Challenges Faced by the Smith Family

Question:

Write a Assessment Report including an Intervention Plan.

Harry Smith is the head of the family. Rena Smith is his wife. They live with their children Victoria and William in Marrickville. Rena is of 22 years old Maori woman used to live in Tainui, a tribal group of South Auckland. Harry on the other hand is of 24 years pakeha man. They met each other in their teenage at the time they migrated from New Zealand to Australia. Harry had a well-paid job in the mine of north Perth. However, the family now lives in Marrickville to eradicate the loneliness and stay nearby Smith family. It is because Rena misses her family in New Zealand and desires to go back to them. Harry on the other hand has no interest in Rena’s family or culture. However, he stays disturbed due with is desire of Rena, as jobs in New Zealand are not well paid. The children has to suffer for this unhealth relationship between Rena and Harry and left isolated for most of the time. This caused them to live a physically unhealthy life.

The neighbour of the family Mary Brown describe the family condition as miserable. The health issue of the children had been identified the schoolteacher assuming from the irregularity of the children in attending classes. These problems are leading deterioration of both physical and mental health condition of the children. This can be supported with the system theory that hold parents, friends, economic condition, and home environment etc. responsible for the deterioration of the condition of children (Turner, 2017). It is due to the unhealthy relationship between Harry and Rena as a husband and wife. This unhealthy relationship is reflected through their children, as they are for the maximum time stay unattended. They lack tidiness and hygiene in their home.

Another challenge that can be identified form the case is the reported drug trafficking in their family. This may be due to the unhealthy mental condition of the family members. As evidenced from the case, Harry is a short-tempered person, which is reflected through his rough behaviour towards his wife and children. Moreover, the late night gathering, shouting and party is assumed to be associated with the drug trafficking, which facilitates in degradation of the family health and leads to psychological disorder. These are the end-products of social crisis as mentioned in the psychosocial theory (Kaplan, 2013).

Identification of Social Issues and Theories

The ethnic issue might not be present in this case as Harry is least bothered about Rena’s culture. He is upset due to Rena’s desire to return to Sydney, as there is less job opportunity for Harry and the jobs there are not well paid. However, the class and gender issue might be present in the case. Harry is the sole earner of the family as per the case report. This might define the reason for ill-treatment he provides to his wife and children, as his behaviour reported rough towards them. This can be defined with the psychodynamic theory opined by Sigmund Freud. It tried to understand the reason behind the person’s behaviour and relate it to their inner and outer environment (Flores, 2013).

The husband is a strong person and dedicate toward his work. He put enough hard labour in his work. However, lack of proper education restricts him to a certain jobs. Despite of his lack in education, he managed to secure a high pay in the mines of Perth. He further reflects his strong view regarding Maori as he expressed his thought that New Zealand could have been a better place if it shared similar view towards black people as Australia holds.

The data provided reflects no as such existence of support system in the family. It resulted in the issues the family is currently facing.

Intervention plan is the process the councillor considers during their session. It is like a map to address the issues existing in the family (Parker, 2017). According to Payne (2015) external influence can considerably help to increase the family condition. Moreover, economic condition of the family might be a crucial factor creating tension in the family. Chang, Natsuaki and Chen (2013) identified that the economic distress can often lead to break down of the family harmony. Hence, transpersonal theory is best to engage with the case and assess the case. The theory was proposed by Carl Jung, which asks the social workers and psychologists to implement the positive influences for overcoming distressed situation (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2016). Hence, the family can use the support and influence of the social workers psychologists and psychoanalysts for resolving the issue. Engaging the social workers and psychologists in resolving the mutual problem between the husband and wife can potentially solve the issue exists in the family. Secondly, the workers will help them to grow love and care for the family. The family can enjoy certain level of happiness by developing love and affection for every family members. The proposed intervention plan is as follows.

• The members will be taught behaviour by the social workers
• Positive influence will be made on the members to grow care and affectionate in the members
• The members will be appraised if they perform well in the course.
• Each of the members have to undergo weekly session for identifying the progress of the intervention.
• A meditation program will also be included in the plan to help them gain control over their mind.

Proposed Intervention Plan

The support form the social workers and psychologists is the best to help developing affection for the family and resolve the issues prevalent in the family along side of the intervention plan proposed above.

Conclusion

It is possible to conclude from the report that the family faces lack of support for holding the structure together. The bitter relationship between the husband and wife is leading to degradation in their children’s health and mental condition. Moreover, the family is also facing social issues. The intervention plan mention in the report can potentially resolve the issues. A positive inspiration and support form the social workers and psychologists can considerably develop the family relation.

This part of the assignment is my reflection of the case and explains what I understood and what is required to better understand the case. The purpose of this activity is to consider change and improvement to practice, knowledge and meaning made from the learning.

Firstly, according to my knowledge, the case presented for analysis is incomplete. I need some more information of the family members prepare a better intervention plan. One of the missing information in the report is the strength and skills of the wife in the family, which is Rena Smith. Further information would have been helpful regarding the relationship between the parents and the children. By further information, I mean to ask the level of interaction and some minute details regarding the interaction, which might prove useful in this case. Moreover, additional information should be extracted from the teacher about the children’s performance in the school and their interaction with the other students. I also require additional details about their mode of travelling to school will reflect the economic condition and priority they receive from their parents. It is evidenced in the case that the neighbour Mary has reported suspecting of drug trafficking in their family. This sounds a bit vague as there is no evidence to support this assumption. Hence, some kind of details related to this information could have strengthened the assumption and help the social workers take necessary procedure.

The information on the skills and strengths of Rena could have helped me to analyse the impact of class and status of the mentioned individual in the family. This would have eased the process of analysis to understand the relation between the husband and wife in the family and the power Rena has in the house. The in depth information on the parents children relationship would help understand the reason behind Harry’s rough attitude towards them. The information related to the children’s performance at school and their interaction with their classmates would have helped me to understand the severity of the condition. Further, as I mentioned earlier, the information of drug trafficking in the family reported by the neighbour sound vague, which needs to be supported by proper evidence. I cannot carry out procedure for addressing this particular issue as I have no as such evidence in my hand.

Reflection

I can’t relate this situation with my own family experience as my father never ill-treated any of us. Moreoover, my mother was also supporting and took care of us all day long. She used to drop us at school and pick us up on time. However, to some extent, I can relate this situation to my uncle’s as I had been with them for a while. My uncle is a heavy drinker and comes home late at night after visiting the bar every night. However, he was pretty much concern about his behaviour at home. This is due to the problem my cousin brother faced. However, my uncle didn’t ill-treat his children even though he drank. On contrary, he was concern about them and entered the house without making noise. Hence, I tried to encourage my cousin brother as much as possible to come out of the depression. I also made him understand that it is a part of his job as my uncle work in a respected position in his company.

The uneven balance we can identify in this case is natural as people are unequal and different form each other. However, according to Davidoff and Hall (2013) this power needs to be balanced to maintain the harmony of the family. Social workers and psychologists come into action for balancing the power relationship in cases like this. The process starts from initiating conversation with the family members. Hence, I interacted with each of the family members separately. Moreover, I also considered conversing with the neighbour who reported the drug abuse in their family. I then evaluated the problems that can be identified in the process. Later, a group session was conducted to share the identified problems with the individuals. It helped them understand what was going wrong in their family.  Later, I asked Mary Brown to make healthy communication with Rena and make her understand the meaning of family. It will further help Rena understand her duties in family towards her children and husband.

The Case of Smith family made me understand that the parents are responsible to prioritise their children regardless of the situation and problem that might occur. Failing of which will lead to the condition as evidenced in the case. Moreover, the drug trafficking as reported in the report can cause severe physical and mental health hazard. It poses significant threat on the children’s mental health that might significantly degrade the physical health of the children. I consider the counselling is the appropriate method to tackle this kind of problem that arises in the family.  It will help in identifying the undermine problems in the family structure and behaviour. However, this alone cannot help the family to recover from the situation. Support from the friends and neighbours whoever is close to the family is necessary for recovering. The positive influence in this case can help the family understanding the proper behaviour of the individual family members they need to perform to maintain the health. Hence, according to my understanding, this influence is only possible to receive from the individuals who are closely related to the family or located in close proximity to the family. As Smith family does not maintain relation with their larger family located nearby, and their friend circle is not healthy enough to provide them positive support, the responsibility then moves to the neighbours to develop the family condition.

References

Capuzzi, D., & Stauffer, M. D. (2016). Counseling and psychotherapy: Theories and interventions. John Wiley & Sons.

Chang, J., Natsuaki, M.N. & Chen, C.N., (2013). The importance of family factors and generation status: mental health service use among Latino and Asian Americans. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 19(3), p.236.

Cohen, S., Underwood, L. G., & Gottlieb, B. H. (Eds.). (2000). Social support measurement and intervention: A guide for health and social scientists. Oxford University Press.

Davidoff, L., & Hall, C. (2013). Family fortunes: Men and women of the English middle class 1780–1850.

Flores, P. J. (2013). Group psychotherapy with addicted populations: An integration of twelve-step and psychodynamic theory.

Goyal, M., Singh, S., Sibinga, E.M., Gould, N.F., Rowland-Seymour, A., Sharma, R., Berger, Z., Sleicher, D., Maron, D.D., Shihab, H.M. & Ranasinghe, P.D., (2014). Meditation programs for psychological stress and well-being: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA internal medicine, 174(3), pp.357-368.

Kaplan, H. B. (Ed.). (2013). Psychosocial stress: Trends in theory and research. Academic Press.

Parker, J. (2017). Social work practice: Assessment, planning, intervention and review. Learning Matters.

Payne, M., (2015). Modern social work theory. London: Oxford University Press.

Turner, F. J. (2017). Social work treatment: Interlocking theoretical approaches. Oxford University Press.