teaching family members to engage in more praise of Anne; further, the resources of the residential facility might be used to teach Anne certain skills (crafts, arts, etc.) that might build her sense of ability and creativeness, thereby elevating her sense of self-esteem.
At the macro-level, the social worker should make very strong efforts to place Anne in a stable environment, one with a low likelihood of her being uprooted and sent elsewhere for at least years. Whether her mother could provide such an environment, even with family therapy, is doubtful.
The Psychosocial Model was originally formulated by Mary Richmond (1917) and Gordon Hamilton (1951). The model's foundation is based on the notion that social services delivery addresses itself to circumstances and situations that arise as the result of the interactions between the personalities of man and the environment.
The Psychosocial model is considered to be influenced by general social casework theory as it relates to both family and crisis intervention, and by psychoanalytic/psychological theory, especially that of ego psychology (Hollis, 1981). Indeed, assessment using the model focuses on determining the client's level of ego functioning, and treatment involves improving the functioning ego level. Therapeutic insight is important as is skill or ability building.
Hollis (1981) stated that the Psychosocial Model looks for both the social and psychological causes of dysfunction and uses the dynamics of the therapeutic relationship to provide the client (or client and family members if it is used in family therapy) with feelings of acceptance and with a deeper understanding of the nature of the problem. The client's rights are emphasized as is the need for working with the client in a scientific framework based on data collection and analysis as part of the diagnosis.
Quite frankly, the Psychosocial approach is difficult to apply to the case of an emotional...