Reference no: EM133897724

Case Study:

Sameena is a 16-year-old girl living with her older sister, Jasmine. Jasmine is 27-years-old and has been taking care of Sameena since their mother went to jail on drug charges 4 years ago. Sameena and Jasmine do not get along, and are constantly arguing when they see each other. Jasmine has taken to spending her time at her boyfriend's house, leaving Sameena home alone. Jasmine says that Sameena acts like a 'terror' at home, throwing parties, inviting boys to stay overnight, and leaving messes everywhere. Sameena is not doing well in school, and is failing some of her classes. She often receives detention for not completing homework and assignments. Sameena has lots of friends at school, but sometimes gets in to minor fights and arguments with them over boys. Sameena made the school soccer team, but has been skipping all of her practices and games to hang out with a boy in her class. The boys at Sameena's school know that Sameena will take money in exchange for sex. She says that she needs the money to buy food since her sister is never around. Jasmine claims that she leaves Sameena a decent allowance, but she spends it on alcohol.

Jasmine says that Sameena has given her so much trouble over the years that she has stopped caring about trying to supervise and discipline her. Jasmine often stays at her boyfriend's house, leaving Sameena home alone for long periods of time. Jasmine wishes that Sameena would sign herself up for some therapy, but says that she does not have time to do therapy with her because she is too busy working to support Sameena financially. Sameena's school often leaves messages for Jasmine to try to arrange a meeting, but Jasmine does not return their calls. Jasmine leaves Sameena to arrange for her own transportation to appointments and errands. Jasmine is very close with her boyfriend, but he has no interest in helping with Sameena, and thinks that Jasmine should stop giving her money. Jasmine only spends limited time at her house because just being around Sameena causes her a great deal of stress.

Sameena has a generally optimistic outlook on life, and says that she is just trying to have fun while she is still young. The school has tried to set up meetings with Jasmine, but until Jasmine agrees to an alternate education plan for Sameena, she will most likely continue failing. Sameena says that when she graduates she wants to be a hairstylist, but she is not sure how to become one. Sameena does not think that she needs any help, nor does she see anything wrong with her behavior. She says that there is plenty of time to graduate high school, she may as well party and have lots of sex while she is still young. Sameena has lots of friends; however they are not a great influence on her. They all binge drink together at Sameena's parties, and many of Sameena's friends use hard drugs.

Sameena often goes for joy rides after her parties while she is heavily intoxicated, and ends up at a boy's house to have sex. Sameena uses protection when she is sober, but usually forgets when she is drinking.

Jasmine thinks that Sameena's acting out may be due to her mother going to jail, but Sameena denies this. Sameena gets very worked up in her arguments and can become very verbally aggressive. Sameena parties every weekend, and always drinks to the point of intoxication. She occasionally smokes marijuana at her parties and has tried drugs such as cocaine, but is not currently using them.

Questions:

1. What presenting issues are concerning for you?

2. How will you handle Sameena's apathy and lack of concern?

3. How will you proceed in working with Sameena? How would you involve Jasmine? What would be the treatment goals?

4. What strategies and approaches would you use?