Basic Counseling

A married woman had a conflict with her best friend because of money. She needed so much in putting up her business and for its permits. As she waited until the business grows up, she needed more for the benefit of her family. Her husband was sick and had no capacity of providing for the whole family. She had no choice, but to borrow money and take the risk of being a first time business woman.The friend lent her so much with incurring interests of almost 25 percent of the total debts. The woman was not able to pay on time because of the problems that came her way the past few months.Due to that, a feud arose. The situation of her husband became worse that required her to spend much and work a little harder. Because of working and too much thinking, she developed insomnia that led to her body losing weight. One of her children had to stop studying because she could not longer subsidize his needs. There were many speculations spreading in their place. There were a lot of stories made out of the problem that they were having. Some even exaggerated the issue that put the married woman and her family in a very humiliating situation. All eyes were on them that made them feel really bad.The family members, especially the mother did not wan to go out anymore to socialize and came to the point of just lying down in the bed and doing nothing. She feared even the mere fact of opening their gate when someone visits and was scared of facing their relatives due to unwanted questioning. She stopped functioning well even in the house that led to some misunderstandings between her and her husband and the children themselves. She even heard from her sister that her son did not want to admit to his classmates how they are related, because he never wanted to be asked and be treated unequally by others.Instead of talking to the friend that she owed from, she opted to cut the communication between them by not answering her calls and hiding every time she comes to their house. That made the feud worse. Because the friend thought she really never wanted to pay, she tried asking legal advices to sue the married woman. The woman never cared at all. It seemed like her financial problem let her identity change. She was never the same woman again. One day, as she was sleeping in the couch, she heard people talking outside. Mush to her realization, they were the police in their place trying to look for her.She went out and was brought by the police in heir office for some interrogation. Although very much ashamed of the neighbors watching them, she never tried hiding her face, because as much as she wanted to, the people around her would still know that it was her. So she believed there was no chance of escaping from embarrassment. Her friend, together with the police, asked her so many things about their issue and asked her to sign in a contract saying she would pay in months time together with the incurred interests. She was very much ashamed of what happened. She always cried.Her family sympathized so much with her. They were findings way to help her in paying and cheered her up for her to forget her problem even in a little while. Soon they discovered it was futile doing that. What they did was invite relatives to visit her who were all telling her that everything would turn out right. To their disappointment, it did not help too much. Even being obedient to her did not do too good in the problem. Although everyone noticed that she was needing help, nobody succeeded in making their part. She cried more and slept less. Her physical appearance talked much about what she was suffering then.She never talked about the debt and chose to walk away from the situation as much as possible. Because it seemed like it was helping, the family never mentioned about it anymore. But time went by, the due date was coming. And there, the problem started again. The same scenarios were seen regarding her behavior. I believe that the situation is not just a shal low one. It talks about money; therefore it needs to be dealing with some more legal and psychological advices. The family members, as noted, never bothered asking how the problem started and were the money was used.Nobody even asked the history of the feud and the reason why the woman was so much affected with the issue. It is just stated that they found ways to cheer her up and to help her, without even knowing the proper way of doing it and the best things that woman needed. She was not asked how much she was needing. They can also ask the help of a professional for her easy recovery on the matter. They might have used the counseling techniques for the subject to easily cope up with the situation. According to a website regarding counseling skills, it is very important to listen and communicate well to make up the major part of good counseling.What these kinds of people actually needs is the assurance that they are accurately heard by their peers and listeners. It is always best to see them calm down after they tell you their insights on the matter. They must also do probing because that is the only way to find out what else they are feeling, other than what is being asked of them. They must have used open-ended questions for them to be able to elaborate on their answers and freely state what they are feeling. Through that, the person’s burden will be lessened and would feel better. It is always good to have your feeling voiced out and revealed in a free manner.Given the freedom of speech, one gets the feeling of relief and loses the tension that she or he is experiencing. Communication is a very useful tool in helping a person feel better after a very depressing experience. In fact, many people who experienced