Family Assessment Case Study- D Angelo Family

Family Assessment Case Study- D Angelo Family

Section 1: Summary of Information

Primary Family Information and Family Background

This is a presentation report of the assessment of the D’Angelo family based on the family’s intake interview. The D’Angelo family is a blended family. The family currently consists of seven (7) members. There is Mr. Antonio (Tony) D’Angelo, the family’s father and the head, Mrs. Selma (Perini) D’Angelo, currently the family’s mother and the current second wife of Mr. D’Angelo, four children of which three are from Mr. D’Angelo’s first marriage; Mariana, Paul, and Tony,  and one,  Benedetta, from Mrs. D’Angelo’s first marriage, and Solie Guilietto, Mrs. D’Angelo’s mother.

Mr. D’Angelo is a 41-year-old man living in the United States his entire life. He is 5’10” tall with a thin physique. He recently got remarried and is currently living through his second marriage. He remarried four years after his first wife died of cancer. For the last four years, he has been managing his family with the help of his eldest daughter, Mariana. Initially, he got assistance from his young sister in running the family before she left.

Mrs. Selma D’Angelo is a 36-year-old woman who moved to the United States four years ago. She was living in Florence, Italy, before she moved to the US. Selma is 5’3”, and based on physical observation, she is somewhat overweight. She has one daughter, Benedetta, from her previous marriage. Mrs. D’Angelo has been married to Mr. D’Angelo for the last four months.

Mariana is a 16-year-old young lady. She is the firstborn daughter of Mr. D’Angelo from his first marriage. Additionally, Mariana has two younger siblings, Paul and Tony. As the first daughter, Mariana supports her father to manage their home.

Paul is a 13-year-old young man. He is the second-born child and first son of Mr. D’Angelo and his first wife.

Tony is a 10-year-old boy. He is the last-born child and second son of Mr. D’Angelo from his first marriage.

Benedetta is a 14-year-old young lady. She is Mrs. D’Angelo’s firstborn daughter and only child from her previous marriage. Also, she is Mr. D’Angelo’s step-daughter and second daughter. Benedetta is also a stepsister to Mariana, Paul, and Tony.

Solie Guilietto is a 68-year-old woman. She is the mother to Mrs. D’Angelo and Mr. D’Angelo’s mother-in-law. Also, she is a grandmother to Benedetta and step-grandmother to Mariana, Paul, and Tony. She lived in Florence, Italy, and moved to the US after her daughter, Mrs. D’Angelo, married Mr. D’Angelo. Solie Guilietto currently suffers from degenerative kidney disease and type 2 diabetes under long diagnosis and treatment. She previously lived with her husband and had to move to the US after she died since she had no family back in Florence, Italy.

Mr. D’Angelo first called to seek assistance from the agency on his phone. He referred himself to the agency after he got concerned about the developing behaviors and attitudes of his daughter, Mariana, towards his wife, Mrs. D’Angelo, his stepdaughter, Benedetta, and his mother-in-law, Solio Guiletto. Essentially, Mariana’s behavior was extreme and upset the whole family. Mr. D’Angelo believes that the situation with his daughter is getting out of hand and slowly breaking up his new marriage and the family as a whole. For this reason, Mr. D’Angelo believes that serious and professional assistance is much needed for her daughter to develop a positive relationship with her stepmother and ensure that his new marriage and family do not break.

Presentation of the Problems and Issues in the D’Angelo Family

After the phone call with Mr. D’Angelo, I arranged a meeting with him and his current wife to come and identify the problem. I conducted the intake interview on November 2, 202x. Both Mr. D’Angelo and Mrs. D’Angelo feel that Mariana has developed behaviors and attitudes that have made her completely sullen and uncooperative. During the interview, it was noted that Mariana has been insulting Mrs. D’Angelo based on her cooking, accent, body, dressing code, hairstyle, beauty, and other racially-motivated insults. They both further said that Mariana has been in many times attempting to turn her young brothers against Mrs. D’Angelo, Benedetta, and Mrs. Guiletto.

