Running head: ASSIGNMENT 2

Assignment 2

Name

Institution
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Assessing client’s ecological context

Introduction

The client’s ecological context is an imperative consideration in the social work practice.

It represents the idea that the individual client, as well as, his or her environment are closely

linked together, implying that assessments ought to include both an individual and a contextual

focus and these include the most important social settings, events, along with resources.

According to CASW (2005), a great emphasis should be placed on the examination of the

cultural and social contexts of the relationship that prevails between resources, resources and the

key social settings. This paper is based on a previous assignment. It will involve assessing the

client situation using the ecological systems theory, person-in-environment perspective, as well

as, anti-oppressive practice. The paper will be structured into two major parts. These will include

the assessment and a reflection on the theoretical models.

Assessment

Summary of all aspects of client situation and presentation of issues using a person-

in-environment perspective

In social work, a person-in-environment perspective is a practice-guiding doctrine, which

often highlights the essence of attaining an understanding of an individual behavior based on the

ecological or the environment context in which the focus person lives and acts within.

Deriving from the interview, the client is finding it essentially hard to cope with the

Canadian social system, having emigrated from the UK. The client holds the belief that a family

is made up of the father, the mother, brothers and sisters. Therefore, while she may have an

extended family member in Canada, she does not acknowledge him or her to be part of his

family.
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The client, deriving from his responses, has had positive and effective interactions with a

number of Canadian institutions. For instance, she says that she visited a settlement program

offered by the Bredin institute. She was able to acquire information regarding career and skills.

Additionally, the administrators of the program provided him with essential information

regarding finding skills for his son. Moreover, they provided him with access to the computer, as

well as, free printing.

The major reason for the client being in Canada is to become a part of the culture. As she

states, she wants to get a job that will support his life, make new friends, get used to the weather

and people and get along with the Canadian way of life. In other words, the client intends to be

part of the Canadian overall culture. As a result of this inspiration, she has developed adaptive

skills. Indeed, when asked about what she learns from the challenges that she meets, the worker

tells that she has become highly adaptive.

According to the client, she often feels insecure and this can be said to be an aspect of

oppression. She says that she want to be signposted to the relevant serves and officers. She also

says that he, in some cases, does not go out since she is frightened. She perceived that she might

get lost or even failed to get his way back home. She also expresses his concerns about getting

job, fearing that as an immigrant, she might find it essentially difficult to secure a job. She also

feels insecure about his son where she reveals that she wants new information regarding child

benefit to assist in supporting him. Besides, the client asks whether she will be entitled to

benefits in the event she fails to get a job. The client also relates about his concerted efforts to get

an Environmental Science and Engineering job. However, in order to ensure that she is not low

on money, she prefers to engage in some transitional jobs. This clearly shows that the client feels

insecure with the new culture she is now exposed to.

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Using systems level analysis to identify strengths and issues present various levels

To realize this particular objective, social work theorists usually advocate the use of eco-

maps. Eco-map is a term commonly used to define a graphical representation that is designed to

depict or to show all of the systems at play in the life of an individual. CASW (2005) revealed

that eco-maps are often used in not only family but also individual counseling within the social

work profession. Cournoyer (2014) added to this in which she related that the maps represent a

simplistic portrayal of systems theory in a manner that the social worker and the client can look

at throughout the session. The following represents an eco-map that can be derived from the

context of the interview.

Eco-map
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At the individual level as a human being 5
a member of a family
Strengths; the client is becoming highly adaptive
rengths; she acknowledges her responsibility to take care of other family members (the son); she enquires about programs to ass
e; she does not have an effective ability to cope and get along with the new culture
ues; Issues; no issues presented

Ability
To Adapt
Extended Family
Strengths; no strengths presented
She does not acknowledge the essence of an extended family
Community
Strengths; she is interacting well with the various institutions; she ha
Issues; the environment makes her feel insecure

Individual Counseling
The client finding it hard to adapt
to the Canadian culture

Concept map
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A concept map refers to a diagram used in depicting the suggested relationship between a

varied numbers of concepts. It is majorly used in an attempt to organize and structure

knowledge. In social work, a concept map is designed guided by the Cournoyer’s bio-

psychosocial dimensions (Cournoyer, 2014). The following is a concept map that portrays the

interplay between the various factors.

