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Task-centered Model Comparison Discussion

John is a 35-year-old male who has a history of excessive alcohol use and depression. He recently divorced from his wife of 10 years, who has primary custody of their two children. Currently, he has visitation every other weekend but was referred to you because there have been concerns regarding his recent behavior. He has been late to his meetings with the children on numerous occasions and is suspected of drinking alcohol again.

Using the task-centered model of clinical social work, what might you consider as potential task interventions when working with John? Why?

Class,

The issue that needs to be addressed is John’s tardiness and possible alcohol use again and how it is and can affect his children..”Task-centered casework, a “general service model” developed at the Uni-versity of Chicago, first appeared in publications early in the 1970s. Designed to solve specific psychosocial problems of individuals or families, this model is a short-term, time-limited form of practice. Together the caseworker and client reach an explicit agreement on the particular problems to be worked on and also the probable duration of treatment.” (Farley, O. W., Smith, L. L., & Boyle, S. W. (2011) First , I would talk to John and see if he understood there was an issue going on. Then I would refer him to Alcoholics Anonymous,they have great resources and would be a wonderful first step. Then I would see if there was need for other counseling. I would make sure there wasn’t anything keeping from being late out of his control,like transportation issues.  I would follow up and make sure everything improved. If it did not, then we would implement more changes to improve his life and relationship with his children.

Amanda Coughlin

Hello Professor Bullock,

According to Kalantjankos, a task centered approach consists of several steps: identifying the target problems, setting goals, creating and executing a task centered action plan, and finally evaluating and assessing the results of the plan (2019). Firstly, we have established that John may be drinking again. But, we need to figure out the trigger that caused him to relapse. Perhaps it was sadness caused by being away from his kids, or he got into a recent fight with his ex wife; maybe he frequents a favorite location that he used to visit with his family. The next step is setting an actionable goal, which is to steer away from the drinking problem. Then, John and I would create his personalized action plan based around his interests. I would tell him to make plans for when the kids arrive. He would need to do things that take his mind off of the thoughts of drinking. Maybe go out with a friend for coffee, go for a walk around the neighborhood. The purpose of this task is to keep John distracted so his thoughts do not return to the act of drinking. I would also recommend that John takes up hobbies such as playing an instrument,exercising or taking up sports as a means of constructing something positive that he can look forward to that would take his mind away from drinking.

Shawna