MSW5002 Professional Practice with Individuals and Families
Week 1 Assignment
Culturally Competent Assessment of Diverse Populations
Instructions
To begin this week’s assignment, download the Cultural Self-Inventory from this week’s resources and answer all the questions to complete your own Cultural Self-Inventory. Submit your self-inventory along with the other parts of this week’s assignment.
Then, prepare a written response to the following:
Document your strengths in cultural competencies.
Explain any specific stereotypes, prejudices, or biases you identified.
Complete a Culturagram on a population that you are passionate about. You may use the same population you used in previous courses or you may choose a new population. You should complete the culturagram of the culture as a whole, NOT of a specific individual. Submit your Culturagram along with the other parts of your assignment.
Analyze how you might use the information from the Culturagram to engage and intervene with an individual member of this cultural group.
Using your answers from the Self-Assessment and Culturagram assessment, explain how you would become culturally competent in working with members of this cultural group.
Support your assignment with at least three scholarly resources. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources, including seminal articles, may be included.
Length: 3-4 pages, not including title and reference pages. Submit your self-inventory with your assignment.
Your assignment should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the Course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University’s Academic Integrity Policy.
Upload your document, and then click the Submit to Dropbox button
MSW5002 Professional Practice with Individuals and Families
Week 2 Assignment
Examine Adult-Emergent Disorders
Instructions
This week’s reading material focuses on assessment, the second step in the Planned Change Process. For this assignment, you will apply both the assessment and diagnostic skills discussed in this week’s material as well as your knowledge of theories – those of human behavior and the social environment, person-in-environment, or other multidisciplinary frameworks- to consider the process of assessment. Assessment is an ongoing process based on information gained in a variety of different ways. This assignment introduces some of the more common ways of getting assessment data and determining a diagnosis when required.
1) Choose one of the following primary adult emergent disorders: Anxiety; Substance Abuse; Mood disorders(especially depression or bipolar disorder).
2) Review the DSM V criteria for the disorder you chose
3) In a written response, address each of the following prompts:
Based on the DSM V criteria for the disorder, what questions would you ask an individual you suspect suffered from that disorder? Would the client be the only source of assessment information or would you ask the client’s permission to interview other people in her life? If so, who would you want to interview and why? If you choose to use the client as your only source of information, why?
Choose one of the primary theoretical perspectives introduced in Human Behavior and the Social Environment (systems, person-in-environment, behavioral, or cognitive) to use as a basis for a second set of questions for the client. List at least eight questions that apply the specific theory to inform your assessment.
There are a variety of client self-screening tools for these adult emergent disorders. Find at least one for your chosen disorder. Describe how you would introduce it to the client and how you would use the results of the screening tool in your assessment.
Find at least three scholarly journal articles that report empirical research on this disorder. What does this evidence suggest are the most effective ways of assessing this particular disorder?
Support your assignment with at least three scholarly resources. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources, including seminal articles, may be included.
Length: 5-7 pages, not including title and reference pages
Your assignment should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the Course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University’s Academic Integrity Policy.
Upload your document, and then click the Submit to Dropbox button.
MSW5002 Professional Practice with Individuals and Families
Week 3 Assignment
Examine the Role of Theoretical Frameworks in Intervention with Individuals
Instructions
For this assignment, prepare a white paper to help educate others on mental health issues in adults. Assume this paper could be distributed to either clients or their family and friends who may be struggling with their diagnosis or even how to interact with a loved one who has recently received this diagnosis. Recall the purposes and format of a white paper from those you’ve written in precious courses.
Choose two major theory-based treatments used for working with individual adults with mental illnesses. You have many choices including those introduced in earlier Course and those discussed in the Introductory Lecture above.
In your paper, address the following:
Thoroughly describe each theory-based intervention. Examples of the types of questions you might address include, but are not limited to- What are the basic tenets of the theory? What is the history of the theory/model? Is it based on or did it grow out of another theory? Is this a long- or short-term treatment?
What actually happens in this intervention? (i.e. is this a “sit-down” therapy? Is it a group treatment?). What specific skills does a social worker use when implementing this intervention?
Discuss which mental health disorders are best treated using each of these theories. What evidence is there for this claim? Specifically address what research supports the use of this particular theory for this particular disorder? How has that research been translated into the treatment?
