Abstract
This report presents a comprehensive family assessment conducted by a social worker, adhering to the tenets of the seven generalist intervention model (GIM). During the engagement process, the social worker was able to make the family comfortable, build rapport, and keep them engaged in the conversations. At the assessment stage, the social worker worked with the family to identify and understand the issues and concerns they were experiencing, what had caused them, and what could be done to resolve them.
In the planning stage, the social worker collaborated with the client to develop an action plan for the intervention that would be executed during the implementation stage. Termination was completed after the client and the social worker agreed that the objectives had been met. Follow-up is conducted twice a year after the contract has been terminated.
Introduction
Contemporary social work has a generalist nature that provides professionals with the knowledge of people in the context of their surroundings; this helps them understand how the interpersonal relationships within these surroundings affect their psychological, spiritual, physical, intellectual, and social well-being (Mitchell et al., 2020). Therefore, this research paper will adopt the generalist nature of social work to conduct a family assessment using the seven tenets of the Generalist Intervention Model (GIM) to enhance the family’s overall well-being. The seven tenets include engagement, assessment, planning, implementation, evaluation, termination, and follow-up.
Engagement
When the social worker first met the family, they introduced themselves to each member individually with a warm, courteous, and welcoming smile and politely gestured for them to sit down. The practitioner started the session by developing a positive professional relationship with the family. Michael was curious and excited, so he kept wiggling in his seat. On the other hand, his sister, Matilda, was calm and collected, maintaining eye contact and smiling when she was smiled at.
The father, Harry, was noticeably annoyed to be there and had a slight frown. Finally, the mother, Zinnia, appeared nervous. She was fidgeting, and her eyes kept moving around the room in quick, agitated motions.
According to Patino & Rojas (2022), in engagement, a social worker must establish a harmonious relationship or build rapport with the client to communicate effectively and achieve the objectives of the sessions. The social worker determined the family’s formal and informal hierarchy to help build a positive and lasting impression. Since, from their observation, everyone was uncomfortable, they realized that making the children comfortable and engaged first may help to keep the parents somewhat calm. Therefore, they began the sessions by asking the children light, open-ended questions and then gradually moved on to the parents. After approximately thirty minutes, a rapport was established, and every family member seemed comfortable and engaged in the conversations with the social worker.
Assessment
After a rapport was established and everyone was comfortable, the social worker asked leading questions to gain a deeper understanding of the family dynamics and their concerns and issues. The social worker asked questions that helped them assess the family’s background, needs, limitations, and strengths. During this process, Michael had no issue with missing school; he was happy staying at home the whole day because he got to play video games. He explained that school is boring and that he does not need it because he will be a car salesman like his father, and all he needs to do is be charming. Matilda revealed that she feels neglected and less loved when she is not taken to school and has to spend the whole day at home idling while her friends are at school learning and playing.
Zinnia interjected by disclosing that she felt overwhelmed by running the household alone. She explained that she grew up in a patriarchal family where the women are supposed to clean the house, take care of the children, and ensure everyone in the family is well-fed and happy. Growing up, she aspired to be like her mother and other women; thus, she was ready and excited to be a housewife. However, while crying, she revealed that the actual running of the homestead was not as easy as she had expected, making her feel like a failure.
On the other hand, Harry agreed that his wife might be failing the children, but she was not failing him. He explained that he is happy and expects everyone in the family to fulfill their duties without fail. On the issue of spanking, yelling, and destruction of property when he is angry, Harry explained that he was spanked as a child and sees nothing wrong with disciplining his children the same way he was. He explained that he can become angry and yell when he is annoyed.
As the family shared their stories, the social worker carefully reiterated what they said. Patino and Rojas (2022) explain that it is vital for social workers to reiterate the strengths they recognize in the speaker to boost their confidence and help the process. Through the assessment process, the social worker gained an understanding of the family’s interactions and dynamics, identifying systems that have had both positive and negative experiences for them.
Planning
The family and practitioner began the intervention by developing an action plan to solve the recognized problems. According to Mitchell et al. (2020), the planning process involves eight steps: working with the client, prioritizing the problem, translating problems into needs, evaluating the stages of intervention for every need, establishing goals, specifying objectives, outlining action steps, and formalizing the contract. The social worker followed these steps to create the action plan. First, they all acknowledged that the children were being abused and neglected in that household. However, since everyone in the family recognized their shortcomings and was ready and willing to work on them, there was no need to remove the children from the household and fragment the family. A contract was made that aimed to fulfill the following objectives of the intervention:
- To ensure that the children’s needs are met.
- To provide appropriate help to the overwhelmed mother.
- To help the father understand child abuse and identify better ways to let out his anger.
- To help Michael understand the importance of school.
Implementation
Regarding Harry’s assistance with Zinnia’s household duties, he opted to help with the children and explained that he had never done housework before. He helped the children with their schoolwork in the evenings when he came home from work and drove them to school in the mornings on his way to work. Michael was connected to an education advisor to help him understand the importance of education and expand his career options. Zinnia takes a day off every fortnight to meet with friends and regain the energy to run the household. Harry was introduced to an anger management class, where he is learning various ways to deal with his anger.
Evaluation
The parents were warned that evaluations would determine whether they were working towards fulfilling the terms of the contract. The evaluation was done throughout the intervention process through the social worker’s impromptu visits to the family home and school to determine the extent to which the parents fulfilled the objectives. The social worker opted for the goal attainment scaling evaluation method, which uses standardized questionnaires or interview questions (Kocaballi et al., 2019). Therefore, they interviewed the children, parents, anger management instructors, and school administration.
Termination and Follow-Up
During the visits, the social worker recognized that everyone in the family followed the directives appropriately. The father had attended all but one of his anger management sessions. The children were attending school regularly, and their grades were improving.
Zinnia was less overwhelmed with running the household and was happy that her husband was helping her and working on himself. However, Michael was still determined to be a car salesman and did not need to attend school. Once the social worker and the family agreed that sufficient progress had been made and the contract’s objectives had been met, the contract was terminated. Follow-up was arranged every six months to check on everyone’s welfare.
Conclusion
In social work, generalist practice encourages practitioners to think critically about the identified concerns and issues of clients and place them within the context of their environment. The family was assessed using the generalist intervention model, and appropriate interventions were implemented. The social worker functioned closely with the clients and developed a contract that immediately stopped the abuse and neglect that the children were going through. Their general quality of life was improved. Through established systems, such as anger management courses and enlisting the help of an educational advisor, the family is receiving the assistance it needs to address the issues and concerns they identified with the social worker.
References
Kocaballi, A. B., Berkovsky, S., Quiroz, J. C., Laranjo, L., Tong, H. L., Rezazadegan, D., Briatore, A., & Coiera, E. (2019). The personalization of conversational agents in health care: Systematic review. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 21(11). Web.
Mitchell, S. G., Gryczynski, J., Schwartz, R. P., Kirk, A. S., Dusek, K., Oros, M.,… & Brown, B. S. (2020). Adolescent Sbirt Implementation: Generalist Vs. Specialist Models Of Service Delivery In Primary Care. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 111, 67-72. Web.
Patino, R., & Rojas, Y. (n.d.). Fostering resilience amongst social workers in the Social Work Field. CSUSB ScholarWorks. Web.