Joshua has become a drug addict. When he joined Wings he was a normal young man who only displayed challenging teen behaviour. His peers at the centre influenced him into drugs.
Joshua lacks positive social support. Every young person deserves to grow up surrounded by people who understand them and are willing to guide them into adulthood. This support should come from family members, peers and professionals such as religious leaders and teachers. Some of these individuals do not have to directly interact with the person. In a community, some individuals become role models to young people even without family or individual links. For instance, a young person will be motivated to remain disciplined and work hard to become a doctor because of their neighbour. If supportive parents, teachers, family friends and peers existed, they would have positively influenced Joshua and distracted him from alcoholism and other drugs.
Potential Needs Joshua Might Have
Family and social love and support will help Joshua in becoming a more useful member of the society as he will view himself as carrying the image of a social unit.
Joshua requires financial support meet his basic needs. He needs food, shelter and clothing to enable him lead a decent life and prevent the accumulation of stressors.
Education will help secure Joshua’s future by giving him the ability to be economically self-sustainable.
How to Enhance Wing’s Capacity to Provide Joshua with the Service He Requires
Putting young people at the centre of the operations of youth centres helps align the activities of these institutions to the expectations and needs of its clients. Therefore, Joshua should be actively involved in the activities of the centre. Despite his mental condition, Joshua was once a normal and relatively disciplined young person who understood his abilities and responsibilities. Therefore, Joshua can support Wings in identifying his needs. After this identification, I will bring in professionals such as mental health practitioners and social workers to determine the best ways of providing these services.
Risks in The Service Delivery to Joshua
Wings, as other youth centres, bring together individuals with different behaviour. Interaction between Joshua and his peers may involve negative influence or harm towards Joshua.
Joshua has developed aggressive behaviour. He may harm the people offering the services to him.
An Assessment Tool for Drug and Alcohol Addiction
I can use the Drug and Alcohol Assessment Tool by NDARC.
Information That I Might Ask
I might ask his closest friends and former teachers on Joshua’s social skills, his interest in education, his ability to meet his needs.
Organizational Policies and Procedures
I will consider the policies of confidentiality and data protection.
Carrying Out a Formal Assessment with Joshua
Joshua’s ability to communicate, the likelihood of him exhibiting aggressive behaviour and suicidal tendencies emanating from his feeling of worthlessness.
Briefing Joshua About the Assessment
Before communicating about my intentions to carry out an assessment, I will seek to understand his perception on his wellbeing. I will build on his feelings rather than mere experiences to introduce why he needs an assessment. For instance, “how do all these events make you feel?” I will avoid any pathological or clinical terms, for instance, anxiety, depression. I will inform Joshua that I care about him and was interested in helping him deal with the issues affecting him. I will then request him to collaborate with me through our interactions. Rather than use the words diagnosis and assessment, I will use straightforward terms such as, “for me to help you, I need to understand you better.” I will use this briefing to establish our relationship as person to person instead of creating the expert-victim impression.
Making Sure that Joshua Understands the Scope of Service
I will indicate to Joshua that I have experience in helping young people like him, the facility has the resources and capacity to meet his needs and that our interactions would remain confidential and were solely aimed at helping him recover. To determine his understanding, I will look at his facial expression, verbal and non-verbal responses in the course of our interactions.
Pieces of Information that can be Used to Gain Joshua’s Consent
I will inform Joshua that his interactions with me are voluntary, he can leave or abandon the procedure at any moment and he should point out when anything makes him uncomfortable. After this, I will ask him to sign the consent as a way of allowing me to help him.
Seeking Feedback About the Assessment
I will inform the client on the need to know their experience in the course of the interactions, explain its importance in improving his future experiences. I will then ask him whether he was comfortable, he felt that his privacy was protected and whether he would be willing to come back.
Other People I Could Seek Feedback from to Improve and Reflect on my Performance
I would seek feedback from the client’s family on his narration of the experience and other professions who have worked with him at Wings.
Case Note for the Meeting with Joshua
Talking to Joshua
Date: July 22, 2018
Venue: Wings Centre
Purpose of the talk
To help Joshua identify his needs and the best way in which they can be met.