From the interview, Mrs. D’Angelo also pointed out that since she brought her mother over to the US to care for her and help her access care due to her degenerative kidney disease, Mariana has openly expressed her disgust for them both. She once told Mrs. D’Angelo that she does not need her as her stepmother or Mrs. Guiletto around. Mariana has also been rude to Mrs. Guilietto. For instance, Mariana once told Mrs. Guiletto to get herself a glass of water when she requested her (Mariana) to help her (Mrs. Guiletto) with it.

Mrs. D’Angelo also noted that Mariana has been unkind to Benedetta to the level that Benedetta has threatened to run away. She also mentioned that Mariana’s behavior towards Benedetta is sometimes undefinable as she sometimes acts cool with her and treats her like her sister before she suddenly changes and mistreats her.

Observing Mr. Angelo’s teary eyes and how Mrs. D’Angelo expresses herself, and how she feels about the whole situation with her step-daughter, I can conclude that Mariana’s actions have distressing her father and stepmother. Accordingly, this distress is not only from her actions but the things she has said in the past.

Mariana also appears to have suicidal thoughts. According to Mr. D’Angelo and his wife, Mariana has at some time gone into hysteria, where she screamed and shouted that nobody loved her. At this point, she went ahead and threatened to commit suicide to meet with her mother. She might be a risk to herself or others in the family. At the moment, I suggested to Mr. and Mrs. D’Angelo to keep a close eye on her and not to do anything that may arouse her in a way she may have such thoughts until we hold a family meeting to further assess her suicidal and self-harm risk.

From what has been learned from the interview with Mr. and Mrs. D’Angelo, Mariana seems to be the center of the current problems affecting the family. However, it is clearly notable that she has not always been like so. Her problems started when her father, Mr. D’Angelo, brought Selma for dinner in the family house. According to Mr. D’Angelo, he thought it was not okay to tell the children that he was dating. Mariana, Mr. D’Angelo’s young sister, and his sister-in-law had expressed concern over him remarrying.

Section 2: Investment

The Willingness Or Investment Of Each Family Member In The Family Therapy Process

After the interview and identifying that the family needed assistance in solving the problems, I told Mr. and Mrs. D’Angelo that everyone in the family needed to be available for the sessions. They both acted surprised. Mr. D’Angelo thinks that his daughter and his wife need to be at the sessions. At the same time, Mrs. D’Angelo feels that it is not a good idea for Mariana and Mrs. Guiletto to be in the same room since she (Mariana) has not been good with Mrs. Guieletto, especially with her kidney issues. I explained the agency’s policy on related matters and why the whole family needed to be present. Mr. D’Angelo noted that since they had no choice on who to attend and fulfill the agency’s policies to get assistance, they would all be attending the meetings.

Section 3: Information Necessary for Engagement

The Perception Of “The Problem” And What Is Needed For Resolution According To Each Family Member

From a constructionist view, a condition or behavior existing within a social setting cannot be considered a social problem unless there exists a perception that it should be considered a social problem (Best, 2018). Based on a claims-making process, the interview intended to find out how each family member felt about the problem within the family. Mariana was viewed to be the cause of the current family fallout. The perceptions of each family member are considered with the knowledge that most perceptions are subjective based on the nature of the dispute between the family members. Mr. D’Angelo views Mariana as an unhappy child. At the same time, Mrs. D’Angelo feels that her husband has no control over Mariana as he does not rebuke her when she disrespects her and is rude to Benedetta and Mrs. Guilieto.

Paul and Tony, despite Mariana being their elder sister, have also been standing up to her whenever she verbally insults Mrs. D’Angelo, Benedetta, and Mrs. Guilietto. Most of their encounters have resulted in heated arguments. Selma, during the interview, describes the scene in the house as “everybody is shouting and screaming and slamming doors all over the house!” painting a picture of a chaotic house. Based on the insights into the nature of the family drawn from the interview, it was clear that every member of the D’Angelo family members felt hurt by what was happening.

