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A SAMPLE TASK PLANNER
FOR "ROS WHITE"
Initial Phase
Assessment, based on client's own
construction of problem
- Her home environment (ceiling crumbling on
children)
- Her desire to keep her children in her home
- Her desire to keep CPS off her back
- Her fear of legal problems (potential prostitution
charges)
- Providing for her family
Exploration
- How, when, where, why they came about
- Ros had increasing trouble with structure since
leaving home
- Landlord has been unresponsive since she moved in
- Needing money to repair apartment, turned to
prostitution
- CPS/legal hassles
- How the client has coped with them up until now
- Ongoing problems, except during residence with
Mother
- Additional data may be gathered through
standardized instruments
- Should we evaluate Ros for PTSD or GAD? These may
represent obstacles to her realizing her goals, and
potential resources through SSI who offers support for
people with these disorders
Setting Goals
- Worker guides client to choose no more than 3
solvable problems
- Improving home environment
- Keeping her children
- Her legal problems
- The social worker may make mental notes about
other, perhaps hidden problems
- For Ros to keep her children, she will need to stop
prostitution
- From "menu of treatments," suggest
personalized, integrative intervention
- A possible "menu" for Ros (after Reid 2000)
- Psychoeducational approach
- Problem-solving approach
- Life-skills training
- Collaborate on creating an explicit contract
Middle Phase
Task planning, for both client (home) and
practitioner (typically during session)
- Worker (psychoeducational approach)
- Educate Ros on effects of parental neglect
- Client
- Identify which effects children may be
demonstrating
- Identify which client behaviors may be neglectful
- Identify factors that may be leading to inadequate
care
- Worker (problem-solving approach)
- Training in problem-solving skills
- Possibly arrange for 24-hour access for emergent
issues (child care)
- Client
- Outline steps to correct specific deficits (contact
landlord for repairs)
- Include adjustments for difficult tasks (role-play
discussion with landlord)
- Worker (life-skills training)
- Train in budgeting, bill paying, résumé
writing, job application
- Client
- Prepare a résumé as home assignment
Implementation Sequence
- Provide necessary training during session
- Review client's and practitioner's
progress on tasks in each session
- Tasks not completed are reviewed to resolve
obstacles
- Obstacles may be external, such as a recalcitrant
government agency
- Obstacles may be internal feelings,
("resistance," "avoidance")
- Resolution through understanding obstacles or
revising plan/tasks
- Ros fails to keep an appointment with CPS for two
weeks running
- Worker helps client identify and resolve
obstacles
- Ros does not trust CPS because "They twisted
words so I didn't know what they meant and they
took my babies last time"
- Worker wonders if Ros would feel safer having
someone accompany her who "knows the
system"
- Worker offers to attend the next meeting with
Ros
Ros agrees and expresses thanks
Termination Phase (and Durational
Limits)
Final Problem Review
- Ros has arranged for ceiling to be fixed
- CPS has not taken children yet, but has begun court
proceedings
- Ros faces misdemeanor charges surrounding her
prostitution
Review of Accomplishments
- Ros has successfully learned to confront landlord
(and authority figures)
- Ros has learned a good deal about child neglect and
made some life changes
- Ros has discovered she has resources in the job
market
- Ros has discovered she has resources through SSI
and DSS
Future Plans
- Suggest Treatment Extension to deal with unresolved
issues
- Problem-solving around legal/CPS issues
- Problem-solving around income/career change
- Treatment for PTSD issues
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