Social work encompasses a wide range of important concerns that must be taken into consideration when providing client counselling. The freedom, education, health care, and safety of their clients are the top priorities for a skilled social worker. Therefore, it is imperative to act in a way that is empathetic and devoid of personal interest to assist individuals in resolving social issues and gaining possibilities to improve their lives. To present an example of such instances, we have analysed a case report of Claireece Precious Jones, the lead character in Daniels’ 2009 film Precious.
This case study focuses on a sixteen-year-old girl who is fat, has academic difficulties, lives in poverty with her emotionally and physically abusive mother, and is pregnant. Claire-Eve Precious Jones, also known as Precious, was expelled from her first school due to her pregnancy. This will be her second child, and she was directed to a different school where difficult children go to complete their high school education. Precious’ father, Carl Johnson, has sexually assaulted her and gotten her pregnant twice, while her mother, Mary Johnson, beats her physically and psychologically.
In this situation, the social worker should consider the oppression and abuse the client experienced when she was a toddler when conducting her assessment and creating her treatment plan. Precious has experienced multiple acts of abuse throughout her childhood. As a result, she exhibits symptoms of both eating disorders and dissociative identity disorders.
Concerns Regarding Consent and Protection of Confidentiality
Preserving the client’s ability to revoke consent when necessary is crucial. Ultimately, according to Morley et al. (2019, p. 49), the choice to take part in the interventions must be “based on adequate information.” Therefore, the social worker who is preparing Precious’ informed consent as a client must fully address the issues that have been mentioned to ensure that the procedures are lawful.
Concerning the confidentiality conversation, the client must be guaranteed that her personal health data will only be shared with the people she has designated. These third persons may be coworkers or experts in related fields who are contacted during treatment sessions.
A governmental social services agency will host the consent and confidentiality procedure discussion. Even if Precious is an older client, it is still valid to get her informed consent in this specific circumstance. Her parents’ continuous maltreatment of her resulted in mental health issues for her. Therefore, the goal of the social worker is to safeguard the client from negative influences and to guarantee their safety and freedom to receive counseling services.
Initial Ideas and Measures
The client is found to have multiple issues, such as eating disorders, illiteracy, and dissociative identity disorder (DID). These concerns need to be included in the treatment plan and receive precise attention from a counselor who sets the parameters for the therapists’ future work. Ensuring that clients have access to educational institutions is crucial in eliminating illiteracy and achieving a minimum level of knowledge necessary for future development. Establishing goals and facilitating the healing process are two benefits of educational treatments.
Precious has suffered continuous physical and psychological abuse since she was a young girl, which has led to dissociative identity disorder. Other identities emerged as a result of her desire to get away from the oppressive reality. Precious is always daydreaming and seeing herself in other settings that are ultimately distinct from her actual surroundings. It is appropriate to use psychodynamic theory to address DID and implement the required measures.
Furthermore, her mother, started the sexual, emotional, and physical abuse, followed by her father. Ensuring the family is aware of the mental health problem and associated dangers is crucial to assist in a prompt recovery. Therefore, it is important to treat eating disorders within the context of cognitive-behavioral theory
Self-Evaluation of the Case Study
The evaluation of the case presentation was a difficult and complex experience from a scholastic and emotional standpoint. Precious suffered terrible and hard-to-understand abuse and neglect at home.
While empathy is a fundamental skill for social workers, it can sometimes pose a challenge when confronting myriad of issues of a girl that must navigate to integrate fully into society as a responsible and empowered member.
Accessibility and objectivity of the data regarding the client, her surroundings, and the reasons behind her mental illnesses are some of the main advantages of the case study. Another important aspect is the wide range of literature that helped support the assessment’s scientific foundation.
Conclusion
It is difficult for a social worker to handle Precious’s situation. Because he has a complex combination of multiple mental health conditions. which has arisen as a result of her ongoing experiences with physical, emotional and sexual abuse. These problems can be solved if a treatment plan is made and the case is thoroughly analyzed. The cognitive-behavioral approach should guide processes aimed at eliminating eating disorders. Whereas psychodynamic theory should guide treatments focused on treating DID.
