Critical factors that a caseworker should consider in the assessment of a child-client exhibiting ch
EXAMINE THE CRITICAL FACTORS THAT A CASEWORKER SHOULD CONSIDER IN THE ASSESSMENT OF A CHILD-CLIENT EXHIBITING CHALLENGING BEHAVIOR
Casework is defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary as a method of social work done by a social worker to help fix the problems of a person or family. Assessment according to Barker (2003) in Whittington (2007) is the process of gathering, analyzing and synthesizing salient data into a formulation, the process of determining the nature cause progression and prognosis of a problem and the personalities and situation involved therein. A factor is an elements contributing to a particular result or situation. Challenging behavior according to Emerson (2014) is complex but in a nut shell it is behavior of such intensity , frequency or duration that physical safety of the person or others is placed in serious jeopardy or behavior which seriously limits or denies access to the use of ordinary community facilities. The major elements that leads to a child having or exhibing behaviors that are harmful to the self and others can be classified as bio-social ecological factors. This essay thus seeks to explore how such elements contribute to the child’s behavior.
Biological elements are those elements which are suggest the genetic transmission of particular behavioral tendencies. The influence of biology on behavior is also revealed in the phenomena of temperament, or inborn personality disposition. As any parent will attest, children are born already possessing primitive personality tendencies. Some children are born with milder, calmer dispositions while others are more anxious and irritable. These inborn personality tendencies (temperaments) are assumed to be largely influenced by genetic factors in a manner analogous to how hair and eye coloration are genetically determined. The caseworker needs to take note of such information and gather information on the child’s medical background and also of the family. By this, the caseworker needs to find out if the child ever had any developmental problems or if he or she was once involved in an accident which might have cause head injuries. By these, the caseworker will be able to determine if the child’s behavior is hereditary or is a manifestation of previous experiences. The caseworker needs to know if there is someone in the family who once had the same problem. If that is the case, the case worker will be able to make an informative decision in trying to help the client for social functioning. If the child’s behavior is due to some medical or biological problems, there will be need for a caseworker to refer the client for medical help.
Age and sex are also critical biological factors since age can help the caseworker to determine if the child’s behavior is a manifestation of drug abuse of past experience of maybe sexual abuse especially common to girl children. For example in Zimbabwe, Chipinge, a man’s maturity is seen by his alcohol tolerance. Thus for a child who is growing up there, there is a tendency of taking alcohol for them to be considered mature enough. This will lead to the child’s behavior being directly or in directly influenced by alcohol. For example some children who are at places of safety tend to be abusive and also exhibit behavioral patterns that put them and other people around them at risk. Some of them may have been sexually abused and they manifest such behaviors. Also children who had been exposed to physical abuse tend to be bully thus they will be affected by the past experiences or that they could have learnt such behaviors from their previous experiences. Boys at adolescence begin to manifest a constellation of factors that place them at greater risk for disruptive drinking: low response to alcohol, later maturation in brain structures and executive function, greater estimates of perceived peer alcohol use, and socialization into traditional gender roles.
The caseworker also should consider the social environment of the child. By this, the caseworker will consider the family as well as the wider society that the child is living. There is need for the caseworker to also look at the family and its social relationships. Also a child who stays with abusive parents who are always fighting or if one of the parents is very abusive, the child is likely to imitate such behaviors which will lead to him/her being very abusive and bully. The caseworker also needs to do a background check on the child and find out who the child is staying with. The caseworker needs also to look into the social status of the family where he child is coming from. The educational background of the child is also important cause some challenging behaviors are because of educational background of the child of the significant others. The caseworker for effective intervention needs to also consider the cultural and religious beliefs of the child and that of the family as well as the societal norms that the child was socialized to. The cultural beliefs as well as the religious beliefs have a great impact on one’s behavior. . For example in Zimbabwe, Chipinge, a man’s maturity is seen by his alcohol tolerance. Thus for a child who is growing up there, there is a tendency of taking alcohol for them to be considered mature enough. This will lead to the child’s behavior being directly or in directly influenced by alcohol. More so, In the African context, women are seen as property especially in the Chipinge rural areas. Thus one may become bully and always fights and abuse women. By considering this, the caseworker will be able to make the right interventions for instance to do community sensitization on abuse and women rights thus addressing the child’s problem at its root cause.
There is need for the caseworker to consider the ecological factors. By this, the caseworker will be having an understanding of the society a child is coming from. For example children who are in the environment of a refugee camp. There is a lot of ethnic differences and hostilities which may cause a child to exhibit behaviors that are harmful to the self or put others who are around him at risk. There is also need for the caseworker to know the physical environment the child is in since the physical environment have a great impact on an individual especially children. For instance a child stays in the high density suburbs like Mbare and Sakubva I likely to exhibit aggressive behavior since the environment they are in is characterized by noise and high crime rate. Thus after assessing the physical environment that a child is living in the caseworker will be able to make an informative decision on the treatment of the child. Maybe the child needs to be removed from the environment and be monitored. Also if he child is exposed in an environment where drugs are being abused and gangsters are high, he is likely to exhibit challenging behavior. The caseworker will be able to make the right interventions for instance to do community sensitization on abuse and women rights. The caseworker may also involve the police so that legal measures will be taken thus encouraging positive behavior patterns.
References
Achenbach T. M., McConaughy S. H., Howell C. T. (1987). Child/adolescent behavioral and emotional problems: Implications of cross-informant correlations for situational specificity. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 213-232.
Colin Whittington (2007). Assessment in social work: A guide for learning and teaching.Great Britain: Social Care Institute for Excellence
Cloninger CR, Cloninger K. 2011. Person-centred therapeutics. The International Journal of Person Centred Medicine 1:43-52
Emerson, E., Hatton, C. (2014). Health Inequalities and People with Intellectual Disabilities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gender differences in factors influencing alcohol use and drinking progression among adolescents
Clinical Psychology Review Volume 29, Issue 6, August 2009, Pages 535–547
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