Case Study: Jalen - Community Based Mental Health Work

Background information

Jalen is a young man on your caseload in your role as a community based mental health worker. He was originally referred for challenges in the home and school as evidenced by aggressive behaviors, non compliance and resulting tension and conflict in the home. Your work has been inconsistently helpful due to Jalen's unpredictable behaviors. He resides in the home with his mother and dad as well as 10 and 8 year old brothers.

His behaviors are growing increasingly erratic and violent and mom and dad are put in the position of having Jalen placed in foster care based upon their inability to parent him and the impact of his behaviors on his younger brothers. Jalen begins to reports auditory hallucinations as well as persecutory delusions. He is assessed by a mental health professional as having schizophrenia and begins medicating him as such. At seventeen and a half, you, being aware of Jalen's impending eighteenth birthday, begin planning with the parents and the other collateral staff on the case;

foster care and children's services. It is determined that the parents do not feel comfortable having him back in the home. They do not feel equipped to handle his behaviors and the possible long term impact it may have. He is doing well in the foster home and has bonded with the foster parents, a lesbian couple, and has been relatively stable in the few months he has been here. He visits and speaks to his parents frequently but has not had any overnights. You and parents have shared with Jalen about their desire to not have him return home. He took the news well.

As the Social Worker on this case, you collaborate with the foster care network, parents and children services in efforts to plan for emancipation for Jalen. The plan is for Jalen to remain in the current foster home under a host home agreement in which children services agrees to pay a per diem to the foster parents (between 20 and 30 dollars a day) for the care of Jalen. The children services agency is functioning under a Managed Care Model.

They agree, prior to court, to the host home agreement as well as to maintain contact with Jalen and continue to provide services as needed. On the day of court to communicate this to the magistrate at a court hearing, you, as the social worker, are approached by the children services case manager and told that the agency has shifted the plan and is no longer in agreement with the idea of the host home. They are informing the judge that their desire is to return Jalen home to mom and dad and that they ( children services) plan to relinquish custody and close the case. The court hearing is held and that is what happens.

1) What are your personal and professional opinions and feelings to this occurring? What are the pitfalls of adhering to the revised plan of children's services and Jalen going home? What could be some advantages of the plan? Keeping in mind the importance of collaboration and communication between service providers, what would be your next steps in response to this significant occurrence in this case? Through information and communication, you discover the rationale for the change in case plans.

The children services organization feels that the expenditures would simply be too high. Jalen's mental health issues could be life long, fluctuate over time, and there is no way of predicting the course of his life and how much of limited resources would be required or even what the end outcome would even be IF they financially provided. They cite that other clients, not 18 yet, could benefit from the resources spent on Jalen and that paying for the previously agreed upon services may be a financial risk.

2. Spell out the ethical dilemma present. Do so in the form of vs. You have been made aware of children service's stance. What is your stance as his community based social worker? Please clearly spell out the ethical dilemma, giving as much equal weight to both perspectives. Class content and readings should be referenced.

3. Brainstorm and Evaluate all Options as we you see available to the family and the client. It its not enough too just come up with options. Evaluate each one for its positives and negatives. Who needs to be involved in the brainstorming and decision making process?

4. What is your professional opinion as to what option should be selected and how this ethical dilemma should be resolved? Choose a submission type.