Assignment
SWB202
SWH 202 Health Wellbeing and Social Work
Case Study 3:
Discussed at Tutorial 3 (Week 5)
PART A
Noni Bagga has been referred to you.
You a social worker working in private practice in Ronnaberg
and you visit Harrisvale once a month using a room in the GP surgery. Here you see a small number of patients who are referred to you by the local GP, Dr Korman or other professionals who visit the area. You usually see patients for 6 -10 sessions as they are covered under the Better Access Medicare initiative. You are an accredited mental health social worker (AASW).
Dr Korman says in his referral letter (you have met him but he is always busy and difficult to pin down apart from brief telephone conversations) that Noni is not coping at home with the children and her relationship with Sid her husband is deteriorating. Her son Sadil (Junior) will be seen by the Child and Youth Mental Health Service psychiatrist and/or members of her team within the next few weeks. The GP tells you that he thinks Sadil has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (and you know that he has diagnosed quite a number of young people at the primary school over the last 18 months). However, Noni believes bullying and discrimination from kids at school are at the heart of Sadil’s problems.
Some of the teachers there appear to ignore this bullying. The Headmaster appears somewhat ambivalent and also believes that Sadil has ADHD. Noni is “sure” there is educational department policy somewhere about how to properly manage such situations but worries if she brings this up her job may be at risk. Money and the need for a regular income are significant concerns for the Bagga family. Sid is so grumpy and Noni can only imagine if he came home to find out that Sadil was expelled and Noni had lost her job. She also worries that he is drinking too much.
When she questioned Sid about his drinking he shouted at her and told her to just be a “good wife” and go away and look after the children. Noni was really surprised at his response. Sid really upset little Tia when they had this argument. Tia started screaming and usually she is so quiet. Tia has had bad nightmares lately and needed a night light left on which Sid said was ridiculous. Sid tells Noni she is hopeless with the kids. Noni thinks his back is giving him pain again and that this is why he is drinking eg. she thinks he is self-medicating using alcohol. Noni wonders if Sid could get medicinal marijuana prescribed. She knows his pain levels are very high but he is so cranky and difficult at the moment. Noni dares not raise his pain with him again.
Please respond.
You are the social worker working in private practice in Harrisvale.
Brainstorm as a group what the key health issue/s are within your allocated case study. Undertake a review of the literature that is relevant to the key health issue/s identified in your case study. You draw upon this research/appraisal of the literature as you write up the case study (ie. it is evidence-based). You will have to provide a synopsis of the key messages within the literature when your write up your case study analysis. It is important that you consider the micro (individual issues for clients), mezzo (agency and organisational issues) and macro (policy and national issues) perspectives of the identified health problem/s or related issues and the impact of the key individuals/actors/agencies/services identified in your case study.
Each case study analysis should have an introduction that provides a brief synopsis or assessment of the key issues in the case study. Remember this is not a long description of all the detail – it is a concise overview/summary. A conclusion is also required. The conclusion should detail the key recommendations on how your group (ie. the social worker/s) would respond to the issues/s in the case study your group was allocated. Use headings to organise you work – it can be written in a report format.
Your case study analysis should be written in Times Roman 12, use 1.5 line spacing, have a standard margin, and use only APA7 referencing conventions. Please lodge your assignment via Bb before the due time in
WORD format. Please DO NOT lodge as a PDF.
write 1,750 words.
It is very important that your group analyses the literature and health issues from the social work perspective: use your social lens and do not medicalise your analysis. Adopt a biopsychosocial/spiritual/cultural framework. The Marking Criteria provides clear information regarding these expectations eg. read the Marking Criteria carefully. Keep your social work gaze alert.
The recommendations of your group (how the social worker/s in the case study would respond/move forward) should reflect your group’s analysis and appraisal of relevant literature and research and be evidence-informed. It is OK to have opinions but back these up with the literature (eg. this is an evidence-based approach to the case study analysis).