Treatment paper

Running head: GUIDED IMAGERY AND PROGRESSIVE MUSCLE RELAXATION

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Family Treatment Paper

Your Name Goes Here

Online MSW Track, University of Central Florida

SOW 6612: Clinical Practice with Families

Instructor Name

Month Day, 202X

Family Assessment Paper

This section is a summary paragraph of the family assessment paper. This paragraph will be brief: no more than 3-4 sentences that provides an overview of what the instructor can expect to read. Note that APA guidance includes an introduction before arriving to the heart of the paper; hence, it is advised that you keep this introduction. If you feel you need more space in your paper, come back to this introduction and re-work it so it is brief. Take that approach instead of deleting the introduction completely, as this measure will likely result in lost points.

Description/Assessment of Family

Similar to your first paper, in this section of your paper, you will describe/assess the family that you have selected. To help you organize your ideas and ensure that you include all required components, use the following headings and the guidance provided to assist you. Remember to use appropriate APA formatting throughout your paper. This formatting includes removing extra spacing between any paragaphs, citing correctly, and formatting font and headings correctly.

Family Background/Identification

In this part of your paper, describe the process you used to identify the family for this paper and how you gained permission to interview the individual(s) for this assignment - if you selected individuals from your field placement or your job. If you selected a television show, movie, or a documentary, you can indicate this detail in your paper. If you seelcted individuals from your field placement / job, indicate where you located the individual(s), such as the specifics of your field placement, the type of agency it is, and the services that are provided by the agency. If you did not utilize an individual or family from your agency or job, you may indicate the process you used to select the alternate option (i.e. what drew you to the option and the specific alternative). Also, in this section of the paper, include the presenting issue(s) for the client system (e.g., if this is a family at your agency, why is the client system seeking services? If this is a client system from a tv show or a documentary, identify what you see as the key presenting issue and give rationale).

In addition, if you selected a client system from an agency, discuss how you came to be aware of the client (i.e., Were you assigned to the client? Was the client suggested to you for this paper by your supervisor or someone else? If you were seeing the client, how long? etc.). Note that this subcomponent would not apply if selecting an alternate option (tv show, movie, or documentary). Finally, if selecting a client system from your agency, decribe your process for gaining permission to interview the client for this assignment. Be certain to include a description of your discussion with your supervisor (to include your supervisor's name and title at the agency) to gain permission and your supervisor’s response to you, how you approached/discussed the issue with the client, how you informed them of their rights to discontinue or not answer questions if they did not wish to , and their response to you. If there are other details that you find important to include in consideration of the client assessment/treatement, please do so. For instance, if the client was not immediately open to being interviewed, if the client was helpful in identifying other members of their family to interview, etc.

If you selected an alternate option, describe your process for accessing the tv show, movie, or documentary, and how you prepared yourself to watch the content through the lens of a clinician.

Biopsychosocialspiritual & Environment Assessment

In this section of your paper, you will include the overall make up of the family, the specific roles

of family members, and any relevant health/mental health concerns. In addition, you want to describe

the relevant evironmental/ecological components that impact the family system (remember: the focus

of this paper/class is on the family; refrain from only focusing on one individual as this will result in

point deductions) . This subcomponent includes where key indviduals within the family are located, and

the overall health of the environment(s) (i.e. economic, resource access, etc.). You also want to discuss

the external systems that impact key members of the family as it relates to the nature of the presenting

issue (that you will discuss in a section below). As you may recall from your reading during the first part

of this course, these external factors can include occupations, education, religious/spiritual, frienships,

pets, etc. Remember to be certain to include both a genogram and an ecomap, with a key, to reflect the

descriptions provided in this section of your paper (Appendix A will consist of your genogram and Appendix B will consist of your ecomap).

Note: if working with an actual client system, it would be excellent clinical and best practice to create the genogram and ecomap with the client, or to show the documents to the client so they can provide feedback and insight on the documents. If you take this step, be certain to discuss this detail in this section of your paper, and the client’s reaction, and your response/follow up.

Family Resilience Assessment

Now that you have identified who and what makes up and impacts the family system, it is time to reflect on how the family operates. As you may recall from the first assignment, this refers to the family’s belief systems, organizational patterns, and communications processes. In this section, you will also discuss diversity, stressors, risks, and protective factors as they apply to the family.

To begin with this section, discuss the values/beliefs that guide the family system as a whole. Remember that Chapter 2 of the Collins et al. text and Chapter 1 of Van Hook’s text provides some insights about belief systems that can govern a family system. The PowerPoint for Week #2 also provides some insights. In this section, you want to discuss what some of the family belief systems are and how the belief system(s) impact the family. Be certain to ground your writing/perceptions in the literature.

Next, take some time to think about the organizational patterns within the family system. Recall that Van Hook Chapter 1 indicates that organizational patterns reflect interpersonal arrangements and how those arrangements can help or hinder family resiliency. The chapter goes further to identify aspects of organizational patterns such as cohesion and leadership . Review these concepts and identify where the family falls in relation to how they are described in the chapter, keeping in mind that every system is unique and what matters most is what is healthy for that family system. In this regard, when identifying where the family falls as it relates to cohesion and leadership, include a description of what works and what does not work for the family, based on the client’s perspective [if you have access] and your analysis.