unaccepted death of relatives and other related issues seek the help of professionals for counseling. The counsel must not be very formal in dealing with this. He or she must chose the most comfortable position while talking to the client and must show interest for the client to feel open about the situation and say more of what he or she is undergoing.What they only wanted is for them to be heard. They may use empathetic responses to the clients as they share their stories. Through this, the client would see that the counsel was able to attend well to his or her story and fully understood what she or he is feeling at the moment. They can also use the method of summarizing and paraphrasing the problem of a client. The counsel must ask the client what she or he is feeling and narrate it according to his or her desire. After hearing the client’s side, the counsel will then repeat what the she or he said to clarify issues and make sure he or she heard the client right.The counsel must use his or her own words in repeating the story for them to be ale to see the experience in a different view or perspective. By seeing it that way, the person will recognize new feelings that was not experienced believe and will therefo re be enlightened with everything. The role of the counsel is so vital because it is them who take part in the counseling. Without their proper knowledge on the right way of counseling, the purpose of it will be futile. The aim of helping the person in any manner will be useless because the rules were not executed properly.They must have a wide knowledge on counseling aside from the basics to have a successful one. Knowing the counseling techniques will be a stepping stone to be a very effective counsel that everyone looks for nowadays. In general, listening to the client, probing for further information, asking open ended questions for freedom in answering, giving emphatic responses for affection, summarizing and paraphrasing stories can be useful techniques in counseling. Many people must apply this in real life events. The person being interviewed is a woman with sic children. Four of which are boys and the rest are girls.She was a member of a broken family and had a very traumat izing experience when she was younger. Her education was sponsored by her Aunt who believed so much in her potentials and talents. She had a lot of friends in and out of school. She never bothered approaching people for friendship, instead the other people go to her to introduce themselves. She was a woman with full confidence and courage. She used to join beauty and academic contests where she gained a lot of fame and awards. She was known by everyone, because she has the beauty, the brains and the attitude.Everyone was her friend and all of them were kind to her. She came from a remote area and married a man whom she met in tertiary school. They were a happy couple then. They had all the things that they need, without forcing anyone in working. They both have good jobs that are able to provide for the needs of their family. They were indeed a happy family surrounded with love and care. It just by fate that the husband suffered from arthritis that later turned into the worse versio n of it. Every joint was already infected which made him paralyzed and bed ridden. There were no ways for him to work anymore.That was the start of all the financial problems. The husband needed therapies as the children needed support for their education. The woman did not give up, instead she worked harder and found ways to earn more. The cooperation that they have is the family is one of the strengths that they are so proud of. Their children were cooperative and everyone was industrious. They always make sure that they make their part in the house chores and responsibly do the tasks assigned to them. The woman was brave and was courageous in all the problems and challenges that come her way.She was kind to everyone that made it possible for other people to also treat her well. She is educated and was able to finish her degree with several achievements. She was always doing her best to be on top. She was technically a career woman and a successful one. Her weaknesses include her financial constraints. A lot of things get affected with her problems with money. She had been asking people to lend her some and promised to give it back in a particular day. She lost her word of honor that is why many people do not trust her at all.She had difficulty in building that trust since she did not do what she promised to the people around her. Also, because of working too much and spending a lot of time outside their home, she lost track of her children. Her family, on the other hand, did not know her at all that much. They had difficulty dealing with her because they did not know the approach to use for them to be able to start the conversation the right way. She already lost her identity outside the home and has been opting to choose going out with other people than her family.The problem that she is currently dealing with right now is the treatment and prejudice of other people towards her. A lot of the people around have not been the same anymore. Every relationship that she has with others is very civil. The intimacy of her relationships with others was lost. A lot of things changed. She’s thinking that it has something to do with her recent problem with money. She never wanted to discuss and explain to them the issue, so it ended up losing intimate relationships. Her companions are never the same people again. She also lost her confidence in everything that she does.She never asked about her old friends and just remained as she is now after the incident. Although many people stare at her when