Social Work Case Interview Paper

Words: 1583
Pages: 7

Identifying Information: Maria Lopez is a 25-year-old Hispanic female. She is a single mother of three children all under the age of 6 years old. Maria is a voluntary client seeking services for herself and her children. Our first meeting was devoted to understanding Maria’s current situation, as well as past events involving her children and her ex husband, David, who she was married to for three years. He is not currently involved financially, but will visit the children sporadically. Both sets of the children’s grandparents are involved and visit the children, but Maria does not accept financial assistance from them. The most pressing problem at the initial interview was Maria’s lack of financial support. The basic needs of her …show more content…
As a single mother working three jobs Maria said she doesn't have any time for herself, and so I have attempted to make this time for her as comfortable and helpful as I can. I was so excited that TANIF has made such an impact on their family and am relieved to hear they are no longer in a crisis state. I believe I was fully attentive and listening as Maria told me about her reservations in going back to school to pursue a degree, and I was able to normalize her feelings and anxieties. I could have summarized and asked for further clarification in parts of our conversation instead of just taking her words for whatever value I placed on them. As a helper I need to get better about inquiring the client’s definitions about certain words or phrases, instead of just assuming my own meanings. The purpose of this session was to assess how Maria’s family was functioning now that they are receiving cash assistance. Throughout the meeting it was obvious to me that they are doing better than I had expected with the cash assistance. That means we are now able to move on to the next step, which is getting Maria back to