Vignette
Doña Lolita is an 86-year-old woman and has been a widow for five years. During her marriage, she had three
children: Juan (64) and María (62) who reside in The United States, both are married and live a stable life,
José (60) lives in the same state as his mother. José is single, although he occasionally has a romantic partner.
José does not work, since he suffered a work accident, is disabled, and has an alcoholism problem that he
does not accept. He expresses “I don’t cause problems for anyone, since I can attend to my needs”. He visits
his mother occasionally.
Doña Lolita resides on a farm she owns, in a rural area. All her life she has lived in that place since she grew
up there. Her home is humble but in good condition. She has the basic resources to meet her primary needs.
She does not have a television, as it was recently damaged. Her hobby is listening to the radio.
The community, where she resides, is small and has few residences. The neighbours know each other and are
attentive to common needs. There is a church that Doña Lolita used to attend. It has been a long time since
she has visited church “because of the ailments.” Although Doña Lolita claims that she is in “good health”, she
has vision and hearing loss and has begun to have some mental absences. She has difficulty walking.
Neighbours made a referral to protective services because she is alone, Per the neighbours, she leaves the
house open and sometimes runs out of food. Additionally, she has fallen on several occasions. They also
report that she has many animals (two cats, two dogs and chickens) that she cannot care for.
Instructions for analyzing the situation:
- Share how you made the initial contact.
- Identify the person referred for services.
- Present the relevant information to assess the situation and the data that needs to be expanded.
- Identify the need (s) or the problem (s) presented.
- Based on the generalist social work method, point out:
- Establishment of professional relationship
- Establishment of a service contract
- Client system identification
- Identification of the strengths of the client system
- Identification of client system limitations
- Identification of the formal or informal support system
- Recommendations to intervene with the situation (micro, mezzo or macro-level), include the resources that
can be used. - Reflect on the relevance of the work and the knowledge, you acquired in the course.
Sample Solution