she passes by or even if strangers never forget to glance at her when she’s out, she never dared explain. She believed that everything happened for the love that she has for her family. Nowadays, a lot of people are seeking help because of some problems dealing with interpersonal issues, including relationships with other people. It is not always that they get the best solution to their problems or even get the half of the satisfaction that they need when they ask for counseling.The main purpose why they seek help is for them to minimize the emotional burden that they are having every time they think of their problems. Also, they are aiming to lessen its effects on the people near them and their daily activities. It is sometimes very serious that it even causes their dysfunction in the society. Culture is a very big factor that mold every individual and their behavior in the society. That thing makes them. It continuously affect their being as they grow older. They can adopt it even if they move out of the place where it came from.It is already difficult removing what you got in the set of culture that your society got. Every person has differences in cultural background and orientation. Each is brought up differently, thus require different approaches in counseling. According to Broom et. al in the book called Sociology: A Core Text with Adapted Readings, cultures vary in their ways of guiding human behavior. Underst anding the clients cultural background would be a very big help in giving off solutions and in the counseling itself. Knowing one’s orientation and composition will be a very big factor in deciding how to approach a client.The counsel will find it easier dealing with him or her, since she somewhat got the technique in counseling the client well. There will be a very little difficulty. There are clients who are sensitive with words and who may get offended once talked to in a manner that another client needed. Some may never want talking about the family. This may be because the client came from a broken one or had a traumatizing experience inside his or her family. Some may not want dwelling too much on personal issues like the sexual ones. Knowing this will have a great impact on the role of the counsel in active listening.Cultural competence is very much relevant in dealing with this kind of issues since they are dealing with people in cross-cultural contexts. According to a website, â€Å"Cultural competence is a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes and policies and strategies that join in a system, agency, or among professionals and enable them to work effectively to cross-cultural situations both in prevention and treatment contexts† (Cross, Dazron, Dennis and Isaacs, 1989). Cultural competence therefore is the ability to deal with the problems of people and relationships coming from different places with different cultural background.It is important to have that ability because today counseling is in demand. It will be very useful applying that ability in giving the right solutions. It is true that each person who asks for counseling has his or her own story that we must understand both in his or her context and ours. Cultural competence also helped in the relationship between the counsel and the client. It is a pre-requisite to an open relationship, which can lead to honesty and sincerity, which can make the counseling easier and more per sonal. Let us take for example the case that I have mentioned above.The woman lives in a remote are. There are probably very few people there, which means that only a number of persons know her and talk about if ever they do. Her situation now is very much different since she is living in the city where a lot of people see her everyday. Her sensitivity of gossips probably rooted out of that fact. She may not be used to people doing that to her. She is also famous in school. She had a lot of friends. Everyone knew and adored her. But her setting changed into somewhat chaotic when she gained friend whom put her into shame later on.Her trauma might have come from the reality that she is not used of being betrayed and treated in a not so nice manner. She came from a broken family, which might have taught her the values of having a beautiful family. After the family members that she has now gets affected with what she was going through, she already gave up because of the fear of having t he same kind of family again. She had a reputation in the place where she came from. Remember, she had the beauty, the brains and the attitude, so she can’t accept the fact that she became laugh stuff in the place where she is living now.The culture in their place is very much different with the culture that she is witnessing now. Moreover, her experiences in academic and beauty contests were the reasons why she was talked about in that remote area where she came from and not about debts. The counsel must find the most efficient way to hip her by studying her cultural background and be aware of the present differences. The role of the counsel is not basically to listen, but to understand. How more can he understand if he does not even know where the client came from and the cultures that brought him up?If the counsel is able to help her out of this, she may be able to function well again. She can go back to work and provide the needs of her family. She will again understand w hy she works alone and why her friend did that to her. She may go back to her normal life and be confident again with actions. She may even discover that she also sinned by not facing her friend to talk about the matter. And who knows, she may have her lost relationships back. The efficiency of a counsel can be seen on the