The Level of Functioning of Each Family Member

Based on the interview with Mr. and Mrs. D’Angelo, the current functioning of the D’Angelo family can be described as vulnerable to crisis. Accordingly, this means that the family has some unusual problems, such as Mariana’s behavior and attitudes, the blending process of the two families, and the caring of Mrs. D’Angelo’s mother. Besides these, the family can function independently and adequately to manage other issues that may arise. However, if not resolved, the family’s current problems can develop and become chronic. Therefore, the family only needs temporary assistance to manage the current problems.

Family Member Strengths and Limitations

Family Member	Strengths	Limitations
Mr. D’Angelo	Family man Organized Confident	Distressed Cries a lot Fatigued
Mrs. D’Angelo	Tries to be a mother to the family Good communicator	Distressed Sign of regret of getting into the marriage
Mariana	Can manage the family	Mostly angry
Benedetta	Being a sister	Distressed
Paul	Standing up to Mariana	Distressed
Tony	Standing up to Mariana	Distressed
Mrs. Guiletto	Caring	Current illness

Relevant Family and Social History

Notably, Mariana’s mother passed away when she was still young. However, she lived with her aunt, who looked after them until the living conditions became unbearable due to Tony’s demands. This suggests that Mariana and Mr. D’Angelo were left with the duty of looking after the family, and for a while, this proved to yield positive fruits. However, after Selma got into the picture, their relationship changed, which caused Mariana to become upset, and things got out of hand, especially when Selma was invited for dinner. During the entire time, Selma said nothing at dinner, suggesting that perhaps there was some form of tension between the newly constructed family unit (Ko et al., 2020). However, Mariana may have experienced some form of an episode that made her react in a rather absurd manner, suggesting that nobody loved her and that she would kill herself to reunite with her mother. Mariana’s habits were perhaps acquired from past events, especially when their aunt dissuaded D’Angelo from remarrying because they could manage to handle various chores on their own.

The Life Cycle Stage of the D’Angelo Family

The D’Angelo family is parenting babies through the adolescent stage of the family life cycle. The three children from Mr. Angelo are aged 16, 13, and 10 years, while Mrs. Angelo’s daughter is 14 years of age. Mr. and Mrs. D’Angelo are already tending to and addressing the pressures that come with school-age children and teenage children.

Cultural Values or Norms That May Affect the Family

Perhaps Mariana and her siblings would have felt left out, especially when her father remarried. They were used to staying with their mother or her elder sister, and when Selma was introduced into their lives, they felt left out at some point. For Mariana to come to terms with the fact that her mother succumbed to cancer and her father found someone else to replace her mother is not easy. Ideally, blending two families into one may be challenging, especially when the children have grown up in different communities. Particularly, the health problems that Mariana’s mother experienced would probably be a disturbing factor.

Dynamics of the D’Angelo Family Relationships and Factors Influencing Family Relationships

Mr. D’Angelo has a strong and important relationship with his daughter and two sons. He also has a strong relationship with his wife and a significant relationship with his step-daughter. Similarly, Selma has an important and robust connection with Benedetta, Guiletto, Paul, and Tony. The three siblings have solid and vital relationships with each other. However, Mariana has a stressful and tenuous relationship with Mrs. D’Alengelo and Mrs. Guiletto. She also has a stressful relationship with Benedetta. Most of the energy flows within the family are directed towards Mrs. Guiletto due to her illness.

Notably, the problems in the D’Angelo family are a result of blending the two families. Mariana started her issues when her father brought Selma into the family and married her. According to the interview, Mr. Dr. Angelo pointed out that Mariana helped him take care of the home as a team before remarrying. The entrance of Mrs. Selma into the family made Mariana feel like she had lost her authority within her home. Furthermore, managing the health problems of Selma’s mother is not an easy task that seems to play a role in Mariana’s behavior towards Mrs. Guiletto, Benedetta, and Selma. In addition, race is a factor that has influenced the dynamics of the D’Angelo family relationships. In the identified instances, Mariana has insulted Selma based on her race.

