Psychosocial Assessment - Report Sample

Introduction

The psychosocial assessment much helps in conducting a thorough evaluation of the individual's emotional, physical, and mental health and how best they can interact with the people in the community. The entire process is majorly conducted by the medical experts and social workers, as shown in Andrea's case, who seems to suffer from a severe mental disorder. The evaluation of the individual status by the experts enhances the learning process on the individual's behavior and predicts the present and future conduct of the person in society. So the psychosocial assessment plan is critical as it enables the medical team to come up with a program for managing the affected individual within a specified period (Krir, 2000). Furthermore, the psychosocial assessment also helps establish whether an individual is in a mental illness or mental health state. From this stage, the experts can plan on how to attend to the patient in question regularly.

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Poor Mental State

Usually, when an individual is in a poor mental state like Andrea in the case study, the first casualty of the same id, often the family members. For example, within the shortest stint of illness shown by Andrea, there are counter-allegations after the other that her son Vincent is not receiving adequate parental guidance as should be happening under the normal circumstances. The family may show signs of concern due to the emotional and psychological torture it gets exposed to whenever a single family member is battling illness (Resnicow & McMaster, 2012). The virtue that Andrea's family currently live separately has further complicated the issue, more so for their young growing boy Vincent. At this age, spending every moment with the parents should be a subject to debate since Vincent. Even though there are alleged claims of child abuse meted on Vincent by his parents, the child looks unwilling to disclose any form of bad blood between them and their parents. Most claims did not proceed to the prosecution stage, perhaps due to a lack of evidence concerning the allegations against Vincent's parents. On the other hand, Andrea is seeking medical attention for the overdose on the Zoloft because it is alleged that she arrived at that horrible decision on a variety of issues. Some of the reasons highlighted that might have prompted Andrea to have wanted to kill herself were the endless conflict within the family, feeling overwhelmed, depressed, and lonely.

Background Information

John and Andrea are still being regarded as very young, with Andrea aged 27 while John is 33 while their son nine years old. John and Andrea are both unemployed. They are under the program of Supplemental Security Income SSI in which Andrea received an average of $ 624 per month because of the condition that Vincent is suffering from since he was a young boy. On the other hand, John also receives supplemental security income SSI because of the accident he got when he was barely 15 years old. With the little that John receives from SSI, he sometimes gives her wife financial assistance once in a while. Andrea and her family's cultural background is not clearly defined in the scase study, but it has been put in black and white that the two get along so well. With this in mind, they must have been coming from a culture where people value marriage and uphold the union between the two people. The allegations of the violence muted on their son Vincent must have been one of the incidences of the family challenges that affect most people in the world today.

Given that Andrea has suffered from disease ranging from epilepsy, schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder at the age of 27 can eventually result in serious health issues. Perhaps this is why violence cases are reported in the family even though their son Vincent is continuously denying the same is happening. The family's current problem is attributed to Andrea's medical history, who is currently on medication for the seizure and Zoloft. According to the information given by her sister, Andrea has been taken to hospital on almost five occasions. Before conducting a credible investigation by the relevant agencies, the reports in the public domain show that in the year 2001, Andrea has been reported for the misuse of alcohols and drugs, corporal punishment, and insufficient guardianship on her son. However, the case of corporal punishment was closed after a thorough evaluation and investigation of Vincent due to a lack of direct evidence linking Andrea with the alleged corporal sentence (Kelly & Gates, 2010). In the same year, John, Vincent's father, was not spared either of the allegations since he was strongly linked with bruises, lacerations, inadequate guardianship, and welts on her son. The extensive investigation into the matter ensued, and the case was closed due to a lack of evidence linking John with the act. The allegation of parental negligence was later reported in the year 2002 due to the poor appearance of Vincent while at school, in which, in most instances, the boy lacked essential human wants like food and clothing. Surprisingly after investigations with the relevant bodies, the case was again closed on the lack of evidence. Generally, the family has endured many challenges coupled with inadequate finances because none of them is employed, thus depending on the aids given in supplemental security income.