client. I have presented in this paper that counseling plays an important role in the society.They can help patients change for the better and realize what is wrong with them by just listening and understanding their cases. In the past, counseling is just done to mentally ill patients. But now, even the mere fact that you are sad can already require professional counseling. We can’t deny that one of its purposes is to lessen attempts of suicide and other things that a patient can do due to too much depression. The counsel must be very responsible about this because ending up an interpersonal problem somewhat depends on them. They must find a way to learn wh at must be learned in order for them to be called as such.Their primary roles must given attention to by enhancing their talents in helping people with problems. References Bonjean, C. M. , D. Broom, and L. Broom. 1990. Sociology: A Core Text With Adapted Readings. California: Wadsworth Publishing Company. Cultural Competence and Professional Psychology Training. (2008). Retrieved December 7, 2008, from Goliath Website: http://goliath. ecnext. com/coms2/gi_0199-159598/Cultural-competence-and-professional-psychology. html. Counseling Skills: Basic Counseling Skills for Any Situation. (n. d). Retrieved December 7, 2008, from http://www. askmikethecounselor2. com/counselingskills. html.

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Social Policy Putting People First Essay For this assignment l have been asked to identify and examine a social policy and to make reference to a political ideology of welfare, discuss the contributions of social work, service user and carer’s experiences to the policy document. To achieve this l will discuss ‘Pettigrew’s model of strategic change’ which will help to summarise the key elements considered when looking at any specific policy. (Public Administration Management, 1999, pp. 494-507) Firstly to discuss the context, the governmental approach with New Labours/Third Way philosophy behind the policy â€Å"Putting People First†, the principles and why it was implemented, how this fits with what we know about New Labours commitment to finding solutions to societal issues from a socialist type theorist view. Also to discuss the Process, how it was put together and implemented. But most crucially l will discuss the Content, the implications to service user’s and carer’s experiences to the policy and its impact, in conjunction with the social work contribution to the policy and its own implications to welfare provision. Old age, seen as a burden viewed by governments as a cost to society, a value of each person has been imposed by way of what a local authority is willing to pay, â€Å"Older people are seen as past their best, no longer productive, no longer contributing to the economy and therefore a burden, a drain on the states resources† (Thompson, 2006, p.100). Demography along with increased expectations, put demands on an already faltering, aged service, people living longer with complex needs due to new technology, plus services out of touch with the needs and expectations of today. A well educated generation with the aptitude to convey their requirements, rather than the acceptance of being grateful for whatever they can get. In an age of 60 being the new 40, people wanting, expecting and hoping for a new type of consideration in regard to any help they may need. Using these arguments government issued statements that social care as it stands could not possibly continue and if not redressed, would not survive; something had to change. Driven by figures forecast that social care costs in the future were to rise and by â€Å"2022, 20% of the English population will be over 65 and by 2027, the number of over 85yr olds will have increased by 60%†(Department of Health, 2008,p.1). â€Å"Intolerance of inequality was the prevailing mood and New Labour policies reflected this†(Blakemore Griggs,2007, p.274), rethinking the aged Old Labour ideology of state provision and a well-known system of need, assessment, criteria and services provisioned on the outcome of eligibility, and provisioned by a limited statutory service were not reflecting good practice in terms of equality. In recognition of the rising cost of old age, New Labour in 2007 introduced the Putting People First policy as a â€Å"shared vision and commitment to the transformation of adult social care† and stated that it was to â€Å"set the new direction for adult social care for the next ten years or more† (DH) (2008), and has even been suggested by Alcock 2008 as being the most sweeping transformation of adult social care since the 1990’s community care act. Putting People First superseded the government white paper â€Å"our health, our care, our say – a new direction for community services (Department of Health, 2006), which gave an insight of what was to come and shared with it some of the radical thinking behind the governments new ‘third way’ philosophy. Putting People First was designed to implement a new way of delivering services through commissioning, personal budgets, recognising and utilising alternative methods of care provision such as family care, community support groups, voluntary sector and partnership working. These commissioned services can be partly funded via alternative funding streams such as lottery, voluntary and charities so reducing the states contribution. â€Å"Ultimately every locality should seek to have a single community based support system focussed on the health and wellbeing of the local population. Binding together local Government, primary care, community based health provision, public health, social care and the wider issues of housing, employment, benefits advice and