Assignment 2 – Assessment and Intervention (35 points – assessment 12 points,intervention (including reflection) 18 points and writing and grammar 5 points) see
attached rubric for grading.
This assignment was designed to be completed in groups of two. You may also choose to work along and
submit individually. If you work in a group of three, you must include an additional problem/challenge,
goal, objective and tasks. Additionally, groups of three must create and include an ecomap for the
family. The case vignette is provided at the bottom below the form. I suggest you read the case, all the
questions and organize your thoughts, look over any material needed (text books, lecture notes, journal
articles) to see how the material you’ve learned can help explain your understanding of what is going on
with this client as well as inform the interventions you choose.
If you work in a group, be sure to include everyone’s name on the assignment but submit it only once
for each group.
You may submit the assignment in written or video form. The attached rubric will be used to grade so
make sure to answer every question in either form.
Part I: Assessment
Use the vignette below as a case study and answer the following questions as part of your intake
assessment and framing an intervention. Please note that you will have to make some assumptions
given that you are unable to have a real face-to-face experience in order to ask more questions. Make
sure to include and answer for each question/section. When appropriate, like when you do not have
enough information from the case information, or the question (piece) does not apply, do not write:
“nothing” or “do not know.” Instead write: “more exploration needed” or “non applicable.”
Make sure to write your answer as you were writing professional case notes.
A) This part has been written like an intake or assessment (questionnaire) form
B) Family History
C) Risk Assessment
D) The Presenting Problem/Challenge or Reason for Seeking Services
A) This part has been written like an intake or assessment (questionnaire) form. You will
need to use this format when answering the questions. Do not alter or create your own.
Referral and other Professional-Type of Information.
1) Who referred the client?
______________________________________________________
2) Has the client received social work services (including psychotherapy) before?
□ Yes
□
No
If yes, is there an indication of lack of follow through in prior treatment? If so, indicate.
_______________________________________________________________________
3) Mention the ethical and legal obligations you have when working with the client? In other words,
what will you need to tell her regarding confidentiality, etc.? Be precise.
_______________________________________________________________________
4) Client’s Demographic Information-Social Group Membership Identification:
(a) Race ____________________
(b) Age ___________________________
(c) Socio-economic status ________________________________
(d) School level and/or occupation _____________________________________________
(e) Ethnicity _____________________________________
(f) Gender ______________________________________
(g) Sexual emotional orientation/preference ______________________________________
(h) Marital/Domestic Partnership Information
□ Married □ Single
□ Never Married
□ Separated
□ Widow/widower □ In a Registered Domestic Partnership
(Non-Domestic Registered)
□ Divorced
□ In a Partner Relationship
(i) Physical/developmental abilities (has a physical disability or is abled-body)
_____________________________________________
(j) Religion __________________________________
(k) Language _________________________________
B) Family History. For this section, add only the number (and not the question or inquiry).
Be concise and write in a professional manner.
1) Family Members. Add a list of the members of the client’s family and a brief piece on their
relationship to her (e.g., mother – in recovery from alcoholism; father – estranged, etc.).
2) Substance Use History & Other Addictive Behavior. Identify any history of substance use or substance
induced disorders or other addictive behaviors (including gambling) of the client and her family.
3) Abuse History. Identify any history of abuse for the client and her family, including neglect, emotional,
verbal, physical, and sexual abuse, and partner/marital rape.
4) Losses. Identify any areas, such as separations, divorce, death, etc. for the client and her family.
5) Identify any family secrets for the client and the members of her family (these have to be of
importance or significance).
6) Social Skills and Supports. Include a brief history of social coping skills of the client and her family
(e.g., extended family, community support, and use of resources within natural support systems).
7) Address any issue related to cultural context and/or conflicts for the client and her family (e.g.,
refugees, migrated due to political persecution). Note: Be careful with answers that are biased or come
across as stereotypical.
C) Risk Assessment. You will need to use the format provided here and add a check mark on the box
that applies.
1. Relevant Brief Medical History of Client.
● Does the client have any health problems or reported illness? □ Yes □ No
● Does the client report any prior psychiatric diagnosis? □ Yes □ No
● Does the client indicate taking medication, including psychotropics? □ Yes □ No
2. Use the following list in order to indicate specific symptoms or social issues. If the selected issue is
from the past, write (history) next to the issue. Note that these relate to the client, and not members of
her/his family.
