You are a social worker at an out-patient mental health facility. Your new client presents with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and noncompliance with her medications. To deal with the mood swings, she has been abusing painkillers and alcohol daily. Currently homeless, she has been sleeping on her friends’ couches. Her boyfriend is emotionally and verbally abusive and has just taken her last twenty dollars. She works at a local gas station, but she has to depend on friends for rides to work. As a result, she missed several work shifts. Her boss, who was understanding until now, recently told her she could not miss any more days, due to a lack of transportation. There are many short, intermediate, and long-term problems the client could address in this scenario. How do you choose which problem to tackle first?  One trap for social workers is thinking that they know which problem or concern should take priority and what is best for the client. Rather, what the client feels is the priority is what should take precedence. In this scenario, how would you start the GIM planning process with the client? As her social worker, you might feel that going into drug and alcohol rehab is a priority. However, she might feel that keeping her job, and therefore getting a car, is much more of a priority. If you disregard her goals and instead refer her to an inpatient rehab program, how successful will she be at completing that goal?  For this Discussion , review this week’s Resources. Select either the course-specific case study for John or Debra and consider how the social worker applied the GIM in the case study. Also, think about any cultural competence techniques the social worker might have explicitly or implicitly used in the case. Then reflect on why working collaboratively with that client is vital to the treatment planning process. Then, select three of the eight planning steps discussed in the course text and think about how you might utilize those planning steps to foster empowerment during that process. Finally, reflect on the skills you might use to ensure the treatment planning process is mutually agreed upon by you and the client and consider how the treatment planning process affects implementation of treatment. Post a description of how the social worker in the course-specific case study you selected applied the GIM. Include in your post an explanation of any cultural competence techniques the social worker might have explicitly or implicitly used in the case. Explain why working collaboratively with the client is vital to the treatment planning process. Then, describe the three planning steps you selected and explain how you might utilize those planning steps to foster empowerment during that process. Finally, explain one practice behavior skill you might use to ensure the treatment planning process is mutually agreed upon for you and the client and further explain how use of that skill might affect implementation of treatment.  Support .

1. You are a social worker at an out-patient mental health facility.
Your new client presents with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder
and noncompliance with her medications. To deal with the mood
swings, she has been abusing painkillers and alcohol daily.
Currently homeless, she has been sleeping on her friends’
couches. Her boyfriend is emotionally and verbally abusive and
has just taken her last twenty dollars. She works at a local gas
station, but she has to depend on friends for rides to work. As a
result, she missed several work shifts. Her boss, who was
understanding until now, recently told her she could not miss
any more days, due to a lack of transportation. There are many
short, intermediate, and long-term problems the client could
address in this scenario. How do you choose which problem to
tackle first?
One trap for social workers is thinking that they know which
problem or concern should take priority and what is best for the
client. Rather, what the client feels is the priority is what
should take precedence. In this scenario, how would you start
the GIM planning process with the client? As her social worker,
you might feel that going into drug and alcohol rehab is a
priority. However, she might feel that keeping her job, and
therefore getting a car, is much more of a priority. If you
disregard her goals and instead refer her to an inpatient rehab
program, how successful will she be at completing that goal?
For this Discussion
, review this week’s Resources. Select either the course-specific
case study for John or Debra and consider how the social
worker applied the GIM in the case study. Also, think about any
cultural competence techniques the social worker might have
explicitly or implicitly used in the case. Then reflect on why
working collaboratively with that client is vital to the treatment
planning process. Then, select three of the eight planning steps
discussed in the course text and think about how you might
utilize those planning steps to foster empowerment during that
process. Finally, reflect on the skills you might use to ensure

