Social work case
Read the social work case below and write an essay that discusses the questions below: Nancy is a 27-year-old single mother with a five-year-old son and a seven-year-old daughter. She has supported her family by working almost full time in a local office as a receptionist. Her job performance has been excellent but because of a decline in business, she was laid off when the business closed. She is very upset because she needs to find a way to support her family. Nancy contacts the local family services agency where you work for advice and direction. She said that her neighbor told her to come for help. As Nancy says, “I just lost my job, I have two young children, the rent is due next week and we don’t have enough groceries. I don’t know what to do! Can you help me?” If Nancy came to you, you as the social worker would have to do an assessment. That assessment would have to focus on Nancy’s needs and strengths across the different levels of micro, mezzo and macro social work practice. What questions would you ask at the micro level? At the family level? At the macro level? What questions would you ask to get at Nancy’s strengths? About diversity? How might the social worker fill various roles (advocate, counselor, educator, broker, case manager, etc.) in working with Nancy? What sorts of community level interventions might be needed? Part One: Case #2 (10 points) Read the social work case below and write an essay that discusses the following topics: Discuss the person-in-environment approach used in social work. How does this perspective influence how a social worker will look at the case? Discuss the process a social worker might use in engaging the client system in this case. Discuss at least 3 barriers to service that might impact this case. Discuss at least 2 social work values and ethics that are important to the case Carrie is 25 years-old and identifies as an Asian female. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in her early 20s. She recently stopped taking her medications and was hospitalized due to increasing manic symptoms—lack of sleep, racing thoughts, irritability—and threatening her mother. After stabilizing in the hospital, she was referred to a community mental health center for outpatient support and discharged back to her mother’s home with a 30-day supply of medications. She has been staying with her mother for the past month, but she reports that her mother has a history of perpetrating physical and emotional abuse to her when she was a child. Carrie says that she is only staying with her mother until she can save up enough to get a place of her own. Carrie says that she lost her job and insurance when she was jailed for 30 days over “something stupid.” She has not found another job and is worried that she will not be able to afford to refill her medications. Carrie says that her mother has started calling her “lazy” and says that Carrie needs to start paying her or else she will kick Carrie out. Carrie is thinking she may not be able to handle staying with her mom long enough to save anything for a place of her own. She said homelessness “has to be better than this.”