□ Suicidal ideation/plan
□ Assaultive Behavior
□ Self harm (mutilation)
□ Destruction of Property
□ Issues of chronic anger/rage
□ Intimate Partner Violence
□ Substance abuse/dependence
(If so, highlight self or toward partner?)
□ History of “being in the system” (CPS)
□ Gang involvement
□ Legal/Criminal issues (Incarceration)
□ Unsafe sexual behaviors
□ Other issues (add below)
□ Housing issues (homelessness)
_________________________
D) The Presenting Problem/Challenge or Reason for Seeking Services.
For this section you must select two (2) presenting problems or challenges (groups of 3 see additional
instructions above). This may be selected from what the client reports or from what you, as the social
worker, believe should be the focus of your intervention and which you can agree upon with the client.
The problems/challenges must be current.
1. What is the first presenting challenge/problem (in this section you will only answer the question
(no explanation needed):
_______________________________________________________________
2. What is the main contributing factor to this problem/challenge? (Be concise)
______________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
3. How has the client attempted to cope with and/or overcome this challenge? In other words,
what has the client done to address, alleviate and/or overcome the challenge? Make sure to add
an answer, and please do not write: “client has not done anything.”
_________________________________________________________________
4. What is the second presenting challenge/problem (in this section you will only answer the
question (no explanation needed):
_______________________________________________________________
5. What is the main contributing factor to this problem/challenge? (Be concise)
______________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
6. How has the client attempted to cope with and/or overcome this challenge? In other words,
what has the client done to address, alleviate and/or overcome the challenge? Make sure to add
an answer, and please do not write: “client has not done anything.”
_________________________________________________________________
7. List three (3) strengths the client shows that would support framing a solution to help her/him
address, alleviate and/or overcome the challenges you described above.
Strengths:
1. _________________________________________
2. _________________________________________
3. _________________________________________
Part II: (Proposed) Interventions – You may choose Mrs. Newman or Dee-Dee as the focus
of your interventions.
Make sure that the information you provide addresses and is related to the presenting problem or
challenge you selected under “assessment.” When answering the questions, assume you are writing for
a social worker that is not familiar with your case. Also, follow a format similar to that of writing case
notes (be concise, write in a professional manner; free of jargon, slang and opinions/judgments).
Indicate the number of sessions as well as the frequency of sessions you believe the client will need
(e.g., X # of sessions, once a week) _____________
1. Are you considering collateral sessions (e.g., family members)?
□ Yes □ No If so, with who? ____________________
2. What is the goal of your proposed intervention for the first problem or challenge?
________________________________________________________
3. What is the objective and tasks?
4. What is the goal of your proposed intervention for the second problem or challenge?
________________________________________________________
5. What is the objective and tasks for this second problem or challenge?
_______________________________________________________
6. Using CBT, or behavioral treatment, or crisis intervention answer the following:
a) Add one example of a technique you would use with the client (should fit with the
intervention you have chosen):
_______________________________________________________
(b) Add an additional therapy technique you suggest using with the client:
________________________________________________________
7. Add one case management activity you would suggest for the client:
________________________________________________________
8. Describe how your experience of working with this client has contributed or could
contribute to your professional development (e.g., lessons that you can take from this
case in order to enrich your social work practice skills and knowledge base).
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
Part III: Individual Reflection
1. How did this assignment help you understand how assessment and intervention are related?
2. What challenges do you think this client would present for you? How would you use your
strengths to manage those challenges?
CASE STUDY**
[** Case was adopted from “Cases For Intervention Planning” by M. Hancock & K. Millar]
Client: Kim Newman, age 30
Children: Dianne (Dee-Dee), age 11 and Jody, age 8
Husband: Howard Newman, age 37
Presenting Problem
Mr. and Mrs. Newman have been married for twelve years. The first beatings occurred after the first year
of the marriage and have continued with varying severity ever since. He began to beat the children as
“discipline” with his belt and his fists almost as soon as they could run around and get into mischief.
Three days ago, Howard beat Dee-Dee with his fists and locked her in her bedroom to punish her for
talking back to him. Mrs. Newman threatened to call child protective services, and he said “Go ahead.
Who do you think they will believe, you or me?” His challenge frightened her because his appearance and
demeanor were always that of the responsible breadwinner, devoted father, and husband. She felt that it
would be impossible to convince anyone that he was actually different from the way he presented
himself. However, after this incident, Dee-Dee threatened her mother that she was going to run away
from home.
