Case Study: Dave - Identifying Social and Cultural Factors and Developing Intervention Plan

Read about the case study of Dave, an Aboriginal man struggling with alcohol addiction and unemployment. Learn how to identify social and cultural factors and develop an intervention plan as a community support worker.

Case Study : Dave is a 38-year-old Aboriginal man
Dave is a 38-year-old Aboriginal man who works as an automotive mechanic who came into the
treatment center after being arrested for drinking and driving (DUI/DWI).
His attorney has suggested that he quit drinking and enter treatment, at least until his trial which is
scheduled in three months.
Dave does not anticipate serving jail time, but he believes that attending treatment could
strengthen his legal case. After his first arrest for DUI two years ago, he simply paid a fine and
attended a special driver's education program for six weeks. Dave found the program to be "a
waste of time." His lawyer has indicated that with a previous conviction the judge could take away
lose his license for up to 2 years.
Dave has been married for 10 years and has two sons aged 8 and 6 years. He has had numerous
arguments with his wife, Melanie, concerning his drinking. He gets very angry and defensive when
she confronts him about his heavy drinking, and asserts that he is not an alcoholic. He knows this
is true because his father was an alcoholic and Dave says that he is not like his father. His father
died as the result of a fight that occurred in traffic when he was drunk.
Dave says that his father used to "beat the tar out" of him and his brother when he was drunk, and
that his father always belittled, taunted, and threatened their mother, whether he was drunk or
sober.
Dave's work history is very good; he misses less than one day per year. He works the day shift on
weekdays, putting in time-and-a-half overtime on most Saturdays. He is well regarded by his
supervisors and peers at work. He is fearful that his employer will find out about his treatment (it is
being covered by his health insurance), and that people at work will learn about the second DUI
arrest.
Dave’s boss finds out about his second drink driving charge and decides to tell Dave not to return
to work as his job role involves driving vehicles and without a license he is unable to perform his
work duties.
Dave has had no work for 3 months and is finding it difficult to get a job with his skill set that does
not require driving. Dave is showing signs of depression and is drinking is very predictable: he
drinks 8 or 9 beers on a weeknight at the bar with friends. He usually falls asleep in front of the
television. On weekends, he often drinks 3-4 twelve packs between Friday and
Sunday. This pattern leads to arguments with Melanie, who calls him a "lousy father." At times,
Dave has had unsettling episodes of being unable to recall what happened while drinking. He once
attended a few AA meetings, but did not feel that it was helpful: "It was listening to a lot of guys
whining" and he especially did not care for the prayers.
Despite these attempts, Dave has experienced increased consumption levels over the past two
years. He admits that, as a result of the drinking, he has become increasingly estranged from his
wife and sons.
Dave feels that his marriage has been basically good, but that he would not blame Melanie for
leaving him, the way things have been going lately. She will no longer "sleep" with him while he is
intoxicated, which occurs regularly. She complains that the house is "falling apart" because Dave
does not keep up with his chores. He believes that his marriage would become solid again, if he
stopped over doing the drinking. But, he complains about her hassling him about the alcohol.
Dave is not close to his remaining family members. His mother is very religious and wishes Dave
would see religion as a way out of his problems. His siblings live in other communities and they
rarely get together. His wife and sons regularly attend his mother's church, but Dave only attends
on Christmas Eve and Easter Sunday.
Dave is distraught about losing his job having to remain abstinent in preparation for the trial. He
has trouble getting to sleep without alcohol. He also "gets jumpy" when he tries to stay away from
drinking, feeling "closed in" or "like he is suffocating." He also cannot imagine how to explain to his
buddies why he is not joining them in the bars.
The following questions relate to the case study

