FROM BIAS TO CHANGE IN ASSESSMENT

© Walden University, LLC 1

Week3 Case Study The Case of Allison

Allison is a 26-year-old Caucasian female who arrives at your agency for an addiction assessment. She is court-mandated to treatment after a conviction for sex work. During her arrest, she was found to have crack cocaine in her possession, and she tested positive for cocaine, marijuana, and alcohol. Completing addiction counseling will reduce her sentence. During the assessment, Allison is fidgety and avoids eye contact with you. However, she is polite and quickly opens up to you about her situation. You learn that she is from an upper-middle class family. She completed 2 years of college before dropping out, partially because of her substance use. She began binge drinking her freshman year of college, and her substance use quickly escalated. “I felt happy for the first time in my life,” she admits. “I always struggled with anxiety and depression. I never felt like I fit in until I started drinking and using.” She is an only child, and her parents are conservative and “very religious.” Her first drink was during her first weekend of college. As her use escalated, her grades plummeted, and she stopped attending class. When she moved back home after dropping out, her parents briefly supported her. They insisted on sobriety (among other rules, including church attendance and a curfew), and she was able to comply for a few weeks. But one night when hanging out with an old high school friend, they got drunk together. From that night, the drinking and drug use escalated again, and soon Allison was stealing small amounts of cash from her parents and coming home well past her curfew time of 11 p.m. Eventually, her parents kicked her out. Allison moved in with another friend, and the drinking and drug use continued. Soon, she was bouncing from apartment to apartment, unable to maintain a positive roommate relationship for very long. Running out of money, Allison began engaging in sex work in exchange for drugs. She typically traded sex with men, even though she identifies as lesbian (another facet of her life her parents refused to accept). Eventually, she became homeless. She couch-surfed with drug connections, her sex work customers, and occasionally stayed in a homeless shelter or on the street. She was finally arrested after soliciting sex work from an undercover police officer.

© Walden University, LLC 1

Week3 Case Study The Case of Allison

Allison is a 26-year-old Caucasian female who arrives at your agency for an addiction assessment. She is court-mandated to treatment after a conviction for sex work. During her arrest, she was found to have crack cocaine in her possession, and she tested positive for cocaine, marijuana, and alcohol. Completing addiction counseling will reduce her sentence. During the assessment, Allison is fidgety and avoids eye contact with you. However, she is polite and quickly opens up to you about her situation. You learn that she is from an upper-middle class family. She completed 2 years of college before dropping out, partially because of her substance use. She began binge drinking her freshman year of college, and her substance use quickly escalated. “I felt happy for the first time in my life,” she admits. “I always struggled with anxiety and depression. I never felt like I fit in until I started drinking and using.” She is an only child, and her parents are conservative and “very religious.” Her first drink was during her first weekend of college. As her use escalated, her grades plummeted, and she stopped attending class. When she moved back home after dropping out, her parents briefly supported her. They insisted on sobriety (among other rules, including church attendance and a curfew), and she was able to comply for a few weeks. But one night when hanging out with an old high school friend, they got drunk together. From that night, the drinking and drug use escalated again, and soon Allison was stealing small amounts of cash from her parents and coming home well past her curfew time of 11 p.m. Eventually, her parents kicked her out. Allison moved in with another friend, and the drinking and drug use continued. Soon, she was bouncing from apartment to apartment, unable to maintain a positive roommate relationship for very long. Running out of money, Allison began engaging in sex work in exchange for drugs. She typically traded sex with men, even though she identifies as lesbian (another facet of her life her parents refused to accept). Eventually, she became homeless. She couch-surfed with drug connections, her sex work customers, and occasionally stayed in a homeless shelter or on the street. She was finally arrested after soliciting sex work from an undercover police officer.