cultural issues, and potential barriers to realizing the problem of economic stability. For this reason, I will mobilize the community resources and help Celia get a translator. This goal will help her be comfortable not learning English and thereby help her family.
The long-term goal is to get Celia a counselor from the social services division. With the bit of English proficiency attained, she would work in a grocery and obtain food for her family from Our Lady of Guadalupe food bank.
Resource mobilization is an effective intervention activity in the client system. My task as a social worker would be to mobilize resources. I will approach various agencies depending on the needs of every family member. I will source most of these resources from government agencies, religious organizations, and friends to support the client. In achieving the short-term goals, I will work with the client within four months then assess the progress.
Phase Seven: Evaluation
Evaluation is critical in determining the success of social work. According to Ornellas et al. (2019), social workers need to conduct both outcome and process evaluations to analyze the extent to which they have achieved their intended goals. I will assess the documents on child custody in the locality. Also, I will raise the issue with the division of family services to help Mrs. Celia gain custody of the grandson. The evaluation will focus on addressing critical questions of whether Mrs. Celia guarantees the safety of Joey.
Moreover, I will also evaluate the outcomes of my intervention. I will follow up with the client to determine the progress of implementing the interventions. For this reason, I will have the opportunity to decide whether to modify the interventions.
References
Burns, A., Dannecker, E., & Austin, M. J. (2019). Revisiting the biological perspective in the use of biopsychosocial assessments in social work. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 29(2), 177-194.
Knight, C., & Gitterman, A. (2019). Ambiguous loss and its disenfranchisement: The need for social work intervention. Families in Society, 100(2), 164-173.
Macdonald, S. J., & Deacon, L. (2019). Disability theory and social work practice. In The Routledge Handbook of Social Work Theory (pp. 435-447). Routledge.
Ornellas, A., Spolander, G., Engelbrecht, L. K., Sicora, A., Pervova, I., Martínez-Román, M. A., … & Strydom, M. (2019). Mapping social work across 10 countries: Structure, intervention, identity and challenges. International Social Work, 62(4), 1183-1197.
Rodríguez, M. D., & Ferreira, J. (2018). The contribution of the intervention in social networks and community social work at the local level to social and human development. European Journal of Social Work, 21(6), 863-875.