Herbert was born in a typical New York family. He was different, though, since he was physically challenged. His parents, Clifford and Maryanne, were well-respected professionals, each with a fledgling career, and like their first born son, Herbert could not have come at a better time. Clifford had just closed a case that would set the mellow attorney on his way to life, or so he thought. It did not take long before the house of cards came crumbling. Maryanne lost what would have been her second child and first daughter in a cruel stillbirth. She seemed okay, but everyone could tell that she was shaken. Clifford’s less than past honorable deals started surfacing, and with his reputation went his clientele. He bore an unmistaken resentment towards his wife for “killing their child,” a fact which he did not hold back from expressing on more than one occasion and still lived in denial from having a son who turned out to be disabled.
The problem
Hebert was only nine when his dad started drinking what was left of his dignity and money. He held back from filing for bankruptcy for a while, but when his multi-million apartment was foreclosed for his defaulting from his mortgage payments, the reality hit hard. Herbert went from one school to another, trying to fit in from his disabled nature. In the end, he ended up dropping out due to discrimination from the various schools he went to. Maryanne never recovered from the loss of her child, and with an alcoholic husband, she also crumbled under pressure. She was deemed to not be of sound mind and checked into a mental institution, and Herbert could not live with his father anymore. Herbert stands the risk of depressed not only because of discrimination from society since he is disabled, but because of his father’s attitude towards him as well as his unstable family who was facing challenges.
Goals
As the human service worker assigned to this case, my primary goal is to help Herbert achieve the best possible levels of personal and social well-being. From the above case, we point out that Herbert is a disabled child who is experiencing issues dealing with discrimination and seclusion from society and his family. Additionally, his family is experiencing financial instability and the loss of a child, which has led his father to be a drunkard and his mother to be mentally unstable. As a result, Herbert suffers from depression and a lack of self-acceptance from his condition (Tong, 2019).
I will begin by summoning Herbert to assess his feelings as well as views regarding his situation.
I will ask questions that will gauge the level of his mental capacity in order to derive proper approaches to help him improve his mental state.
After this is achieved, I will help Herbert with the issue of self-acceptance- by boosting his esteem, which will eventually help him with his social interaction with individuals both at home and at school (Elliott et al., 2011).
I will arrange to meet his foster parents and teachers at school as well to discuss the suggested means to help Herbert recover.
Intervention
Family systems programs are among the approaches that can be used. This will focus on helping Herbat’s parents deal with stress, which affects their quality of parenting (Tong, R. (2019). Interactional programs can also be used to promote positive interaction and social interaction between children with disabilities and caregivers.
It was not easy finding a foster home for him due to his condition, but eventually, he saw one. We organized for therapy sessions for him, which he was reluctant to attend. After a few sessions, he started opening up and speaking more freely. He opened up on being depressed from being secluded by society and, even worse, not being accepted by his father (Thompson & Waltz, 2018). Surprisingly, he did not hate his father as we initially thought. If anything, he felt sorry for him and kept asking us to help his dad instead. We arranged for a meeting between them, but Clifford was too ashamed to face his son. He avoided the discussion with all kinds of excuses, and it took a lot to make this twelve-year-old understand why his father was unable to see him.
Herbert had started school in the foster home, but he was not paying attention in class. We met his class teacher and explained to her why Herbert’s case was particularly sensitive. She insists that Herbert does not belong in foster care, which I feel may affect how she treats him.
Herbert, our client, is too young to be experiencing what he has had to live through. Not only do we have him in therapy, but we also visit him weekly to follow up on him and have tried our best to keep his mind off his troubled childhood. We hope that the other boys he has started playing within the school and the chess club will keep him busy.