Adolescent interview
... Psycho developmental issues A lot of her psychological problems come from multiple angles. I feel that a large portion of it seems to stem from the death of her mother in a car incident related to drugs at the age of 8 and the raising of her two children starting at the age of 15. Her father left the household when she was 4 years old. Afterwards her mother raised her up until the age of 8 years of age where her mother was killed crossing the freeway while on drugs. Her aunt raised her with her current girlfriend until he moved out at the age of 18. Also she seems deeply depressed over her status, children, and lack of support from anyone. She seems to exhibit the following symptoms on a daily base (Ch. 7): • An inability to experience pleasure • A lack of interest in daily activities • Unhappiness • Feeling of hopelessness and worthlessness • A decreased capacity to focus and make decisions • And a preoccupation with thoughts of suicide Strengths and Oppressions She has had a strong sense of independence since I’ve known her, and always been a strong willed person and able to change distressed events. After her first child’s father was being verbally abusive she was able to let go of the relationship before the events turned physical. She also has learned to change distressing events (Ch. 7) by becoming more active in positive activities. She has stopped going to late night clubs and gatherings in exchange for her older son’s school activities and worked extra hours to take care of a past due bill. Angel also knows how to endure emotional events by “biting the bullet” and enduring them the best way to her ability. She explained that this has helped her maintain her current job and strong willed in facing tough scenarios. Finally she has a good record of managing money especially during tight scenarios like now. She knows that the bills come first and she has to maintain them because know one else will. As far as oppression she has had a lot to overcome. She suffers from identity diffusion. She looses focus after a short time or just loses interest in it. Angel doesn’t have any idea what her next move is in life and has had a hard time staying committed to anything (jobs, relationships, school, etc). In order for her to gain focus she needs to start making decisions for herself. Once it has developed then Angel needs to learn the value of her decisions and opinions and how they affect her and others in doing so. She also feels family issues are part of the reason. Angel feels that it was her mothers fault for her leaving her at such a young age and holds no resentment toward her father. She also feels Monica is part of why she is in her current state. Monica tries to make attempts to contact Angel, but Angel seems to resent her sister for going to Chicago and leaving her with her kids. She states that her aunts were there for her financially but never emotionally. Angels thinks that she is only being raised by her aunt out of pity for her and really doesn’t care about her. She felt her aunt was always dictating her life and never gave her enough freedom. She always had “I” messages (Ch. 8) put toward her being raised by her aunts like “you’ll never do anything in life” and “how can you be so dam dumb”. She also needs to have an understanding on how to raise kid’s properly. It’s not physical abuse that I’m worried about its more of the mental abuse the kids endure due to poor living conditions and not enough attention to them. Angel leaves the kids to people she hardly knows to go to the store and keeps the kids living conditions unkempt. She is doing a better job than she did about two years ago but she needs to break out of the cycle she was brought up in and try to achieve an identity of being a parent. If she doesn’t learn how to correctly raise them then they may be at greater risk for problems later in life—such as low academic achievement, drug use, teen pregnancy, and criminal behavior. Ethical Dilemmas During the interview I never encountered and ethical dilemmas. ). Everything was straight forward and handled in a professional manner. I did however keep in mind certain issue that can occur during the interview. I hoped I didn’t have to encounter a confrontation during the interview with her. Even though a violent encounter never occurred with her there is always the chance that a patient can become violent at any given point of the process. Close to 90% (87.8%, 144/171) of social workers in Ontario, Canada reported being personally verbally harassed, 63.5% reported being threatened with physical harm, 28.6% reported being physically assaulted but not injured, 29.3% reported being sexually harassed, and 7.8% reported being physically assaulted and injured Also for social work, workplace violence is more likely to occur with someone known by the social worker. This is in contrast to most other occupations, but inline with teaching and mental health as occupations more likely to be victimized by someone known rather than a stranger. I made sure to follow all the guidelines highlighted in the NASW Code of Ethics. I made sure to be there as a partner in the helping process. I was sure to treat her with respect and integrity. If there was an issue she didn’t care to discuss then we wouldn’t discuss it. I was sure to apply all my knowledge from...