Holistic Case Planning for a Traumatised Aboriginal Child: Addressing Emotional, Educational, Cultural, and Familial Needs SWP4027

Introduction

This report will aim at creating a case plan for a 10 years old Aboriginal girl Kate who is from Adelaide and has undergone tremendous childhood trauma and loss within her family. In the last three years, Kate has lost her father, grandmother, cousin and sister to the so deadly derror, death. These tragedies have impacted Kate in that she has developed school refusal, has to deal with more care giver responsibilities at home, and withdraws emotionally. This paper seeks to discover measures that will be taken to meet all the needs of Kate through identification of grief and trauma services, education help and some culturally appropriate ways of connecting her with her Aboriginal heritage. Moreover, the plan is to imply various services and specialists to support both Kate and her family properly. That is why such areas of the report are aimed at the fact that Kate needs to become mentally strong, and return to a normal childhood.

Discussion

Background Information on the Client

Kate is a ten year old Aboriginal girl who lives in a three bedroom state housing townhouse in Adelaide with her family, which is her mother and two younger brothers, one aged six years and the second one of six months. Kates life has been characterised by severe stress and grief in the social, personal and professional spheres in the recent past. In the last one year, she has buried her father, who died as a result of an acute myocardial infarction; her maternal grandmother, who succumbed to a chronic disease; and a 16-year-old male cousin, who committed suicide. Three years earlier, Kate also lost her infant sister to sudden infant death syndrome or SIDS. These occurrences have left their mark on her emotional and psychological self, making her into what she is at the present (Myers-Coffman, 2024).
The once friendly and moderately performing student, with good health status, and normal developmental progression, is now isolated, housebound, assisting her mother to look after a young brother. Her school attendance has reduced and this worries her mother who at the same time seems to be concerned on the reports that may be made to child welfare services on Kate. However, Kates mother has recently agreed with forced consent a referral to child and adolescent mental health services for an assessment. Concerning Kate, she is seen as shy, sticking to her mum and with a preference of her staying at home to care for her brother rather than going to school.

Complex Needs to Be Addressed in the Plan

Many needs interfere with Kates care, and all of them require consideration, attention, and quality documentation. These needs can be categorised thus as emotional, educational, cultural and familial.

1. Emotional and Psychological Needs

• Grief and Trauma: Kate has had several tragic losses within a short span of time and the grief has not been addressed let alone trauma (Guldin and C.J.W. Leget, 2023). These have possibly caused her to retreat emotionally, have school refusal and be more involved in caregiving at home.

• Anxiety and Depression: It could be that Kate is anxious or depressed, reasons that make her not attend school but instead stay at home. These could be worsened by her fear of the loss or by her demands to take care for her family.

2. Educational Needs

• School Refusal and Academic Decline: Kate has many problems, but one issue is most alarming she has been skipping school a lot recently. They clearly learn the implication of absence from school not only their scholastic assessment but also their interpersonal relationships and their future careers.

• Learning Support: Due to the emotional status of the girl, the child can need the additional kinds of learning assistance which will help her compensate for the missed classes and reintegrate into the school (Myers-Coffman, 2024).

3.Cultural Needs

• Connection to Aboriginal Heritage: Milect For Aboriginal girl it is critical to enhance her positive identity and cultural affiliation, especially it means much to connect with heritage. Cultural competence is essential when it comes to workability of the interventions that are to be given.
• Kinship and Community Support: The support system provided by the people include the extended family kinship system which is important in Kates life. Developing these relations can add more emotional and social support in her life, which can contribute to her reducing the feeling of loneliness and increasing her integration to the community.

4. Familial Needs

• Family Dynamics and Caregiving: It has been crucial to pay attention to Kates commitments at home especially in looking after the young brother. Though, these tasks may give her some sense of purpose, important for her overall mental restoration and growth, these roles are oppressive for her.
• Parental Support: Kates mother is also a grieving parent and she may not be in a good state to attend to her childrens needs as a mother, let alone hold up emotionally. Offering this is important for the welfare of the family as a whole.

Case Plan to Address Complex Needs

Figure 1: Case Plan to Address Complex Needs
(Source: Jessiman et al., 2022)

The case plan that has to be prepared for Kate has to be global, culturally advantageous, and personalized to the clients requirements. The subsequent sections describe the strategies and approaches illustrated in figure 1, for catering for Kates emotional, learning, cultural as well as family needs.

