Shahira Turner
BSHS /305
CLIENT PAPER
8-3-2014
Eric H. Erickson, a psychoanalyst and expert in adult development, designed the “eight stages of man” model. It is one of many perspectives that is used in human development (Erickson, 1963). (1) According to Erickson, during a person’s life span systemic changes will arise from the time of birth until death, and although we all go through the same developmental stages, individuals experience these stages in different ways. The development of man may be influenced by social context in our lives. Such as home, family and community or an individual may be influenced by personal characteristics of values, traits or childhood experiences. Traditional stages change as society changes and many problems that individuals experience are due to problems of living. But when it comes to individuals who have very serious problems that are not caused by problems of living, it is necessary to classify their problems into identification perspectives. The perspectives are situational, societal or environmental influences that require immediate action and may be long or short termed. Individuals can be subjected to a series of environmental difficulties of a natural disaster such as fire, flooding or earth quake, they may also be subjected to a societal influences such as being homeless due to loss of employment or they may suffer from situational influences of being a victim of a violent crime. Most individuals may have multiple problems and may need to be referred to series of social service agencies to assist them to meet their goals and gain some type of balance and self-worth in their life.

In order for the human service worker to fully provide a service to the individual, the helper must see the individual as a whole person who is multifaceted with multiple problems that may be rooted and stem from other components of their life such as family, school, health and legal issues just to name a few. All individuals seeking services, weather voluntary or court mandated must be labeled as clients, they can come in the form of individuals, a small group such as family or a large population of residences in a geographical area.

For instance, Jane Doe is a client with a situational problem, she was in a car accident and is temporarily disabled due to her injuries, with no assistance from family and friends, she is suffering from lack of transportation, anxiety as a result from the car accident, and memory loss. I feel that to give Jane the help and support that she needs I would need to access her medical file from her primary care doctor that treated her injuries from the auto accident in order to know the extent of her injuries for back ground informational purposes. I would met Jane In the initial office visitation and have empathy with her in her current situation and realize as a helper that I must treat the whole person and not just the situation at hand and, to keep all of my personal information private. I would also introduce to the client a question and answer period to deny or confirm any barriers of cultural, social or personal reluctance. I would also seek information of the client’s perspective of treatment and what are her goals toward self-independence. The most important problem would be addressed first with the client is her lack of transportation, being that she was in an auto accident with injuries, she may need some type of transportation so that she can to all of her appointments. I would refer the client to other social service agencies that specialized in assistance with this problem such as Para-transit, or Medic van. This agency has non-emergency medical provider vans that come to a client’s home and take them to and from all medical appointments, or they may take the client to and from generalized errands within twenty miles from their home at no charge to the client. I would also refer the client to Adult in Home Care Services. This agency provides twenty four hour, seven day a week care, to clients who need assistance with their activities of daily living. The agency would provide the client with a licensed professional in her home and help her with hygiene, cooking, and cleaning of her house. The licensed professional is also a companion to the client so they are never alone day or night and may be an assist the client when going to medical appointments and all other situations that are of importance to the client. After the evaluations of services needed for Jane, I would address all other short term problems that the client is having difficulties with by using effective communication skills, and mentally take notice of all verbal and nonverbal communication that is portrayed by the client during our meeting sessions.
From the trauma that was caused from the auto accident Jane stated that she does not ever desire to drive a car again in her life time. Which would make her dependent on others for all of her transportation needs and may create some type of paranoia, which would alter her logical and emotional state of reasoning and this issue affects the clients need to be self-independent.

The last problem that needs to be addressed for the client is anxiety and memory loss. Jane was very reluctant and unmotivated to any type of solution to these problems and make her objections to all future solutions and goals known through silent and nonverbal communication. The client continued to seek help for her problems for the next three months but with reduced eye contact, with her arms crossed leaning back in her chair, closed off and not open to any more suggestions. After continued support and reassurance, the client was referred to a psychotherapist for her anxiety and memory loss issues. All future sessions was terminated of current services due to clients wishes. Case close.

1. Eric H. Erickson, Psychoanalyst and expert in adult development, The model of man : Stage model of human development, 1963; An introduction to Human Services, Marianne Woodside- Cengage Learning, Chapter 5 , page 134.