External and Larger Social Systems

During the interview, Mr. and Mrs. D’Angelo noted that the kids had gone to stay with their aunt, their mother’s older sister. At a point, Mr. D’Angelo pointed out that the said aunt had initially tried to dissuade Mr. D’Angelo from remarrying after his wife died. The aunt has a strong and important relationship with Mariana based on how she was supportive of the family after their mother’s death and taught Mariana how to cook.

Section 4: Assessment Tools

Case Assessment Tools

The D’Angelo family case seeks to provide social services and support to the whole. The assessment of the D’Angelo family and the development of appropriate interventions and treatment plans will need to look into the different systems impacting an individual’s or family’s life and the nature of the family’s relationships. An ecomap and a genogram were utilized as the preferred assessment tools. Ecomaps are a presentation of an individual and their ecosystem. They help identify how various entities interact with the individual and influence them. The ecomap enabled determining the nature of the interactions between the members of the blended family. The genogram visualizes family relationships. The genogram was combined with the ecomap during the assessment to assess family relationships, the D’Angelo family dynamics, existing support systems, understanding of the connections between the D’Angelo family members, and understanding of the sources of the attitudes and behaviors expressed by the family members.

Section 5: Ecomap and Genogram

Ecomap

Genogram

Section 6: Theory

The assessment and treatment plan of the D’Angelo blended family case was developed from the perspectives of the family life cycle and the ecological systems theories.

Family Life Cycle Theory

The family life cycle theory argues that families transition and progress naturally through various stages (Bures, 2021). These stages are the emotional and intellectual levels that an individual goes through from birth, throughout childbirth, to death. These family life cycle stages include the independence stage, the coupling and marriage stage, parenting: babies through adolescents, the launching of adult children, and the senior years’ stage. According to the family life cycle theory, a successful transition throughout these stages is essential to avoid diseases and other emotional and stress-related disorders. Each has new needs and demands on the worldview (Pendleton et al., 2021). An individual’s experiences during their transition from one stage to another influence their attitudes and behaviors. The normal transition through the family life cycle can be disrupted by external factors or current internal issues such as stressful experiences. Such disruption may alter how an individual transitions to the next stage with an overall disruption of their entire life.

Ecological Systems Theory

The ecological systems theory describes child development based on the relationships within her environment (Guy-Evans, 2020). It explains the social environment’s various layers, including the macro, exo, and meso levels that shape behaviors. The macro, exo, and mesosystems, including the child’s own biology, culture, school, community, religion, and other social circles, define the child’s development. A change or a disruption in one level of the child’s environment impacts all the other levels (Guy-Evans, 2020).

Section 7: Intervention Goals

Intervention and Treatment Planning

It is clear that the family requires professional and committed assistance to manage the current problems. Therefore, the following interventions have been suggested:

A full family therapy

Psycho-education about Mrs. Guiletto’s illness

Communication and relationship-building

Mariana needs to be interviewed to assess her risk level towards herself and others in the family, especially Mrs. D’Angelo and her mother.

Intervention Goals

The interventions will seek to achieve two main goals:

Improvement of communication and relationships among all members of the family,

Promoting personal relationships among the family members to help build a new blended family unit

Section 8: Engagement Characteristics

Throughout the interview session with Mr. and Mrs. D’Angelo, I observed all ethics of social workers and at no point passed judgment on anyone based on what was said. I opened a file for the family to help manage their future sessions and took notes during the interview. I clearly expressed that I understood their situation and why they think it is vital to have professional support to deal with it. I assured them that the agency could provide comfortable support and solutions to their current situation. I was patient with them, especially since Mr. D’Angelo was not very responsive and only gave short answers. I understood that much of their perspectives of the problem were subjective. I took my time to listen to them to create a broader perspective of the issue. I closely observed and noted their body language and behavior patterns throughout the interview. I also assured Mr. and Mrs. D’Angelo that our bookings were flexible and that a worker would always be available.

