Social Work with Children, Youth and Families 

Table of Contents

Family Assessment Report

Family information

Social Worker name/Position

Family background and current situation

Reason behind availing service from me

Family’s current situation

Work done till now with the family

Family needs and goals

Plan for work with the family

Reflective account

Family Assessment Report

Family information

This is a case study of Jaxon and his family. Jaxon is 14 years of age and a Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay young boy. His parents have been separated and have been re-partnered. Douglas is Jaxon’s father who is 42 years of age, Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay man. Vanna is 39 years of age and she is a Sri Lankan-Australian woman. Vanna and Douglas has been separated 10 years ago and, Douglas has re-partnered with Julieanne, a 38years old white, non-Indigenous woman. While, Vanna has married to a man with whom she has 2 kids Matt (7yrs) and Holly (5 yrs). Out of all the family members, Jaxon and Douglas would be considered as Aboriginal people because Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay are the Aboriginal Australian people who form one of the 4 largest Indigenous nations in Australia. So, they both will be the people when, language can be a barrier and as a social worker and their counsellor I need to be more culturally aware and sensitive as per their requirements. The family has a history of 3 interactions with me til now.

Introduction: Family Background and Current Situation

Reason behind availing service from me

The reason behind the family is looking forward to take my help as I already have taken Jaxon’s interview in a community health service and I am already aware of the issues that are faced by the Jaxon. The void he feels and the reason behind this void and not attending the school. This is the reason Douglas and Vanna looked forward to take my help with the trust that I will be able to make the things fall into places by counseling Jaxon and family.

Family’s current situation

After the separation of Jaxson’s parents, he used live with his mother and his mother’s new partner and was happy with them. The current family condition is not pretty good as Jaxon is now living with his father i.e., Julieanne (Jaxon’s stepmother) due to his high school. The relationship between the current relationship of Jaxon with his father is not fine as Jaxon is not comfortable uses living with his father and stepmother, and often misses his mother and siblings. The family used to have disputes and arguments very frequently as nobody is comfortable neither Jaxon nor his father and stepmother. He has also stopped attending school and started chilling with his friends more by saying that he finds his school boring. His father often becomes rude with him and his stepmother doesn’t talk to him much because of which he has started feeling isolated. This was the situation of Jaxon while, the family’s condition is also not fine as in the very beginning this decision regarding Jaxon living with his father was a mutual decision by Jaxon, Douglas, and Vanna while, now nobody is happy with this and the family is little disturbed.

Work done till now with the family

Till now, I have taken three sessions with the family so far. And, The first session was with Jaxon only to have some insights to his feelings and stress. The second session was done in two halves, one with Douglas and the other with Douglas’s partner. The most recent session was with Vanna. As their social worker it’s my duty to talk to everyone individually who is facing issues and are in stress. What I always kept in mind was the belonging of Jaxon and Douglas to the Indigenous community and to maintain cultural safety for them by not harming their cultural beliefs and values along with using active listening because it would make them feel that the other person is actually concerned about their issue.

Key points that have been determined till now:

  1. Jaxon’s issues that is not just about the change of family but he is also facing issues at his school. As Jaxon is an indigenous so, he often gets bullied by his classmates for his language and culture. At home he does not have anyone to share this with and this is why he does not feel good neither at home not at school.
  2. After a conversation with Douglas it was found that he himself is stressed and found himself in jeopardy between his current partner and Jaxon. Julieanne is also not comfortable with Jaxon. The main issue that was found was nobody wants to talk to each other and nobody wants to let their heart out. Communication is a healer and a problem solver, by communicating, they will get to know each other more and these issues will start getting resolved. Jaxon is just of 14 years and at this stage he obviously needs support.
  3. After talking with Vanna, it was revealed that she is supportive but its gonna be difficult to bring everyone together in the next session as Vanna and Julieanne definitely has some issues with each other because of which they don’t want to be at a place together.

Family needs and goals

The basic needs and the objective of the family are to address all the key points that have been determined above in order to live a peaceful life.

Plan for work with the family

The suggested plan to work with the family would be the implication of Task-centered practice (TCP). This is a social work model also known as “evidence-based” practice model; With the help of TCP model specific, achievable, and agreeable by all the family member type of goals will be established in order to treat the target problems of the family that were determined (Verma & Chaudhury, 2017).

For addressing the issue a four-step process would be used as per the TCP model

The first step would be defining the problem that has already been done in the past sessions. The second step is establishing the goals. The goals should be in such a way that it is achievable, agreed upon by family members, should be measurable, and mapped as per both the short as well as the long-term goals with a timeframes such as for this family, we have been funded with 7-8 sessions so, the short term as well as the long term goals must be addressed within the set timeframe. The third step would be working on the goals. Working will be done in a collaborative manner with all the family members. At last, when the expected goal will be achieved it will be reviewed that how the outcomes of achieving these goals have actually helped in overcoming and addressing the issues.