Assessment Process

One of the ways that I would have used to establish rapport with the client is to appear approachable as much as possible so that the client would not have time to initiate a conversation with me. In this regard, I would have carried myself in a friendly and comfortable manner while also paying close attention to the body language. I could again try to establish a common interest with the client by candidly engaging in the client's conversation to find out what we do not share in common (Timulak, 2020). Additionally, I could also spend as much time as possible with the client since this could have put me in a prime position to express values and personality. Other strategies that I could have used are asking relevant questions, fine-tuning the conversation, and picking only the favorite phrases and words in a conversation. The skills that would be successful in working for an alliance with the client are focused on reflection, openness, ethical engagement with the client, and showing humility all the time. The client's cultural background seems to recognize the love bond well with my cultural background in that we would find it extremely easy to engage in several issues (Ahmed et al., 2017). Moreover, my appearance can encourage the client to stay in the conversation because I am smart and confident.

Strengths and Challenges

The client's primary support group, such as the family looked extremely well since, despite their financial status, John could occasionally remit funds to Andrea to facilitate her daily activities. The client's relationship with the parents is not clearly shown in the case study, but the siblings' relationship was incredibly excellent. This good relationship between them stems from when Vincent had the option of being with his mother, Elizabeth's sister. Notably, the relationship between Andrea and her son Vincent looked perhaps explaining the reason why despite all the allegations of violence muted on Vincent, he was ever reluctant to show the bad blood between him and the parents. In contrast, the client's social environment must have been affected by being on and off the hospital, thus lacking time to engage in recreational activities (Norton, 2011). Self-development opportunities, such as acquiring a stable job, are prevented by the client's health status.

Relationship

Going by the case study's information, the client is said to be living in a spacious one-bedroom house in good condition. The neighborhood in which the Andrea family is staying has security and too keen and alert people waiting around. The description of how Vincent responds to physical assault as conveyed by the neighbors shows that they are privy to everything happening around the place. The family's economic issue is the inadequacy of the financial resources because of unemployment while there is healthcare services availability. Moreover, the three problems selected for change are unemployment, domestic violence, and healthcare. The client's employment status is why they survive on SSI while there are allegations of domestic violence where Vincent has fallen victim to quite many times. Andrea and John's health status is why the two of them are not positioned to be involved in social activities such as recreational since they are off the hospital.

Preliminary Intervention Plan

The future direction for work with the client is intended to solve the client's problems. The problems are not limited to health status, unemployment, and domestic conflict. For example, solving the client's health status would require comprehensive health insurance to facilitate their treatment at the best hospitals in the country. It has been highlighted that Andrea has been on and off the hospital for the last three years, yet the issue of health is yet to be solved up to this particular moment. Once the health issue is addressed, the domestic conflict's incidences involving the son and the mother would be deemed over since it is major caused by the health issue. Besides, unemployment has not deprived the client's family of living a cosy and comfortable life and denied them access to quality healthcare. As a result, Vincent, the client's son, is forced to go to school without some of the essential things because the family cannot afford them. It takes the teachers' intervention to come to his rescue since the mother was hospitalized while the father was away from home.

Conclusion

Additionally the domestic conflict has seen the client together with the husband faced several charges on alleged torture and assault to their son. Even though all the cases did not reach the prosecution stage due to a lack of evidence linking the mother and father to their son's alleged mistreating, the credible information given by the neighbors is hard to downplay just yet. The treatment plan I propose for the client is exercising regularly, keeping a strong social support network, proper nutrition, working on stress reduction, and sleeping well (Healthline, 2020). These measures are some of the surest non-medical ways of overcoming depression. Moreover, I would recommend psychotherapy for the client whereby a specialist therapist would enlighten the client on how to gain skills for coping up with the negative feelings (Zimmerman et al., 2000). Targeting a therapist is culturally competent since it gives an individual some of the modest ways of interacting with society's people.

References

Ahmed, S., Amer, M., & Killawi, A. (2017). The ecosystems perspective in social work: Implications for culturally competent practice with American Muslims. Journal Of Religion & Spirituality In Social Work: Social Thought, 36(1-2), 48-72.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15426432.2017.1311245

Healthline. (, 2020). Everything You Want to Know About Depression. Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health/depression.

Kelly, B., & Gates, T. (2010). Using the Strengths Perspective in the Social Work Interview With Young Adults Who Have Experienced Childhood Sexual Abuse. Social Work In Mental Health, 8(5), 421-437. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332981003744438

Krir, J. (2000). The importance of psychosocial aspects in clinical assessment. The British Journal Of Chiropractic, 4(2-3), 50-53.
https://doi.org/10.1016/s1466-2108(00)80026-1.