6. In the context of a community support worker how would you use available
information to identify and analyse social and cultural factors impacting on Dave
and his family? (Min 200 words for table)
In the context of a community support worker,I would use following
available information to identify and analyse social and cultural factors
impacting on Dave and his family:
Dave has been married for ten years.
He hasn’t been working for three months.Dev’s employer knew that he has been
charged for driving under influence (DUI) so he was told not to return to his work.
He was caught drunk while driving 2 times and he lost his licence.
He has been showing signs of depression.Because of losing his jobs and being
unemployment for three months, he is facing mental issues. He drinks a lot
without any limit.
He doesn’t believe AA meeting as he found them as unhelpful.He even attended
special driver’s education programme.
He lost his relationship with his son and wife because of his alcohol drinking
habit.
He has a history of family violence.His father used to beat him, his brother and
assaulted her mother whether he was drunk or sober.He was grown up in such
unhealthy and abusive environment.This might have caused an impact to his
mental health.
He lost consciousness when he is drunk.
He has a trouble while sleeping without alcohol. He has been so dependent that
he feels so much sophisticated when he doesn’t drink alcohol.
Dave is an Aboriginal guy and his mother is very religious. She always wants him
to see religion as a way out of his problems.
He becomes so aggressive when someone tries to complain him about his
drinking habits.
He is not close to his siblings as well.
Identify and sort through the relevant
facts presented by Dave's situation
Dev has lost his job because of the lack of licence.
He is not unable to get rid of his alcohol addiction.
He is not interested in AA meetings.
b) What tools or interviewing strategies
would you use
to clarify Dave’s current health and
wellbeing and associated needs of his
family?
Reviewing the available information.
Creating comfortable environment.
Ensuring the client’s conifentiality are maintained.
Open ended questions.
Taking some time to listen them.
Mini mental health examination to assess social and emotional wellbeing.
Brief intermediation.
Reference: Class discussion

What do you assess his drinking risk to
be? Why?
Assess the level against the national guidelines for alcohol
consumption for adults. To reduce the risk of harm from alcohol-
related disease or injury for healthy men and women, they should
not exceed more than 10 standard drinks per week and no more
than 4 standard drinks per day.Dave level of consumption is 8 to 9.
This will cause him to have serious life threating permanent
diseases and lead to death.
Reference:Australian Government Department of Health, (2020,
April 22). Adults. Retrieved from https://www.health.gov.au/health-
topics/alcohol/about-alcohol/how-much-alcohol-is-safe-to-drink
d) Identify the positive aspects and
strengths of Dave's situation.
He realizes that his relation with his wife would be better and grow
stronger if he quits drinking.
He doesn’t want to be like his father.
He is very skilled and his supervisors and peers used to praise him a
lot.
He is trying to get rid of his alcohol addiction.
Identify impacts of long-term
unemployment and
associated financial issues
on Dave and hisfamily
Poor mental state.
Depression and anxiety.
Low self steem
Financial issues.
Lack of support and care from family
Bad impression in the society
Chance of self harm.
Isolating from family and friends and harming the family members.
Trust issues with family
7. Develop a list of options and an initial care planning and action for community
support work intervention with Dave.
list of options and an
initial care planning and action for community support work
intervention
Initiating trusting relationships with the client and the
family.
Gather the necessary required information related to the
client.
Develop a plan.
Identify his needs and work for goals.
Refer to an appropriate rehab services that is suitable
for him.
Referring to Centrelink.
Assisting him to develop lifeskills.
Follow up to find any changes.
Booking regular schedule or an appointment.
Organize transportation for him.
Refernce: Class discussion
b) What are some reasonable outcomes to be expected with
Dave?
Self awareness and self realization about the problems.
Provide support for the family.
Lesser problems with financial issues because of centrelink.
Engagement in the work.
List some specific strategy for how you would address alcohol
issues
Conducting an assessment test to find out how and why they
are drinking.
Working with Holistic approach
Appropriate screening questionnaries and assessment tools.
d) Who should be involved in the intervention for Dave? Why? Family, himself,GP
Dev is the one who is himself involved in the
problems. Family is the one who will support
him and
GP will be the one to assess his medical