1. Emotional and Psychological Support

• Grief Counseling: its recommended that Kate must be referred to the grief counseling since she losses several of her family members. This counseling should be about trauma and the counsellor should be a registered psychologist who has worked particularly with children and aboriginal families (Guldin and C.J.W. Leget, 2023). The counselor should employ appropriate ways that will make Kate to feel comfortable and understood.
• Trauma-Informed Theory: Further, other therapy such as trauma theory can aid in the management of any post traumatic experiences that may have affected Kate in the future (Ennis et al., 2022). Referral to an emotion-focused psychotherapy like CBT or narrative therapy could probably assist Kate to find out means through which she is able to display she has feelings.
• Engagement in Therapeutic Activities: It is crucial to let Kate know that there are other forms of treating her ailments and bring her through art therapy, play therapy or animal assisted therapy (Jessiman et al., 2022). Such activities are equally useful where the affected children have difficulties in expressing themselves verbally.

2.Educational Interventions

• Individualized Education Plan (IEP): It is therefore important to coordinate with Kates school to draw an IEP. An important and useful component of the IEP is to describe determination of short-term instructional objectives relevant with the projects of the pupil together with special instructional services with reference to Kates present feeling and academic requirements. These may entail changes in tasks that were assigned, extra time for independent study or return to class in a phased manner.
• School-Based Counseling Services:In order to ensure that Kate is comfortable within the school domain it is important that she be best placed to see a school counselor on regular basis (Troy et al., 2022). The counselor can assist her to overcome all sorts of anxiety or fear that hampers school attendance and assist her to regain her social skills.
• Peer Support Programs: Explaining Kate about the peer support programs that are available in School will make her to realize that she is not alone and can easily mingle with her colleagues. Such programs can provide Kate with an environment through which she can interact with other kids who might have undergone a similar ordeal.

3. Cultural Interventions

• Culturally Sensitive Counseling: It will then be important that all the therapeutic interventions that are to be implemented will be done so in a culturally sensitive manner and this is in consideration to Aboriginal background of Kate. Having the Aboriginal liaison officer or a cultural consultant can help to maintain that the delivered counseling approaches are culturally appropriate.
• Connection to Cultural Activities: Making suggestions like doing storytelling, art or dances with your friend Kate will assist her remain connected to the aboriginal culture. These might also help her to find a way to vent out her emotions while also being in a position to attend to her social needs.
• Involvement of Elders and Community Members: It is also agreeable that considering respected Elders and other community members in Kates care plan can also make more help available (Troy et al., 2022). They can provide somebody who can guide her with culture and experience in how to cope with her loss and traumatic experience.

4. Implementations for Family Support and Care Giving Adjustments

• Family Counseling: Family counseling can go a long way in trying to deal with the interactions within Kates home. This counselling should entail aspects of communication, support for emotions and how the two of them can handle stress and other aspects of family life (Radu, Moldovan and B?ban, 2022). It is also important to negotiate who would be taking up the caring responsibilities so that Kate does not bear the entire burden.
• Parenting Support Programs: Possible parenting support programmes could include help with grief as well as parenting following a bereavement and balancing parenting responsibilities (Jessiman et al., 2022). It can also help her link her to some programs within the community which provides her with support.
• Respite Care Services: To help to reduce the burden on Kate, there is a provision of the care giver services that can be booked as temporary (Radu, Moldovan and B?ban, 2022). This can give more time for Kate to cater for her own psychological and academic needs while at the same time taking care of her younger siblings.
• Services and Professionals Involved:
• For this reason, the following staff will be needed in order to fully and properly implement the case plan; The following services and professionals should be e involved:
• Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS): CAMHS will engage more in giving grief counseling, trauma therapy, and in sum, mental health therapy to Kate (Gibbons, Harrison and Stallard, 2021).
• School Personnel: Teachers, school counselors and Special education personnel will participate in the creation and the subsequent putting into practice of Kates IEP, support her academic needs and help her to reintegrate back into the school setting.
• Aboriginal Liaison Officer: An Aboriginal liaison officer can guarantee that all the carried out actions have a multicultural approach towards Kates background (Orr, Frederico and Long, 2021). They can also help in the arrangement of the contacts with the community and other cultural events.
• Family Therapist: Due to the fact that the family systems are involved, Kates family therapist will have to help the family, and primarily Kate, in as much as the following aspects may be in question;. This professional will also help the family in managing their grief and trauma.
• Sit CFL and respite care givers will come and take over the caregiving duties for a while giving the girl and her mother some space to do what they wish (Hunter-Jones et al., 2023).

