Journal Report Outline

Field Experience:

The social worker (SW) evaluated the living arrangement, mental health, and medical history of a client called A. As advised by Rothman (2018), the client’s daily activities were also examined. The field experience involved evaluating medical services and needs, personal care needs, fall risks, and the family’s role in caring for A: Journal Report Outline.

The SW was a facilitator and connected the client to necessary support systems. As an observer, the SW observed A’s environment and offered advice on strategies to minimize falls, like using the shower chair. Further, this interaction helped identify the challenges A faces. In addition, the interaction demonstrated the need for SWs to intensely examine a client’s needs and the needed support systems (Corey et al., 2018).

Significant Information:

Significant information to note is that A is aged 54 and shares an apartment with her daughter, the daughter’s husband, and grandchildren. Their apartment has two bedrooms and one bathroom. A has one bedroom to herself and shares the rest of the space with her family. Notably, A has multiple chronic health conditions, including lung cancer, stroke, arthritis, and HIV since 2019.

These conditions have resulted in physical limitations: she has difficulty with prolonged standing and walking for long, faces fall risks, and bends, lifts, carries, and reaches things with difficulty. A also experiences depression and anxiety. As such, A needs assistance carrying out her daily tasks.

Relevant Factors:

From the SW’s evaluation, A’s chronic illnesses have affected A’s life severely. For instance, they have limited her mobility, and she cannot walk far distances or withstand standing for long.

Accordingly, she needs assistance carrying out her daily activities, which, in turn, means that her independence is significantly challenged. Since she has lung cancer, she may also need an oxygen concentrator (Rothman, 2018). Her immobility affects her social life and access to resources.

The client is in her late adulthood at the age of 54, and so she is significantly affected by her chronic illnesses, aging challenges, and increased dependency (Corey et al., 2018). The client can get help from various community development programs where she can be connected to different bodies for necessary interventions.

Describe any of the following factors that are relevant:

A depends on her family for almost everything; therefore, so she is facing environmental challenges and lack of income. The client also lacks a washer and dryer at home, which are necessary for her well-being at home. The patient is also at risk of encountering stigma due to her illnesses like cancer, HIV, and disability.

The client may have illnesses and challenges, but her strength is that she is mentally alert, can recognize herself and her needs and can also advocate for her needs. More information is needed regarding her spiritual life and connection with different bodies in the community so that the social worker can know the different community institutions that can help this client.

Integration of Theory & Practice:

This is a case of a client with several chronic health conditions, and, as such, the client depends heavily on the family for support. One major lesson learned is the importance and role of family in the lives of the chronically ill. The social worker used certain social concepts to assess the circumstances around the patient. The concepts used were the strength-based approach, person-in-environment (PIE) perspective, and ecological systems theory, which helped when seeking to understand the client’s needs.

Case management model, biopsychosocial model, and crisis intervention framework were employed to evaluate the social and physical factors of the patient. Motivational interview was used to encourage the patient to actively participate in the care process and educate her family on strategies for fall prevention.

Problem Solving:

Several stages were involved during the interaction between the client and the social worker. The first stage involved creating rapport during the home visit. Next, information about the client’s physical and mental health, lifestyle and challenges and general medical history was gathered.

The third stage was assessing the case, as put by Hutchison (2018), to assess the type of support needed. Finally, the last stage was connecting the client with the necessary resources and interventions.

Relevant Paradigm(s)

Human behavior, in this case, can be analyzed using the medical social system and humanistic paradigms. The medical paradigm is important since A has several chronic conditions that have affected her mental health, daily activities and mobility

(van Wormer & Link, 2018). The social system model explains how the family and people in the environment can support her. The humanistic paradigm examines the client’s dignity, strengths and abilities. van Wormer and Link (2018) state that the social worker should help the client get the right resources to help her have dignity and independence.

Paradigm	Medical	Social Systems	Psychoanalytic	Humanistic	Behavioristic
Past/ Present Emphasis	History/symptoms used to diagnose	Here & now solutions sought	Strong historical emphasis, intergenerational	Here & now emphasized	Present relearning
Assumed Cause of Condition	Physical, bodily malfunctions	Unmet human needs	Internal conflicts, defenses, instincts vs. morals	Experiences that block self-actualization	Determined by previous conditioning
Therapeutic Approach	Medication, surgery, physical treatments & education	Connect person with source of need satisfaction	Make conflict conscious	Create climate for growth, self-exploration	Change specific behaviors, habits, & thoughts
Length of Treatment	Varies depending on diagnosis	Short term preferred	Long term (years)	Short to intermediate (months)	Usually short term

Social Work Values Involved:

The social worker values involved are respect for the patient’s autonomy. The patient was encouraged to express her needs freely without feeling judged or prejudiced (National Association of Social Workers, n.d.). Another ethical standard employed was privacy and confidentiality to ensure the patient’s medical condition and other information regarding illnesses are kept private. Also, the social worker conducted an honest and objective assessment without assumptions or biases (National Association of Social Workers, n.d.).

