Mrs. Chan lives with her husband and two children. The son and the daughter are aged 11 and 8 respectively. The couple has been married for 20 years. Mr. Chan runs a grocery store, and is the breadwinner of the whole family. Mrs. Chan is a housewife and responsible for taking care of the two children and housework. Both are in their mid-forties

Summary of the information gathered

Presenting problem and the aim of assessment

Mrs. Chan came to sought help because of the alienation relationship between her husband and son. Furthermore, the domestic violent also be another issue because Mr. Chan abused the client frequently.

The social worker carried out two interviews to gather specific information about the family. The aim was to realize the situation and raise an intervention plan to facilitate positive relationships of all family members.

Problem assessment

Clients’ perception of the problems

During the several contacts with Mrs. Chan, she conveyed her view on the issues which exists in their family. The client expressed that she has two major concerns. One is she felt helpless when facing the domestic violence. The other is that she worried about her son would be negative influenced by her father and be hurt during family violence.

She told the worker that she had been abused by her husband for several months starting from last year and tolerated the unfairness mistreatment for a long time. Sometimes, he even did the violent behavior in front of their children. And her husband ever threatened her with a knife. Mrs. Chan admitted that she felt feared. For her children, she decides to leave their family temporarily.

The client mentioned that the reciprocal conversation between her husband and son is seldom. Even when they stay together there is rare communication. She did not know how to improve their relationship and was anxious to seek solutions to remedy this situation. She said to worker she has ever hear her son murmuring that he has hidden some weapons and may use them to attack his father. Besides, her son’s performance in school is not as well as before. Therefore, she was solicitous about the conflict between two of them will more and more worsening which will bring about more negative effect on her son.

Worker’s perception of the problems

During the interviews with Mrs. Chan, the worker observed that the family functioning is unbalanced because of domestic violence.

Domestic violence

Family system theory focus on the interaction patterns within a family. It stressed that in each family, there exists a rule to confine each family members’ behavior. And the boundaries and communication patterns of each member’s are defined. (McCue, 1995). By adopting the theory, the worker found that Mr. Chan seems to view himself as the dominant role and authority in their family, once some family members do not obey his rules they will achieve punishment. And Mr. Chan use violence as a mean to restore Mrs. Chan’s position within the family.

father-son relationship

The worker found that the alienated relationship between the father and son mainly result from domestic violence. In this case, the boy’s father is the perpetrating party and his mother is a victim. The boy presented resentment and fear to his father, what his behavior, such as indifference and alienation represent his emotion.

3) Family communication

As a result of domestic violence, the spousal relationship and parent-children relationship were both damaged. The mere family communication lead to family system lacks basic understanding and support.

During the interview, the worker found that the distorted communication pattern and alienated relationships between family members are results of domestic violence. To Mrs. Chan’s son, his academic performance and mental health were both negative influenced by domestic violence.

Agreed view of the client and the worker

Mrs. Chan and the worker agreed that the foremost thing is to guarantee the safety of her and her two children. Staying in hostel can provide an opportunity to her calm down and make a decision whether leave or not. Based on the premise, a sound family relationship and a harmonious atmosphere would be constructed in the long run.

Priorities of problems

domestic violence and spousal relationship

relationship between Mr. Chan and his son

family communication and relationship among all family members

Intervention phase

Objectives

Short -term:

To alleviate the domestic violence in Mrs. Chan’s family and improve the relationship between the couple.

To improve the relationship between Mr. Chan and his son

Long-term:

1. To facilitate positive interaction pattern and create harmonious family atmosphere.

Strategies and rationales

shelter program

Shelters have been gradually became a critical strategies for women and children who are preparing to escape violence. The shelter program can help abused women deal with current crisis and prepare to control their lives. ( McCue, 1995). At present, the foremost concern is the safety of Mrs. Chan and her children. Through shelter program, Mrs. Chan can calm down to consider the arrangements afterwards and make a rational decision for their future lives.

Cognitive-behavioral approach

The worker believes that a cognitive-behavioral approach for Mr. Chan would be effective to solve the whole family problem. The cognitive -behavior model stated that behavior is influenced by cognition: behavior will be modified by cognition. (Bonnet & Williams, 2001). By cognitive-behavioral approach, Mr. Chan can indentify the situation which trigger his anger and learn how to control aggressive emotion with adaptive behavior.

Mutual communication workshop

Family members use verbal and nonverbal channels to convey messages. And the interaction and communication patterns play an important role in family relationship. (Hepworth, R. Rooney, G. Rooney, Strom-Gottfried, & Larsen, 2010). For the purpose of improving the family relationship and ameliorating the communication pattern, some relevant activities would be arranged for them. The workshop includes organizing some domestic activities to alleviate the misunderstandings and facilitate reciprocal communication among family members. By this method, the family relationship will be more stable and harmonious.

Parental skills training

Marital conflict always related with ineffectiveness parenting, and children who suffer parental discord and uncaring parenting are prone to represent internalizing behaviors include anxiety, depression and externalizing behavior include aggressive and disobedience. (Papalia, Olds, & Feldman, 2009). Through the training, the parental pattern of the couple can be improved, and their son’s emotional and mental issues can be alleviated and be more preoccupation with schooling.

Regular meeting with children

Since the domestic violence impose a negative influence on the boy, a regular meeting with the child is compulsory. By the regularly meeting, workers can give out specific and pertinent suggestions and projects to help the child rebuild his confidence and expectation to the family, community as well as the society.