Three Levels of Intervention Scenario #4 Exercise

Exercise #4:
Chris is a single father who is truing to work and raise three small children. His wife was killed 2 years ago in a traffic accident. After the inital shock and outpouring if support from friends and neighbors. Chris found himself alone with all the responisiblities and very unsure of himself. He would like to meet other men who have the same problems but cannot find any groups, even though he has been told about servaral men who are in the same situation. He tells you he is not sure what the best method is for disciplining his children, whom he describes as "good kids," Sometimes he feels he is too lenient with them, and at other times he is afraid he is unnecessarily strict with them. A local women;s health center has groups for bereaved single parents, but Chris believes thse would not be open to him. "It would e all women, wouldn't it?" he asks. In addition, he is having a hard time at work balancing the responsibilities there with parenting responsibilities at home. "Of course, I want to do good job and get the promotions so I can support these kids through college, but I need to be home in the evening, or someone does, and I don't think that is always well received at work."

Intervention on the micro level: Chris is a single father with three small children. He's wants to know if there are groups for men with the same problems he has. As his case manager, I would tell him to continue asking around to see if there are groups for men with the same situations as his and to attend any group meeting that he thinks will be good for him. Also, letting Chris know that case manager will work with him step by step for the support.

Interventions on the mezzo level: Chris has support from friends and neighbors, I would encourage him to continue receiving those supports. His children is also a motivation for him, I would tell him to keep a positive outlook at things even if he's in a hard situation right now. I would looked into services that can help Chris with babysitting so that he can go to work and not worry. Encourage him to go or call for more information from the Health center to see if he can attend the meetings . Also, tell Chris he can start his own single men's groups and he can advocate on how they can help other who are facing with the same problems.

Interventions on the macro level: If the micro and mezzo interventions doesn't work, I would suggest Chris go to see a counselor. It can be that he's too stress to focus on another or needed someone to listen to his problems. Seeing a counselor can also help Chris in finding treatments to help him if he becomes stress or starts to burnout. Will also let Chris know that I will continue to work with him to figure out what would help him best.