Seminar 7 - Social Work case discussion

So-So’s father died when she was three years old. Her mother had to work and bring up So-So and her younger sister. They lived in a rural village where people despise them as poor and bear bad luck (that his father died young). So-So’s mother also passed away when So-So was sixteen. She started to work when she was eleven, by borrowing other people’s identity card (At that time, children below twelve cannot work and there were no compulsory education for all). After two years, her younger sister moved away after a quarrel. So-So had always felt inferior, she had no friends and feel very lonely. After a few years, she was sick and a kind-hearted 60-year-old neighbour often came to see her and take care of her. Finally she had sexual relationship with this elderly man living next doors with his wife, children and grandchildren. Soon, their affairs were made known as So-So was pregnant. So-So delivered the baby while the elderly father died of a heart attack. So-So developed post-partum depression and had to seek psychiatric service. If you are the medical social worker in the psychiatric clinic:

• What are the needs and problems of So-So and her child?
• What are the natures of these problems?
• What knowledge/theory that you need to know before you can formulate a plan to help So-So?
• Are there available services to help So-So and her child?
• What can be done to help So-So?