questions.
8. How will you clarify current health and wellbeing and ensure you make informed
decisions in relation to specific work to be undertaken and/or services to be
provided to Dave? (Min 100 words) I will clarify current health
and wealthbeing and ensure to make informed decisions by:
When planning to undergo full treatment programme, complete an assessment
interview and complete standardized assessment tools as appropreiate.
Gather some information:It’s always better to do some research about the client
so that we would know what are the specifes that we need.We would feel easier
to have a talk with the client.
to open him to decisions:It’s necessary to give a brief introduction of yourself and
ask about them as well. You can tell them your reason of visiting them and you
can make them to share their things.
Assessing his cognitive needs:You can know his intellectual abilities and
psychological needs through performing cognitive assessment.
Functional assessment to determine his practical skills and limitations and can
inform the development of personalised careplan and decision making.
Consider cultural backgrounds like trauma, migration and history.
Build an individualized careplan.
Reference: Class discussion.
9. How will you monitor the impact of work undertaken and/or services
provided and its effectiveness, in relation to identified social and cultural factors
impacting onDave? (Min 100 words)
Following are some of the ways to monitor the impact of work undertaken
and its effectiveness:
Follow up with his reports:One of the ways to monitor the impacts of the services
provided is following up the reports of the client. See each and every reports how
their health state is and the
Interviewing: Organize a meeting with the family members of Dave. Ask them
how Dave is going and whether he is showing any positive results.
Check the goals: There are goals written in the care plan to be met. We can check
it whether they have been met or not.If not then we can find solutions to work on
it.
Observation in his activities: We can observe the behaviours and activities while
performing assessment test as well and can know.

Undertaking the survey:Conducting a survey programme either face to face or
through onlineand questionnaries to find out the effectiveness of the services
being provided.
10. Looking at this case study and the role of community support workers; what
different beliefs about various stratifications in our society and the ways in which
stereotypes develop could have impacted with work or services provided to
Dave? (Min 50 Words)
There are different beliefs and stereotypes about Dave that:
He is not a reliable worker.
Since Dave’s father was very abusive towards them, he might be also same like
his father.
Dave is an Aborigine and it is assumed that he is a heavy drinker.
He is an aggressive and involves in fight.
Talking about the various stratifications, following are some of the
examples:
Social inequality: There is discrimination among Aboriginal Austrlains and non-
Aboriginal Australians based on race, wealth and education.
Social status: It is assumed that Aborigines do have poor social status. They are
thought to be people who has no any standards and values in the community.
Blue collar worker:It is always assumed that Aborigines are involved in labour
workforce and they do not contribute to the development of the nation.
Assessor Checklist - Assessment 1 – Underpinning Questions
CHCDEV002 Analyse impacts of sociological factors on clients in community work and
services
The assessor needs to indicate whether they have conducted the questioning as written questions or as verbal
questions by ticking the box below.
● Written Questioning ● Verbal Questioning
The assessor must provide evidence with the assessment tool. For written questions, the assessor must provide the
student’s original written responses. For verbal questioning, the assessor must provide dot points as a minimum on the
student’s responses.
For details on how to conduct and contextualise this form of assessment, please refer to the questioning checklist
explanation in the assessor guide.
Student’s name:
Assessor’s name:
If questions are answered verbally, the assessor must write detailed answers in Satisfactory response

the sections provided below. The space below does not indicate the size of the
answer anticipated. Keep typing and the space will expand. If answers are
recorded separate to this document, they must be attached to the assessment
documents.
Yes No
1 Describe some ways that relevant
social and cultural institutions in
Australian society can or have had an
impact the family in the case study.
(Min 200 words)
 
2 What was the most important
informed decisions in relation to
specific work to be undertaken and/or
services to be provided to this family?
(Min 100 words)
 
3 How will you monitor, review and
evaluate outcomes of work
undertaken and/or services provided
for identified social and cultural
factors impacting on Laura and her
family? (Min 200 words)
 
4 What can you do if you find that the
work undertaken and/or services
provided to this family are not
meeting their needs? (Min 100 words)
 
5 Outline briefly how society benefits
from the help Laura and her children
received from the community services
she received. (Min 50 words)
 
6 In the context of a community support
worker how would you use available
information to identify
and analyse social and cultural factors
impacting on Dave and his
family? (Min 200 words for table)
 
7. Develop a list of options and an initial
care planning and action for
community support work intervention
with Dave.
