Case study of Josie

Josie Case Study

The author of this report is asked to look at a case study relating to a young girl named Josie. The author is asked to answer to four particular high level questions and provide clear and concrete advice and solution to each of the four. Those four questions, in order, asked for risk factors, what should be done, what roadblocks will occur and the key legal/ethical considerations that will come up along the way.

As for the first question, that regarding the key advocacy issues and risk factors in play here, there are two in particular that scream out from this example of Josie. First, she is bi-racial and she is in a suburban school. It's not safe to assume, but it's fairly safe to say that a suburban school would be predominantly white and this would cause a massive amount of identity and bullying issues due to the way that children (and even adults) treat biracial children unfairly and otherwise differently. This is something that Josie is potentially very ill-equipped to deal with and handle and this should be addressed as a part of any remediation of her depression and the other factors that are affecting her (McWhirter, 2013).

The other major issue feeds the effects of and her inability to deal with the first, and that is the absence of her father in her life, at least directly. If her father plays little to no role in her life, that probably has a lot to do with why she is acting out and otherwise struggling. To have the best chance at thriving, the child needs two parents in her life even if they are not married or otherwise together. Just having both parents around, even if not married, is going to be better (most of the time) so long as the relationship is positive and established (McWhirter, 2013).

A third, but more ancillary issue, is that she's acting out and that is leading to events such as her not being allowed on the soccer team and the after school program. The root cause of her acting out and her depression has to be figured out and quickly. If it's to the point that she's not wanting to live anymore, then it's an emergency. There's a good chance her father being absent has a lot to do with it but there could certainly be other issues such as bullying (for her being bi-racial or other reasons), her mother could be abusive, there could be poverty issues at play and so forth (McWhirter, 2013).

As for how to address these issues, there are a couple of things that can and should be done. First, the bullies that may or may not exist at the school need to be identified and dealt with. The school should be an active yet fair partner in dealing with that. This means punishing and stopping the bullying, educating children about the fact that many kids come from more than one racial background and having diversity days where children can learn more about other cultures and backgrounds (McWhirter, 2013).

Second, the father of the child, if absent, needs to be play a large role in her life and the child's mother should facilitate, not hinder, that relationship unless there is a very good reason such as sexual abuse, physical abuse, drug use or something else of that nature. This should include the father having time to spend with the child (both with and without the mother present), the father being present for soccer games, assemblies and parent/teacher conferences and such and the father helping the child with their learning and installation of values and good habits. Young girls need a male and female influence in their life to get the full scope of what they need to learn and grown as a woman (McWhirter, 2013).

Third, the child needs to be given counseling for her depression and acting out and the mother AND father should be present if at all possible. Again, if the father is damaged goods due to illegal or immoral activity, then the father should not be around. However, absent that, both parents need to be completely and unendingly involved in getting Josie on the right track. Her therapy can include cognitive therapy as well as drug interventions as needed (McWhirter, 2013).

There are going to be some roadblocks to the above. First, the father may or may not wish or want to be involved even if it's clearly the right and pressing thing to do. Second, the children of today are often very sly and sneaky about being bullies and the school, despite its best efforts, will not be able to stop all instances of it. Lastly, the prior absence of the father (and its ensuing effects) may be very hard to unravel as the pain from any perceived or actual abandonment is going to be a hard thing to undo (McWhirter, 2013).

To overcome these roadblocks, giving the child tools to deal with bullies herself will be important. Encouraging self-sufficiency if the father leaves her behind will also be vital if it comes to that. Telling the father to not make excuses for his absence will be key as well as this will probably set off Josie. Lastly, the bullies, even if they sneak a few by, will get caught and dealt with eventually if the school does its job (McWhirter, 2013).

As far as legal and ethical considerations, dealing with the bullies will be hard because perception is not always reality and/or it cannot be proven legally. Also, the questions about what can and should be done vis-a-vis the father not being present as he should be is also something that may have to be addressed because the father may resist doing what he should do ethically and legally. Similarly, the types/amounts of therapy given to the child are also worth of analysis and verification to ensure the child is being best served given the actions or inactions of both the mother and the father. These are all pieces to the puzzle that must be looked at (McWhirter, 2013).