Family Assessment Social Work

Social Work in Family assessment

The main scope of the family assessment and engagement in a social work scenario is to yield information required to respond to the individual needs of every family member in strict accordance with the urgency plans. The social workers or the welfare professionals effectively partner and collaborate with the family network to acquire the viable information needed about the family. The concerns raised are usually addressed following the family tree, including the paternal and maternal relatives. This article seeks to provide the family assessment depicted from August Wilson’s Fences.

Engagement

The fictional family in August Wilson’s Fences is a complex type of family. Wilson’s attention focuses on Troy, a 53-year-old African-American of racial origin; he works in the sanitation department collecting the garbage in trucks. The family is situated in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Due to his athletic abilities, the protagonist is a former excellent Negro baseball player; he continues playing baseball in prison, serving a jail sentence over the murder he committed during a robbery (Shannon, 1991). Troy is in a working-class who is striving to make ends meet and provide for his family. Troy is a husband to Rose; both are parents to Cory, Lyons, and Raynell. Troy is a brother to Gabriel. As the breadwinner of his family, Troy works extra hard, but with little progress in life, this is so depressing to him. Due to the requirement of his work and the responsibilities bestowed upon him, he finds it challenging to provide attention, love, and support to those he loves. Troy’s brother Gabriel is an ex-soldier who suffered a psychological challenge from a head injury during the second world war (Ya?ayan, 2017). Troy’s brother Gabriel portrays an allegiance to salvation; apart from his name symbolizing angel Gabriel from the bible, he wears trumpets. Gabriel is constantly heard chasing unseen or unknown hellhounds, and he believes in constant conversation with Saint Peter.

From the play fences, Troy’s family portrays different and diverse barriers to engagement with this family. These barriers are influenced by the theoretical assumptions based on the developmental stages. The main factors attributing to the barriers of engagement are family stressors depicted in the play. These stressors include internal and external dynamics, such as inadequate communication between Troy and Rose due to his promiscuous nature. Marriage is a vital family developmental stage that fluences the nature of the family and the relationship between different people within the family setup (Hepworth et al., 2021). After some time, Troy admits having an extra-marital affair with his mistress Alberta whom he got pregnant. Alberta dies in childbirth, and Rose adopts her daughter Raynell; Rose agrees to raise the child as her own but is reluctant to accept Troy back into her life.

Another barrier to engagement in this family is an economic burden imposed on Troy; he has to work extra hard to support his family and his ailing brother Gabriel. He is the breadwinner but does not make economic progress; he is depressed about this. The lack of social support and extension of love to his family due to the scope of his economic ground and his job makes it almost impossible for Troy to keep his family together. The economic hardship extends son Lyons to Troys, a talented jazz music artist experiencing a hard time making a living; Lyons is in his teenage years of developmental stage (Ya?ayan, 2017). Troy’s brother Gabriel thinks he is not human due to his psychological deficits from the head injury he sustained while in the army. Troy is significantly unattached from his wife and his entire family; this makes engagement with this type of family set up very difficult and challenging to the social work practitioners.

The strategy applied to this family setup will involve using cognitive behavior therapy, through being consistent in the visits, carefully listening to every member of the family, being honest with every member of the family while disclosing all the information I consider relevant to their plight social states. The demonstration of social empathy is key to assessing Troy’s family. Engaging this type of family requires the use of psychiatric or psychological professionals. The family demonstrates multiple risk factors for mental illnesses that require a cognitive behavioral therapy approach to engage the family (Hepworth et al., 2021). This approach will also assist in assessing the ups and downs of the family, understanding the concerns that keep the family disintegrated by identifying the stressors while taking the necessary actions.

Family assessment

The role of the family assessment by the social work practitioners is to understand the family’s composition, outline the family boundaries, family roles, family cycler, and aspects that keep the family balanced.

Family homeostasis

This denotes the factors that keep the family in check and balanced to ensure the continuity of life for every family member. In the story Fences by August Wilson, Troy’s family experiences tribulations and hardships of diverse nature; however, he is devoted to keeping his family intact. Being the breadwinner and the head of the family, he goes further to steal providing for his family (Shannon, 1991). Troy is depicted as a man who had his priorities right from the beginning of the play, but as the play proceeds, Troy demonstrates his insincere nature by doubting and betraying his wife. When faced with separation from his wife, Rose, Troy’s family system got disrupted. Troy, however, tried to get Rose to accept him back to save their eighteen-year-old marriage after having a child with his mistress; in so doing, he was devoted to maintaining cohesion and the family bond the members share.

Economic hardships and poverty can break any contact family system; Troy works extra hard to provide for his son and daughter together with his ailing brother. This mechanism aims to maintain the balance between the family system. Troy roofs his family and provides for his son Lyons. Troy believes that he owns the role as a father to provide for his family. Even though Troy does not allow his son Cory to partake in college sports despite his love for baseball games, he stands up to the father role to provide the son’s financial support whenever he has money. Troy’s wife, Rose, is pictured as the perfect wife at the beginning of the play; she is devoted to taking care of the house and Cory (Kurnia, 2017). Troy tries to maintain the father-son relationship with his son Cory; this is depicted in their conversation about purchasing a television. Even though Rose is aware that Troy was damaged, she still loves him and builds a family.

Family Boundaries

The main character in the play is Troy, the head of the family. Troy is a father to Lyons, Raynell, and Cory. Troy is a husband to Rose, with whom he has been in a marriage for eighteen years. Gabriel, Troy’s brother, is an ex-soldier, living with a psychological illness and now part of the family. Troy betrayed his wife and got into a relationship with Alberta, with whom he had a child with Raynell. Alberta died while giving birth, and Rose adopted her daughter. Troy has a best friend, Bono, whom he met in prison, serving a jail term after being convicted of Robbery (Ya?ayan, 2017). Bonnie is Lyons’s girlfriend working at the Mercy Hospital laundry. Miss pearl is Gabriel’s landlady at his new residence.

Family decision-making

Troy has the final say in any decision the family makes, he is the head of the family, and everyone follows his instructions. Rose was the second in terms of the hierarchy of power before their marriage with Troy ended. Troy’s authority is depicted in a scene where he forbids his son Cory from playing college football, his decision is final, and Cory has no choice but to follow. Troy appears to make decisions independently and impose them on the rest of the family members without consultations.

Family roles

Troy is the head of the family, works at the sanitation department to provide a roof over the family’s head, and makes ends meet. He is in charge of the financial needs of the family. His wife Rose assumes raising the children; she takes Raynell after her mother dies while giving birth to her. Troy’s brother Gabriel does not have a specific role. He is battling psychological deficits following head trauma in the second world war; he represents the religious figure in the family due to his allegiance to religion. Lyons is a jazz musician struggling to make ends meet; he survives on his father to provide financial needs (Ya?ayan, 2017). Cory is a student at the college and is expected to excel in academics rather than playing football. Reynell is a half member of the family who sings a sweet song during Troy’s funeral. The communication between the family members takes both formal and informal nature. Communication barriers include Troy’s insincerity to his wife, having an affair with Alberta. Another evidence barrier to communication is Troy’s nature of imposing decisions on his children, such as preventing Cory from playing college football. The heavy economic burden on Troy gets him depressed to even fully communicate to his family members.