To provide an appropriate intervention, social workers first need to have conducted a thorough assessment. Having a comprehensive understanding of a client and their social environment allows a social worker to accurately identify the presenting problem and help the client develop goals to address their needs. Part of the assessment should be how power and privilege connect with the problem. For example, the client’s gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disability, or socioeconomic status may put them at a disadvantaged or marginalized position.
Connect your with at least 1 peer-reviewed scholarly resource that could inform your understanding of Ray’s case
In this Assignment, you further prepare for the bio-psychosocial assessment by identifying the presenting problem and searching for evidence to deepen your understanding of Ray’s case.
Additionally, evidence-based practice requires social workers to use the best available evidence to inform their thinking and treatment decision
· Describe the presenting problem(s).
· Identify a specific peer-reviewed research article and explain how it could inform understanding of the problem or population.
· Explain how power and privilege may influence the case (as it relates to gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disability, or socioeconomic status).
Meet Ray. Age 17 to 18
© 2021 Walden University, LLC 1
Meet Ray. Age 17 to 18
Program Transcript
NARRATOR: Ray gains self-confidence from exercising, socializing with the other team
workers at his part-time fast-food job, and honing his woodworking skills he graduates
high school. Ray applies to college with the support of his teacher-mentor and gets a full
scholarship. He would be the first in his family to attend college.
However, his father George becomes sick with lung cancer the summer before his
freshman year of college. Ray doesn’t know where to turn. He is estranged from his
father’s side of the family due to a fight George had with his brother years ago. His
mother’s side of the family do not live in the area, and he’s never had a close
relationship with them. He feels a sense of obligation to George and guilt for what he’d
said about wishing him dead, ray never leaves for college, letting the scholarship lapse.
He stays and cares for his father until George dies four months later.
Now 18, Ray lives alone with a rescue pit bull named Daisy. He has maintained his fast-
food job, but after George’s death, he begins to show up at work late, unshowered, and
occasionally drunk. Ray’s boss tells him that he understands he’s grieving, but he can’t
show up in that state. The boss puts him on probation. If he is late, skips work, or shows
up inebriated again, he will be fired.
If Ray loses his job, his housing will be in jeopardy as well. Ray’s work friends
encourage him to see a social worker.
Meet Ray. Age 13 to 16
© 2021 Walden University, LLC 1
Meet Ray. Age 13 to 16
Program Transcript
NARRATOR: Ray’s mother Mary dies of a heart attack when Ray is 14. Ray is
devastated and retreats further into himself. He begins to experiment with his father’s
alcohol and likes how it makes him forget.
His father George goes from aggressive and argumentative to complacent after Ray’s
mother dies. He doesn’t care what I do, says Ray, who walks to the local park and
drinks and smokes at night. On one occasion, a police officer on patrol escorts him
home and warns that if he is out drinking in public again, he will be fined. Ray does so
again and is fined $500. When he tells the officer he can’t pay, he is instead enrolled in
an alcohol-awareness class and mandated community service.
A year goes by, and due to the loss of income from Mary’s death, he and George have
to move to subsidized housing in a different part of town. At this point, they are living on
Social Security and disability income. Ray signs up for a woodworking class at his new
high school, remembering how his father used to make household items with wood
scraps. The teacher sees promise in him and mentors Ray in woodworking and
cabinetmaking outside of class.
At the same time, Ray becomes interested in dating girls, but he is self-conscious about
his weight. He starts working out at the school gym. Meanwhile, he clashes with George
at home. He sees his father as useless because he hangs around the apartment and
drinks and smokes all day watching TV. Ray has to make dinner for himself, clean, and
so forth. He also has to get a part-time job.
One night, Ray says under his breath, I wish you had died and not Mom.
Meet Ray
© 2021 Walden University, LLC 1
Meet Ray
Program Transcript
FEMALE SPEAKER: Meet Ray. Ray is a full-term baby of normal length and weight,
born to working-class Caucasian parents living in a suburban area. As an, infant he
stops breathing on several occasions, which the emergency room doctor says may be
due to the effects of secondhand smoke. Both Ray’s mother, Mary, and father, George,
smoke in the apartment.
In his early years, Ray forms a strong bond with Mary, who is loving and nurturing.
However, she works two part-time cashiering jobs to support the family and is not often
home. George is stern and often yells and loses patience with Ray.
At age 6, Ray regularly hears his parents fighting when he is trying to sleep, usually
over money and the demands of parenting. Ray interprets his father’s anger as not
wanting me. When Ray enters public school, the nurse helps Ray get an inhaler for his
breathing challenges, which have escalated to asthma.
Meet Ray. Age 7 to 12
© 2021 Walden University, LLC 1
Meet Ray. Age 7 to 12
Program Transcript
FEMALE SPEAKER: As Ray grows, the family moves around a lot from short-term
rental, to hotel, to campground depending on the season. While this exposes Ray to a
diverse set of experiences and people, it also leads to lack of continuity in schooling and
social relationships as Ray transfers school districts. Ray does well academically,
particularly in math, but does not engage in after school activities preferring to be home
when his mother has a brief break in between her two jobs.
Ray and his mother Mary attend Catholic church services weekly. The family does not
have medical insurance or access to regular medical care aside from Ray’s inhaler
provided by the school. The only affordable and accessible food in their area is
processed and high in fat and sugar. Both of these circumstances affect the physical
health of a family with Ray being overweight and Mary obese. In Ray’s early
adolescence, Mary develops diabetes and cardiovascular disease linked at least part to
her history of obesity and smoking.