Consider this theory in the context of human rights and social justice. Does this theory specifically address issues of social, economic, or environmental justice? If so, how? If not, based on implicit assumptions you see in this theory/model, discuss the ways in which it does or does not support the social work focus on social justice.
Utilize evidence-based practice to determine which treatments are best for various mental health disorders.
Explain cultural limitations to the various treatments.
Interpret stigmas associated with the labels of mental illness.
Support your assignment with at least three scholarly resources. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources, including seminal articles, may be included.
Length: 4-6 pages, not including title and reference pages
Your assignment should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the Course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University’s Academic Integrity Policy.
Upload your document, and then click the Submit to Dropbox button.
MSW5002 Professional Practice with Individuals and Families
Week 4 Assignment
Assessing and Engaging Families
Instructions
Family assessment in this assignment will begin by reflecting on your own family of origin. Complete the Adler Assessment found in this week’s resources. Try to identify your primary personality priority. This reflective exercise aims to increase your awareness of your own experiences and beliefs with idea that such awareness reduces the opportunity for your own experiences and values to interfere in your work with clients. Submit your answers to the Adler Assessment, along with a one-page summary of what you learned about your family and sibling (if applicable) relationships.
Your next assessment of family will be from a developmental perspective in the form of a narrated PowerPoint presentation aimed at educating interested families. Aiming your language and information at your audience of interested families, your presentation must include:
the stages of the family life cycle and
the skills that must be mastered at each stage to successfully move from one stage to the next.
examples of how a person knows they have mastered the skill.
the effects or difficulties people may have if they do not master skills at each stage, especially its effect on relationships in their future and future transitions.
Consideration of how race, socioeconomic status, and/or religion interact with this understanding of family life
how you would use this assessment information to guide engagement with a family. Feel free to use a hypothetical example if that assists with explaining this idea.
Incorporate appropriate animations, transitions, and graphics as well as speaker notes for each slide. The speaker notes may be comprised of brief paragraphs or bulleted lists and should cite material appropriately.
Support your presentation with at least three scholarly resources. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources may be included.
Length: 12-15 slides (with a separate reference slide)
Notes Length: 100-150 words for each slide
Be sure to include citations for quotations and paraphrases with references in APA format and style where appropriate. Save the file as PPT with the correct course code information. Upload your document, and then click the Submit to Dropbox button.
MSW5002 Professional Practice with Individuals and Families
Week 5 Assignment
Apply Theory in Family-Level Intervention
Instructions
As should be well engrained by now, social work practice occurs at the micro-, mezzo-, and macro-levels. Practice with families is considered micro-level, but systems theory also tells us that what happens at one level influences what happens in the other levels. An understanding of the factors that impact on families at all levels is critical for you to develop a comprehensive assessment of the problems that families face. For you to integrate all possible perspectives and explanations of a family’s issues, you must explore a variety of perspectives.
For this assignment, select a family issue such as alcohol abuse, working with a disabled member of the family, a marital affair, a child with severe emotional or behavioral problems at school, sexual orientation, or another issue you are interested in researching further.
Develop an educational pamphlet specifically for families who are facing this issue. The purpose of this pamphlet is education families about the issue they are struggling with and to begin engaging the family in the idea of social work treatment by normalizing their struggle. (Hint: while most of what we read about engagement focuses on in-person interactions with clients, there are things to be learned from this week’s readings about how to present information in a way that can jumpstart the process of engagement). This pamphlet should include:
A description of the issue, as it pertains to the family- not as an individual issue.
A discussion about how things that happen at the micro, mezzo, and macro (or individual, group, organization, and community- if that’s easier to conceptualize) levels influence the family’s experience with this issue.
A brief description of how a family’s experience of this issue might be assessed if they presented for social work intervention
Brief descriptions of at least TWO different theoretically informed, evidence-based family interventions used in social work treatment for this particular issue.
Support your assignment with at least three scholarly resources. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources, including seminal articles, may be included.
Length: 2 to 3-page pamphlet, not including title and reference pages
Your assignment should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the Course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University’s Academic Integrity Policy.
Upload your document, and then click the Submit to Dropbox button.
MSW5002 Professional Practice with Individuals and Families
Week 6 Assignment
Apply Family-Specific Theories to Assess, Implement an Intervention, & Evaluate a Case
Instructions
Choose one of the nine case examples listed below these instructions to serve as the basis for this critical analysis. Provide your responses to the following prompts:
Identify the family members you would initially meet with. Based on your theoretical knowledge, how would you make this decision?
