Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:
Introduction:
The key intake of the psychosocial model can be described as that there is an important interplay between the psychological condition of an individual and their social environment (Howe, 2002). A psychosocial approach to assessment can provide insights into the development of the personality and behaviour of an individual. Social workers can understand the psychological state of their clients by assessing their respective social environments throughout their life (Howe, 2002). Considering the role of social environments in a child’s socio-emotional development, an analysis of the psychosocial environment can provide social workers with important insights into the overall client situation. The acquired understanding of the topic can be utilised by the social workers to empathise with the client as well as in the assessment of possible risk factors and protective factors in existence within the situation (Howe, 2002).
Moreover, according to Healy, (2005), the social work discipline has always been considered to have close alignment with the professions of psychiatry and psychology. The current ideas regarding the ‘pay discourse’ in social work refer to mental health, psychological trauma, interpersonal relationships, human adaptation to change, human development and similar aspects. An understanding of these aspects respective to their clients helps the social workers to develop a psychodynamic plan to help the clients (Healy, 2005). Self-awareness is also an important aspect of social work. Thus, the use of ‘psy’-based risk assessment can also be useful for social workers to assess the risk of harm for themselves and other interdisciplinary team members while working in respective situations. The aim of this paper is to use the psychosocial model to analyse a given case study, involving a client named Jane. Considering the above understanding of the key aspects of the psychosocial model, the following sections of this paper would be focused on developing a risk assessment plan for the client, which would be followed by an intervention plan and evaluation.
Assessment Plan:
A psychosocial assessment plan for the client should provide insights into both risk factors and protective factors present in the client’s case (Howe, 2002). In the context of risk factors, the primary assessment can be based on the financial situation of Jane. According to the given case study, Jane is currently employed as a shop assistant in a local supermarket. While she described the job to be one of the positive aspects of her life, she also stated it to be about finances. Thus, it can be decided that her financial situation might require some interventions.
Secondly, Jane is a divorcee and was a victim of physical and verbal abuse in her past marital relationship. Considering the multiple negative impacts of intimate partner violence on mental health, this fact might indicate a considerable risk to mental well-being in Jane (Richardson et al., 2020). She has also described herself to have been the ‘black sheep’ within the family of her origin. According to research, the expression ‘black sheep’ might be an indicator of negative parenting during childhood. The children might have experienced a greater level of parental negativity compared to their siblings (Kullberg et al., 2021). Considering the psychosocial model by Howe, (2002) this kind of insecure parental attachment might render the adults unable to form and maintain secure and comfortable relationships. Thus, some psychotherapeutic interventions for Jane would be necessary to ensure her psychological well-being.
Thirdly, the client has reported a past history of alcohol abuse and has admitted to smoking marijuana and cigarettes frequently. She often feels worried and uses her substance abuse habit to counter that. These aspects indicate a lack of knowledge regarding an appropriate coping mechanism in the client. The habits also indicate a risk of substance abuse disorder in the client, which would also require appropriate intervention (McLellan, 2017).
There are very few protective factors present in this case. The client has a good relationship with her daughter, which can be considered one of the major protective factors in this scenario. However, the client’s current age and the age of the pregnancy, her daughter cannot be an adult. In the case of an emergency, her assistance might not be sufficient. Moreover, Jane was presented in the emergency department following an argument between her and her boyfriend of six months, when both of them were intoxicated. This fact indicates a lack of a safe and comfortable relationship between the client and her partner. Her ex-husband was abusive and Jane is also estranged from her family of origin. Thus, the social worker must work with the fact that a family-based intervention that requires the involvement of adult family members might not be effective in Jane’s case.
Intervention Plan:
An intervention plan for Jane must include a psychosocial approach to ensure the client’s well-being. A psychosocial approach to well-being includes emotional, psychological, social and collective components of well-being (Eiroa-Orosa, 2020). The case scenario involving Jane requires effective attention to each of these aspects to improve the client’s quality of life.
While developing the intervention plan, primary attention can be given to psychological well-being in Jane. There were multiple indications for affected psychological well-being identified in the assessment. Thus, a thorough psychological assessment of the client can be recommended. This would require the involvement of a professional psychologist as a part of the multi-disciplinary team in Jane’s care. The professional practitioner would be able to identify the requirements of specific services for the client to ensure her well-being.
Moreover, some interventions should also address the client’s habit of smoking as a coping mechanism, when she is “worried”. Appropriate coping mechanisms can manage both internal and external stressful situations without any physical or psychological harm to an individual (Algorani and Gupta, 2022). Thus, the client must be made aware of some healthy coping mechanisms to deal with the stress she often experiences. Furthermore, she must also be made aware of the harms of her smoking habit and discourage it. Educational approaches are one of the primary approaches for promoting smoking cessation (Pianori, Gili and Masanotti, 2017). A community-based intervention can be considered if she has trouble changing her habits. Considering the effectiveness of involving community health workers in such interventions, their inclusion in the multidisciplinary team can be considered (Zulkiply et al., 2020). The involvement of some more multidisciplinary team members might be necessary for further assessment of the client’s financial situation. Afterwards, some collaboration approach might be utilised to decide on a more directive approach to resolving her financial distress.
Evaluation of Outcomes:
The intervention regarding the involvement of a professional psychologist to conduct the psychological assessment addresses the goal of determining the basic psychosocial needs of the client. The achievement of this goal can be evaluated by the successful identification of the client’s needs. A report from the psychologist describing the necessary recommendations respective to the client then can be utilised for supporting her more effectively.
The effectiveness of client education regarding the coping mechanisms and harmful impacts of smoking can be evaluated by verbally testing the client’s knowledge. However, a more appropriate outcome measure for this intervention would be the client’s changing attitudes towards using the coping mechanisms taught and the willingness to smoking cessation. Moreover, the effectiveness of the community-based intervention, in the case of ineffective smoking cessation can be evaluated by assessing the frequency of smoking for the client. Additionally, the outcome measure involving the financial assessment would be a definite understanding of the current financial situation of the client and whether it requires any intervention.
Conclusion:
The psychosocial model is fairly effective when it is used for understanding the psychosocial situation of a client, involving his/her current psychological state, behaviour, personality and social environment. In the given scenario, this particular approach to understanding was required to assess the potential risk factors involved in the scenario. The client, Jane was presented in the emergency department following an argument with her partner. The intensity of the situation can be assumed from the involvement of the police, who were called by the neighbours. The use of the psychosocial model resulted in an appropriate risk assessment for self, other front-line workers and the service user. Moreover, the use of the model also provided scope for understanding the client’s psychosocial needs better through an analysis of history. However, usage of this model also leaves a few scopes for shortcomings. While the psychosocial model effectively links the psychological well-being of the clients with their social environment, it also has a few limitations. One of such limitations of this model involves an emphasis on empathy and mutuality as part of the ‘psy’ ideas (Healy, 2005). In this scenario, the direct involvement of the social worker in the implementation of the chosen intervention is going to be limited. A majority of the responsibility for the social worker would involve maintaining communication with the interdisciplinary team members and paperwork as the service provider. Thus, there will be very few scopes for displaying empathy and maintaining mutuality. Considering the confusion on the client’s part regarding this issue, the effectiveness of the psychosocial model can be limited in effective addressing all the client’s needs in this scenario.
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