Psychological
She expects to get a job to Ecological
keep her going She does not feel secure when she is out
Expects to know how to use and thus prefers to stay in the house
buses and other services She requires food for her and the son
She requires new clothing that suit the
weather
She is currently housed by a friend, but in
the future, she needs her residence.

Adaptation

Biological
She went to the health
facility to enquire about Sociological
the health system of She has a friend whom she lives with and
Canada whom she has known for seven years
She does not believe in extended family
She feels that the employment systems in
Canada are challenging
She wants to get a school for her son

Genogram
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A genogram refers to a pictorial display of an individual’s relationship, as well as, the

medical history. Aside from showing the traditional family tree, it visualizes the various

hereditary patterns, along with the psychological factors punctuating relationships.

Client

Immigration

Need for a Need for Need for Need for

job clothing shelter security

Adaptation

Reflection on theoretical models

One of the major strength with the person-in-environment perspective is that it assists in

providing a more adequate framework for determining an individual, as well as, his or her

presenting issues and strengths (Cournoyer, 2014). Through a person-in-environment perspective

I was able to determine the prevailing issue is the ability to adapt to the Canadian system on the

part of the client. I was also able to establish that the client had a major strength in that he was

able to adapt to the situations that she encountered.

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The chief strength that characterizes the ecological systems theory is that it explains the

way in which a varied number of influences tend to affect the development of an individual even

where he or she is not involved directly in a situation (Cournoyer, 2014). With regard to the

interview, I was able to understand that there are a set of influences that contribute to the issue of

adaptation or more broadly, to the client’s situation. I was also able to understand how each

influences played a role. One of the influences evident in the responses of the client is the

weather. She says that she has to find new clothes that suits well with the weather in Canada.

Therefore, weather is one of the factors contributing to the challenges she is experiencing with

adaptation.

The main weakness with respect to the person-in-environment perspective is that it is

designed in a way that it only focuses on the social environments (Cournoyer, 2014). Clearly,

such a limitation might have inhibited the ability of the interview to achieve its objective. As

such, it might have hindered me to exercise the ability to engage with the pressing environmental

concerns, which might have been facing the client.

On the part of the ecological model, one of the dominant challenges is that it is not a

practical model since it fails to provide guidance on what should be done, given a certain issue

(Cournoyer, 2014). In this regard, using the model, I was only able to look at the experiences of

the client. However, it could not guide me on what to do about the problem. It is for this reason

that I employed other perspectives as the one identified above.

The use of strengths-based perspective and family-client-centered is imperative to the

understanding of worker and the client about the issues of the latter (Saleebey, 2005). Especially

on my part, I was able to determine the forces and the nature of pressure that they exerted

towards the situation. For instance, in the case of the family, I was able to understand the stand
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of the client about the value she attached to extended family. I was able to determine that this

was one of the influences to the problem (Saleebey, 2005). As a result, I was able to offer advice

to the client, a thing that elicited her understanding of the situation she was in. One of the

implications of using such models was the idea that the client was able to note his strengths

(adaptation) and also enquired about social support that could assist him to overcome the

problem. Competently, I was able to explain to her what options she had. This showed that we

were all beginning to identify strengths, competencies and social supports to give direction and

purpose to the social work. From the interview, it was evident that the client was being faced by

several oppressions. One of these is capitalism. This comes where she says that it is likely that,

being an immigrant, she would not be the preferred job candidate. Such an attribute is only

prevalent in a capitalist regime. As such, private owners might seek to discriminately employ

people (Carniol, 2010).

Conclusion

The purpose of this paper was to assess the client situation using the ecological systems

theory, person-in-environment perspective, as well as, anti-oppressive practice. It was

determined that using these models, a social worker can effectively determine the issue that a

client is facing and then provide effective support.

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References

Carniol, B. (2010). Towards liberation. In Case critical: Social services & social justice in

Canada. (6th ed.) Toronto, ON: Between the Lines.

Carniol, B. (2010). Towards liberation. In Case critical: Social services & social justice in

Canada. (6th ed.) Toronto, ON: Between the Lines.

CASW, (2005). Code of ethics and standards of practice (2007). Retrieved from

URL:http://www.ACSW.ca

Cournoyer, B. (2014).The social work skills workbook. (7th ed.) Belmont, CA: Thomas

Brooks/Cole Publishing.

Saleebey, D. (2005). The strengths perspective: principles and practice. Belmont, CA: Thomas

Brooks/Cole Publishing.