Social Work Practice with Individuals: Engagement Strategy

Vignettes:

Joseph
Joseph is a 70 year old Jewish-American gay male who wants to meet with you to discuss low income housing options for him and possibly his partner. Your supervisor tells you that she is concerned that Joseph is in a violent relationship with his partner, Marcus, and wants you to assess how safe he feels living with Marcus at this time. Joseph appears very thin and you can see bruising on his forearms. This is your first meeting with Joseph and Marcus is not present.

LaShonda
LaShonda is a 32 year old African American female who was put on a 5150 hold last night after overdosing on pills. LaShonda was diagnosed with depression six months ago after being let go from her job. LaShonda told her group therapist this morning that she was forced to leave her job because she was black. She feels hopeless she will ever be able to work again because of her racial identity. She states because she cannot change the color of her skin, she wants to die.

Mr. Fahza
Mr. Fahza is a 87 year old Iranian Muslim male who is being treated for end stage liver cancer. He does not speak English and his son stays at the bedside. His son has indicated that he wants to relay all the health information to his father directly and refuses to have a translator. His physician is concerned that the patient is not aware that he is dying and would like to know if the patient wants to remain on chemotherapy or be placed on hospice to die peacefully at home. His son insists his father wants to stay on chemotherapy and “keep fighting”. You are asked to speak with the son and have a translator assist you and assessing the patient’s wishes without interference.

Please consider the following questions in your engagement strategies:
1. What is (are) the major obstacle(s) in engaging this client?
2. What “pushes your buttons” (know clinically as countertransference) in working with this client? Please use the first person tense for this section.
3. What does the literature say about working with this client?
4. What is your strategy to engage this client considering all your answers above?

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