family studies in social care

Case example 1: John John is a 48yr old male who has recently moved to residential care in an intellectual disability service. John has Downs Syndrome and has attended the day service in this organisation since his late teens. John’s parents were both older- his mother Joan is 89 yrs and his father Frank died last year at the age of 90 yrs. John talks about his father frequently, referring to him as the boss who would help him shave every morning and choose his clothes, and would drive him to the day service. His mother Joan was very reluctant regarding John moving into residential care, but agreed it was the best thing for him as she cannot do as much for him as she and her late husband could in the past- she never learnt to drive. Joan visits at least once per week and John phones her every evening- he also usually goes home for one overnight at the weekend, where he especially enjoys being in charge of the TV remote control. John usually asks his mother to bring him clean clothes and things he likes to eat when she visits him. John says his mother is a great cook and the house is “spick and span”. John has two older siblings. His elder sister Maria (51 yrs) is divorced and has one adult child, Sarah (25 yrs). John sometimes refers to Maria’s ex- husband Eddie as being a hard man, though John also enjoyed going to soccer matches with him and misses this, since Maria separated from Eddie. Sarah who lives at home has recently come out as being gay- her partner Celine has been known as Sarah’s friend to all the family for many years, and they now all say that they always knew there was something going on between them. John really likes Celine, who has recently moved in with Sarah; she had helped him set up an Instagram and a Facebook page. Maria says that her parents had John spoilt as they always thought they would be there to look after him-Joan still refers to John as the “little fella” . Maria works fulltime outside the home and says she would have liked to have John living with her and believes her mother expected this and is disappointed but will not say anything. John’s brother Seamus (50yrs) lives in Mullingar with his wife Helga. He has intermittent contact with John and his family. Helga is from Iceland and she has spoken about never really hearing about Downs Syndrome as it is not common there. John says that Helga speaks to him like he is a child and she always wants to leave early, when Seamus and her visit. He once heard his father say that Helga “wears the trousers” and he wondered where Sean learnt to be a good housewife. On the few occasions he has been in their house, John noticed that Seamus did the cooking and it seems he does lots of the housework. John enjoys his day centre and especially the other “lads”. He says that one of the female service users annoys him- she is always reminding him to clear up after himself. He enjoys the computer classes, drama and some of the art activities. His favourite staff person at the moment is Mark who is great craic, according to John.

Case example 2: Femi Femi is a 25 year old female living in homeless accommodation. Femi’s parents are both from Nigeria. Her parents separated when she was 12 years old and she has only seen her father Tomi once since then, when her mother and she visited Nigeria. Her father is in another relationship in Nigeria and he now has two younger children a girl (7 yrs) and a boy (5 yrs). Femi has never met her two half-siblings and she is uncertain if he is cohabiting or married to this other woman. Femi reports having a good relationship with her mother Dolores who is 42 years. Femi and her mother lived in rented accommodation for many years. However, when the rent repeatedly increased, Dolores and Femi could not afford to remain there. They spent some months staying with Dolores’ cousin Yvonne and her husband Ayo - however there was often conflict between Yvonne and Ayo regarding this. Ayo said he could not continue to live in such a small space. Dolores and Femi ended up having to accept separate homeless accommodation. Femi presents as a shy woman and appears ashamed of her current circumstances. When she meets school friends and neighbours in town, she oftens pretends that she is still living in her previous flat. Femi is very active in her church and attends as many activities there as she can. When Femi was 16 years old, she became pregnant by her boyfriend Danny. Both families were initially angry with Femi and Danny and thought they were too young to raise a child and had brought shame on both their families. Femi travelled to Nigeria with Dolores where they remained for several months. Femi gave birth to a little girl Bela who is being raised by a maternal aunt Olafemi in Nigeria who had no children of her own. Femi has worked as a waitress but with Covid, she lost her employment. She tells her friends that she is reluctant to become involved in another relationship- she has a friend Tosun who also attends her church and she knows he would like to be more than friends. Femi often thinks of her father Tomi and her cousin’s husband Ayo and wonders if Tosun will turn out like them. Femi has not told Tosun of having a daughter in Nigeria and wonders if she will be ever able to confide in him

This assignment addresses the following CORU Proficiencies:

2.12 Understand the need to work in partnership with service users, their relatives/carers (if appropriate) and other professionals in planning and evaluating goals and interventions, as part of care planning and be aware of the concepts of power and authority in relationships with service users.

5.1 Know, understand and apply the key concepts of the domains of knowledge which are relevant to the profession.

Choose one only of the case examples provided. (You may have a greater interest in one case example because of your personal/ practice history.)

(1) Provide a brief summary of the service user(s) and the relationships they have with their family as you might record it in the service user’s file. Include a family tree- you must use a standardised model. (It is important to remember that the service user(s) may request access to their file. Also, in some agencies, service user(s) are encouraged to read their file and add comments.) (15 marks)

(2) Provide an ecomap for this service user(s), highlighting current and possible sources of support. (15 marks)

(3) Briefly outline two theoretical perspectives in Family Studies e.g. functionalism, feminism, patriarchy and how these are relevant to the case example. (30 marks)

(4) As a keyworker, outline the key aspects of a care plan for this service user(s) which you would develop in partnership with the service user(s) and their family/ support systems. (30 marks) Presentation which includes structure, grammar, spelling, and adhering (10 marks)

Guidelines Recommended Word Count: 2000 words

New Times Roman size 12

1.5 line spacing

Each section must be supported by relevant literature and referenced acc