Robbie’s Case
The case study represents a 19-year-old Robbie who has suffered brain damage. The brain damage was because of a car accident. While his parents knew that he got drunk occasionally, they did not know that he did it often. They receive the news that their son drank often with shock and disbelief. On further inquiry from the friends, they find out that it is true. Prior to the brain damage, Robbie was led a very active lifestyle and was sociable. He was in college. The damage has greatly affected his life. His memory has been immensely affected and he finds it hard to remember or even concentrate. The friends were supportive at first but not anymore. The mother spends most of her time takin care of him and he complains of the constant interference. The dad does not spend as much time as he used to. Robbie has not received high quality treatment but has no adhered to the treatment given to him.
There are several things that have gone wrong in the case study. These things have the effect of negatively interfering with the effective management of Robbie’s situation. One of these things is the decreased support of friends. Decrease in support of friends may aggravate psychological and emotional conditions (Netting, Kettner, McMurtry and Thomas, 2016). It is worth noting that Robbie was a very sociable person before the accident. Although the friends supported him at first, they do not do it anymore. This makes him feel lonely and likely to worsen his condition. The second thing is that the dad has reduced the time that he used to spend with him. Robbie greatly requires the social support of his parents. He no longer spends time fishing, hunting and playing golf with his son as he used to. This is likely to cause emotional stress to Robbie. As Parker (2017) argues, parental support could help increase the effectiveness of psychological conditions. The other thing that is going wrong is that Robbie is not adhering to his medication. To improve, it is necessary that he adhere to his medication. Failure to adhere is to medication is associated with aggravating of the problem (Greene, 2017). The last issue is that Robbie has gone back to drinking. This will likely have negative health consequences such as poor judgements which will further aggravate the situation.
Although there are some negative aspects of the situation, there are also positive ones. One of these is that the mother has dedicated her time to caring Robbie. Robbie requires great care to improve and her mother is offering just that. The other positive aspect is that the mother has sought a counsellor to help in managing the case. In addition, the parents have also sought for professional intervention for their son. Extensive evidence suggests that parental support is vital in such cases(Hepworth, Rooney, Roone and Strom, 2016). There is also the positive aspect that Robbie knows and accepts that his plans must change. There are a lot of factors that should play together to improve the situation. These are just some of them.
References
Greene, R. R. (2017). Human Behaviour Theory and Professional Social Work Practice. In Human Behaviour Theory and Social Work Practice (pp. 31-62). Routledge.
Hepworth, D. H., Rooney, R. H., Rooney, G. D., & Strom-Gottfried, K. (2016). Empowerment series: Direct social work practice: Theory and skills. Nelson Education.
Netting, F. E., Kettner, P. M., McMurtry, S. L., & Thomas, M. L. (2016). Social work macro practice. Pearson.
Parker, J. (2017). Social work practice: Assessment, planning, intervention and review. Learning Matters.
