Case Study Analysis: Family Therapy, Child Neglect and Ethical Issues

This case study analyzes the complex situation of a family, detailing the impact of parental separation, substance abuse, and verbal abuse on their children's mental and emotional well-being. It explores ethical breaches related to child neglect and the parents' actions, considering the influence of religious beliefs and domestic violence. The analysis emphasizes the need for risk management strategies to address the children's psychological distress and the family's financial stability, recommending the use of assessment tools like the PSC17 and SDQ to evaluate the children's mental health. The study also applies Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development and Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial development to understand the children's behavioral changes and psychological development within the context of their challenging circumstances. The case underscores the importance of counseling, ethical considerations, and risk management in resolving family conflicts and promoting the well-being of the children.

Running head: CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Introduction
The scenario of Luke and Sara's family case has been a perfect example of child neglect
and abuse. In this case, the issue of ethical and behavioural misconduct has been highlighted.
According to the case Luke and Sara’s divorce has affected the mental condition of the kids and
Luke’s usage of abusive language which impacted over their social and educational life as well.
On this context, it has been seen that ethical conditions have been breached in the family
lifestyle. Risk management would be required for the mental health of the children. Involvement
with the Church would also affect their socio-economic situation and religious beliefs. It has
been found that Luke and Sara were keeping contact even after their formal divorce. Luke used
abusive verbal communication in front of their kids, which affected their mental state as well
(Hiscock et al., 2018). It has been seen that the adults of this family were keeping intimate
relation and Sara got pregnant as well. Possible aspects for resolving what this family is going
through and condition of the kids will be assessed. Hence, the following sector would be
discussing these issues of the case study with risk management and also the recommendation for
the family to avoid the consequences.
Analysis
In terms of Sara and Luke, it has been seen that the factor of separation affected the
lifestyle of their children also considering the Church does not approve their relation. In this
case, Sara, a 37-year-old Christian minister of the local Church and homemaker married to Luke,
a 35-year-old Christian minister of the same local Church. However, he was cut off from his post
by the senior ministers as he has the habit of substance abuse and neglected the counselling

2CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
process. On the other hand, Sara and Luke have been divorced due to Luke's substance abuse and
reported affair with another woman. It has been found that Sara separated from Luke and took
her three kids along with her. The separation of Sara and Luke has had negative effects on the
minds of their children as they were found isolated in the school. Their grades also have been
lowering down. On this context, it can be stated that child abuse or neglect had been evident
from both the parents. Later on, Luke and Sara contacted each other also had reasonable relation;
however, Luke was verbally abusive. The kids never had any problem with their father and want
to live with him for more times. Church stated that if Sara keeps her contact with Luke, then they
will cut off the grants they are providing to her as well as they did with Luke. It also can be seen
that the actions of Luke jeopardized the ethical conditions of mental health of the children and
the status of the familial relations. He has been changed and taken into account of the status of
their family. He also found that Sara is again pregnant with his fourth child as they were intimate
after being divorced. So Both Sara and Luke wanted to be together still. They also stated that if
Sara keeps her contact him, then Sara will face the same consequence. Thus it can be noted that
the issue of the child abuse or neglect and the factor of religious beliefs are hampered at the same
time by adults of the family (Kamruzzaman & Hakim, 2015). The issue also highlights that the
aspect of domestic violence and verbal abuse affects the mental condition of children and thus
the child neglect occurred by this actions of Luke and Sara (Nola, 2018).
Ethical issues
On the context of the above case, it can be stated that the parents needed counselling and
also useful communication with the counsellors to reduce the abusive actions. Hence, in this
context, it can be noted that the ethical issues in this process of the counselling would be the

3CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
respect for the rights and dignity of the client along with the competence (Keddell, 2015). The
aspect of rights and dignity of the client that is Sara and Luke should be assessed by the proper
analysis (Al-Eissa et al., 2015). On this context, it has been seen that the personal issues of this
couple are also interconnected in this case. Hence, it can be stated that the ethical issues should
be considered in this case and also providing the personal privacy to the client would also be
provided for the proper understanding and even trust development between the counsellor and
the client. On the other hand, the counsellor should be competent to the professional aspects and
also obtaining the knowledge of the clients' issue in order to provide proper support in the mental
conditions (McLaughlin et al., 2015). However, there is another aspect in this case that is the
child neglect and child abuse. This aspect also can be referred to as the ethical issues in terms of
the parents that are Sara and Luke. The abusive behaviour of Luke and even the elements of the
child mental conditions can be related to the factor of the ethical breach of the family lifestyle
and also affecting the psychological states of the family members (Albaek, Kinn & Milde, 2018).
The ethical consideration in this process of the proper assessment of the condition and also
giving an appropriate plan for future improvement should be considered (Finkelhor & Lannen,
2015). The ethics of the counsellor is one of the essential requirements for the proper assessment.
The parents should be able to consider the ethics of the family lifestyle as it would be helpful in
the mental balance maintenance of the children. The child neglect and abuse should be
eliminated in the family by caring the children with proper attention to them (Devries et al.,
2015). The consideration of the ethics would comprise of the justice, and the beneficence as
these would be considering the factor of the physical health and the mental health of the children.
On the other hand, ethical consideration would be dependent on risk management as well.
Risk Management Strategies

4CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
On the basis of the above mentioned context, it can be stated that the factor of the risk of
the lifestyle of Sara and Luke can be related to the mental condition of the children as well.
Hence, it can be stated that the aspect of the risk management would be required in terms of
sustaining against the economic context of life along with the turmoil of the relations in the
family as well. The psychological aspect of the issues faced by Sara and Luke, along with their
children as well (Harris, Balmer & Sidebotham, 2018). On the other hand, the financial aspect
would also be an essential aspect as the factor of their family and also the pregnancy of Sara. On
this context, it can be stated that the consideration of the religion and also the safe and quality
social life would be jeopardized if the risk management would not be up to the mark (Fortson et
al., 2016). Hence, it can be stated that the psychological aspects of Luke should be considered
along with the priority of them should be managed as well in order to sustain against the adverse
situation (Sege et al., 2018). The factor of the financial condition of the family is dependent on
the consent of the Church, and if the psychological and behavioural aspect of Luke is nit
improved, then the Church would cut off the responsibility of their family as well (Child Family
Community Australia, 2018). On this context, it can be stated that the emotional dysfunctions
can be seen among the children by the effects of the separation of their parents (Cook et al.,
2017). On the other hand, the verbal abuse communication of their parents also affects their
mental state. Hence, on the basis of this discussion, it can be stated that the unemployment and
even the sudden separation also affected the mental state of Luke, the father which leads to the
condition of the child neglect and even the emotional abuse (Featherstone et al., 2017). Hence,
the risk management would comprise of valuing the children’s mental states and also the
consideration of the religious values as it would be the aspect of the employment of Luke
(Keddell, 2015). On this context, it can be stated that the options for the family-sustaining

5CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
against the turmoil would be managing the children mental aspects (Cuccaro-Alamin et al.,
2017).
Recommendation
The mental condition of the children, in this case, can be assessed with the proper
counselling of the children. In order to conduct appropriate mental health and the child growth
assessment, there would be a requirement of some assessment tools. The recommended
assessment tools would be the Paediatric Symptom Checklist 17 (PSC17) and also the Strengths
and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The PSC 17 would be comprised of 17 question checklists
that is the Likert scale would be assessing the general psychosocial screening of the children
from 4 years old to 16 years old (Struemph et al., 2016). This tool will help in assessment of the
mental and functional evaluation in consideration of attention, externalisation and also
internalisation symptoms (Sen et al., 2019). This assessment process would take up to 5 minutes
and also scoring would take up to 2 minutes. The questionnaire would be very much comfortable
to read for the children and also accessible in free of cost. Thus the assessment process of this
tool would help in the assessment of the mental state of the children in the present mal situation.
However, the questionnaire would be assessing the sensitivity of the children from 80 to 95 per
cent accuracy and also specificity from 65 to 100 per cent accuracy (Al-Musawi et al., 2016). On
the other hand, the SDQ tool would be assessing the factors of the general psychological
screening of the children. This tool would be comprised of some questionnaire which would be
able to determine the emotional symptoms of the child along with the hyperactivity, peer
relationship problems, social behaviour and other aspects as well (Chiorri et al., 2016). The
factor of the assessment would take up to 10 minutes and would be able to assess the children of

6CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
3 to 17 years old. The evaluation would be evaluating the sensitivity of the child from 3 to 94 per
cent accurately and also specificity with 88 to 98 per cent accuracy (Cheng et al., 2018). Hence,
these two tools would be effectively assess the condition of the mental state of the children of
Luke and Sara and also on the basis of the assessment the mental health counsellor would be able
to recommend the required actions that would be helpful in adequately helping the children in
sustaining against the situation (Bøe et al., 2016).
Explanation
It has been found that the behavioural changes occur among the children and thus the
theories that can be related to the case would be Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development
and Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial development. These two theories would be able to
describe the isolation of the intimacy of the behaviour of the children, along with the
psychological development of the children as well. Hence, the factor of the development of the
children would be assessed in relation to the situation they are facing. The parents would be
required to accept and consider the issues of the children because of their ill behaviour (Carey,
Zaitchik & Bascandziev, 2015). Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development would be
discussing the aspect of the concrete operational stage that is the 7 to 11-year-old kids who are
attached to the practical situation that is affected by what they see or hear and affected by those
situations (Barrouillet, 2015). On the other had the Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial
development would be defining the condition based on the stage school age and relates to the
status of accepting the course of life and unfulfilled aspirations (Cherry, 2018). Hence, it can be
stated that the parents of these children should focus on the mental condition of the children and
also the cognitive growth that is affected by their actions. On this context, it can be

7CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
recommended that the change in the lifestyle and behaviours of Luke and Sara would be helpful
for Brad, Ewan and Zack. Thus the counsellor should be focusing on the cognitive growth of the
children and on the basis of the mental assessment of the children he or she should factorise the
requirements of the children and brief the parent to change in accordance to those requirements.
On this aspect, it can be stated that the emotional abuse or the neglect of these children should be
stopped in order to provide them with a healthy life.
Conclusion
Based on the above discussion, it can be concluded that the requirement of the child
mental health and proper growth would be dependent on their viewpoints that is what they see or
understand. Thus the parents should be able to handle the children in accordance with their
requirement and also resolve their own issues so that the mental condition of the family would
not disrupt as well. Hence, in this context, the proper assessment of the children and proper
counselling of the parents should be required, and on the basis of the assessment, the counsellor
should be able to recommend required changes in their lifestyle. The parents should also be able
to focus on the family's mental health and also the social, socio-economic conditions, religious
beliefs and factors as well. In order to develop positive condition development, Luke should be
able to eliminate the substantial abusive habit and also focus on the family values.

8CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
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