Socw 6530 wk 9 peer responses | SOCW 6530 – Social Work Field Education IV | Walden University

SOCW 6530 wk 9 peer responses 

Respond to the blog posts of three colleagues in one or more of the following ways:

· Expand on your colleague’s posting.

· Make a suggestion to your colleague’s post.

MUST RESPOND TO EACH ONE SEPARATELY CITE EVERYTHING AND FULL REFERENCES 

PEER 1: Alicia Simpkins  

Termination

Termination in field is important to address. According to the text, “terminations also evoke a range of emotions as you contemplate closing or transferring client cases, wrapping up projects, and saying goodbye to people who have influenced your development as a social worker” (Birkenmaier & Berg-Weger, 2018). It can be difficult to terminate services, especially as there tends to be attachments formed between staff/clients and field practicum students. Termination also allows for a chance to see any professional development within the field practicum student as well.

In my field placement, I tend to give all my clients a heads up as far as when I am leaving. I’ll tell them that I will be turning over the IOP session to someone else soon, just to prepare them for the upcoming weeks when they will no longer be seeing me. With the staff of my field placement, they are all aware of course that I will not be with them forever. I have also given them a heads up that my time there will be over soon, and everyone has expressed how much they will miss me. Termination is never easy but it is part of the process.

References

Birkenmaier, J., & Berg-Weger, M. (2018). The practicum companion for social work: Integrating class and fieldwork.New York, NY: Pearson.

PEER 2 : Audri Kaufman 

According to Kirst-Ashman and Hull (2018), the sixth step of the generalist intervention model (GIM) is termination which involves the professional end to the client-worker relationship. In hospice care, there are a number of reasons that can lead to one’s termination of services. According to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organizations (NHPCO, 1996), hospice patients can be terminated from services for extended prognosis, refusal of care, lack of participation in services, and when the patient passes away. Although Valley’s Best Hospice does provide one year of aftercare services to the family members of the deceased, termination and end-of-services is typically concluded after what is called a death call. After a patient passes away, the family members or caregiver contacts hospice who then come out to call time of death, contact the mortuary and discuss aftercare services. If a patient is being discharged due to extended prognosis, this means that they are no longer provided with a prognosis of six months or less to live. Often times the doctor and supervising home nurses report improved health conditions leading to an extended prognosis. In these cases, the patient is notified of an upcoming discharge date due to extended prognosis and an appointment with the social worker is scheduled two weeks before discharge to go over the discharge paperwork, schedule an appointment with the transferring physician, order any necessary medications and supplies, and explain process of appeal should they disagree with the decision to discharge.

During my time interning a Valley’s Best Hospice, I have assisted in discharging several hospice patients due to extended prognosis and a few palliative patients due to refusal of care or lack of participation in services. Sometimes we discharge due to too many missed or canceled appointments with our nurses. This is more often the case with palliative care patients rather than hospice patients. Either way, participation in services is one of the leading causes of termination of the client-worker relationship says Kirst-Ashman and Hull (2018). Social workers are encouraged to work together with the client to prepare for termination and acknowledge that endings are near before they abruptly end (Holosko et al, 2013).

Reference

Holosko, M. J., Dulmus, C. N., & Sowers, K. M. (2013). Social work practice with individuals and families: Evidence-informed assessments and interventions. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Kirst-Ashman, K. K., & Hull, G. H., Jr. (2018). Understanding generalist practice (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO). (1996). Hospice code of Ethics: Volunteer training manual. The Hospice Journal, Vol 11(2), 1996.

PEER 3 : Cheeia Xiong  

An explanation of how you have addressed termination or how you might address termination in your field education experience

Our program is normally only from 3-6 months and in some rare cases, up to 2 years. If the client have found full time work, then we also exit them out and if they are not meeting goals then we exit them as well.

I have two clients I am working with that is being terminated from our program at the end of August. Every month, they meet with their case manager to review their goals and what steps they are taking to meet their goals. One of the goal in our program is for clients to go back into the work force and pay for their own rent. One client that is being terminated went back to state prison and this was not the first time. The first time he was only gone for 1 month and the case manager was able to visit him. Also, they continued to assist him with rent while he was in state prison. The second client that is being exited or terminated has expressed during his session that he is incapable of working and he will no longer look for employment, therefore, there is nothing more the agency can do for this client at this point and the client is given an exit date. 

Termination Process:

The case manager will schedule another meeting with client and start the termination. We start the session by reviewing the program goals and the client’s goals from the original date. Then we give the client an exit date and slowly transition them out. The exit date is anywhere from 1-3 months and we exit the last day of the month so they can have another month of paid rent because most likely they will become homeless again. When they are given the exit date, we will continue to assist them and provide them supportive resources. The client I have been working with is face many struggles and there is a very high chance he will become homeless again as I mentioned because of his addictions. In the last month, I have connected him with a county social worker and linked him with a outpatient drug rehab to help with his mental illness. I will continue to meet with him weekly until he exit our program which will be the same day as my last day at Mercy House.