This assignment for Ethansky!

The Case of Suad Mustafa

Kaplan University

Professor Denise Orpustan Love

HN-499

Project Unit IX

03/05/2013

Family Center Agency is a therapy center that serves the city of Kaplanville, Georgia. This treatment center is geared to provide a range of services, techniques and methods to individual with mental health and other issues such behavioral problem, depression, anxiety etc. Kaplanville is a family oriented city; its population is composed mostly of children and young adults, which reflects on the clientele of the center. Ever since I have started working as a counselor at Family Center Agency, approximately 12 years ago, a weekly case conference has been established and observed by all staff, with the aim to constantly reinforce clients’ progresses in presenting and discussing their problems, goals, needs and recommendations. Children and adolescents make the majority clients of my caseloads; in today’s case study I have the opportunity to present the case of a young lady that I have been working with for the past six months, Suad Mustafa. Great introduction

Suad Mustafa is a Fourteen years old African girl who was referred to Family Center Agency by the family Doctor of her adoptive parents, with some concerns of maladjustments and rebellious attitude, in other word, behavioral issues. Ten Years ago, Suad and her family had fled their country Sudan, Africa due to civil war. They came to United States with the status of refugees and reside at Decatur, Georgia. According to the Doctor’s statement, Suad was removed from her parents’ home six months after she arrived in America due to lack of supervision and care. Under the authorization of the State, she was placed in foster family home, after being left alone with her 12 year-old sister and a 6 years brother for long hours while both parents come home at six o’clock in the evening. The local Department of Children services was alerted when they received an anonymous call, thus they took action against the parents and relocated the children in different foster homes. After eight years of moving from one foster home to another; Suad was adopted by an American family, Mr. and Mrs. Brown.

According to the declaration of Suad’s adoptive parents, the Browns” At a young age Suad knew nothing but horrible circumstances, she was born during the Sudanese civil war; her birth mother had witnessed the deaths of three of her children while she was pregnant with Suad. They moved to America to look for peace, and to provide a better life for their kids. They use to have supervised visitation but now they are totally absent in her life. Suad has the reputation to act violently towards her birth parents during visitation. Very clear description

Client’s main intervention and goals:

There are three factors that I would like to share with you need about Suad, before I elaborate further on her case. She was born Sudan during civil war, she was uprooted from her family during their adaptation to a new environment and new culture, and she had lived in several foster homes, which required constant adaptations to new environments and new rules. Evidently client’s background demonstrates emotional distress; however according to her adoptive parents she shows her strength in art, sometime shows signs of gifted sportive. At the initial contact client had presented symptoms of reactive depression. She was in an irritable mood, was easily in a disposition of shouting at others, she had lost interest in drawing that was her daily routine, and lost her appetite. The main intervention taken was to refer her to the staff psychologist for cognitive behavioral therapy known as CBT; “it is a form of psychotherapy that emphasizes the important role of thinking in how we feel and what we do or a therapy based on the idea that our thoughts cause our feelings and behaviors” (Emory School of Medicine Article, 2002). Client’s three goals settings were:

· Keeping therapy’s session appointments

· Making an effort to actively participate in therapy’ session

· Maintaining effective drawing and volley ball activities to improve the quality care of her life.

Client’s needs:

Because of the new composition of Suad’s adoptive family, they are eligible for Medicaid, which we were able to assist with the application, and the Medicaid benefits were granted. Referrals were given for several community based programs such as youth activities, adopted peer, foster and adoptive parents clubs etc. Connecting client with a primary care provider was as well a need.

Current status:

Three days ago we met for our monthly visitation, though she is following her goals at 80%, she had showed some desire and willingness to change her behavioral issues, overall her improvement does not quite balanced with the intensive care we provided.