2. the treatment planning process is mutually agreed upon by you
and the client and consider how the treatment planning process
affects implementation of treatment.
Post a description of how the social worker in the course-
specific case study you selected applied the GIM.
Include in your post an explanation of any cultural competence
techniques the social worker might have explicitly or implicitly
used in the case.
Explain why working collaboratively with the client is vital to
the treatment planning process.
Then, describe the three planning steps you selected and explain
how you might utilize those planning steps to foster
empowerment during that process.
Finally, explain one practice behavior skill you might use to
ensure the treatment planning process is mutually agreed upon
for you and the client and further explain how use of that skill
might affect implementation of treatment.
Support your posts and responses with specific references to the
Resources. Be sure to provide full APA citations for your
references.
References
Kirst-Ashman, K. K., & Hull, G. H., Jr. (2015).
Understanding generalist practice
(6th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
Chapter 1, "Introducing Generalist Practice: The Generalist
Intervention Model" (pp. 1–52)
Chapter 6, "Planning in Generalist Practice" (pp. 207-236)
Kirst-Ashman, K. K., & Hull, G. H., Jr. (2015).
Understanding generalist practice
(6th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
Chapter 3, "Practice Skills for Working with Groups”(pp. 94-
126)
Kirst-Ashman, K. K., & Hull, G. H., Jr. (2015).
Understanding generalist practice

3. (6th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
Chapter 7, "Implementation Applications" (pp. 237-288)
[removed]Scarborough, M. K., Lewis C. M., & Kulkarni, S.
(2010). Enhancing adolescent brain development through goal-
setting activities.
Social Work, 55
(3), 276–278.
Working With Survivors of Domestic Violence: The Case of
Debra
Debra is a 38-year-old, heterosexual, Chinese American female.
She is a stay-at-home mother with 15- and 7-year-old daughters
and an 8-year-old son. Her husband of 21 years, Tim, works as
an insurance broker at a local insurance agency. Debra has been
prescribed Xanax
®
from her primary physician for anxiety. While at the doctor’s
office, she noticed a poster about the local domestic abuse
center. She wrote down the number but did not call. Then, after
being hit one night, she decided to call.
Debra called the center’s hotline a few times before deciding to
come in for services. She came in to address her children’s
behavior, which she believed stemmed from her husband’s anger
problem; her eldest daughter had started yelling at Debra and
the two younger children, and her son had begun to kick and hit
more than normal. Debra had previously attributed these
behaviors, as well as her anxiety, to her husband’s stress level.
Debra had turned to her mother for help with the children, but
her mother had told her, “It is your family, take care of it.”
Debra had been trying to appease her husband’s anger by having
the house clean, dinner ready, and the children in bed by the
time he got home. Although Debra was used to his occasional
outbursts, the night before she first called he hit her in the face
and threatened to take the kids away because she “was a terrible
mother.”

4. While discussing her marriage, Debra did not want to label his
behavior as abusive or unhealthy. She told me that he was just
doing his duty as head of household to provide for his family,
and it was her job to keep the family together. After a few
sessions, she disclosed that she had been unhappy for years but
that her family would disown her if she were to get a divorce.
Debra began individual counseling with the intent to learn about
how to keep herself and her children safe from his outbursts and
how to manage her children’s behavior. She told me she was
not comfortable joining a group at this point. Debra also said
that she would like to work on regaining support from her
family members. Debra discussed her childhood, describing the
way she was brought up in a traditional Chinese family where
her mother stayed at home with her and her sister. Her father
was the bread-winner and had the final say on any household
matters.
During our sessions, I learned about Chinese cultural values
related to marriage and family. I discovered that if Debra were
to leave Tim, she would dishonor her family and lose any
support system they did provide. Debra did not see divorce as a
viable option for herself but wanted to try to prevent her
husband’s outbursts.
We met once a week and worked on creating a safety plan for
her and her children. The children were old enough to be a part
of the safety planning process. Debra was open to having the
children come in to the agency to discuss their concerns about
their father and mother. The children supported their mother
and her ideas to help keep their family safe. We worked on
creating and maintaining healthy boundaries for herself and her
children.
After 3 months, Debra decided that she did not need to come
weekly, but rather on an as-needed basis, to change her safety
plan. She felt comfortable with her decision to stay and felt that
her husband was respecting the new boundaries that she and the
children had put up. Her husband has now enrolled in private
counseling.