Background Information on Heidi
Discuss about the Social Work Report to Court for Megalo Drug Advisory Service.
Brief Background Information on Heidi reveals that she has been suffering from issues related to substance abuse. Heidi has been involved in drugs due to which she has been sentenced. However, changes in behaviour can overall help in improving such addictions. It is required that the court should consider that she has already started the program and following it stringently. She has been taking part in the methadone program which can help and support her in getting rid of her substance abuse issues. The heroine is a dangerous drug and its overdose can also lead towards the death of individuals. As of now, a total of 5 urine samples has confirmed that Heidi has been involved in the drug abuse.
The purpose of this report is to present a court report on the selected client. As a social worker of a parenting support and education program for parents who are young, the aim will lie in dealing with individuals who have substance abuse issues. Heidi has attended the program for 2 sessions for half day each week as she started the program on methadone just six weeks before her sentence.
Heidi was presented to the Megalo Drug Advisory Service on the 08-04-2018. The initial contact with Heidi was followed by a total of 12 more contacts which comprises of two half-day long sessions on a weekly basis (Executive, 2012). It was found that Heidi has been constantly willing as well as motivated to utilize the six-week long methadone program that can be used by her to overcome the substance abuse program. Heidi is a parent of a young child namely Kelly, a 3-year-old. It was identified that she was highly oriented to attend the drug abuse program which can improve her basic lifestyle as well as improve the daily habits (Fisher & Harrison, 2012). Heidi has been charged with theft and use of illegal opioids such as heroin as one of the examples. The lack of self-control and self-ability to overcome the addiction resulted in Heidi to identify that that overcoming the addiction on her own will not be possible. It becomes essential to consider that the Heidi was engaged in theft as well.
Heidi is a young parent of one 3-year-old child. Heidi is responsible for not only taking care of but also for the wellbeing of her 3-year-old daughter namely Kelly (Hamilton, 1942). Apart from which, Heidi lives with her husband who is a project manager due to which he requires to spend over 15 days outside of the documented residence in a month due to which Heidi becomes responsible for domestic as well as her personal career, and works related to daughter.
It was found that Heidi grew up in an upstate area but soon after the birth of her daughter, her father died of lung cancer and the entire family experiences a phase of loss and sadness. However, Heidi did not receive any counselling or joined any support group to deal with the grief, as a result, she developed depression that prevented her to enjoy the most joyful moments of the life (McLellan et al, 1997). This is when she recognized some of her colleagues use heroin periodically to overcome the negative feelings. However, as evident heroin is an addicting illicit drug which poses risk to the wellbeing itself of Heidi.
Purpose of the Report
It was found that the Heidi was involved in the abuse of heroin as she became aware of the numbing and memory distorting effect it can have on the user (Kandel, 2002). However, since the first drug abuse instance, Heidi has reported being unable to controlling herself and distancing from the drugs. Furthermore, the lack of self-control results in Heidi to steal goods from the local store as well. While she used to inform her husband about all aspects of life, she did not disclose the developed addiction until the first encounter with the treatment services.
Heidi holds a graduate degree from the University of Canyon in business administration. Heidi was employed by the McKinsey Company as an associate consultant (Nelson-Zlupko et al, 1995). However, the work requires Heidi holds total 4 years of work experience post the graduation. Despite the high scores in the schooling, Heidi was unaware of the risks that illicit drug use can pose especially upon the first drug abuse instance.
The workplace of Heidi comprised of high disposable income earners due to which some of the recently hired employees introduced Heidi to the heroine. However, soon after the onset of addiction, Heidi lost her job due to being unable to reach the office in a timely manner and lack of focus or task orientation in the workplace (Rod et al, 2015). It can be presumed that while members of the workplace did not identify the drug abuse problem, Heidi was on drugs during the last days at her workplace as a consequence. Heidi has realized her mistakes and focuses on joining another market research firm that has invited Heidi for the interview (O’Hare, 2005). The drug history of Heidi is relatively short as comprises of over 2 months of duration. However, this duration of drug abuse has posed surmounting problems to Heidi.
Heidi’s health has been deteriorating. Her mental health is not as it should be for a young parent. She is suffering from depression and has stress due to her financial situations and her bad habit. Heidi after losing her father did not attend any counselling as well. This, in turn, made her further depressed because she was closely attached to her father. After the birth of her child, she continued growing weak physically. She has never resorted to exercising or changing her daily routine (Saleebey, 2012). Her routine does not offer her time to rejuvenate or be relieved of stress. She does not have a clear focus on her health physically or mentally. Also, due to the continued financial stress, Heidi has been further involved in being depressed.