education/training† (Department of Health, 2008, p.2), working collectively in four areas; â€Å"Universal Services, Early Intervention Prevention, Social Capital, Choice Control†(Department of Health, 2008 p.17). To illustrate where this policy fits with New Labour/Third Way, we can return to â€Å"early academic development of social policy and where Britain was closely allied to the political development of Fabianism† (Alcock, 2008, p.2). Fabians were â€Å"politicians and academics† who concerned themselves with â€Å"influencing governments† through â€Å"academic research and analysis† into how this should influence welfare reforms whilst pertaining the government’s responsibility (Alcock, 2008, p.2). Labour following WWII introduced much Fabian inspired reform’s using academic knowledge and research on social problems, closely followed by the Beveridge report and substantial change within state provision. Going against right wing critics who argued against state provision, and the New Right/Neo Liberalism who said that â€Å"state intervention merely drove up the cost of public expenditure†, furthermore developed a country who had â€Å"no incentive to protect themselves† consequently become totally reliant on government meeting all need (Alcock, 2008,p.9). Tony Blair became labour party leader in 1994, and continued along a political path instigated by the previous party leader John Smith who had â€Å"commissioned a review on social justice to look at past approaches to social policy†, where three methods became apparent: â€Å"The deregulators who favoured private markets over public provision†; â€Å"The levellers – supporters of old style social democratic justice† but the favoured style of social policy were the; â€Å"Investors who linked social justice to economic growth within a market economy† (Alcock, 2008, p.190). The â€Å"investor approach became central to the third way rhetoric† (Alcock, 2008, p.190) and won an election in 1997 for a New Labour who had discarded many of the state welfare commitments of â€Å"Old Labour approach of tax and spend in dealing with public services†(Blakemore Griggs, 2007,p.266). This third way was to recognise the more â€Å"complex make-up of modern societies†, from this â€Å"What Counts is What Works† was drawn from work by Anthony Giddens â€Å"a close advisor to Blair† (Alcock, 2008, p.10). â€Å"Giddens views about social policy involved a reformulation of the goal of equality in terms of exclusion and inclusion† two terms used widely by New Labour, both driving home some suggestion of concern with â€Å"citizenship, community† and â€Å"poverty†. (Alcock, Daly Griggs, 2008, p.205) Alcock (2008) suggests the Third Way or middle way rhetoric was a common sense way of keeping all political theorist’s happy. But continues on to say that some key themes are apparent such as shifting welfare towards an activist style of provision, sharing responsibility, improved choice using alternatively funded providers, â€Å"extending the conservatives strategy of building a market in welfare provision† (Blakemore Griggs, p.268), but â€Å"rather than being a distinctive path between different trajectories, is instead a pick-and-mix assortment of different ideas†(ed Ellison Pierson 2003, p.73). Both Blair and Giddens disputed this middle ground ideology of pleasing all, but rather a response to a â€Å"changed world† with â€Å"traditional values† (Hudson Lowe, 2004, p.44) New Labour continued with the ideology of â€Å"service user participation, community based care, and a mixed economy of provision delivered via social care makers† as the way forward, with an emphasis on â€Å"accountability and performance whilst encouraging â€Å"participation† and â€Å"choice† for purchasers of services (Blakemore Griggs,2007, p.276/77), and â€Å"invested considerable faith in the value of more informed approach to policy making, viewing it as central to improving the quality of public services†(Hudson Lowe, 2004, p.222). This rethink of â€Å"community care towards social care† (Blakemore Griggs, 2007,p.232) from central government produced a set of guidance to every local authority to assess and procure their own individual responses on how to implement the titanic changes required in changing the face of service delivery long-term to â€Å"fit services around not people round services† (Alcock, Daly Griggs, 2008 p.279). There were huge expectations on individual councils to develop ways of implementing service user and carer involvement more than ever before; their vision being, that service users and carers were to be empowered to contribute at the earliest stages of the way services were best delivered within local authorities. On the back of Putting People First came a grant allocation and background papers with guidance to be considered when implementing the policy were all produced to steer the implementation of service delivery, one being, â€Å"Personalisation†(Department of Health, 2008), which took the idea of Putting People First further, and brought together Primary Care Trusts and social care into jointly funding a ‘personal budgets’ or ‘individual budgets’ with a â€Å"full range of relevant local statutory, voluntary and private sector organisations to be fully engaged†(Department of Health, 2007). Putting People First and Personalisation policies are intended to take people with needs through a hugely diverse process of self assessment, where the social worker is led by the citizen, recognised as a lead player in establishing their own person centred plan of care, where â€Å"the individual is best placed to know what they need and how needs are best met† (Carr, 2008, p.3). Having been fortunate to experience implementation of direct payments for many years first hand, l can only