1.

Case Study
Disclaimer: the name (s) portrayed herein are purely the work of the student’s imagination
and have been crafted for the purpose of confidentiality and upholding the child’s right to
privacy in accordance with Article 16 of the UNCRC (right to privacy), similarities to any
character, name(s) or background of any person is unintentional and coincidental.
However, for the convenience of telling the story, the children shall be known as Stacy
and Staleen for the purposes of this report.

a) Background of the case

On a certain date the student attended a cases of minors , a girl aged 14 and male minor aged
15. According to the Children’s Act (Chapter 5.06) a child is any one below the age of 18.
The child was alleged to be a victim of sexual abuse in terms of section 2 (e) of the
Children’s Act (Chapter 5:06). The student opened the initial case record and the record of
information as she noted all the details for the both minors. The minors were residing at
Epworth at award 7. Staleen was accused of have sexually abused Stacy .The case was
reported at Dombo police station and it was referred to the department by the police.
b) Intervention
The case was treated with the immediate case as the police will need a compiled probation
officers report that will be presented at the court. The student provided a conducive
environment for the minors and assured them of confidentiality and they should be free to say
anything . The student utilised the assessment tools such as the Initial Case Record
Form(ICR), the Record of Information Form (ROI) and the Record of Significant Events
form. The information from the tools were important in developing a care plan. The student
applied the principle of non judgemental attitude so that she could clear understand the
problems of the minors. The student separated the minors firstly she used case work as a
method of social work. The student was using recording skills in understanding the minor’s
background. The student used the systems theory to understand the child’s problem. The
minor narrated everything and she mentioned that the mother was a commercial sex worker
and they were renting one room and she will see all her mothers boyfriend. The minor also
stated that she was taking beer known as (kambwa) with the peers that she plays with and she
was in a relationship with Staleen. The student also used the social learning theory of
Bandura (1965) as the child might have modelled the behaviour from the mother and the
peers. The student also made the minors to write their own stories and both of them agreed
that it was a consent sex as they have agreed to do that and it was not their first time together
and the mother knew that they were in a relationship. The mother reported the case after she
ought with Staleen’s mother over a rich client who picked Stacy’s mother.
The student also used open ended questions in order fully understand the minors problems.
The student also used the six safety net system in order to figure out where the girl child can
be safe to stay. I asked her about the extended family and she said , she have a grandmother
staying at Rusape and she was comfortable to go and stay with maternal grand mother. The
student also managed to have a one on one session with the mother and she was very
understanding to let the child stay with the grandmother. The student contacted the grand
mother and fortunately she agreed to stay with Stacy.

c) Care plan
The student assisted in that she contacted Rusape Social Welfares that the can conduct a
home assessment as one of the main issues before placing the child anywhere. Since her
mothers place was no longer a safe place for Stacy to stay there. It is in the best interest
of the child to stay in the home environment that may not be a problem to his / her
future . If one system is disturbed all of them might be disrupted. The principle of self-
determination (Biestek 1957) was applicable since the child was given an opportunity to
give her suggestion about where she wanted to live and she suggested that she wanted to
go and stay with her grand mother at Rusape. The student used counselling as another
care plan was counselling . The student offered counselling to Stacy and Staleen as
counselling helps the minors to aware of them selves and to assist them make realistic
choices. The student also played a role of being a educator as she managed to educate
them on the effects of having sexual intercourse. The student also managed to give the
mother some of the good parentification skills that are positive that may help to offer
good grooming to the child.

d) Outcome
Before the home assessment was conducted by Rusape Social Welfare, Stacy was placed at
Christ Ministries Home temporarily waiting for the response from the Rusape social welfare.
In a week time the home assessment was conducted and it was successfully and Stay was
taken to her maternal grandmother. After that the student entered the information in the
Management Information System where by the student removed the information from paper
based to the computer
Recommendations
 The department of social development should promote a system of decentralisation to
ensure that there in uniformity in the provision of services such that clients will not be
congested at Harare central offices with the hope that there are better services
 The Ministry of Public Service Labour and Social Welfare should request for funds to
renovate the infrastructure and also equip offices with new furniture.
 The Department of Social Development should expose interns more to social group
work as a method of intervention
 The department of social development should reserve office space designed child
protection cases interviews and the other on for social services cases. As this will go a
long way in adhering to the principle of confidentiality
 There department of Social Development should promote the process a culture of hand
over ant take over whenever student finish their attachment. This will ensure that files
will not be left unattended because the person responsible for the file is no longer at the
department of social development.