Personal reactions:

During this session, I conducted a thorough assessment of the physical, environmental and mental needs of A and gave priority to her well-being. I also provided a referral for this client, where I directed her to a primary care provider. I made sure that I maintained my integrity. I felt comfortable with the fact that I acted ethically and respected the ethics as stipulated in the social work codes (Corey et al., 2018).

What surprised me was how strong and determined A was, and all she needed was support to improve her healthcare process. I was also surprised by the impact that my presence had on her as a patient when she got my support. At first, I felt fear and sympathy.

I was anxious about how the client would react to my visit. I also sympathized a lot with her condition. However, I encouraged myself, believing that what I was doing was right. I also employed more empathy than sympathy since sympathy would affect my approach.

Outcome:

Based on the positive progress the client made within a short time, the intervention was effective. It helped in the assessment of health, the immediate safety issues, and meeting the concerns of the patient. The social worker has learned the importance of emotional balance as a social worker and intends to employ the same in other instances.

The social worker has also learned the importance of the advocacy role of a social worker and intends to continue being an advocate for patients. The social worker will check on emotions more in the future to avoid being carried away. The next step for the social worker should be to conduct constant follow-up on the client.

References

Corey, M.S., Corey, G. & Corey, C. (2018). Groups: Process and practice. Thomson/Brooks/Cole.

Hutchison, E. D. (2018). Dimensions of human behavior: The changing life course. SAGE Publications.

National Association of Social Workers (n.d.). NASW Code of Ethics. https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics-English

Rothman, J. (2018). Advocacy and social work practice. Pearson.

van Wormer, K., & Link, R. J. (2018). Social work and social welfare: A human rights foundation. United States: Oxford University Press.

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

We’ll write everything from scratch

---

Select a field experience and use this outline for your journal report. Be concise and protect the confidentiality and privacy of clients, groups, providers, supervisors, field instructors and staff. Submit a copy of your journal report to your Field Liaison through Blackboard. 

  Final version should be filed in the field portfolio. This is a professional report, you are to use third person in all areas except your personal reactions section.  You will be graded on grammar and professionalism. 

Field experience:   Select a key experience with a client, client group, community, agency, supervisor, other field students, or staff.  Describe what happened and your role(s) in the situation e.g. (mediator, planner, enabler, observer, counselor, manager, broker/advocate, facilitator, catalyst, activist, teacher, trainer, mentor, outreach worker, monitor, or researcher).

Significant information:  Provide some brief background information such as, client data, presenting problem, or referral information.

Relevant Factors: Include assessment information gathered that helped you understand the situation or plan your intervention.  What individual, family, community, social, cultural, spiritual, medical, physical, developmental, psychological, and/or mental health factors influenced the situation. Explain the life cycle stage, group development stage, community program development stage, or research process step that applies.

Describe any of the following factors that are relevant: economic, political, environmental, discrimination, or oppression.  What strengths and needs were identified?  What additional information is needed?

Integration of Theory & Practice:  What have you learned in your courses that helped you understand the situation or plan your intervention?  What theory, practice model, approach, strategy, method, technique, intervention, or research method was used? Consult textbooks, course materials, journal articles, and/or instructors and provide citation of materials referenced.

What stage(s) of the problem solving process were involved in this key experience? (engagement, gathering information, assessment/diagnostics, intervention and review, evaluation, termination, aftercare/referral). Explain.

Choose the paradigm(s) that helps you understand human behavior in this key experience:

___Medical     ___Social Systems      ___Psychoanalytic     ___Humanistic      ___Behavioristic

Explain your choices by discussing how behavior in this key experiences is viewed or understood.

Paradigm	Medical	Social Systems	Psychoanalytic	Humanistic	Behavioristic
Past/ Present Emphasis	History/symptoms used to diagnose	Here & now solutions sought	Strong historical emphasis, intergenerational	Here & now emphasized	Present relearning
Assumed Cause of Condition	Physical, bodily malfunctions	Unmet human needs	Internal conflicts, defenses, instincts vs. morals	Experiences that block self-actualization	Determined by previous conditioning
Therapeutic Approach	Medication, surgery, physical treatments & education	Connect person with source of need satisfaction	Make conflict conscious	Create climate for growth, self-exploration	Change specific behaviors, habits, & thoughts
Length of Treatment	Varies depending on diagnosis	Short term preferred	Long term (years)	Short to intermediate (months)	Usually short term

Social work values involved:  Describe core social work values, ethical principles, or ethical standards that were applied in this situation.  Indicate from the NASW Code of Ethics which value or ethic you chose and how it applies to the situation.

Personal reactions:  Write about your reactions.  How comfortable were you with your actions; what was surprising; what emotions did you experience; or how did you deal with your reactions?

Outcome:  How effective was the intervention? How will you use what you learned? What will you do differently in the future? What will your next actions be? What practice behaviors from your Learning Contract did this key experience help you develop?