You are a manager in a human services organization. One of your direct reports, a family counselor named Wayne, asks if you can reassign one of his clients. He is working with the family but feels he clashes too much with the mother because she doesn’t trust him. He’s clearly frustrated. Wayne explained the situation:
Juanita is a 33-year-old biracial (half African American, half Puerto Rican) woman with three children. Her oldest son, Rafe (15), left home after becoming affiliated with a gang. She brought her two younger children, Peter (13) and Julia (11), to the center with the hope of creating a stronger family. Juanita can’t believe Rafe feels the gang is more of a family to him than herself and his blood siblings. She is a single mother who works three minimum-wage jobs with no support from any of her children’s fathers and prides herself on her independence.
When Wayne observed that she didn’t seem to have much time to spend with the children, Juanita became furious. She said that Wayne couldn’t possibly understand her situation as a White man. She said he probably grew up in a “Leave It to Beaver” family, but she didn’t have it like that: she was working herself “to the bone” so her family had a roof over their heads, electricity, and food in the kitchen. She didn’t come here to be judged or try to make her family like a TV show; she expected to see a new counselor when they returned for their next appointment. Then she told the kids they were leaving and all three left. Wayne tells you he’s never been treated that way by a client. He finds her assumptions offensive: While he is White, he also grew up in a poor family that struggled to keep their farm going every year. He ran away himself at 17 when he came out to his family as gay, and they told him he couldn’t stay there if he was going to “be like that.” He’s suffered plenty of adversity.
Wayne feels it would be distracting to talk about his personal story, however, given all that is going on with this family, so he wants to honor her request for a new counselor. As the supervisor, you know everyone is already over their caseload limit as it is: There is no one else who can take this case. You would have to put this family back on the wait list until someone else became available. You also think it is important for counselors to be able to work with people from different backgrounds, so you want to make this a learning opportunity for Wayne.
Wayne is frustrated when you tell him he needs to keep the case, despite your explanation. He thinks you’re taking Juanita’s side, assuming he doesn’t truly understand adversity since he is a man and is not a person of color. He wants to work with clients who are open to receiving his help, not clients who stereotype him as a White man.
Write a 6–8-page paper with three headings: Family Case Issues, Efforts to Support Wayne, and Consider Your Role. You should address each of the points listed in the instructions under each section heading.
Instructions
For the assignment, address the following:
Family Case Issues for Wayne to Consider
Analyze how race/ethnicity and socioeconomic issues may be impacting this family.
Identify at least one professionally appropriate strategy Wayne could implement to try to repair his relationship with Juanita. Support your strategy with research.
Explain why this strategy to repair the relationship is appropriate. Support the strategy with research.
Efforts to Support Wayne as a Human Services Professional
Analyze how the differences between Juanita’s and Wayne’s memberships impact Wayne as a professional.
Discuss strategies he can use to improve his efficacy. Support the strategies with research.
Consider Your Role in This Scenario
Analyze how your own identity is similar/different from this family’s and Wayne’s.
Explain how these differences might impact your perspective.