Strengths-Based Perspective

Strengths-Based Perspective

Strengths-Based Perspective, Managing personal biases and utilizing a strengths-based perspective, describe your approach to working with the client. Please use person-first, non-stigmatizing language throughout. (C1) APA.

Engagement and Assessment

Describe your proposed engagement and assessment process with the individual. Consider:

• What stage of change is the individual in? What barriers to engagement might  you encounter? How will you address them using motivational interviewing      and other strategies? (C6)
• What      cultural, environmental, and developmental factors may be impacting the      individual’s substance use? (C2) Consider individual strengths (C1), along      with other protective and risk factors. How may this impact their      recovery? (C2)

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Strengths-Based Perspective

• What      systemic cultural, economic, and environmental factors are present that      may positively or negatively impact the individual’s substance use and      recovery? (C3)
• What      formal assessment(s) would you utilize? (C7) Explain your reasons for      selecting this assessment tool(s) including the client’s characteristics      (C2), the drug of choice, the psychometric properties of the instrument      (where applicable), and the evidence-base for the assessment. (C4, C7). Include a blank copy of the screening tool as an appendix.
• Summarize your critical evaluation of the individual’s substance use, including the application of DSM V criteria, groupings of symptoms (i.e. Big 5 or other      method), and problem severity. (C7)
• Using a bio-psychosocial perspective, what additional information would it be important for you to have to effectively intervene that is not present in the case study? (C7)

Strengths-Based Perspective

Intervention and Evaluation

Describe your proposed intervention and treatment goals. Consider:

• What      level of care would you recommend using the ASAM criteria as a guide? (C8)
• What      intervention(s) would you apply and why? Consider the individual’s      demographic and other characteristics (C2), problem severity, and drug of      choice. (C4, C8) Cite the peer-reviewed literature to justify your      selection of the intervention and how it will address the presenting      problem (theory of change). (C4)
• What      treatment goals would you identify? Consider addressing secondary gains,      triggers for use, critical risk factors, and building of recovery capital.      (C9)
• How      will you know that treatment is successful? What clinical indicators or      assessments would you utilize? (C9)

Strengths-Based Perspective

Organizational/Policy Recommendations

Based on the above, make a concrete recommendation for policy or practice procedures in organizations that would serve the individual and others with similar characteristics (i.e., gender, race, age, cultural background, economic/insurance status). The organization could be your current or previous field placement, place of employment, or another organization that you are familiar with. Your suggestion may be related to improving prevention efforts, more effective assessment or intervention, or supporting long-term recovery and well-being. For example, this might mean a change in agency procedures or personnel, expansion of intervention and supports offered, or building a relationship with other organizations/groups. The proposed change should reflect your knowledge of the population represented by the case analysis and how their characteristics, barriers, or experiences impact substance use. (C5)

Strengths-Based Perspective

Case Study 1- Suzanne

Suzanne has come by the free “drop-in” counseling clinic where you work to get some information and advice. Suzanne is a 22-year-old single woman who has been living with her boyfriend Jack for the last four years. She and Jack have been using heroin regularly for as many years.

When Suzanne was 10 years old, her father, whom she says was a very heavy drinker, left her mom and the kids and never came back. At 14 she started drinking and smoking marijuana. At 16 she had dropped out of high school and at 18 she moved in with Jack. He introduced her to heroin.

She reports using about a 1/2 gram of heroin per day just to be able to function and feel comfortable. In order to pay for the heroin and pay the rent on their apartment, Jack doesn’t work, instead, she works the streets at night. She usually drinks four or five beers each night before going out to work. If she can’t score enough heroin, she will try to score either some Xanax or Klonopin to “tide me over until I can get some ‘dope’”. She says she has tried cocaine but, “I really didn’t care for the high all that much.”

Strengths-Based Perspective

Suzanne tells you that the alcohol and heroin help to calm her nerves and get her through the night. She and Jack are not having sex all that much. When they do, he never wears a condom. He says that’s what makes him different from her “john’s” “Which is true because I won’t work without a condom.”

Lately she has noticed that her breasts have become swollen and more tender. She also hasn’t had her period in the last 12 weeks. She is pretty sure she is pregnant and knows it’s her boyfriend’s baby. However, she not sure she can stop using heroin or work to have the baby, even though Jack wants her to keep it. She is really confused at what she should do and is her asking for you to help her make some decisions. Her friend who works with her at night told her not to stop using heroin if she is pregnant “Because it’s worse for the baby than to keep using. I just don’t know what I should do.”