Case Study of a Depressed HIV-positive Male
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This paper is a case study of an HIV-positive African American male suffering from depression. His case represents some of the special circumstances with which the social work system must deal, particularly when a number of situations come together in the case of a minority client. The client system must be prepared to understand the impact of ethnicity in order to define the problem to be dealt with and formulate an effective intervention model. This paper uses a specific case to investigate and outline some of the problems and pitfalls inherent in working with minority clients who suffer from a common mental health problem, that of depression. Because of its familiarity to the client system, the depressive case appears to offer a routine situation with which the social worker must deal, no matter what the client's background. However, considering the ethnicity of the client stands as an important exercise in both accurate assessment and competent intervention. This paper investigates some of the potential questions and concerns to consider as part of the overall evaluation of even the most routine problem. Depression is an affective mental health disorder, in which the predominant symptom is a disturbance in mood. The DSM-IV (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) lists a number of specific symptoms to aid the social worker in reaching this as a diagnosis, including sleeping and eating disorders (sleeping or eating too much or too little), chan
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g heterosexuals. Fear and prejudice toward gay men tend to be more prevalent among men than women, in part because of heterosexual male fears and uncertainties regarding their own sexual identity; that Christopher's social worker was a woman was important in helping to alleviate his very real anxieties about being accepted as a gay man seeking treatment (Minton and McDonald, 1993).
Christopher's ethnicity, however, continued to present some formidable challenges to the traditional client delivery system (Austin, 1991). As an African American, his cultural heritage separated him from the textbook examples that would have made his diagnosis a simple one. Green suggests a very specific explanation for some of the most significant characteristics of African American culture. He calls these differences "creative and life affirming responses to nearly four centuries of persecution and injustice" (1995, p. 196). Green advocates concentrating on "contrasts, not just differences" (1995, p. 196) in studying cultural backgrounds, since this de-emphasizes the tendency to look for stereotypes and instead encourages every participating observer to try to find more significant and dynamic ways of considering each individual's roots.
Gre
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Some common words found in the essay are:
African American, Christopher Janelle, Minton McDonald, James Green, Los Angeles, Especially American, Mental Disorders, York Soon, Laura Reiter, American Anglo-American, african american, social worker, client system, minority clients, american heritage, african american heritage, austin 1991, behavior social environment, american culture, human behavior, sleeping eating, mcdonald 1993, minton mcdonald 1993, african american culture, human behavior social,
Approximate Word count = 3079
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)
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