The Assessment
Joshua is not happy with the changes that have taken place in his life. He indicates that his biological mother and foster mother have helped him grow up to where he is. He notes that the two individuals would’ later ‘change’ suddenly and ‘refuse’ him. He does not seem to recognize that his biological and foster mothers became unable to support him due to their health conditions. He notes that he does not trust people any longer and would rather stay alone and get used to. He agrees with me that he should work in order to earn a living when asked what he wants to do, he just shakes his head in negation. Joshua needs social support from people he can trust, financial support and education and training to become self-sustainable.
Next steps:
Getting a strong social support for Joshua, helping him meet his needs, especially food, shelter, clothing and healthcare, and getting him to complete education and learn some skills that can get him employed.
How to Handle Joshua’s Personal Information to Ensure Confidentiality
I will ensure that I do not reveal any information given to me by Joshua. The recorded and transcribed versions of the interview should be locked away and secured as per the institution’s standards (Wynaden 168).
How to Ensure That Decisions and Follow-Up Actions Involve Joshua
I will ensure that I collect all the useful information from Joshua. I will also maintain communication with him to ensure that I understand his preferences and priorities. Before any action is taken, I will seek Joshua’s opinion by presenting him with various alternatives and letting him choose one.
Monitoring That My Work Meets Joshua’s Needs
The first strategy is to rely on self-reporting by Joshua. I will regularly ask Joshua about his progress and how he feels about the entire procedure.
The second strategy will be my own assessment to whether he is becoming more organized. I will look at grooming, this ability to keep time during our meetings and other factors.
I will also use other people’s perspectives and observe how well Joshua fits in social groups.
Responding to Joshua’s Disclosure
I will note that most people, including me, do not like the side-effects that drugs have on us. I have had a similar experience but the side-effects usually go away as the body gets used to the medications. I also encouraged him to talk to his doctor about it and continue being open to me because I understood him well.
What I might offer Joshua in terms of follow up and potential referral
I will advise Joshua to meet his doctor who had prescribed the medications to him. I will also ask him if he wishes that I visit him at his residence or place of work. The visits will help me to better understand his lifestyle and how he relates to people.
How to make sure Joshua receives the best possible care
I will first explain the role of care to Joshua towards improving his life. I will ensure that he is willing to cooperate with the care providers. I will then follow up on each provider and have occasional but brief chats with them on Joshua’s progress.
Initiating Referral
I will contact the prospective referral centre and request for another evaluation of Joshua’s needs.
I will then convene an ARD committee (admissions, review and dismissal committee). This committee will be made up of a representative of the referral centre, myself and a close family member.
With the committee, we will review the needs of the patient and the capabilities of the referral centre to determine whether it can meet these needs.
Strategies to evaluate effectiveness of the referral made
The period that Joshua will spend at the referral without intending to leave will be an indicator of his comfort and trust in their service. I will also use the perception of employees of the referral centre on Joshua’s development.
Joshua’s Rights in This Situation
The right to be informed about the decisions in his own treatment, the right to access treatments that are culturally safe and the right to privacy (Jorm 12; Schomerus and Matthias 34).
How to Support Joshua to Exercise his Rights
I will first inform him on the existence of these rights and why he must ensure that they are fulfilled. I will also ask him to request for explanations in case the practitioners involved introduce factors that he does not understand. I will also ask him to remain open to us about his cultural and personal tastes and beliefs. He should know that he has the ability to stop an action if it contravenes any of these beliefs.
Work Cited
Jorm, Anthony F., et al. "Public beliefs about treatment and outcome of mental disorders: a comparison of Australia and Japan." BMC medicine 3.1 (2005): 12.
Schomerus, Georg, and Matthias C. Angermeyer. "Stigma and its impact on help-seeking for mental disorders: what do we know?." Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences 17.1 (2008): 31-37.
Wynaden, Dianne, and Angelica Orb. "Impact of patient confidentiality on carers of people who have a mental disorder." International Journal of Mental Health Nursing 14.3 (2005): 166-171.
