Identify a barrier that might make it difficult to implement the solution-focused model with the client described.
Discuss how a social worker could help a client re-focus on the present, rather than on their past.
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n 1–2 sentences, briefly identify and describe the problem as perceived by the client, family, or group that you dealt with in your past fieldwork or professional experience.
A current hospice patient who lives with his son came into the hospice facility for a limited time due to a health crisis. Now, the hospice patient is unable to return to his son’s home due to the increase in need for care.
From the list of solution-focused questions on page 520 (e.g., exception questions, coping questions, scaling questions, and relationship questions), identify two different types of questions.
Presuppositional Question: What are your biggest concerns with leaving your son’s home and moving to a place of care?
Miracle Question: Suppose we could find a place to meet most of those concerns. What would that place be like?
Explain how asking these two questions would help the client in coming up with the solution.
Having to leave home do to caregiving needs is very common with hospice patients. Finding what concerns and stressors are causing the most distress is pivotal to the transisition of care. With this information, the social worker can identify the best location of care for the patient and educate the care team of specific needs or desires of the patient. The goal is to make the transition as positive of an exerience as possible for both the patient and the caregiver (Turner, 2017). Providing a hopeful experience and placing interventions in place to maintain continuity of care is critical to the success of the patient’s transition (Turner, 2017).
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During my time working as a foster care case manager, I dealt with a bio mother who was stressed due to the uncertainty of reunification with her children and the instability of their current living situation. In addition to not having stable housing, she was experiencing issues with employment.
· Coping Question: Considering all the stress you are facing; how have you managed to cope and get through each day?
· Relationship Question: Who in your life has been most supportive during this difficult time, and how have they helped you cope or feel more hopeful?
Asking the coping question would allow the client to identify times when she was stressed and what that looked like. The client would be able to identify certain thoughts or actions that contributed to those feelings. The purpose of asking coping questions is to indirectly reframe the meaning frames of clients who have assumed that they are entirely helpless and have no control over the problem (Turner, 2017).
Asking the client this specific relationship question will allow her to identify people who support her, encouraging her to feel more supported and knowing she’s not alone. Additionally, by identifying her support systems, the client can reinforce her emotional resilience and find positive ways to address her barriers in securing housing, employment, and reunification with her children. Relationship questions contextualize not only problem definitions but also the client’s desired goals and changes (Turner,2017).