Chapter 10
Kara’s Stress
As you read…
Kara is an undergraduate in the human services department of a local university. This is her second semester in the human services program, and shes beginning her first internship, which is at a group home. Kara is an excellent student, and her grade point average has been 4.0. She has a keen understanding of various theories and counseling techniques, has knowledge about case management, and has excelled in her course dealing with cultural issues. Currently, in addition to her internship class, shes taking courses on crisis intervention, child development, self-awareness, and abnormal psychology. Karas career goal is to be either a social worker or a family counselor. Kara is 20 years old.
The group home where she is interning is an approved agency site for the human services department. It is a nonprofit agency that contracts with the county department of social services for funding. The agency also holds yearly fundraisers to increase its budget. Karas supervisor, Emma, is a 38-year-old pediatric counselor who has a bachelors degree in child development. Karas stated responsibilities include monitoring the children while they do homework, helping children resolve conflicts with one another, supervising children on the playground, and escorting children on field trips. Kara, Emma, and Karas fieldwork instructor all agreed on these responsibilities.
The children who live at the group home have all been placed there by the courts because they have been physically, sexually, or emotionally abused or severely neglected by their parents. Many of their parents are in jail, in mental hospitals, or are substance abusers. The parents have failed to follow through with case plans. Many of the children suffer from behavioral and emotional problems. They often act out their anger and frustration at their situation by lying, stealing, hitting, yelling, and swearing. The group home operates under a behavior-modification model. Children receive rewards when they follow the rules and suffer consequences when they break them. Each child is assigned to a personal therapist, either a licensed clinical social worker or a licensed marriage and family therapist. Some children with extremely severe problems receive treatment from psychologists, and some are on medication prescribed by a psychiatrist. Older children often participate in group counseling. They all go to school at the group home and are only allowed to leave the home when accompanied by a staff member.
Karas Stress
Kara has always wanted to work with abused children. She was abused physically as a child and wants to help abused children feel better about themselves. When she was first accepted to intern at the group home, she felt excited and couldnt wait to start. After interning there for only three weeks, she finds herself dreading the days she works at the agency. She has begun to oversleep on those days she is supposed to go to the agency, and on weekends, shes been going to a lot of parties and getting drunk. She feels guilty about disliking the agency because she tells herself that she should want to help those poor kids. Kara believes that if she doesnt help them, they will grow up to be losers and she would be partially to blame.
When Kara is at the agency, she handles the children very competently. She usually knows the right things to say and is able to help the children manage their conflicts and aggressive feelings very effectively. In fact, she is so competent that her supervisor has left her alone at the agency while the paid staff all go to lunch. At other times, Kara is left alone because several staff members called in sick. Kara doesnt feel comfortable being there by herself and has told Emma that she feels a little nervous. Emma told Kara not to worry because Kara is more competent than half of the paid staff.
Another of Karas concerns is that she has been asked to drive some children to dental and medical appointments. She never agreed to do this when she signed her contract. Kara knows she isnt supposed to drive them in her own car because the university doesnt allow it. One day a child became violent when Kara was at the home alone. Kara phoned Emma, but Emma didnt answer her cell phone. Kara called the on-call licensed supervisor, who told her to call the police and shed be right in.
Kara is afraid to tell her class instructor about what is going on because she thinks that the instructor will be angry or that she will get in trouble for performing duties not on her contract. Kara cant handle another day at the agency. Thank goodness she gets to go to her internship class tomorrow.
Kara finally opens up to her instructor and to the rest of her classmates. She learns that other students have had similar experiences at their internship sites. The students and instructor offer some ideas to Kara about how to manage her stress.
Kara takes their advice, and over the next few weeks she slowly starts to feel better about going to the group home.
Propose practical coping strategies for Kara to manage her stress and ethical concerns effectively. Consider approaches such as setting boundaries with supervisors, seeking guidance from peers and instructors, practicing self-care techniques, and accessing counseling or support services.
Requirements:
The process paper should be approximately 1 page in length, formatted with 1-inch margins and using a standard font (e.g., Times New Roman, 12-point font).
Use clear and concise language, providing specific examples from the case study to support your analysis.
Ensure coherence and logical flow between paragraphs, organizing your paper into distinct sections for clarity.
Adhere to academic writing conventions, including proper citation of sources if referencing external materials.
Proofread your paper to eliminate errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling