Case Conceptualization Paper
In the presented article, a nine-year-old girl named Suzi has been in a residential treatment for three years. At a tender age, she has been through several traumatic experiences that have significantly altered her traits and deeds. This paper will focus on discussing and analyzing the different components of Suzi’s situation. this paper illustrates the factors contributing to the development of her traits and deeds are considered. Moreover, social work theories will be useful in establishing an understanding of Suzi’s situation.
Assessment
Presenting Issues
Suzi presents several issues that have seen her been referred to a residential treatment center. She has had adjustment issues in many foster homes. Moreover, her uncle and aunt were unable to cope with her behaviors and even found her a threat to other children. Suzi raises a pressing concern at the residential treatment center since she is currently unable to meet the hygienic standards she often meets with ease while at school. Her behaviors may suggest that she does not like life at the treatment facility.
Risk Factors
Suzi has been through several traumatic experiences at the tender age of just two and a half years. Furthermore, her movement from one foster home to another will be considered a risk factor that would have predisposed her current character’s development.
Suzi’s traumatic experiences start with her mother severely abusing and neglecting her. The abuse further stretches to other adults who visited her mother. She gets sexually abused when she starts living with her father.
Her transfers from one foster home to another at a young age proves to be a challenge since she is provided with little time to settle and adjust to a new environment. Her inability to compromise and cope with her peers proves to be a risk factor.
Protective Factors
Despite having prominent risk factors in her life, Suzi is lucky enough to have some protective factors. She is currently in a residential treatment center where her well-being requirements are being monitored effectively. Moreover, at the treatment center, her character is easily monitored, and her challenges can be quickly identifying and addressed.
Suzi is also fond of her uncle and aunt, who she desires to live with all the families she has lived with. Despite not visiting her consistently in the treatment facility, they express the willingness to live with her again if circumstances favor the reunion.
Systems
Suzi goes to a school where she excellently performs. Her teachers and other school management official form a team that helps in monitoring her well-being. She is further monitored at the treatment facility where she currently lives. Child protective service plays the overall task of ensuring the treatment facility benefits Suzi during her adjustments and recoveries.
Resource Needs
according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the desires for love and a sense of belonging play a vital role in the development process (Hale et al., 2019). Using the theory to analyze Suzi’s situation, conclusions can be drawn that Suzi’s social challenges arise from the traumatic experiences she has being through. Feeling unloved and by her parents and moving from one family to another severely undermines her development process. Suzi’s psychological needs are not addressed since she is moved from one foster home to another without treatment. If the conditions are to remain, Suzi might grow to have socially undesirable traits.
Case Conceptualization
Theories
Family systems theory. To successfully examine Suzi’s condition, the family system theory will be employed to analyze her situations. According to the family system theory, a clear understanding of an individual can be built if the families they belong to are considered functional systems (Fitzgerald et al., 2020). When examinations are conducted in Suzi’s family as an emotional unit with interaction, a basis for establishing the source of Suzi’s current traits can be found easily. The abuse from her mother and father have left Suzi feeling unloved with no sense of belonging. She is only drawn to her uncle’s family despite being into many families.
Attachment theory. A second theory that will be employed will be the attachment theory. The theory states that the relationship built between the caregiver and the child is very significant in their lives. Focusing on Suzi’s life, she has not been allowed to get attached to her caregivers. From her parents to the foster homes series, she only seemed to have formed a bond with her uncle’s family. Abused by her parents, she misses the opportunity to get attached to them. She is severely affected evident by her aggressive actions and her low self-esteem.
Contributing Factors
According to the provided article, several factors are contributing to the state of Suzi’s character. Her early traumatic experiences have made her have socially unacceptable traits. Abuse from her parents, who should be protecting her, has made her feeling unloved and unprotected. Based on the assessments, Suzi is not attracted to the foster families and the treatment facility but rather shed wan on her aunt and uncle. It can be argued that it is only with her uncle’s family that Suzi feels accepted and loved. She fails to achieve the same feeling with the different foster families he has been into and has continuously transferred. Even in school, she fails to associate with her peers entirely, and she develops various undesirable traits despite performing well academically.
Areas for Intervention
Micro-level. At the micro-level, Suzi’s relationship with her parents needs to be addressed. This will prove of aid to her development since studies show that adverse effects from early traumatic experiences in children can be addressed by providing positive social support, which is based on a good relationship with the caregiver. However, with limited or no positive social support, the probability of Suzi healing and living a normal life tend to below.
Mezzo level. Based on the school assessment, Suzi is having trouble socializing and interacting with her other children. She quickly gets frustrated when engaged by her peers. She suffers from low self-esteem and becomes destructive under any circumstances. To handle her situation at school, the teachers should engage in social support with trained personnel to ensure that Suzi feels comfortable and loved. The social support would further make sure she suffers from no inferiority complex when with fellow children.
Macro-level. It is essential to ensure that all the traumatic experiences Suzi has been through are addressed and allowed to heal at the macro level. A specialized social worker could be employed to take her through the entire healing process. The worker will ensure that all of Suzi’s insecurities are dropped. After healing, she can drop her low self-esteem, constant frustrations, and toxicity to those interacting with her. Moreover, her strengths, such as satisfactory academic performances, will be boosted further.
Barriers to Treatment
A potential barrier arises because her uncle’s family is currently reluctant to reunite with her in her current state. They fear for her cousin’s well-being following the prevailing toxicity of Suzi. If the family were to accept her, the treatment process would be easier since all families she has been with are only fond of her uncle’s family. Her parent’s absence and the harm they had subjected her to made the uncle’s family the best option she has for her treatment. Most importantly, all stakeholders in Suzi’s treatment should play their roles effectively for success to be achieved.
Conclusion
Many children who have been to foster care systems have been subjected to multiple traumatic experiences like disruptions of family units. The employment of relationship-based interventions has often proved to aid the children during their treatments (Chinitz et al., 2017). These interventions require the complete involvement of all stakeholders for success in the treatment process to be attained. The application of social support can be used to assist other children facing the same challenges as Suzi.