The Blucare Family Organization’s Interventions

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Table of Contents

Description of the Agency
Client Information
Mode of Referral
Presenting Issue
Preparation Issues
Engagement Techniques
Problem and Goal Specification
Functional Family Assessments
Intervention Strategies
References

Description of the Agency

The Blucare Family Organization is an entity that specializes in helping families to cope with various challenges in their daily living. This institution deals with conditions such as substance abuse in children, marital problems, and parent-child problems. They have qualified staff able to give on-the-clock personalized care to individuals and their families. This facility is based on the Clarence of the town outskirts and offers family support each day of the week. This agency’s mission statement is “providing ideal care for the creation of loving and caring families” (Spain et al., 2017, p. 109). Therefore, families with behavioral or mental problems or families with coexistence issues are advised to visit this agency for appropriate professional care.

Client Information

Mr. and Mrs. White’s family are the parents of a six-year-old child diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. They sought professional help from the agency on the effective management of the child. These parents are a newly wedded couple who are at the early stages of their careers. Providing care for their child is explicitly challenging due to their tight schedules at work. This family has medium-income capabilities as they also run a business venture in town. They have two children; the other infant is two years old with no signs of behavioral problems. Currently, the parents are not members of any community organizations involved in managing children with autism spectrum disorders. Effective personalized therapeutic interventions are needed to improve the parents’ knowledge and skills in caring for their child with an autism spectrum disorder.

Mode of Referral

The parents were referred from a hospital where they had gone to seek their child’s pneumonia treatment. The nurse at the facility identified unique behavioral characteristics in the child and directed them to the Blucare family agency for further care. The nurse informed them that this facility would provide more information about the condition and the management modalities to improve the child’s coping abilities in the family setting. Tailored family interventions will also enhance the problem-solving skills of the family. Furthermore, targeted plans of action are essential for promoting the family members’ cohesion and collaboration in caring for their child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Healthy family interaction is vital for reducing caregivers’ burden in caring for children with developmental or communication disorders.

Presenting Issue

Autism spectrum disorder is characterized by an array of symptoms that impair communication, social interactions, and repetitive behaviors. The child also presented with decreased cognitive abilities to solve simple academic tasks. The parents are also concerned about the decreased social interactions with their children (Spain et al., 2017). It is challenging to meet the child’s daily living activities, including bathing, clotting, eating, or toileting, due to their ease of irritability. The raised need for immediate care of the child poses a significant burden to the parents. The parents are unsure of the adequacy of their caring interventions for their child. Concerns were also raised about the child’s condition on the other sibling’s behaviors and well-being. Therefore, adequate family interventions are needed to raise the family competencies in caring for a child with ASD.

Preparation Issues

The preparatory phase is a crucial stage in the family therapeutic interactions as it allows for familiarization. The social worker utilizes this opportunity to introduce themselves to the clients. In this stage, the professionals describe their roles in the family interactions, including the expectations. Ground rules to be followed during the interactions are agreed upon by both parties, including scheduling the interactions. The family is also given a chance to introduce themselves to the care provider (Hartnett et al., 2016). The details of their names, occupation and socioeconomic status are essential data for the professional. Furthermore, the professional helps the family members to state their reasons for seeking professional help. The therapist reviews all the pertinent information about the client, including the displayed behavioral and cognitive symptoms. Other family information about their motivation to seek treatment, their perception of the problem, and their expectations for the interactions need to be clearly stated in this stage.

Additional information on the timing of the therapeutic meetings is provided at this stage. Other family members living with the child are included in these interactions. These are the extended family members like cousins, aunties, uncles, and grandparents who may be involved in the child’s care provision. The care providers of the child should also be incorporated into the interactions. The interventions that will be agreed upon need the input of every person interacting with the child with ASD. Frequent medical examinations are indicated to rule out the medical causes of some behaviors like banging the head on the wall, which may also suggest that the child has headaches or earaches. A healthcare provider is also sought to conduct a comprehensive head-to-toe examination of the baby. Other specialists, including speech therapists, are instrumental in helping the child improve his speech competencies. The management of a child with ASD requires collaborative efforts to reduce the burden of managing the child alone.