Heidi is not a single parent but most of her time, her husband is not in the city most of the time. Her husband earns average and the earnings that she makes are mostly used to maintaining the house and her children’s school fees (Ungar, 2004). Heidi does not have any accumulated wealth. She has not inherited from her paternal home. She has a weak financial background implying she does not even have sufficient money on most days to fill her stomach. However, her habit of drug abuse has further deteriorated her situation (Best et al, 2016). She hasn’t paid for the school fees or her home bills. Her husband has been bringing the finances but they are now consumed in the treatment of their child who is suffering from chronic asthma and other bronchial issues.
Record of Contact
She was continuously depressed and stressed out. Even though she has a graduate degree and used to love studies but still now she does not have the energy to continue training herself professionally (Csiernik & Rowe, 2017). Since the past 6 months, she stopped going to work because her substance abuse issue was brought to the forefront.
Conclusion and recommendation
It has been identified from the assessment that death of the father followed by lack of support or availability by the husband has placed increasing pressure on Heidi to take care of her own employment, domestic chores and education of her daughter. Moreover, the peer pressure from the newly hired employed at her workplace resulted in Heidi to try and become addicted to heroin. However, after the 2 months of drug abuse, she has recognized the problem, joined the methadone program and seeks further employment. Recommended action would be to assess Heidi’s behaviour. A brief community service can be given for the action of theft committed by her.
I have always been a follower of ethics and while writing this report as well, ethical considerations were kept at the forefront. Furthermore, social justice and human rights issues were also ensured to be taken into consideration. I was motivated to choose this case as I could relate to the family oriented background of Heidi.
I knew little about the human rights issue experienced by Heidi and that social justice will also be delivered to her. As Heidi is engaged in substance abuse, she is still to be viewed from the perspective of a human who has rights and these rights need to be respected and she should have the ability to exercise such rights. Heidi has been involved in misconduct due to her substance abuse problem.
Being a young parent, she needs to acknowledge her responsibilities towards her family. Ethical considerations in this regard are therefore essential because all the personal information has been presented of Heidi in the report. However, the information has been presented in a way that it does not bring forward any ethical dilemma.
Preserving the information of the client in a secure manner is one of the ethical considerations required to be made so that no one else has the ability to access it if they are not authorized. This is critical to consider as the human rights requie consideration to not only the gender, race, sexuality and poverty but also on the general impact of life. Therefore, it is important that human rights for Heidi are considered to minimize the impact on her life.
Social justice issues were to be dealt with because as a new parent, Heidi has now adopted a suitable path towards her recovery. Her recovery will not be successful if she does not have the will or belief in the social justice system. The perspective of social justice was also kept in mind because it is not liable to offend the court in any manner. Heidi’s human rights were preserved moreover by allowing her to be independent and to let her lead her case by offering examples such as a change in her social behaviour and changes to her attitudes.
References
Best, D., Beckwith, M., Haslam, C., Alexander Haslam, S., Jetten, J., Mawson, E., & Lubman,
I. (2016). Overcoming alcohol and other drug addiction as a process of social identity transition: the social identity model of recovery (SIMOR). Addiction Research & Theory, 24(2), 111-123.
Csiernik, R., & Rowe, W. S. (Eds.). (2017). Responding to the oppression of addiction:Canadian social work perspectives. Canadian Scholars’ Press.
Executive, S. (2012). ” It’s everyone’s job to make sure I’m alright”-Report of the Child Protection Audit and Review.
Fisher, G. L., & Harrison, T. C. (2012). Substance abuse: Information for school counselors,social workers, therapists and counselors. Pearson Higher Ed.
Hamilton, G. (1942). Theory and practice of social case work. New York School of Social Work.
Kandel, D. B. (Ed.). (2002). Stages and pathways of drug involvement: Examining the gateway hypothesis. Cambridge University Press.
McLellan, A. T., Cacciola, J. S., & Zanis, D. (1997). The addiction severity index-lite. Center for the Studies on Addiction, University of Pennsylvania/Philadelphia VA Medical Center.
Nelson-Zlupko, L., Kauffman, E., & Dore, M. M. (1995). Gender differences in drug addiction and treatment: Implications for social work intervention with substance-abusing women. Social work, 40(1), 45-54.
O’Hare, T. (2005). Evidence-based practices for social workers: An interdisciplinary approach. Lyceum Books, Incorporated.
Rod, M. H., Jöhncke, S., Steffen, V., & Raahauge, K. M. (2015). The social life of evidence: Rationalizing professional practice in the welfare state. Between Magic and Rationality: On the Limits of Reason in the Modern World, 4, 43.
Saleebey, D. (2012). The strengths perspective in social work practice. Pearson Higher Ed. Ungar, M. (2004). Surviving as a postmodern social worker: Two ps and three rs of direct practice. Social work, 49(3), 488-496.
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