Mrs. Newman had made a note of our number when she saw it about two months ago on a bulletin
board at the supermarket. She was able to come here secretly by telling Howard she and the girls were
going to visit their maternal grandparents for the weekend. She phoned us and arrived here by taxi the
last night.
Background Information
Kim, now thirty, was eighteen when she married Howard, who is seven years older than her. Kim had two
sisters older than her, and a younger brother. Dianne, her next older sister, was one years old when Kim
was born. Her mother often told her that she had “hardly recovered” from Dianne’s birth when she
became pregnant with Kim. Apparently, Kim’s birth had been difficult for her mother, with a long labor
and forceps delivery. Kim says she always felt to blame for this. She thinks she was about five or six when
her mother complained of feeling ill one day. Kim had tried to say she was sorry for being such a “bad
baby getting born.” She remembers that her mother snapped at her that it was too late to say she was
sorry now.
Kim grew up feeling rejected by both parents. She was always forced to give into her little brother
Michael, who was the apple of everyone’s eye. Her dad favored the two older girls and of course always
joined her mother in blaming her for things that she knew were her siblings’ fault.
She met Howard at her eldest sister’s wedding. He was a friend of the groom’s family. They began dating
soon after the wedding. He was handsome, a good dancer, and co-owner of a very successful travel
agency. He had graduated from college with a degree in business, and seemed to her, “a dream
husband” in every way. Her parents thoroughly approved, although her Dad often said he couldn’t see
what a smart guy like Howard could see in her. She says she was very much in love with him and was
determined to make a good wife for him, and prove to him and her family that she was a “good person.”
She also admitted that marriage was a way to get away from home. She had finished high school before
her marriage but had no marketable skills.
They had been married about a year when Howard first hit her. Before that there had been fights when
he had slapped her face a few times, but on this occasion, he had held her by one shoulder and really
punched her in the face. Later he said he was sorry and brought her flowers and assured her that it
would never happen again. She had had to take a couple of days off work because her eye was
blackened, and her face was bruised. She decided that she must remember this and try harder not to get
him mad in the future. From then on things went from bad to worse. When she was pregnant the first
time, he threw her to the floor and kicked her. She was two months pregnant at the time.
Kim thought that when the children were born Howard might change, because he had said he wanted
children- “A family isn’t a family without children.” But he was disappointed that they didn’t have a son
and blamed her for not being “a real woman.” A year after Jody’s birth she had to have a complete
hysterectomy, caused in part, the gynecologist had told her, “by an earlier injury- perhaps a miscarriage”
Howard was furious about the hysterectomy and blamed her for not being “woman enough” to give him
a son, and also for talking the doctors into doing it to avoid being “a real wife.” She felt guilty about the
hysterectomy and although inwardly relieved that she could not have any more children, this also made
her feel guilty because she felt it was “unwomanly” and against her Catholic upbringing.
The abuse continued and Howard also began to discipline the children with his fists (as noted above). She
protected them from him as much as she could, often taking the blame for things they had done:
untidiness, eating the last of the muffins, and so forth. In more recent years, Howard seems to get angry
at the girls for everything and Kim started doing everything for the girls including their chores to avoid
creating any potential situation for Howard to get angry at them. The girls and Howard hardly talked to
each other – the girls do not want Howard to be around nor engage in their daily activities. Besides, both
girls, especially Dee-Dee, have been struggling with school work and Dee-Dee’s teacher called Kim to
share her concerns about Dee-Dee’s failing grade in Math, Science, and Social Studies as well as her
disruptive behaviors in classroom (e.g., aggressive towards her classmates and teachers, not following
the instructions, etc.)
The next day, while he was at work, she called the social services anonymously, and asked about a recent
article in the local paper about a safe house for battered women and their children. When the woman
answering the phone asked if she was inquiring for herself, she hung up, afraid to get into something for
which she wasn’t truly ready. She was still too frightened of Howard’s rage to take any definite steps at
that time. The incident with Dee-Dee and her subsequent threat to leave home, had finally compelled
Kim to act, after talking it over with both girls. Kim told Howard that she and the girls would go to
Townsville to visit their grandparents for the coming weekend. Fortunately, Howard told her he had a
business trip arranged for the weekend himself. Kim saw it as her one and only chance, and she packed
up their things as if for a brief visit, phoned us and learned that she could come here immediately. They
arrived last evening.
You are assigned by the shelter to be Mrs. Newman and her family’s social worker.