Engagement Techniques

In this joining phase, the clinicians respond to the family’s needs at their acute stage. This is when the clients are highly motivated to find solutions for the management of their children. The clinician must institute prompt interventions for engaging the clients to promote the implementation of the changes in managing the child. The clinician should provide respect and dignity to the family’s concerns. The therapist needs to conduct adequate assessments of the strengths and weaknesses of caring for the child. The therapist should strive to enhance the clients’ positive cues to manage their child’s problem and improve their shortcomings that negatively impair care (Marais & van der Merwe, 2016). The clinician collaborates with the clients to determine the difficulties encountered in the care of their child.

The therapist requires a particular set of skills and knowledge information to promote the success of family therapy. Firstly, empathy skills are essential in promoting the understanding of the family’s concerns. The family therapist should put himself in the family’s shoes to experience their point of view about managing the child with ASD. Empathy will enable the care provider to avoid criticizing the client during the interactions. Caring for a child with this condition requires continuous supervision to prevent injuries to the child (Marais & van der Merwe, 2016). This is challenging to the family members who have busy work schedules. Therefore, empathy skills help promote personalized interventions by the family therapist.

Second, the family therapist requires effective communication skills for proper interactions with the family members. The parties in the businesses should practice turn-taking to ensure effective communication. The therapist should avoid using medical jargon that the family members may not understand. Clear, precise, and simple language should be utilized to pass meaningful information on the client management. Thirdly, practical questioning skills are crucial for clarification of the client’s problems. The use of counter questions is essential for ensuring that the family therapist understands the family’s concerns without risk of misinformation. Additionally, the professional should avoid jumping to conclusions or giving personal opinions. The practical application of non-judgmental and respectful strategies during questioning is practical to encourage the client’s cooperation. It is also imperative to avoid judgmental words like “good” or “bad” during the interaction (Marais & van der Merwe, 2016). The therapy’s success is highly influenced by the therapist’s non-judgmental and respectful questioning technique.

Problem and Goal Specification

The family therapist strives to engage the clients in the development of further interventions actively. The utilization of practical interpersonal skills effectively encourages the family members to express their source of distress. In this case, the family members want to know more about ASD in their child and its management modalities. The clinician should motivate the parents to express the caring mechanisms over the years in managing the child. The therapist then uses the restructuring strategy to promote the resolution of the problem. This technique involves utilizing instruments like setting boundaries, developing intensity, and reframing to confront the existing family structure (Pisula & Porębowicz-Dörsmann, 2017). A clearly outlined problem statement is necessary for goal setting.

Practical observation and manipulative skills are needed to promote the provision of a complete picture of the problem. The clinician identifies maladaptive cues in the care of the child. The clinician gives adequate information on the appropriate ways of caring for the child with ASD, including creating a consistent routine for the child. Children with autism tend to have a hard time applying what they learned in school to the home environment. Therefore, the parents should strive to identify the teaching strategies utilized at the school and encourage their child to apply the same knowledge at home (Pisula & Porębowicz-Dörsmann, 2017). Consistency is vital for ensuring behavior changes in the child. Furthermore, the clinician needs to inform the family members about instituting a consistent schedule for the child’s daily activities, including time to eat, read and sleep. A definite routine promotes the reduction of irritability in the child. Effective education is imperative during goal setting.

Functional Family Assessments

The comprehensive assessments of the family environment to identify the factors that negatively impact the children’s lives. The clinician needs to assess the family environment for cues that may impair the well-being of the child. The family therapist conducts a risk evaluation to identify the potential sources of harm to the child. In this assessment, the clinician identifies the family’s resilience in caring for the child (Varghese et al., 2020). The clients and the social worker address any potential sources of harm to the child.

