Walden Unviersity Solution Focused Model Discussion
Identify a barrier that might make it difficult to implement the solution-focused model with the client described.
Discuss how a social worker could help a client re-focus on the present, rather than on their past.
Enclosed are the two post that need to be responded to separately.
Post 1 MT
During my fieldwork, I worked with a client who was very young and she was supposed to be coming in for dialysis treatments three times per week, but had not been and her heath was declining as a result. The client had become passive about her happiness and her health, and she was down about the amount if time her treatments took from her living her life as a young adult. She was a new dialysis patient; the treatments had become a burden to her, and not a necessity in her eyes as they actually were.
Exception question: When was the last time you feel you had a better day?
Coping question: I understand that this has been a big life adjustment for you. What keeps you going even though things are really hard right now?
In asking these two questions, it would help the client to come up with a solution by noticing solutions in her life that are already present. (Turner, 2017) The questions will empower her to look for solutions to the problem and also to notice times when there is an exception in her life when the problem is still present- yet she is still happy. (Turner, 2017)
These questions would make me feel good in helping her explore solutions. I think it paints a clear picture of the actual issue, what can be done about it, and how to move forward and change the situation. I think she would have felt motivated to work on her problem being asked these questions since she would be able to see that there are solutions and ways to be happy again while still maintaining her new life on dialysis.
Turner, F. J. (Ed.). (2017). Social work treatment: Interlocking theoretical approaches (6th ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Post 2 KS
In 1 to 2 sentences, briefly identify and describe the problem as perceived by the client, family, or group that you dealt with in your past fieldwork experience.
The children were removed from this household because the parents were running a personal meth lab in their basement, which resulted in an arrest of the parents. The 14-year-old daughter called the police to report her parents were acting strange, and she thought they were on drugs.
Identify two different types of questions and ask each question as if you were asking the questions to the client.
Coping Question: How are youcoping with the separation from children since the police released them into state’s custody?
Scaling Question: You both are in the process of regaining custody of your children from the state, thinking back, how would each of you rate your parenting skills on a scale from 1-10? What will you do to improve those skills now that you are sober?
Explain how asking these two questions would help the client in coming up with the solution.
In asking the parents the coping questions, they will be able to put their feelings into perspective. Both clients are on a long journey and have come very far. The clients have been to jail, rehab, and have almost successfully completed their case plan with the Department of Children and Family Services. “Coping questions help clients notice times when they are coping with their problems and what it is they are doing at those times when they are successfully coping” (Turner, 2017, p. 520). Asking the clients about how everything is going can make them feel like their feelings matter in the process of reunification with their children.
In asking the scaling question, the parentsgaina chance to see how their parent style will or has changed since gaining sobriety. This question challenges the parents to think about what they will do differently with their children. “Scaling questions provide a simple tool for clients toquantify and evaluate their situation and progress do that they establish a clear indicator of progress for themselves” (Turner, 2017, p. 520). The agency I interned at provides parenting education to clients who have a case with DCFS and FINS. In receiving skills from this agency, clients are challenged to alter their old habits to benefit their children. At a certain point, the social worker for would ask the clients to evaluate themselves. The scaling question allows the client to evaluate their past situation in order to create a more desirable outcome (Turner, 2017, p. 520).
In thinking about the presenting problem, the parents have issues with substance abuse. Solution Focused Brief Therapy is benefical to substance users. This therapy “asserts the importance of building on the resources and motivation of clients because they know their problems best and are capable of generating solutions to solve their own problems” (Kim et al., 2018, p. 455).Solution FocusedBrief Therapy “views problems as fixable and change as viable by concentrating on the achievement of small, concrete behavioral goals” (Berg & De Jong, as cited in Kim et al., 2018)
In 1 to 2 sentences, reflect and explain how asking these questions made you feel and perhaps how the client might feel.
Asking these question makes the client think about their future and what they can doto make it better which in turn gives them some control of the current situation. These clients have the Department of Children and Family Services telling them what to do in order to regain custody of their children, however, “solution-focused therapy focuses on what clients can do” (Turner, 2017, p. 514).
References
Berg, I. K., & De Jong, P. (2008).Interviewing for solutions. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks
Cole/Cengage Learning
Kim, J. S., Brook, J., & Akin, B. A. (2018). Solution-focused brief therapy with substance-using
individuals: A randomized controlled trial study. Research on Social Work Practice, 28(4), 452–462. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1177/104...
Turner, F. J. (Ed.). (2017). Social work treatment: Interlocking theoretical approaches(6th ed.).
New York, NY: Oxford University Press.