Determine who your client(s) would be. Again, explain the theoretical basis for your decision.
Illustrate how you would assess safety for the family and yourself. Include a
minimum of three questions you would ask.
Indicate how you would ask about the family’s strengths and resources. (word it the way you would ask the clients)
Analyze the cultural/ethnic/religious beliefs that must be considered. Include a minimum of three questions you would ask to help clarify this.
Confirm which social work ethical standards must be considered. Include a minimum of three questions you would ask to help clarify this.
Based on the above assessment:
Explain which theory(s) of intervention you would use with this family and why
Indicate a possible psycho-educational intervention you could include.
Outline a rough draft of your proposed treatment plan and provide at least three questions that would help determine this Discuss how you would build ongoing evaluation of the intervention into your work with this family. Develop an evaluation plan that goes beyond your own observation.
Case Examples
A 35-year-old woman learned she has breast cancer and likely has only 1 year to live. She is married, is a second-grade teacher, and has twin 14-year-old girls and twin 10-year- old boys. She is upset but doesn’t want to show her emotions to her family; so, she is trying to be strong. Within her strong religious faith, God controls everything. It troubles her that God would take her away from her children. This situation challenges her faith, which has been a major source of support and invaluable resources. She hasn’t shared these feelings with anyone because she is ashamed of her lack of faith.
A 50-year-old woman, who has been married 30 years, just learned that her husband has been having an affair for 20 years and fathered two children by this woman. The 50-year-old and her husband have four grown children, all of whom knew of this affair.
A 16-year-old African-American male told his very religious parents that he is gay. They want to convince him that he is not gay and that this new lifestyle is the devil’s work.
A woman who was a support staff member at an office where you previously worked called in a crisis. She asked you to come to her parent’s home to meet with her, her mother, and adult brothers and sisters because their father used a shotgun to commit suicide last night. They had no idea that he was suicidal.
A 30-year-old woman, who migrated to the United States from Africa, wants your help because her American husband is physically and emotionally abusive. She is a current alcoholic, suffers from depression, and has AIDS. Her husband controls her by threatening to keep their three children, who are 7, 6, and 5 years old if she attempts to divorce him.
A 9-year-old girl has come to school crying every day for a week. Her fourth-grade teacher referred her for counseling. Her parents have been divorced for 4 years, both have remarried, both have new babies, and her parents hate each other. They fight every time they interact, whether it is by phone or in person. They communicate
through her, but constantly use offensive language and demeaning names when discussing the other parent with her. They have been to court five times over child support and visitation.
You have been assigned to provide family therapy to reintegrate a 6-year-old Hispanic girl and her parents as safety and the treatment process allows. It was determined that she was sexually abused by her father and likely other men in exchange for drugs. Both of her parents reportedly are meth addicts with a reputation for dealing drugs. Her father has been in prison for robbery. Her mother, who has previously been in therapy for PTSD for early childhood sexual abuse, suffers from depression and dissociates frequently. The girl is staying with her maternal grandmother who only speaks Spanish.
Parents of a 9-year-old girl are confused, exhausted, and worried. She has been treated with stimulants for ADHD by a child psychiatrist for a year because of school learning and behavioral problems. She has become increasingly aggressive at home to the point that her 11 -year-old brother and 9-year-old sister are afraid of her. They are also complaining that the parents mostly spend time with her, which is unfortunately true. She won’t sleep. The father worries that he may lose his temper and hurt her. Also, the doctor is now thinking she might be bipolar and has recommended a trial on lithium, which will require weekly blood tests. They don’t like the idea of their child on psychotropic medications.
Parents of a 19-year-old male want a second opinion. Their son was psychiatrically hospitalized while away for college. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia. The parents are devastated because he is their only child and has always been very stable and loving. They question the accuracy of the diagnosis and wonder if the hospital was just taking advantage of the fact that he has good insurance coverage.
Support your assignment with at least three scholarly resources. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources, including seminal articles, may be included.
Length: 6-8 pages, not including title and reference pages
Your assignment should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the Course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University’s Academic Integrity Policy.
Upload your document, and then click the Submit to Dropbox button.
