Using this case study, assess Ms. A’s care needs creating beneficial and achievable goals and exploring your own skills in the evaluation of them

Meeting the Needs of Service Users

Learning Outcomes: After completing the module, you should be able to:

1.Assess care needs and formulate desirable and achievable goals and provide a rationale for the structures and systems which support this practice.

2.Explore own skills in assessment of needs, relating these to relevant theory.

3.Reflect on individual role in the implementation of care to meet the needs of service users.

4.Demonstrate the ability to communicate good practice to others

Assignment Task

Ms A is a 35-year-old woman, who currently lives in a residential (mental health) placement. Ms A suffers from visual impairment, renal failure, diabetes, and emotionally unstable personality disorder. She was allocated to a Social Worker in April 2015 for the purpose of conducting a Needs Assessment to assess her eligibility for services under the Care Act 2015. When the Social Worker met Ms A, she presented as stable, and demonstrated a good insight into her health needs. She was assessed as having the mental capacity to make her own best interests decisions and demonstrated independent living skills that assured social work she could manage her own needs independently in the community. At the time, Ms A expressed her wish to move from her family home and live in a council property to pursue independent living. For this reason, Ms A was encouraged to apply for housing through the housing department and in doing so, she became frustrated that her housing application would not be fast tracked or prioritised on the grounds that she has physical health care needs. This resulted in a rapid decline in her mental health. Ms A’s case was complex and challenging during the six month period the Social Worker was allocated to her. As a consequence of her not receiving housing on an immediate basis, she began to present challenging behaviours that was in conjunction with the effects of her emotionally unstable personality disorder and social circumstances. The presenting issues were as follows: a breakdown in the family dynamics; both intentional and unintentional homelessness; regular hospital admission due to her non- compliance with her medication regime i.e. insulin; harassing professionals from Multi-Disciplinary Teams involved in her care; withdrawing from support services set up in her best interests; threats to self-harm and suicidal ideation; regular police arrests for anti-social behaviour, including physical and verbal altercations with others; past and current trauma associated with the death of her brother; and developing inappropriate relationships with strange men via dating websites/members of the public that resulted in financial and sexual exploitation.

Question 1 Using this case study, assess Ms. A’s care needs creating beneficial and achievable goals and exploring your own skills in the evaluation of them. Make sure that you include reasons and theories to support the structures and systems you are using and that you are clear in communicating areas of good practice which you as the social worker and the rest of the multi-disciplinary team should deliver.

Question 2 Using a model to reflect on your practice, evaluate your role in the implementation of care to meet Ms. A’s needs.