It falls upon Social Workers to make sure all hear the voices of their clients who interact

Fantastic news! We've Found the answer you've been seeking!

Question:

It falls upon Social Workers to make sure all hear the voices of their clients who interact with them. Clinicians should understand the beneficial therapeutic effects of psychotropic medication but also their adverse effects. Social Workers have a range of roles in practice settings including the prescriber's assistant, the consultant, the counselor, the advocate, the monitor, the educator, and the researcher. Of course, these roles are contingent upon the particular client's circumstances as well as the intervention philosophy held by the social worker (Bentley & Walsh, 2014)

ASSIGNMENT: Social Work Roles with Psychiatric Medication Paper Demonstration

PURPOSE: This assignment is designed to provide the opportunity to demonstrate Social Work Roles and activities/tasks carried out with clients who use psychotropic medications.

DESCRIPTION: Students will demonstrate a series of activities/tasks showing their knowledge of psychotropic medication and their role as a Social Worker. The student may choose one of the client cases in the course and use that client's demographics to build their assignment upon. However, the client for this assignment must also include a trauma history and/or diagnosis. Students will submit a written paper (APA) and identify seven activities/tasks within the paper. Each activity/task must be clearly explained in the paper.

REQUIREMENTS: Students are required to upload the assignment to Moodle. Address each question and demonstrate the different activities/tasks to illustrate your understanding and competence of medication-related social work roles. You will demonstrate competence and the appropriate stance of each activity/task related to psychiatric medication. Additionally, be mindful to integrate a greater breadth with psychiatric medications by demonstrating your sense of trauma-informed care, competence, knowledge about medications, range of specific interventions/interviewing skills and the extent of your interactions with prescribers. In preparation for the activities/tasks, the student should possess the ability to reflect on and be able to articulate responses to the following questions for the pharmacological treatment and education for the client:

1. Demonstrate the activity/task: Engage and explain from a trauma-informed care approach the client's feelings about taking medication as a protective factor. (Competency 6.4, 7.3) Assume your client has met with their prescriber and started a medication regimen 5-6 weeks ago. Start with a brief introduction/summary of your client's history, trauma-informed identification and management, risk assessment, protective factors, current medication regimen and diagnosis within a cultural context.

2. Demonstrate the activity/task: Collaboratively explain how and what you would say to the client regarding the pros and cons of taking medication within a cultural and trauma-informed context. (Competency 2.1, 6.2, 7.1) Readdress and educate the client regarding the medication class, function and side effects [whatto expect], adverse events, black box warnings, efficacy, target symptoms for which the client is being treated as both a means to enhance the client's understanding of psychotropic drug use and increase adherence to medication therapy. Briefly summarize an abstract and cite two evidencebased articles/studies with the client that support the impact of diverse factors on psychotropic efficacy. Know the difference between side effects and adverse events.

3. Demonstrate the activity/task: Explain your role to the client in relation to medication monitoring and discuss how you manage the influence of personal biases. (Competency 2.2, 6.3) Next, how would you explain to the client your role in relation to their medication monitoring, treatment, maintenance, support and plans to interact with the prescriber? How will the effects of the medication be monitored? Frequency? By whom? Be mindful of both the Social Workers' scope of practice and personal biases/attitudes towards psychotropic drug treatment and diverse clients.

4. Demonstrate the activity/task: Explain to the client the combined effects of medication and the psychosocial intervention within a culturally and trauma-informed context. (Competency 2.1, 6.3) Collaboratively discuss with the client the pharmacological rationale and relevance to their diagnosis, treatment plan goals and cultural issues that may affect outcomes. Briefly summarize an abstract and cite two evidence-based articles/studies with the client that support the medication regimen based upon the client's ethnicity/culture and trauma-informed context, (e.g., Effectiveness of SSRIsin treating major depressive disorder amongst Black Americans; Mood stabilizing medications to control mania in elderly Caucasian women; Cognitive efficacy of atypical antipsychotics in schizophrenic young adults.)

5. Demonstrate the activity/task: Discuss how you would empower the client to actively take a role in the management of their treatment as a means of fostering efficacy. (Competency 6.2, 8.3, 9.2) Engage and discuss with the patient their progress, satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the medication regimen and response to treatment, (e.g. no change, improvement, deterioration, and efficacy.) Assume the client's symptoms are not improving through observation/signs. Based upon a lack of improvement, deterioration or need for continued improvement, how you would collaboratively discuss modifying their treatment plan (e.g. exploring protective factors, crisis intervention strategies, collaboration with the prescriber)? Additionally, discuss how you would empower the client to take an active role in managing their medications specifically in the prevention/response.