Prentice Family Case Study Essay

The Prentice family was referred to the community-based agency to improve their mezzo family structure in order to avoid the removal of their children. Individual members of this unit utilize their personal form of maladaptive coping to respond to situational and contextual barriers based on their predisposing, precipitating and perpetuating factors. While the parents, Antonio and Terri, were never categorized as ideal parents, the death of their infant son has been the catalyst for an increase in detrimental behavior. Antonio and Terri’s behaviors have led to the neglectful treatment of their children, Jack, Jerrod, and DJ, which has caused their neighbors, family, and the son’s teacher to seek Child Protective Service (CPS) involvement.
Terri and Antonio present flawed communication patterns such as avoiding crucial topics, minimizing each other’s feelings, and constant …show more content…
The previous diagnostic formulation suggests that treating only one area of the family’s problem will not eliminate the long standing predisposing and perpetuating factors which allow the neglect to persist. In order to effectively eliminate these barriers, the social worker assigned to this case must simultaneously address the micro problem of Terri’s alcoholism, the mezzo problem of intimate partner violence, and add a macro protective factor of community involvement. Domestic violence and alcoholism were identified as a focus because they present as the highest risk behaviors supported by factors which are unlikely to change without intervention. These problems function as flawed coping skills for Antonio and Terri. A protective macro intervention was added to address the transactional pattern of factors. This three pronged approach, will correct maladaptive patterns and create long standing systems to buffer against future