Strategies for Implementing the Case Plan

The achievement of the original goals of the case plan as anchored by Kate will mean accented adherence to the proposed strategies. The following steps outline how the plan will be carried out:

1. Initial Assessment and Engagement: The first of intervention strategies of assessment will comprise assessment of her emotional, educational, and family requirements. This is to be done by CAMHS with the support of the school and the Aboriginal liaison officer. Subsequently, it is crucial to establish the trusting relationship with Kate and her family during this phase.
2. Development of the IEP and Support Plan: From the first evaluation, the IEP and the support plan shall be created with the assistance of Kates educators, school counselor, and special education personnel (Bryant, Guy and Holmes, 2020). Hence, the plan will be made in such a manner that will ensure Kates academic as well as social and emotional needs are met.
3. Cultural Integration: An Aboriginal liaison officer will cover with Kate and her family in order to choose proper cultural activities and materials. In the process of the cultural assessment, it may be beneficial for Kate to be introduced to cultural role models, to schedule involvement in cultural activities, and to apply cultural interventions to her therapy.
4. Family Counseling and Support: Individual and conjoint counselling to Kate and her mother will be done to address the emotional issues involved in the case. During these sessions, it will be also possible to discuss possible strategies of the rotation of caregiving tasks and inform the family about parenting programs.
5. Monitoring and Adjustments: The case plan will be reviewed and revised in a stipulated period depending on a number of factors relating to Kate including the scores on her assessment tools and the changes felt in her life. The above stated multidisciplinary team of professionals will from time to time assess the success of the interventions as well as recommend changes that need to be made (Ennis et al., 2022).

Evaluation of the Plan

Understanding the specifics of the case plan is also important when it comes to the assessment of the interventions for the purpose of determining whether they meet Kates needs and promote the desired results. This assessment will be in a form of both the qualitative and quantitative assessment where assessment tools such as interviewing, observation, record review, sleep diary and self report for Kates emotional status, academic achievement, cultural participation, and family functioning (Daniel Costa Ball et al., 2023). The following outlines the key aspects of the evaluation process:

1. Emotional and Psychological Well-being

In order to understand the impact of the different forms of emotional and psychological intervention the child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) will undertake periodic tests. These assessments will require such state standardised questionnaires like Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and Childrens Depression Inventory and will serve the purpose of identifying changes in Kates emotional status in the process of her therapy (Bryant, Guy and Holmes, 2020). Further, self-reported data from Kate as well as from her mother and counselors will be collected to have an insight into the participants subjective experience of the interventions. Outcome measurement will be based on the decreased level of grief, anxiety, and depression symptoms together with increased Kates involvement in activities that are part of her therapy and high level of emotional well-being.

2. Academic Progress

The methods of evaluation of Kates academic achievements will entail the use of goals stated in her Individualised Education Plan (IEP) (Armitage et al., 2023). Attending such a school, her attendance, participation, and performance in the execution of academic tasks will be closely monitored. She will also have to meet with her teachers, special education staff as well as the school counselor on a regular basis with a view of checking on her progress. So, by raising her number of attendance and achieving increased results on checklists or tests, there will be quantitative changes here, By using inquiry based interviews and having teachers and Kate s own estimation of the mode of being in school, there will be qualitative changes here. The improvement on these five areas will define the success of the educations interventions hence portraying that Kate is well reintegrated back into school.

3. Cultural Connection and Identity

It is through the interaction of Kate in cultural activities and the relation to the Aboriginal culture that cultural impacts will be measured. Assessment of Kates engagement in cultural practices and her sense of identity will be done by interviewing; Kate the Aboriginal liaison officer, and her family members. Such success will be evidenced if Kate is engaging in cultural activities and practices, she will have a moral high state of her cultural values, and she will have embraced her cultural background in a more effective way.

4. Family Dynamics and Support

The case team will review this whole case plan at planned intervals, based on the several aspects discussed above. To the extent that there is no progress noticed the areas of need will be flagged, and the interventions will be modified to ensure that improvements are made (Hunter-Jones et al., 2023). The success will be manifested by the changes in Kates wellbeing, in emotional, educational, cultural as well as family levels. It will be a continuous process to formally and continually assess the effectiveness of the plan and to adjust it over time to fit the actual needs of Kate and to provide her with the best possible support.

Conclusion

Therefore, the case of Kate is a perfect example of the effects of trauma and loss on the young persons mental health, learning, and development. The individualised case plan that will be adopted involves focusing on the emotional and psychological aspects of her problems, education matters, cultural aspects, and dealing with the family. Here, addressing these areas as a whole will be useful to return the girls emotional balance and to help her get a normal school life, as well as for developing her cultural background and work with her family. The evaluation will be continuous so that it will detect if the interventions still have effectiveness to provide for Kates needs and ifmodification is needed. In the long term, the idea is to help Kate to overcome her misconceptions and challenges, as well as effect positive changes in her family and other communal settings so that she could develop or reinstate the opportunities for improved quality of life for herself and her family.

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