praise the opportunities it has created within a learning disabilities team. Initial concerns regarding any security experienced within old fashioned service style was soon forgotten as the person emerged with newly found control over their lives, fortunately with few drawbacks; administration being one, reduced by regular reviews along with some form of Brokerage system. Also providing continuity and matching people in terms of personalities, with the assurance of knowing who will come into their home and at time to suit the person, not the care provider. As for Personalisation l can only imagine how positive this next stage can be devoid of issues with institutionalised social workers, deskilled and pressurised to be inventive with huge funding panel limitations. Individual budgets present a Resource Allocation Process, from a combination of funding streams, allocated via self assessment and support plan with assistance from a professional. This optimistically changes the role of social work from being a gatekeeper and provider of services to a broker, navigator, designer and risk assessor who advocates a person’s wishes from a resource allocation process (Carr, 2008, p.17), enabled to find â€Å"new collaborative ways of workingtailored specifically to meet individual needs† compared to the sticky plaster approach (Carr, 2008, p.3). Putting People First is seen by some as an â€Å"opportunity to return to the traditional social work, of enabling people to achieve potential† (Carr, 2008, p.16). Social work has to be diverse in its approach as this impacts, which ever political party is in power, which ever political ideology is favoured at any one time the social worker â€Å"moves backwards and forwards like some never ending contest between two evenly matched tug-of-war teams†, however this does not suggest that the social worker remains â€Å"power-neutral†, for a social workers powers are exercised on behalf of the state they â€Å"reflect a view which are fundamentally political in their determination† (Drakeford, 2010, p.304). We may consider whether all wish to be empowered in this way, changing the way services have been provisioned could we be taking away the proverbial security blanket. It is recognised that â€Å"families provide a far greater proportion of care and emotional and financial support† (Hill Irving, 2009, p.262) and it is for the â€Å"social worker to recognise and support carers in their role, and help with enabling maintenance of a life beyond caring†(Carr, 2008, p.3), PPF recognises this by delivering the tools to ensure a carer is â€Å"encouraged to play an active part† by being in control of what works best for them not prescribed by local authorities (Barton, 2010, p.410). Beveridge â€Å"didn’t anticipate the tumultuous decline in heavy industry† and the subsequent â€Å"rise in paid women’s work† (Hill Irving, 2009, p.265), sadly informal care continues to be â€Å"seen at the top of this mixed economy of welfare† (Hill Irving, 2009, p.190). It is vital in recognising the â€Å"power differential between carers and professionals, meaning the carer’s perspective can easily be overlooked†, â€Å"in addition to their motivation being driven by love, duty and a sense of enduring commitment but are sometimes compelled to take on this role against their wishes (Barton, 2010, p.410/13). All this puts further strain on carers, trying to juggle a life other than caring; Putting People First seems to have acknowledged this by including the ‘individual budgets’ to carers. By looking after the carer, valuing their expertise, and offering alternative solutions, thus prevents hospital admissions and residential care, both of which come at a much higher cost to the economy. We have taken a look at the impact of a political ideology, how this is developed into policies which impact on society, but also how the changes in societal discourses forces governments into making sweeping changes across provision. For me ‘sharing responsibility’ basically sums up the Putting People First policy, for those who receive help to be considered active, valued and empowered citizens, accredited with the ability to take responsibility of amalgamating services to meet individual needs. This new commissioning type of services by local authorities will inevitably force its way into social work, consequently social workers being privatised and commissioned by local authorities, again taking responsibility away from the state. However we have to be sceptical regards the costs – both in financial terms and the personal impact of this direction, as funding is reduced, how much of this shared responsibility will actually fall on the unpaid carers. And to reflect Hudson Lowe’s (2004) argument around â€Å"rational choice theory† and whether a society is able to develop a â€Å"collective action† due to a self-absorbed nation and what â€Å"sense of duty† is evident in â€Å"society to exist at all† (Hudson Lowe, 2004, p190), this may become apparent as we move towards a society who can make best use of social capital. References Alcock, C, Daly, G Griggs, E (2008): â€Å"Introducing social policy†, 2nd ed. Essex: Pearson Education ltd Alcock, P, (2008): â€Å"Social Policy in Britain† 3rd ed. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan Barton, R. (2010): â€Å"The carers perspective† in Davies, M. (ed.) The Blackwell Blakemore, K Griggs, E, (2007): â€Å"Social policy an introduction†, 3rd ed. Berkshire: open university press Drakeford, M. (2010): â€Å"Social work and politics† in Davies, M. (ed.) The Blackwell Carr, S. (2008) personalisation : a rough guide (ed) social care institute for excellence, London Companion to Social Work. 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