Final Project: Scholar Practitioner Project

Instructor's: Krystal Finch

Date: April 4th, 2021

MARGE'S FAMILY INTERVENTION

Marge is a single parent who got her first child while still living with her parents, and she dropped out of school. She got married and later divorced after six years because her husband was a drunkard, he was having affairs, and he did not support Marge, the children, and her. She worries about food, and she survives on food stamps. She also wants to continue her education, but she has less time and resources because of less support from her parents and the children's father. Dominic, the children's father, is also abusive to the kids and hits their daughter until she got bruises. The problems that she faces are financial, lack of support, working many hours, fear of losing her apartment, and her child physically abused by her father.

The best intervention for the Marge family is family interventions that deal with specific information. The family intervention mode of therapy involves job-related counseling, which would address Marge's time management concerning her job. Another counseling area addressed in family intervention is marriage and pregnancy counseling (Szapocznik & Hervis, 2020). Due to marge's marriage problems with her uncaring husband and the fact that she had a pregnancy in her early stage of life, she needs support to cope with the stresses that come with the situation.

The intervention plan starts with marge getting into residential care to help her establish some independence so that she can be able to manage her situation with or without assistance from the other family members in the long term. The intervention's long-term goals are also to enable Marge to create a solution to her financial problems that will eliminate her poverty and boost her independence. She is also intended to get skills that will help her fit in the life she now has since she started her adult life at a tender age. Her treatment also intends to help her establish a healthy family relationship with her other family members. The plan for a healthy relationship includes joint therapy sessions with her husband and their parents to understand her situation and hopefully improve the situation. Marge treatment's short-term goals include establishing a better time program that will enable her to achieve her education dream in the long run while helping her spend time with her kids (Varghese et al., 2020). Another short-term goal is to enable Marge to develop resilience and skills to help her deal with the stressful schedule and responsibilities she has at a long age.

The next step in the therapy would be to enroll Dominic in the treatment. The treatment would start with cognitive behavioral therapy to treat Dominic's primary aim to stop his alcohol addiction. The CBT will also help establish possible reasons for his violent actions against his child and why he avoids spending time with the kids (Hayes & Hofmann, 2018). Understanding the root cause will help establish a proper solution to the problems. Another term aim of Dominic's treatment is to enable him to assume responsibility as a father and build a healthy family relationship with Marge. The plan also includes the short-term goals of having Dominic supportive of Marge in her study to lead a better life concerning the family's financial situations.

The objectives of the treatment plans are to have Marge and Dominic attend the program. Dominic will accept help for his addiction problem and also open up about the possible causes for his distance from his family (Hayes & Hofmann, 2018). Marge will open up about her stresses and concerns so that an appropriate solution can be created to deal with her problems. Dominic and Marge will talk about their struggles about starting a family at an early age. Dominic will talk about his past to enable the therapist to establish possible addiction and social issues problems.

The strategies to be used include Marge attending family therapy and job-related counseling. Marge will also participate in marriage and pregnancy counseling. Since Marge got pregnant at an early age, she might have been going through stigma, and she must be enrolled in counseling to help her cope with stigma (Varghese et al., 2020). Dominic will attend cognitive behavioral therapy to help him deal with his violent behavior and addiction. There will also be a joint session for both Marge and Dominic to help them sort family issues and enhance a healthy family relationship. Peer-to-peer interventions to help establish solutions to problems for the couple are also strategies to be used with Marge and Dominic and other young couples to help them deal with their issues in the marriage life.

Expected outcomes include better time management and stress management for Marge three months into the therapy. Dominic is also expected to have control over his alcohol addiction after around six months. Marge and the kids' family support is expected to improve after one month so that Marge can continue her studies. After a month, Marge's time management and schedules are expected to have improved to have enough time for all her activities and still have enough time to spend with her children. The family's financial situation and Dominic's responsibility are expected to improve after six months of dealing with the addiction (Pinto et al., 2020). At the end of one year, the family relationship is expected to be stable and in a better financial position.

References

Hayes, S. C., & Hofmann, S. G. (Eds.). (2018). Process-based CBT: The science and core clinical competencies of cognitive behavioral therapy. New Harbinger Publications.

Pinto, A. D., Da Ponte, M., Bondy, M., Craig-Neil, A., Murphy, K., Ahmed, S., ... & Green, S. (2020). Addressing financial strain through a peer-to-peer intervention in primary care. Family Practice, 37(6), 815-820.

Szapocznik, J., & Hervis, O. E. (2020). Brief strategic family therapy. American Psychological Association.

Varghese, M., Kirpekar, V., & Loganathan, S. (2020). Family Interventions: Basic Principles and Techniques. Indian journal of psychiatry, 62(Suppl 2), S192.