Discussion- Instruments Measuring Resiliency

Reflect on your fieldwork or other professional experience and identify a case where it would have been beneficial to employ resiliency theory. Describe the case in 2 sentences.

In fieldwork, I conducted case management with a 20-year-old female resident of a young adult transitional living program after a ten-year history in foster care. This resident was a self-proclaimed “gym rat” who stated they like going to the gym to meet up with their friends and that weightlifting was therapeutic for her. The formula of resiliency is loosely defined as context or depth of adversity, quality of relationships, collection of pleasurable moments, and seeking hope (Gilligan, 2017). For this resident, going to the gym provided a positive release.

Describe the presenting problem in one concise sentence.

A 20-year-old female transitional living program resident seeks stabilization to secure safe housing, build life skills, and form secure attachments after ten years of experience in the foster care system.

Describe an intervention you would implement to promote resiliency.

This resident was advised to keep a journal of how they felt before and after the gym, particularly when triggered. In the face of adversity, this resident would frequently say, “I just need to go to the gym.” We made a note to explore concepts of over-exercise related to body image, and this resident declared that the gym was about emancipation from the days' worries.

Identify an instrument from the Smith-Osborne and Whitehill Bolton’s article that would be appropriate when employing a single-subject design to evaluate how effective the intervention is in increasing the client’s level of resiliency.

The Resilience Scale for Children and Adolescents (RSCA) is used in clinical domains to demonstrate clients' protective factors (Smith-Osborne &Whitehill Bolton, 2013). Importantly, RSCA boasts a large sample size and questionnaire, which would be beneficial in measuring the efficacy of this intervention instrument (Smith-Osborne & Whitehall Boslton, 2013).

Explain why you selected the instrument.

While this resident experienced many hardships in early life, she is currently inventorying their strengths and environments of joy to cultivate protective factors. The RSCA could assist in this inventory as protective traits are the unit of analysis in the instrument (Smith-Osborne & Whitehall Bolton, 2013). Of note, RSCA measures 1) Emotional reactivity, 2) Sense of mastery 3) Sense of relatedness, which are all goals of this client (Smith-Osborne & Whitehall, 2013).

In other words, why would the instrument be appropriate? (Consider the age of the client and for whom the instrument was designed, how feasible it would be to administer the instrument such as cost, time to administer it, etc.).

Even though this resident is outside the age range of the original intervention study, most residents arrive at our social service agency at the developmental age of 16-18 (HWAM, 2021a). Emphasis on developmental theory matches the research goals of RSCA and my field placement agency, Hearts with a Mission (HWAMb, 2021; Smith-Osborne & Whitehall Bolton, 2013). Sense of relatedness is a program value of HWAM and aligns with the social work value of the importance of human relationships (HWAMb, 2021; NASW, 2021). HWAM would be able to purchase this Psych Corp assessment with Oregon Departments of Health and Human Services funds. Case managers primarily provide case management on evenings residents are not at work at school, which alleviates a time administration barrier.

Best,

Rebecca