Recommendations:

The main goal for client Suad is to help her identify and discuss the situations that caused her to behave so aggressively. The cognitive behavioral approach of our staff psychologist had helped her control somewhat of her emotion while coping with her present life. Considering client’s history of emotional and psychological trauma as already stated, another referral was made to a psychologist whose expertise is trauma and PTSD, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, another approach that may be more effective in client’s treatment. She was conceived and born while her mother experienced extraordinary stressful and dangerous life. Her emotional development was interrupted which may be one the reasons or the reason why she is rebellious and hostile to others. Thus I believe that an expert in trauma may help her coping better with unrealistic outcome such as not able to change the past. Recommendations:

· Group therapy is to be considered as opposed to individual one. He reasoning behind this preference, if client is connected with other clients of her age group with similar issues, where she may find the support network of her peers, so it may be beneficial for her to gain strength and balanced life.

· A weekly meeting at the center for the use of our recreational activities resources is recommended to help client Suad release her repressed anger, loss, and any other emotions that restrained her. Engaging in activities such as drawing in which she can apply her talent and interest in art, her gifted sportive touched that may have been abandoned because of extremely difficult life (Dr. Love, 2013).

· The involvement of her family members in the assisting plan for an effective outcome in Suad’s well-being is again encouraged. Her adoptive parents demonstrate great love and support in trying to reconnect Suad with her biological parents and to alleviate ongoing concerns and encourage her setting realistic goals.

· Based on the needs of client, longer term as an active client is necessary and is required to help this family develop communications skills, to build and to sustain relationship with one another. The strength of the Brown family is the love and stability that they want to offer to Suad. They express the desire to help her focus on her education in order to give here an endless future opportunity. However this family is significantly more likely to experience obstacles that may delay a good relationship with their adopted daughter if we close her case at this fragile moment. Another effective recommendation is to enroll the entire adoptive family in our program. That may again promote more strategies for parent and child relationship as a whole.

· Each department of our agency that assists Suad is encouraged to find an effective way to work on targeting the factors or factor that trigger Suad’s issues. The main reason is to maintaining the alliance and partnership with the family and continuing to provide adequate strategies or referrals.

· Once these recommendations are applied, we hope to see Suad addressing her past confidently in order to bring closure to the separation with her birth parents and siblings, to address her emotional needs that have been neglected or restrained for so long. She may understand that starting a new life is a major adjustment and it may present various challenges for her. Being a resilient child is important factor that may help her cope with her new life. Lastly a physical exam at the community health center was referred to check out any other medical concerns. Superb recommendations!

In conclusion this case review with an informative article wrote by Dr. Bremner JD, Emory School of Medicine “The effects of childhood trauma on the brain are increasingly an area of interest. In trying to understand the effects of early stressors on the brain we use animal models of early stress to guide the development of hypotheses. Neuroimaging studies in traumatized children are in a relative state of infancy. A number of methodological and ethical issues make this a difficult area for research, including problems ranging from patient motion during scanning to the ethical issues of the duty to report abuse and working with child protective services. Some studies have shown that adults abused as children have smaller volume of hippocampus, a brain area involved in learning and memory, as measured with magnetic resonance imaging(MRI). One study in children with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) did not find smaller hippocampal volume, but did find smaller brain volume and corpus callosum. Functional neuroimaging studies are consistent with alteration in function and structure of medial prefrontal

Reference

Bremner JD,

Department of Psychiatry, Emory Center for Positron Emission Tomography, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA,

Seminars in Clinical Neuropsychiatry [2002, 7(2):104-112

Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-US Gov’t, Research Support, U.S. Gov’t, Non-P.H.S., Research Support, U.S. Gov’t, P.H.S.

Bachelor’s Capstone for Human Services, Case Study Discussion

By Dr. Denise Orpustan Love-Retrieved on 3/2/13 at Unit 9 Discussion

Kaplan University, 2013

This is an outstanding case presentation! It is well researched, professional, accurate, comprehensive and clearly articulated, with excellent, best practice recommendations. Dr. Love

Unit 9 Assignment - Grading Criteria	% - Points
Course Content   Creates a case presentation consisting of the following:
Client Name and Demographics	20
Presenting Problem	20
Goal	20
Needs	20
Crisis	20
Recommendations	40
Writing
Structure: Writing is clear and accurate reflecting a professional tone. Includes introduction with clear and complete paragraphs.	15
Mechanics: Uses correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, and APA format. Free of typographical errors.	15
Total	170
An explanation of the points earned, as well as where the Assignment could be strengthened will be included with your grade.