Case Study On Tiana Santos

The service user I chose to assess is a 17-year-old Hispanic female whose modified name is Tiana Santos. I provided therapeutic casework services to Tiana for a year in my previous role as a Therapeutic Caseworker at the Children’s Village, a foster care agency. Tiana was placed in foster care after been removed from her mother’s care due to emotional and physical abuse. Tiana’s father abandoned her mother and her youngest sibling when she was 5 years old. Tiana’s memories about her father were very limited due to her young age. Tiana described her father as a child molester who “would touch my little sister Rosie and kissed her on the mouth.” Tiana was very resentful at her father for “snatching” her sister’s innocence. She felt guilty for

Tiana later expressed that she did not want to see her mother because she was scared. She also reported that her mother had a history of being abusive to her and had hit on her in more than one occasion. Initially, Tiana and her sister Rosie were placed together in one foster home; however, this changed after Rosie physically assaulted the biological daughter of their current foster mother, which resulted in the removal of both siblings. After this incident, Tiana and Rosie were placed in separate homes. Tiana’s second placement was also disrupted due to Tiana constantly leaving the home without permission or AWOLING. After being AWOL for over two weeks, Tiana returned to the agency and asked to be placed in a new home. Tiana was placed at Ms. Phillip’s home where she was doing very well. Over a year of Tiana residing in Ms. Phillip’s home, the agency attempted to file a termination of parental rights application (TPR) as Ms. Phillip showed interest in adopting Tiana. However, within a month, Tiana had changed her mind and did not want to be adopted, instead, Tiana wanted to wait for her 21st birthday and be discharged to independent living or IL. Tiana’s intention was to obtain custody of her sister Rosie when she became “independent.” For the time being, Tiana had to continue to work with the agency towards her IL

The resentment towards her parents and the guilt that Tiana internalized resulting from her “inability” to help her sister, were the primary factors I considered during my work with Tiana. My goals were to restore and strengthen Tiana’s ego or sense of self. To accomplished these goals, I employed ego-supportive intervention. As described by Goldstein (1995), “Ego-supportive intervention aims at restoring, maintaining, or enhancing the individual's adaptive functioning as well as strengthening or building ego where there are deficits or impairments.” (p. 166). Ego-supportive intervention not only helped me to focus on Tiana’s psychology in relation to her cognitive function and behaviors, but it also allowed me to include environmental factors that were affecting Tiana’s functioning. The focus of the intervention with Tiana was to work on her feeling of guilt as a result of her past experience, as well on her current behavior of social isolation. A major a major component of the ego-supportive intervention, I focused on Tiana’s current stressors such as her separation from her sister Rosie. As an alternative to decrease Tiana’s stress level in this regard, I went to court and requested longer sibling visits. My request was granted and Tiana and Rosie were able spend two additional hours together during the week. Few months