Question

Write a short description of a person, couple, or family in crisis. Include the age, gender, ethnicity/race, marital status, and any other relevant descriptive information for the individual/partners/family members. Describe the presenting problem and the crisis event. Explain why this situation is considered a crisis. Discuss how ethnicity, race, gender, age, class, sexual orientation, or other diversity characteristics may affect the individual/couple/family and the crisis intervention. Provide an overview of the social problem that may be helpful to know in planning the assessment and intervention. For example, if this is a child abuse case or substance abuse case, provide a summary of the scope, indicators, and consequences to the victim/survivor and to the family. Design a specific crisis intervention based on the content in the assigned course readings. Write a conclusion to your intervention plan. What do you anticipate the outcome to be? Include at least two actions you plan to take to avoid personal burnout in working with this case.

Answer

Case Study Family

The case study of this paper will be a family found in the small region of Ohio in Michigan. The family is currently experiencing economic distress. The family is a black couple of Jurgen and Lyn blessed with two children, Pundit, and Sylvia. Jurgen is now twenty-eight years old, Lyn is twenty-five, Pundit is five years old, and Sylvia is four. Jurgen was laid off from his job two years ago after the outbreak of the Corona virus. Due to economic distress over the past year, Jurgen started drinking heavily, which has created tension in the family. Being a young family, the children are greatly affected by Jurgen's habits when drunk (McGuigan et al., 2018).  He comes home late, and when he is back, he beats up Lyn and throws kitchen staff on Pundit and Sylvia. This act has been going on for the past eight months, and the children have gone through brain drain. Jurgen could not go back to work and when the COVID restrictions were lifted, the children transferred from their initial luxurious school to a typical school. For the past two months, Pundit and Sylvia's class performance has dramatically gone down; the harsh parenting has caused them to face back home.

Problem Crisis

The rate of poverty in the United States was fifteen percent in 2015, and it has subsequently risen to sixteen percent. In reality, the poverty rate in the United States has been growing since 2011, when it peaked at thirteen percent. More particularly, forty-five million individuals are poor today, the highest number since poverty statistics were first gathered thirty years ago (Lawson et al., 2020). The quantity and age of people living in a home determine poverty. This, therefore, displays Jurgen's family, who falls on the list of more than fifty thousand families who live in economic distress conditions.

According to extensive studies, financial difficulty in the family hurts the well-being of both parents and children. Accordingmic problem or discrepancy economic hardship or discrepancy. The model suggests that when parents are under financial stress, they are more likely to experience emotional distress, such as tension and depression, which leads to strained family ties (Swenson, & Schaeffer, 2018). That is, perceived parental suffering causes more marital conflict, which causes more severe or uneven parenting. Children's anxiety disorders and externalizing behavior rise as a result of these authoritarian parenting approaches. As a result, the effects of economic crises pose a threat to children's well-being.

According to studies, children being raised in this setting are at risk for adverse consequences, including an increased likelihood of behavioral difficulties, a loss of social proficiency, and poor cognitive results. Indeed, some research demonstrates that young children are most exposed to the consequences of economic hardship, while others suggest that children in early childhood or adolescence are the most susceptible (Tyler, & Schmitz, 2018). When comparing children exposed early in adulthood to those introduced earlier in life, research has revealed that little children are most harmed in psychological capacity and academic performance.

Children who encounter hardship in childhood and elementary school have a greater rate of non-school completion than children who experience poverty later in life. One reason might be that early infancy is a critical era for communicative competence. During this time, disruption in parenting due to financial difficulty may hamper the development of vocabulary required for school readiness. For example, Jurgen and his wife cannot provide their children with learning materials such as play toys, textbooks, and laptops. Parental involvement has been demonstrated in studies to be beneficial. Contributions in child learning mediate the relationship between family financial pressure and child cognitive development. As a result, it appears that decreased family income throughout early infancy interferes with good parenting in the development of mental growth at a period when it is critical for academic achievement.

How the Jurgen's Minority Characteristics Influences his Intervention of Economic Distress

In Ohio, racial, gender, and socioeconomic disparities have substantially been recorded. These elements of inequality have been mainly considered separately, with scholars only assessing possible interconnectivity when trying to investigate whether social class mediates affiliations between race and financial status or gender and finance, following the existing sociocultural conceptions of social inequality. There hasn't been any research into whether class affects the economy differentially for minority ethnic Americans and Whites and whether race affects financial standards differently for females and males, for instance.