The implication of social work model to work with Jaxon and family is about helping the whole family and not just an individual. And, for this it would be effective if it will be implicated across the three scales to actually create a change. These scales would be micro, mezzo, and macro social work. These three, micro, mezzo, and macro social work are generally considered distinctive sub-disciplines regarding the social work, but, when it comes to addressing multiple task integrating all of these types of social work into the task force would help. For example, as the two major issues identified for Jaxon was him being bullied at school for his language and community and the other issue is his family issue so, addressing the issue at school is also important and this would be done by collaborating with the school social worker who has all the responsibilities at the micro level to engage the students in educational programming and to spread awareness regarding cultural safety and educating the students regarding the equity and this would be qualified as the mezzo-level social work. Likewise, If still needed then, macro-level social work could also be implicated.

Reflective Account

As per Lefevre et al, (2008) whenever working as social worker the three aspects that must be taken into consideration are knowing, being, and doing. What I know or I would precisely say what I understood in the past 3 sessions I had with Jaxon and his family that the family lacks is communication. Communication within the family is a very important factor to keep the family together and to maintain the mental and behavioural health of the family members because it helps the family members in enabling them to express their wants, needs, and the concerns to each member of the family (Valdez, Petrson & Stevenson, 2018). In case of Jaxon and his family nobody actually knows what is running in each other’s mind. What are the issues Jaxan alone at the age of 14 years is facing and what are the problems within the family that it is becoming difficult to give comfort to Jaxon even when letting him live with Douglas was a decision on which everybody agreed. Open and honest communication always helps in creating a surrounding that enables the family members to articulate not only love and admiration for each other but, also the differences between them (Braithwaite et al., 2017). Communication is a way through which the family members could easily resolve the conflicts or certain unavoidable issues that arise in between them. Just as an effective communication among the family members makes a family strong and healthy similarly, poor communication leads to weak and unhealthy family relationships. Douglas and Julieanne often argument over Jaxan’s presence I feel that communicating rather than doing arguments and imposing allegations over each other would help them to actually come to a resolution, as per marriage and family therapists poor communication is one of the most common grievance of the families who faces issues. Poor communication is always unclear as well as considered indirect. It may also result into various other family problems that could be irrelevant, it also leads to extreme family clashes, unsuccessful problem solving, and weak emotional bonding between the family members. An effective counselling and making them understand the significance of communication will definitely help in bettering the issues. However, while doing so ethical consideration must be taken into account. Ethics are the standards that are used and implemented to set what is right and what is not (Arifin, 2018). According to National Institute of Social Workers, (2017) The main purpose of the social work profession is to augment the well-being of the human and to help them in meeting the basic requirements of people, It focuses on to the requirements and on empowering the individuals that are oppressed, vulnerable, or are dealing or living with some issue that they cannot solve by themselves and needs a social worker. And, while working it is the core duty of the social workers to work as per the ethics. The ethical principles of social work are the core values of service, i.e., dignity of the client, social justice, and maintain and keeping the worth of the client, significance of the human relationships, competence, and integrity.

References for Social Work Assessment

Arifin, S. R. M. (2018). Ethical consideration in qualitative study. International Journal of Care Science, 1(2).

Braithwaite, D. O., Suter, E. A., & Floyd, K. (2017). Introduction: The landscape of meta-theory and theory in family communication research. In Engaging Theories in Family Communication: Multiple Perspectives (pp. 1-16). Taylor and Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315204321

Chan, C., & Holosko, M. J. (2016). A Review of Information and Communication Technology Enhanced Social Work Interventions. Research on Social Work Practice26(1), 88–100. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049731515578884

Lefevre, M., Tanner, K., & Luckock, B. (2008). Developing social work students' communication skills with children and young people: A model for the qualifying level curriculum. Child & Family Social Work, 13(2), 166-176. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2206.2007.00529.x

National Institute of Social Workers. (2017). Read the Code of Ethics. Retrieved from https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics-English#:~:text=apply%20to%20them.-,Ethical%20Principles,relationships%2C%20integrity%2C%20and%20competence.

Valdez, R. X., Petrson, M. N., & Stevenson, K. T. (2018). How communication with teachers, family and friends contributes to predicting climate change behaviour among adolescents. Human and Island Environments, 45(2), 183-191. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892917000443

Verma, K. P. & Chaudhury, S. (2017). Efficacy of task centered group work intervention in schizophrenia patients. Journal of Psychiatry, 20(4). doi: 10.4172/2378-5756.1000413

Remember, at the center of any academic work, lies clarity and evidence. Should you need further assistance, do look up to our Social Work Assignment Help

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