Section 9: Evaluation

Conclusion

Most families who seek the help of a professional social worker view the practitioner as an expert who can offer the right guidance and directives. Offering family therapy can be strenuous for a social worker specialist as they deal with a group of diverse individuals and not just an individual. According to Hepworth et al. (2017), social workers need to understand that issues that affect individuals within a group, such as a family, do not only occur at the micro-level but are linked throughout the meso and macro levels. This means that micro-level observations can paint a clear picture of the actual problems affecting the individual, the group, and the larger society. Therefore, based on this understanding, by observing the relationship issues between Mariana and Mrs. D’Angelo, it is possible to develop interventions and solve the current problems in the D’Angelo family. The D’Angelo family’s progress throughout the sessions will be evaluated using informal-interactive tools, including expert social worker supervision, multidisciplinary consultations, client feedback, and social work experiences.

References

Best, J. (2018). Constructionist studies of social problems: How we got here, and where we ought to go. SocietàMutamentoPolitica, 9(18), 53-67.

Bures, R. M. (2021). Integrating pets into the family life cycle. In Well-Being over the Life Course (pp. 11-23). Springer, Cham.

Guy-Evans, O. (2020). Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory. https://www. simplypsychology.org/Bronfenbrenner.html.

Hepworth, D. H., Strom-Gottfried, K., Rooney, G. D., & Rooney, R. H. (2017). Direct social work practice: Theory and skills. (10^th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage. ISBN: 978-0840028648

Ko, A., Pick, C. M., Kwon, J. Y., Barlev, M., Krems, J. A., Varnum, M. E., & Kenrick, D. T. (2020). Family matters: Rethinking the psychology of human social motivation. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(1), 173-201. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619872986

Pendleton, D., Derbyshire, P., & Hodgkinson, C. (2021). Life Stages and Transitions. In Work-Life Matters (pp. 39-55). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

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Apply all the skills and knowledge you’ve gained this semester to create a multidimensional assessment of a family case. Directions for the assignment are provided below, followed by the family case you will use.

Directions: Read the case of the D’Angelo family (see below). You are the social worker to whom this family has been assigned. You have the basic information that was collected during the intake interview. You need to do further assessment to set goals and objectives for intervention.

Based on the information in the case and your knowledge of family assessment principles, describe how you would further your assessment for the following if you were the social worker assigned to the case. In other words, what do you think you know about these areas based on the intake interview? What else do you need to know, and how would you go about getting it to develop a comprehensive assessment?

Areas of Assessment:

Identifying information for each family member
The presenting issue(s)
The willingness or investment of each family member in the family therapy process
The perception of “the problem” and what is needed for resolution according to each family member
The level of functioning of each family member, including strengths and limitations
Relevant family and social history
The life cycle stage of the family
Cultural values or norms that may affect the family may include socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, locale, physical/mental disability, and religious affiliation
Dynamics of family relationships, including family coalitions and subsystems, power distribution, family rules, communication patterns, roles of family members, coping styles, impact/dynamics of having an aging family member with health problems, and the family’s emotional climate in general
j. The impact of larger systems outside of the family on the family’s functioning

Include in your description any assessment tools that you would use and why (e.g., standardized instruments, eco-maps). One ecomap and one three-generation genogram are required to be attached to the paper.

Your assessment must be well written and convey what you are attempting to help the family with. Use theory to inform your assessment and treatment planning, using citations as appropriate. Your treatment plan must include formal goals (which the family has agreed to work on) and additional goals (identified by you) that they may eventually agree to work on. Clearly distinguish between the two goals. Goals should be goal-oriented and focused on the family (not individual growth). Case management goals, including referrals to other services, may be included but not in lieu of family goals.