Question

.Michelle is a young woman who is in a violent domestic relationship. She and Errol have a six month old son, Jamal. Jamal was admitted to hospital with a brain hemorrhage. It was later discovered that Jamal, had fallen out of bed a few times and Errol slapped Jamal in his face to get him to stop crying.

On the last occasion when Errol slapped Jamal, Michelle attempted to get Errol away from the baby by attacking him. Errol then turned his attention to her and beat her violently with a ‘cutlass’ (machete). She sustained cuts to her body and was bleeding profusely when neighbours took her to the hospital.

On subsequent visits to the hospital Errol beat Michelle and verbally abused her. On one occasion, he choked her until she became unconscious. The police became involved because of the physical abuse of Michelle and neglect of Jamal which resulted in Jamal having significant developmental delays and possible mental retardation.

1. What are the issues here?

2. What actions will you take?

3. Develop a strategy for working with Michelle using the change process and strengths based perspectives and which considers core social work values and ethical considerations.

Answer 1