Order Description
Case Study 3: Adebukola Linked Reading Gray, B. (2002) ‘Emotional labour and befriending in family support and child protection in Tower Hamlets’, Child and Family Social Work 7: 13-22 You are asked to befriend Adebukola (Bukky) and also to help out at the weekly parenting classes she has been invited to attend before and after the birth of her baby. Name Adebukola Age 20 years Gender Female Country of Origin Nigeria Adebukola is the middle daughter of five children, and the only member of her immediate family in the UK. She came to the UK when she married her British-born Nigerian husband two years ago. When she arrived in the UK she was three months pregnant but had a miscarriage. Her husband has always been violent towards her but when she recently became pregnant and the violence was directed at her unborn child, Adebukola sought help, initially from her GP. She now has a solicitor and there is currently a domestic violence protection order against her husband which prevents him from returning to their flat, although this is due to expire in the next 20 days. Adebukola is now seven months pregnant. She is very frightened of her husband and has said she does not feel safe going out. She has cousins in south west London with whom she was in occasional contact but she now says she does not want to see them. She is afraid to maintain contact with friends in the local Nigerian community because she sees them primarily as her husband’s friends. She has not told her family back home about the abuse or the separation, although they know she is pregnant. Adebukola’s mother tongue is Yoruba but she speaks some English. She received some primary school education in Nigeria but is not confident reading and writing in English. She has been diagnosed with depression. She has yet to make a decision about what future action she might want to take to protect herself and her baby. She has told her GP that she is very frightened something has happened or will happen to the baby, and that this is her fault. Which general professional skills and capacities could be drawn on in relation to this case example?Are there bodies of knowledge which the practitioner would need to know in order to do this work (eg. legal questions, statutory or compulsory guidelines, codes of good practice, organisational policy?)In the case example, how could the worker draw on ‘reflective use of self’,the capacities of a skilled helper, and ideas concerning ‘relationship-based practice’ in order to best support the service user? How can psychosocial concepts and ideas be used to support reflection on this practice example, in order to inform the work?