Bshs 385 - Case Scenario

Case Scenario

Shanna Boone

BSHS.385

September 27, 2016

Dr. Sue

Case Scenario Questions

1.  What is the purpose of the client's visit?

        The client is seeking earlier intervention services for his children.  His children are ages two and seven and are exhibiting signs of developmental delays.  These delays include areas of fine motor skills, communication and language development.  Even though the client is considering taking his children to see a developmental pediatrician he is seeking other information and support that can assist his children with their medical needs.

2.    What are the primary and secondary issues and/or concerns of the client?

        The primary concerns of the client are to receive and begin treatment for his children for their developmental delays.  The client also seeks to find additional information and resources that can help his children before their developmental delays become worse.  Information gained from the client’s story may also reveal some secondary issues and concerns of the client.  From the client's story, he may also be concerned with parenting and coping skills needed to raise children who are medically fragile.  Another concern or issue could be the care of the children since he is the primary caregiver, works full time, and goes to school.

3    Are there any elements missing from the summary you will need to know for a                             complete assessment?

        Some missing information that may need to be known in this case is if the client has a partner or other reliable family member who can help with the care of the children and the intervention process or who helps with the children while the client is working or going to school.  Finding out how the client feels about taking care of his children and their delays and his busy schedule may also be a useful element to know.  Also, other needful knowledge a helper may need to gather from the client is if the client has insurance that can help assist with the specialists and extensive care needed for his children’s developmental delays. Another question that may be needed is if the school that the children attend is aware of the developmental delays, if so, what are they doing to assist the children.  This could be important so that the child is placed and connected with teachers and programs that can assist in specific developmental delays and avoid unnecessary failures.

4    In this interview scenario, how can you assist your client in establishing a goal(s) related to the outcomes?

        A statement made in The Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy discussed that a primary barrier that can hinder a client-centered meeting often results when a client and helper have different goals (Sumsion & Smyth, 2000).  In this case scenario, it is important to help the client find resources and information about ways to help his children.  By combining active listening skills, asking questions that will help clarify goals and means to achieve them and create plans to begin the process of finding help for the client's children will be needed.  Furthermore, to help the client, the helper should make sure a positive rapport with the client is developed and emotional climate so that a client can take better control of their life and situations.  For instance, the helper can simply guide the client along with the process but allow him to make his own goals and decisions while the helper offers advice and direction.  Once the problem has been identified, which is the development delay in the client's children, then goals can be developed and plans of implementation that the client feels, along with the advice of the helper, is the best plan of action for his children.  Asking questions such as, “ What do you want your children to achieve these goals?” or “What type of results do you want to see?” can also help provide a direction for the client to begin focusing on.  In fact, the client may want to seek help for his child focusing on one disorder at a time or try and seek treatment that deals with all the developmental problems at once.  However, a helper should keep questions about goals to a minimum but be wise in the question selection so the focuses only on the goals the client specifically wants to achieve (Stewart & Cash, 2014).  

•    What steps are needed to assist clients in establishing goals?

    The steps needed to help a client establish goals and see them through is to develop a relationship between the counselor and client.  The helper should show empathy and be engaged in the interview.  At this stage, the client is viewing the verbal and nonverbal cues of a helper and the client will often decide at this point if the helper can help and if he or she likes the counselor.  The next step is problem assessment, which information is gathered and the reason for seeking counsel is identified.  The third step includes goal setting, which the client makes a commitment to a course of action.  The fourth step is counseling intervention where the helper continues to offer assistance and direction to the client to achieve his or her goals and help identify the progress of the goals.  At this stage, the helper also may need to adjust plans of action or resources that can help a client continue to be successful in controlling his or her life.  The last step is to end the counseling session because the client has been successful in achieving the goals they have set forth and no longer needs the help of the helper.  However, it is important to understand that each of these steps continues even though one step is achieved and the client moves to the next step (Krishnan, 2016).