Has Alice been able to gather adequate information from June? What might she do on another home visit to better understand Juneís point of view?

Question

Alice Singletary, a novice social worker with Magnolia Hospice in Alexandria, Louisiana, met June Plunket, who had terminal cancer, and her daughter, Polly, for an admission interview. June was in quite a bit of pain and trying to cope with dying. Polly blamed Dr. Dubuis and herself for her mother’s approaching death, and was also angry with her brother, who had distanced himself from the family. June and Polly lived in a chaotic and overcrowded household with Polly’s daughter, Jenna, and Jenna’s two young children. While assessing June’s situation, Alice identified a multitude of family problems which had to be balanced with the mission of the hospice. In this situation, Alice was not sure where to begin.

Answer 1

One of the obstacles to Aliceís assessment is that she is not talking with June privately. Alice may choose to talk with June without other members of the family present. This may have been difficult since Polly remained beside her mother during the initial interview. June may have expressed a different set of issues, doubts and fears if Alice talked with her privately. Alice might ask to speak with each woman individually for the purpose of gathering data. If so, Alice might want to explain the need to spend individual time with each of them for the purpose of letting each of them tell their own story. She might suggest that Polly could help Jenna entertain the two grandchildren while she visited with June and then with Jenna. Then Alice could suggest that she and Polly might sit down and talk about the concerns she has about being a caregiver, as well as her feelings about the approaching death of her mother.
This task should occur before Alice makes a final list of problems for work and begins prioritizing them. Alice needs to involve the family as much as possible in the problem identification and prioritization process. This would also allow her to further assess the extent of the interdependence between the three women. The individual discussions with each woman may help Alice determine which problems arose from the approaching death of June and which stem from long-term problems in the family functioning and any connections between the two.