Case Study Analysis: Social Work Assessment, Theories and Challenges

This case study analyzes a social work assessment involving a patient named Sandra, who is experiencing mental health challenges including anxiety and suicidal ideation. The assessment utilizes a biopsychosocial framework to examine biological, social, and psychological factors impacting Sandra's condition. The study explores the principles, values, and practices necessary for transparent decision-making and respectful partnerships between social workers and clients. It also discusses relevant theories and approaches, such as reasoned action theory and the transtheoretical model, that inform practice and treatment decisions. Finally, the case study identifies potential challenges for social workers, such as conflicts in perspectives, and suggests strategies to overcome these obstacles, emphasizing clear communication and sensitivity to the client's vulnerable state. The case study highlights the importance of a therapeutic relationship and the application of theoretical frameworks in providing effective social work interventions.

CASE STUDY

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TASK A...........................................................................................................................................1
Discussion of key elements of an appropriate social work assessment.......................................1
TASK B...........................................................................................................................................2
Discuss appropriate principle, values and practises in order to ensure transparent decision
making and respectful partnership...............................................................................................2
TASK C...........................................................................................................................................3
Discuss about theories and approaches that inform practice and treatment decision in case
study.............................................................................................................................................3
TASK D...........................................................................................................................................4
Identify potential challenges for a social worker and provide appropriate suggestion to
overcome these challenges..........................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

TASK A
Discussion of key elements of an appropriate social work assessment
Social work assessment is a kind of a report which is written by social workers for
evaluation of educational, occupational, substance abuse and mental health needs in a proper
manner (Taylor & Whittaker, 2020). There are various kinds of key elements that are appropriate
or social work assessment. Social workers working with patients whose mental health is not
good are expected to have adequate clinical evaluation skills so that they can examine mental
status of that patient. They are also required to have statistical and diagnostic manual knowledge,
knowledge of international classification of diseases So that mental condition of such individuals
can be identified or evaluated in a proper and appropriate manner. Biopsychosocial framework is
one of the most common frameworks which is used by social workers for social work
assessment. Social work assessment focuses upon addressing rights, needs and social justice of
person with unstable mental condition (Killick & Taylor, 2020). For this, three main factors are
focused upon Fist is biopsychosocial factors, them mental condition of patient and then impact of
mental health on individual. In Sandra’s case main key elements of social work assessment are:
Biopsychosocial factors
In this factor three main sub-factors are focused upon that are psychosocial, social and
biological. Biological condition of Sandra is not good:
 Biological condition: Sandra tried to took sleeping pills because of which her physical
condition was impacted. She got hospitalised due to unconsciousness (Saltiel & Lakey,
2020). She had taken lots of sleeping pills due to which her body had a strong drug effect.
Both the elements i.e. her physical condition and drug effect can affect her temperament. So,
it is important to focus upon examination of behavioural change and her current condition
before discharging her.
 Social factors: family circumstances of Sandra were not good. She and hr husband were
going through some financial crises. Due to this financial stress her relationship with her
husband was also getting impacted. He was not able to focus upon her and her deteriorating
mood. She had high level of anxiety, worried, reduced her participation in social activities,
tool weeks off from work. Due to which it can be said that she was in a condition of trauma.
 Psychosocial factors: Her coping skills were low otherwise she would have handled the
financial stress and would have controlled her anxiety level by talking to her husband. Her
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social skills were also deteriorating as she had reduced hr participation in social activities
interaction with others.
Mental Condition of Sandra
 From analysis of her mental condition it was identified that rom past few months she was
having high anxiety level crying, tool weeks off from work, did not attend social activities
and was having some financial stress.
Impact of mental condition on Sandra
 Her mental condition and change in mood should have been identified by her husband at
initial stage itself, but ignoring hr changing mood resulted in her current condition where she
tried to commit suicide. Deterioration in her mental her, increasing stress level, anxiety
resulted her in taking such a drastic step. Her condition should have identified much easier as
it would have reduced her probability of committing suicide.