Following, in this section of the paper, you want to reflect on the family’s communication style and how it impacts the family’s functioning. A review of Chapters 3 and 8 in the Collins et al. text might help. Remember to keep in mind that all families communicate differently based upon multiple factors, such as culture, language, ability, region of the globe etc. Be certain to incorporate the client’s (family system) perspective of communication style for their family [if you are able], and your analysis of the overall effectiveness of the family’s communication style, with grounding in the literature to support your analysis.

Conclude this section of your paper with a discussion of the diversity, stressors, risks, and protective factors present for the family system. Up to this point in the paper, some of these items may have been mentioned briefly; however, here is where you expand on each of these facets (diversity, stressors, risks, etc.) using the client’s (family system) perspective and your analysis, with grounding in the literature. For assistance, a review of Chapter 4 of Collins et al. will help to recap family development and life cycle, which discusses the various areas within family development that could present stress on the family system. Also, recall that there are also some factors of “being” (e.g., gender, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity) that manifest as stress on the family system for a variety of reasons. Chapter 5 of Collins et al. highlights how some aspects of cultural stress can manifest as an aspect of risk for a family. Also, remember that Van Hook, Chapter 1 provides information, including a chart, that helps to provide insight on family resilience.

Thorough acknowledgement and discussion of the family’s resiliency factors are critical to incorporate in this paper. Discussion *and* citation of sources is key. They will help highlight your identification and understanding of why certain factors are identified as resiliency versus risk factors for the family. Finally, be certain to identify aspects of diversity that have an impact on the family’s resilience, stressors, and protective mechanisms.

Identification of Presenting Issue(s)

Using the description/assessment content included above, in this space, you want to indicate the current and/or long-term presenting issue(s) for the family unit . For instance, an example of a current presenting issue may be a recent marriage that has altered dynamics in the family. An example of a long-term presenting issue may be a primary caretaker who has been diagnosed with a degenerative illness. Currently, the family may be working well to manage needs, but long-term, there could be concerns because of the role that the diagnosed family member plays within the family unit.

In addition to identifying the issue(s), it very important to discuss the reason the issue is of concern. This reason must be clearly linked to the family’s needs/concerns versus one client or, if you are interviewing a family, the clinician’s (your) perspective. Now, this may be difficult if you are interviewing one person (or drawn to one person in the show / documentary) because they have their own unique perspective of what the presenting issue may be; however, as a developing clinician, it is critically important that you use all of the available data collected, along with the available literature, to help you identify what the family’s presenting issue(s) is/ are . Of course, as appropriate and if you able to, you are also encouraged to review the identified presenting issue(s) with the client.

Once you clearly identify the presenting issue(s), connecting the presenting issue(s) with an anticipated outcome, or goal, is important. Locating scholarly articles or other reputable sources that affirm your claim would be important. For instance, using income stability as an example, you may locate an article that demonstrates that low income has a significant impact on health and educational outcomes for White-identified persons (Crimmins, Hayward, & Seeman, 2004), which is a demographic descriptor of the family you are completing this assessment on. You may determine that focus on chronic job loss among caretakers in the family is critical to address because long term, the impact on the family unit with regard poor living conditions will remain an issue. Hence, some anticipated outcomes, or goals, for therapy may be to identify practical ways to increase income for the family and locate resources for suitable housing that can support and maintain the family’s needs.

Treatment Model & Plan

Now that you have completed the family assessment and discussed the presenting issue(s), it is time to consider the treatment approach. To do so, it will help you to consider the treatment approaches with families discussed/presented over the course. Examples may include psychodynamic family therapy, structural family therapy, strategic family therapy, communications approach, solution focused therapy, narrative family therapy, psychoeducational family therapy, multisystems approach, etc.

Upon selecting the theory and model to use in the treatment of the presenting issue(s), it will be necessary to: 1) provide an overview of the model as you understand it [meaning, do not just summarize, but truly describe with critical, master’s-level analysis]; 2) indicate who is well known in developing the model [think of your discussion posting]; 3) delineate the specific aspects of the model that make it ideal to utilize as a treatment approach with the family and specific examples of how you would apply these approaches; and 4) integration of additional literature that indicates how the application of the model used would be applicable with the family given the family’s structure and presenting issue(s). It is very important to describe your understanding of this model in detail, and its background, to truly demonstrate your understanding of the model and the key components that make up how the model is used. The course modules provide multiple resources such as text chapters, videos, and articles that can assist your critical analysis of the model. In addition, it is important to discuss ways that you would adapt your interventions in view of the unique nature of the family-this would include your assessment of the racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, religious, sexual orientation, and other elements that make this family unique. Be certain to ground your adaptations in the literature.

Assessment of the Intervention

In this final section, use this space to reflect on your perception of how effective the intervention/model you proposed to use would be. Include your thoughts regarding the family’s ability to achieve the identified goal(s) and address the presenting issue(s), based on your understanding of the family and any relevant literature to support your claims. Include in your reflection your own awareness regarding the limitations and/or barriers you might bring to using such a model in the future and how you plan to address those limitations/barriers. Conclude this section with your feelings/thoughts about completing this assignment and how you might use this experience moving forward.

References

In-text citations and reference list should be formatted according to APA style. Refer to the Webcourses assignment page for more details regarding how many and which references you must use. Remember that strict attention will be paid to your use of APA writing style. Please remember to use your APA manual, Purdue OWL, and other resources to help with reference and citation formatting as needed.