Client Problem. Catherine Jackson is a 67 year old women, who suffers from anemia and type 2 diabetes. Catherine uses alcohol as a coping mechanism for her consistent exhaustion. Her exhaustion can be contributed to her anemia and type 2 diabetes, however the use of alcoholic beverages to combat her fatigue can be considered detrimental to her health. This would be considered a safety issue based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Safety being the most dominant issue as her health is a clear priority. Intervention. My role in this scenario would be as a Case Worker.
Locating services and making sure the client has access to all potential services she may qualify for, that could aid in the recovery of the client. As a social worker/case manager it would also be necessary to determine how severe the drinking problem is and what services would be best in combating it. Cognitive Behavioral Coping Skills Therapy would be the best intervention technique for this scenario. CBST can be administered in an individual or group setting, and focuses on the patients behavioral and cognitive skills to combat the abuse of alcohol.
Focusing on the issues that prompt drinking and how to manage them appropriately. Target Behavior. By breaking the problem down in an Antecedent, Behavior, Consequence format, the target behavior becomes apparent. In this scenario the Antecedent would be the client’s fatigue, the behavior would can documented as drinking, and the consequence to this would be severe health problems. Thus leaving us with a clear target behavior witch would be drinking, or alcohol abuse. Units of Measurement This target behavior and intervention will be done in a weekly format.
The Baseline will consist of 4 week period were the number of drinks per week will be calculated and assessed. ABA. Using the ABA single subject design for the intervention in this scenario to both determine the need for intervention and the success of the intervention. ABA is similar to AB single subject design with an added A or baseline segment, this is a nonintervention segment often used to determine the success of the intervention or the clients willingness to stick with sobriety.
The baseline in this intervention and ABA is a 4 week nonintervention period were the clients alcohol misuse will be documented, the baseline will measure how many drinks per week the client is consuming. The intervention process will consist of both group counseling sessions as well as individual sessions that both administer Cognitive Behavioral Coping Skills Therapy. During the intervention process the nursing facility will continue to meet frequently with the client to document progress or lack of.
The client’s physician will also be contacted and included in the intervention due to the medical issues already present. This will be done in a 10 week period so that there is adequate time for the intervention to be successful. The intervention will then be followed by another 4 week baseline that will determine the success of the intervention and the maintenance of the target behavior. The goal for the client will be to decrease the amount of alcoholic beverages are being consumed due to fatigue, with the ultimate goal of completely eliminating or minimizing the use of alcohol by the client.
For the client we will represent the goal as maintain a healthy lifestyle, and healthy reactions to negative situations and feelings. Conduction. In this intervention the client will be monitored by several different individuals that will report back on the progress of the client. This will include the group leader, the individual counselor, as well as the nurse that will be visiting the client. Ideally the behavior of the client will be documented using a behavior chart, this will be maintained by the visiting nurse and monitored by myself.
Success. While in theory the intervention should work and by the end of the 18 weeks the client should be better at effectively maintaining her fatigue without the use of alcohol. However there are always factors that could hinder or elevate the progress of the client during the intervention process. One factor that could hinder the client in her efforts to cease the use of alcohol, would be living alone. Many people fall back into bad habits due to the fact that they have no one around constantly.
Taking into consideration the age of the client living alone could leave her feeling alone and isolated from the world during her intervention. This is one reason why I choose to include a form of group counseling in the intervention process. Education can be a huge factor to motivate the client’s success. By educating the client on how to the use of alcohol can worsen her fatigue and cause other health issues, will be a motivating factor in the intervention process and the drive to find better ways to combat certain situations.