TASK B
Discuss appropriate principle, values and practises in order to ensure transparent decision
making and respectful partnership
In order to ensure transparent decision making and respectful partnership between social
workers and person they are working with (Buser & et.al., 2020). In order to develop effective
relationship with them there are various kinds of principles, values and practises that are required
to be focused upon. In order to maintain transparency between Sandra and her social worker,
Social worker need to adhere some main principles such as:
 Main primary goal of social workers is to help Sandra be identifying her problem, why she
was in so much stress and having anxiety.
 Social workers are required to maintain dignity and worth of Sandra. They should value her
thinking and her feelings. They should treat Sandra respectfully, provide care to her. They
should also focus upon increasing her self determination so that
 They are also required to behave in trust worthy manner with Sandra so that she can trust
them. All of her personal information should be kept confidential. All her details should not
be discussed or revelled to other social workers or other individuals without her permission.
So that she can trust them easily.
Therapeutic relationship is a kind of client centred approach in which work or
communication between client and social workers is maintained so that a healing journey can be
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provided to client (Fluke & et.al., 2020). Social workers also need focus upon development of
therapeutic relationship with Sandra. There are some values, practises and principles that social
workers need to adhere an effective therapeutic relationship with Sandra.
 One of the main principles of therapeutic relationship is that all the needs and wishes of
Sandra and her husband should be given high priority and should be most important.
 Social workers are required to respect dignity and current self- esteem level of Sandra and
her husband.
 They are required to show Sandra that they have complete empathy towards her. They
completely understand hr perspective, her problems, issues she is facing in a proper manner.
 They are required to adopt a practise of being active and silent listeners. They should be
capable enough to communicate with Sandra both verbally and non-verbally so that she feels
comfortable with them and can share her feeling within them without any hesitation.
 Social workers are required to be aware about current condition or changing expression, or
change in Sandra’s mood while communicating with her. It is important for Social workers to
check change in mood of Sandra so that they can communicate with her and reduce her stress
level and anxiety as well.
TASK C
Discuss about theories and approaches that inform practice and treatment decision in case study.
As per given scenario, It has found that Sandra suffering from high level anxiety, low mood sue
to the financial stress. Although considered three different theories such as reasoned action
theory, fuzzy-trace theory and transtheoretical mode that supported by evidence. Sandra’s
present disparate view of risky decision making, health promotion, behaviour change and
medical decision (Jensen-Doss and McLeod, 2020). These theories are helping the Sandra for
improving own decision and not to be conscious. Moreover, attitudes and standards norms need
not be deliberated to influence current behaviour. In additional, different theories emphasizes
how important decisions are mentally represented.
A second commonality is that each theory has describing the clear position on what is
prescriptively desirable or not for Sandra. Reasoned action theory can be examined the behaviour
of Sandra that is reasonable and emerges from the well-ordered intentions. Although an effective
decisions might perceive with different obstacles that they gave face, assumed the behaviour
Sandra internally on the basis of current scenario.
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The transtheoretical model may conceives of different stages in change as progress and inducing
the changes such as low mood, crying. This type of situation occurred due to financial condition.
Similarly, Fuzzy-trace theory is not claim that gist based intuition that always become superior
but increasing the performance. These type of different theories are applied to “Sandra” as
patient and health care provider. In this way, it can easily identified the challenges within
inducing changes in practitioner behaviour in accord with case scenario (Jensen-Doss and
McLeod, 2020). For Example- health care provider should be included the different practice
guideline, identifying the problem that might be attacked for “Sandra”. For instance, It would
recommend emphasizing the pros and cons in earlier stage of changing their behaviour, attitude.
As per discussion, it has been analysed that three different approaches or theories
important to applicable within different aspects. In order to review the dimension of stage in term
of changing behaviour, which become considered as critical part. As per study, creating an
effective prevention program for “Sandra” by health care provider. Afterwards, it make a better
decision to justify when there will be considered the relevant scientific theories in context of
prevention. Different theories such as transtheoretical model, Fuzzy-trace theory and reasoned
action can be used into different aspects, examining the current health condition or situation of
“Sandra”.
To improve mental health care quality, intervention research is incorporate both healthcare and
patients, not only in term of traditionally but applicable patient centric concepts such as
symptoms, preferences, expectations, attitude and beliefs (Jensen-Doss and McLeod, 2020). It is
always helps for decision making itself, as related to the efficient process and outcome or result
of care. The decision-making context concern about the individual’s life, which may consider as
powerful influences on the specific choice that patients make. Another way, it also including the
various aspect of person on the basis of day to day life, functioning and healthcare process and
structure.