MSW5002 Professional Practice with Individuals and Families
Week 7 Assignment
Assessment of Older Adults
Instructions
For this week’s assignment, you will use the format of the Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) as a framework for assessing the experiences of people who are at least 70-years-old today. The idea is that you are writing up the results of an assessment that could be relevant for anyone who falls into this age category based on your own research. You are not to assess or diagnose a specific person. Rather than having a specific person as a client for this assessment think of this generation as your client. You will not be gathering information on an individual through a clinical interview, you will gather information on this generation through research (internet, library, books, newspapers, etc.). While you are not assessing an individual person, you may use people in this age range as sources of information. As you work through the different elements of the CGA, keep in mind that the intersectional nature of diversity plays a role in all of these elements. As a reminder, diversity is understood as the intersectionality of multiple factors, including but not limited to, age, class, color, culture, disability and ability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, immigration status, marital status, political ideology, race, religion/spirituality, sex, sexual orientation, and tribal sovereign status. Be certain to refer to these elements of diversity in your response.
Your research and written assessment must, at the very least, include these categories of information, though the component of the CGA should serve as your guide:
Background – both historical and present on the researched generation
Functional Factors
Health Issues
Emotional Well-being
Social, Economic, and Environmental well-being
Examples of the types of information you will want to gather for this assessment:
For historical background information: Conduct research on major events, societal norms, and trends that most people age 70 or over would have experienced. For instance, what were the usual roles for men and women in the 1950s? How did that change in the 1960s? What was it like to experience the gas crisis of the 1970s?
For present background information: How do most people in this age category live today? Where do they live- at home? In nursing homes? In assisted living? What are cultural conventions for care of older people in the US? Are there cultural differences in the way older people live?
For health issues: What are the most common health issues suffered by people in this age group? What are the co-morbidities of these issues? What are treatments for these issues? Are there side effects to these treatments that impact health status? Describe how you might collaborate with providers from other disciplines to assure your assessment is complete?
Submit the results of your research in a 4-6 paper based on the format of the CGA.
Support your assignment with at least three scholarly resources. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources, including seminal articles, may be included.
Length: 4-6 pages, not including title and reference pages
Your assignment should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the Course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University’s Academic Integrity Policy.
Upload your document, and then click the Submit to Dropbox button.
MSW5002 Professional Practice with Individuals and Families
Week 8 Assignment
Analyze and Synthesize Knowledge of the Planned Change Process with Individuals and Families
Instructions
For this signature assignment, you will prepare a 10-12-page research paper. The goal of this assignment is to demonstrate your understanding of a theoretically informed planned change process in work with a disenfranchised individual or family.
To begin work on this assignment, select a disorder or issue of interest to you in work with adults, families, or older adults. You may use a disorder you’ve used for previous assignments in this or other Course, or you may choose another issue you are interested in exploring.
Next, select a population that is disenfranchised or a minority group. Examples include gay men, Black women, or persons with a disability.
Examples of disorders and populations that might serve as the focus of this paper, include but are not limited to: Black women with depression, People living in poverty with substance abuse issues, and so on.
Briefly describe at least three theories traditionally utilized to intervene with individuals or families with the focus disorder in the specific population you’ve chosen.
Choose the theory that you see has the most evidence supporting its use with this population.
Review Literature: In approximately one paragraph each, review at least five scholarly sources that discuss the use of this theory with your selected population. Briefly summarize each source, being certain to address both knowledge and skills.
Synthesize Knowledge: Assess what you have learned about the use of this theory to treat your identified disorder in your particular population. What is the overall state of knowledge in this area?
Utilize Theory: Apply what you have learned about this theory to the planned change process. How would you use what you know about this theory to engage, assess, intervene, and evaluate in your work with a client? Use examples.
Expand on your application of this specific theory to the process of engagement. Draw on materials from this and previous courses to discuss the theoretical precepts, knowledge, and strategies that you would use to engage a client in this specific population.
Conclude: Summarize your understanding of the role of theory in social work practice with individuals and families. Discuss the planned change process and describe your understanding of how this process applies to work with individuals and families. Finally, discuss what you see as the most important knowledge and skills you learned in this class. Support your assignment with at least five scholarly resources. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources, including seminal articles, may be included.
Length: 10-12 pages, not including title and reference pages
Your assignment should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University’s Academic Integrity Policy.
Upload your document, and then click the Submit to Dropbox button.