Figure 1. A genogram of the family

Figure 2. Figure depicting an ecomap

The clinician enables the development of interventions to promote a healthy family environment. The family is helped to remove any impediments to the child’s health and well-being. An ideal environment comprises an adequate support system, including speech therapists and psychiatrists. The speech therapists enable the child to improve his communication skills. Psychiatrists will assist in addressing the behavioral problems of the child, including impaired social interactions. The therapist should help the family assess the need for additional caregivers to assist the child in meeting the daily living activities (Pisula & Porębowicz-Dörsmann, 2017). A well-informed care provider will cover the physical needs of the baby.

Functional family systems ensure that there is an effective interaction between the family members and the child. A loving environment fosters improvement in the behaviors of the child. Changes in the child’s actions should be met with rewards to encourage the same behavior in the future. Care providers need to utilize practical communication skills to interact with the child. Family members need to use similar communication modes as those used in schools to facilitate the treatment program’s success (Pisula & Porębowicz-Dörsmann, 2017). Prompt treatment of any preexisting conditions is imperative to reduce the worsening of the symptoms of autism disease.

There are tools available to assist the clinician in making a comprehensive family assessment. These tools allow for the understanding of the family structure and the individual members of the family. The social worker utilizes a genogram and ecomap tools to identify the relationships of the child. An ecomap is an effective tool during the initial stages of the interaction as it enables the therapist to remember the client’s social and personal relationship. The family genogram is a family tree that shows the graphical interactions between the family’s intergenerational members. It provides the relationship between the different members of the family and the child with autism. It also shows the origin of any genetic conditions in close acquaintances. A practical determination of the relationships between patients and their families enables the social worker to understand the problem in depth.

Intervention Strategies

The goals of therapy for autism spectrum disorders are to reduce ASD and improve their support system’s capabilities in caring for them. Effective strategies are required to enhance the coping of the family in caring for the child. Firstly, strengthen the knowledge of the family members on the autism condition. Adequate information helps promote their understanding of the child’s condition. The family therapist needs to inform the clients that autism is a hereditary disorder characterized by impairments in behaviors, communications, and cognitive abilities. Secondly, offer information to address the family’s fears of why they get a child with the disorder. Help them move beyond self-pity by teaching them the treatment modalities available to manage the condition (Spain et al., 2017). Inform the family of the specialized education of the child to improve his cognitive capabilities. Practical knowledge is instrumental in enhancing the family’s attitude towards caring for the child with ASD.

Furthermore, the clinician needs to foster good collaboration of the family with the healthcare providers. Effective partnerships are necessary for the improvement of the problem-solving capabilities of the care providers. The various inputs of the healthcare professionals will promote the achievement of the client’s goals. The excellent collaboration will enhance the child’s ability to communicate and interact with other children. The clinicians need to encourage the family to practice lifestyle changes to meet the child’s needs. Families need to accept the things they cannot control and channel their resources to the things they can easily handle. Collaborations with healthcare personnel are necessary for promoting the care of the child with autism.

References

Hartnett, D., Carr, A., Hamilton, E., & Sexton, T. L. (2016). Therapist implementation and parent experiences of the three phases of Functional Family Therapy. Journal of Family Therapy, 39(1), 80–102. Web.

Marais, C., & van der Merwe, M. (2016). Relationship building during the initial phase of social work intervention with child clients in a rural area. Social Work, 52(2), 145-166. Web.

Pisula, E., & Porębowicz-Dörsmann, A. (2017). Family functioning, parenting stress, and quality of life in mothers and fathers of Polish children with high functioning autism or Asperger syndrome. PloS One, 12(10), e0186536. Web.

Spain, D., Sin, J., Paliokosta, E., Furuta, M., Prunty, J. E., Chalder, T., Murphy, D. G., & Happé, F. G. (2017). Family therapy for autism spectrum disorders. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 5(5), CD011894. Web.

Varghese, M., Kirpekar, V., & Loganathan, S. (2020). Family interventions: Basic principles and techniques. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 62(2), 192–200. Web.

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