TASK D
Identify potential challenges for a social worker and provide appropriate suggestion to overcome
these challenges
There are various kinds of challenges that are faced by social workers while working with
different kind of people (Baxter & Clowes, 2020). It is important for social workers to identify
challenges faced by them and work upon developing strategies to overcome them. In case of
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Sandra there are various changes that can be faced by Social worker while communicating or
providing their service to her. Some of the main challenges and strategies though which those
challenges can be overcome are as follows: Conflict in thinking and mentality of patients
(Sandra) and social worker is one of the main challenges faced by them. Many times, it becomes
difficult for social workers to understand main point of view of patents and understand their
thinking and mentality (Killick & Taylor, 2020). Due to which conflict can arise. These social
workers also deal with family members of individuals. Many times, service or solution provided
by social workers for bringing improvement within individuals is complete different from point
of view of their family members because of which conflict can arise. It is one of the main
challenges for them because in most of the cases it is quite difficult or challenging for social
workers to convince their patients family members (Littlefield, 2020). For example: In this case,
if social workers want to communicate with Sandra and understand in a detailed manner her
condition, reason because of which he committed suicide and make her understand ways in
which she was wrong in order to bring improvement within her, they ned to make her husband
understand why it is important to do so. This is because her husband might nor approve of asking
her reason and making her understand ways in which she was wrong. So, this situation can be
quite challenging for them because before taking to Sandra, they need to talk to Rick and make
him explain their strategies and how it is going to help Sandra. Only strategy to overcome this
conflict challenge is clear and transparent communication.
Another challenge for social worker while working with Sandra is her vulnerable
condition. They need to think and then speak each and every work they are saying because
unknowingly they can trigger feeling of committing suicide in Sandra again if they speak
anything that can increase feeling of depression, anxiety or stress within her. This is because she
is in a highly unstable and emotional phase. They have no idea whether any wrong things said by
them will be handled by Sandra or not. They can overcome this challenge by conducting an
assessment in which her physical, metal, emotional health status, her family relationship, her
financial conditions can be identified and understood (Golightley., & Goemans, 2020). This
assessment will help social workers to understand her current status and points that can tigger her
and shift her towards depression. This assessment will further help social workers in
understanding her emotional resilience and ways in which she can handle typical situations.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Baxter, S., & Clowes, M. (2020). Increasing Public Participation and Influence in Local
Decision-making to Address Social Determinants of Health During Times of Resource
Constraint: A Systematic Review Examining Initiatives and Theories.
Buser, J. M.. & et.al., (2020). Operationalization of the Ecological Systems Theory to Guide the
Study of Cultural Practices and Beliefs of Newborn Care in Rural Zambia. Journal of
Transcultural Nursing. 1043659620921224.
Fluke, J. D. & et.al., (Eds.). (2020). Decision-Making and Judgment in Child Welfare and
Protection: Theory, Research, and Practice. Oxford University Press.
Golightley, M., & Goemans, R. (2020). Social work and mental health. Learning Matters.
Jensen-Doss, A. & McLeod, B.D., (2020). Evidence-Based Case Conceptualization/Evidence-
Based Clinical Decision Making. In Handbook of Evidence-Based Therapies for
Children and Adolescents (pp. 39-52). Springer, Cham.
Killick, C., & Taylor, B. J. (2020). Assessment, risk and decision making in social work: An
introduction. Learning Matters.
Killick, C., & Taylor, B. J. (2020). Assessment, risk and decision making in social work: An
introduction. Learning Matters.
Littlefield, R. S. (2020). The Tensions of Strategic Communication Decision-Making: An
Exploratory Examination of Theory and Practice. Journal of International Crisis and
Risk Communication Research. 3(2). 4.
Saltiel, D., & Lakey, R. (2020). Analysing invisibility: The decision‐making ecology and home
visits. Child & Family Social Work. 25(1). 37-44.
Taylor, B., & Whittaker, A. (Eds.). (2020). Professional judgement and decision making in
social work: Current issues. Routledge.
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