Many neighbors view their economic condition and domestic violence as usual in black families as a black family.  And in school, whites defame Pundit and Sylvia without concerns from teachers. Although family situations have changed, these shifts haven't occurred consistently across demographics. Families with minority children are very different from those with white children. A whopping 60 percent of African-American children in 2017 lived in single-parent households, with an even larger percentage having no biological parents. Only 25% of white children and 33% of Hispanic children, on the other hand, were raised in single-parent families.

Educational level has a significant impact on family dynamics, as well. The married, two-biological-parent home is still the most prevalent family structure for children of well-educated moms, and it accounts for the great majority of such families. This lack of parental resources adds yet another layer of injustice for children of color and those with lower levels of education. A new study also demonstrates that some groups of children have especially negative results as a result of growing up outside of a stable, two-parent married home, regardless of ethnicity or educational level.

Jurgen's Children Mental Condition

According to data, eleven percent of children were born into intact homes with natural parents, whereas eighty-nine percent suffered a family breakdown. In the research population, two-thirds of the children had been subjected to trauma, with physical violence occurring in 39 instances. Seventy-one percent had a mental condition in either a parent or a sibling. Children from biologically related families were less likely to have experienced trauma. Compared with other types of families, children from single or divorced homes were less likely to be exposed to sexual abuse but more likely to have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder.

The family in context Stress Model's paths from early childhood to the two children's mental problems in middle childhood. Despite the lack of a tangible link between economic stress and child mental health, the family overview showed the harsh reaction of Jurgen when he is drunk and how social discrimination in the school dramatically affects Pundit and Sylvia, which revealed that economic stress increases parental emotional distress, which increased reported marital difficulty between the pair. As a result of the increased observed harsh parenting, closely associated with childhood mental health, marital distress increased.

Jurgen's two children are extremely affected by the prevalent aspect of economic distress from the case study. From the overview, Jurgen would beat them up every night after he got drunk. Pundit at one time confronted his father with a knife when he was beating his mother up (Harman et al., 2018). This instance is not new to the federal government children's rights committee. These children are significantly going through a difficult situation as they lack decent school attires, making them a subject of discussion every morning in class. Sylvia went to school with a swollen chick bone; one of the classmates hysterically made a joke of her and instigated a fight that caused her to be suspended from school. The overall class performance of both Pundit and Sylvia is discouraging as they both don't frequently meet the average grade in every examination. This child distress condition calls for associations and children's rights authorities to come in and help these children.

Furthermore, with the prevalence of ADHD diagnoses on the rise, it is critical to comprehend possible reasons. Parents who are under financial hardship have more mental discomfort, which leads to harsher parenting. Parents of children who are experiencing financial hardship use more negative parenting tactics and use less good parenting strategies. As a result, it's probable that harsh parenting approaches, particularly among parents under financial stress, are a factor. It's also possible that children with mental illnesses are more difficult to raise. As a result, future bidirectional mechanisms require further investigation.

Intervention in Aid of Jurgen's Children Mental Condition

Inquiry of child reports of abuse by state child welfare agencies, diagnostic therapies of psychologically and physically injury problems, family therapy, self-help assistance, provision of essential such as homemaker or residential care, court proceedings against the perpetrator, and removal of the child or the perpetrator from the parent's house are all examples of intervention in childhood abuse. Pundit and Sylvia are equally going through harsh conditions. This section will discuss three interventions that can be used to curb the mental health condition of the two children who have been subjected to both economic distress and child abuse.

1. Save the Children Strategy

Save the Children's strategy is a UNICEF program that makes a difference in the lives of millions of children throughout the world. We think that all children have the right to be safe from violence, abandonment, brutality, and extortion so that they can survive, study, play, and grow (Kovler et al., 2021). This strategy was put in place to help children who are facing violence in their families. This strategy considers aspects mentioned below:

• Child or children – Anyone under 18 years of age.
• Child Abuse - Anything that people, agencies, or systems do or fail to do that affects children or jeopardizes their chances of healthy and safe growth into adulthood, whether explicitly or implicitly. Physical Violence, Psychological Abuse, Gross negligence Handling, Sexual Abuse, and Manipulation are the primary forms of child abuse.
• Child Data - Personal Identifiable Data acquired for administrative or operational objectives on paper or electronically is deemed secret and contains delicate or restricted classifications, such as patient data.
• Child Protection - Child protection ensures that children are safe and protected. It is a thematic area of activity that aims to safeguard children in all parts of the world from all sorts of exploitation and abuse. Child safety interventions are large-scale and holistic, addressing children and families' legal and social protection requirements in vulnerable areas.
• Child Safeguarding - Save the Children has a system of policies, procedures, and practices to guarantee that the institution is child-safe. Child Protection is the process of making Save the Children a child-friendly organization. It entails individually and collectively responsible, as well as proactive measures, to make sure that almost all children are safeguarded from deliberate or unintended acts by Save the Children staff, legislators, and third parties who work with children or have an impact on them via development interventions, charitable reactions, and processes.

Throughout these aspects, the children's situations should be reported to the authorities as soon as possible so that they can go through therapy and Jurgen's family can be helped immediately. The following are therapy options for supporting the two children

1. Children Therapy

• Diagnosis

It might be challenging to spot abuse or neglect. It necessitates a thorough assessment of the problem, which includes looking for physical and behavioral symptoms. Other agencies, such as competent county or state authorities, may be engaged in cases of suspected abuse. In cases of abuse, therapy can benefit both the children and the parents. The protection and safety of children who have been mistreated are the top priority. Ongoing treatment focuses on avoiding future abuse and decreasing the health implications of abuse in the long run.

• Medical Care

Assist the youngster in seeking proper medical treatment if required. If a youngster shows indications of an injury or a change in consciousness, get medical help right once. You may need to see a doctor or another health care practitioner for follow-up.

• Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy for children and their parents. Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy is a type of cognitive behavioral therapy that focuses on the effects of trauma This sort of treatment aids a mistreated youngster in better managing uncomfortable emotions and dealing with trauma-related memories (Coulton et al., 2018). Eventually, the child and the supporting parent who has not mistreated the child are seen together, and the youngster is able to tell the parent exactly what occurred. This treatment focuses on strengthening the parent-child bond and enhancing the parent-child interaction.

• Coping and Support

I will encourage the children to share what happened. I will maintain the conversation relaxed while reassuring the children that it's OK to talk about what happened, even if they have been warned to be silent. I will pay attention to what I am hearing rather than what I am looking for. Allow the children to tell what happened without interfering; leave extensive questioning to the specialists. Remind the youngster that the abuse is not their fault. The abuser bears responsibility for the child's mistreatment. Repeat after yourself, "It's not your fault."

Intervention Conclusion

Dozens of various interventions in social service, medical, and criminal justice contexts have resulted from the issues of childhood abuse, family violence, and psychological abuse. The severity of different sorts of family violence, customer requirements, and providers', activists', and communities' reactions have all influenced this range of treatments (Isumi et al., 2018). The interventions have evolved into a broad spectrum of institutional services to detect, treat, prevent, and deter family violence.

The current arrangement of initiatives, as well as the dozens of different programming languages and activities connected with each intervention, constitute a significant body of knowledge and experience that needs to be studied scientifically to inform and guide service design, therapeutic interventions, avoidance, and prevention (Brown et al., 2020). The research community, network operators, program supporters, and administrators are challenged to develop frameworks to improve critical evaluations of current tactics, interventions, and programs and propose the next steps in addressing emergent problems and cross-cutting difficulties.

Burnout Reduction During the Process

Burnout is physical and mental tiredness that may take away the joy from your job, friendships, and family connections. In working out this case, I will optimally enforce the following actions;

• I will Listen - Attempt to listen to the children or family member's problems before leaping into "healing" mode. It may make a huge difference to have someone to chat to. People often require someone to observe their distress and suffering, and hearing can help.
• Validate feeling concerns - The children and family of Jurgen are suffering from burnout, reassuring statements like It doesn't sound so awful, or I'm sure things will get better might feel invalidating if the person is genuinely depressed and hopeless.
• Kind gestures - This family can be frequently reminded that they are not alone by sending flowers, a friendly text message, or a handwritten letter. Burnout may make individuals feel lonely and undervalued because they work long hours. Small acts of kindness, on the other hand, maybe nourishing.

Conclusion

The age and developmental level of a kid can impact the way they respond to abuse. The board has taken a developmental approach to this review of personal rehabilitation programs to determine the therapeutic efficacy in reducing the adverse impact of maltreatment at different growth stages and improving the perpetrator's working during vital developmental benchmarks such as connection, peer expertise, and parenting styles.