Case Histories
Not all our clients speak English
A Case Study by Gary Zager, Clinical Director
The following case study is fairly representative of our "typical" case at Casa, while also illustrating that not all of our clients speak English.
Rose, a made up name to protect this client's confidentiality, was a 13 year old from Westminster who came to Casa as an alternative to a "boot-camp" experience. Rose's family is Vietnamese.In the home, in addition to Rose, and her mother and father she also has four brothers and sisters. She is the second youngest. Their reported monthly income is $1,100 per month.
As reported by her older sister during the Intake, (the parents do not speak English), Rose had been running away from home (she was actually staying out late without parental permission), had stopped communicating with her parents, was hanging around with older kids who were in the "wrong crowd". She had been caught stealing from a convenience store and her parents were concerned that she was using drugs. Rose did tell us that she had started experimenting with alcohol in 7th grade.
Upon assessment, Don Copeland, her assigned counselor, believed that many of Rose's behavior were examples of normal adolescent individuation but that the parents were not up to the task of providing her with the structure needed to keep her behavior in-line. They had been expecting her siblings to "parent" her while they both worked long extended days.
Because of the language barrier Casa Youth Shelter reached out to an agency in Santa Ana called Cambodian Family. They provided interpretation services for us and Rose's family.
During her stay with us Rose appeared to benefit a great deal from our Anger Management/ Assertion Training groups as well as our Decision Making Groups. She also participated well in our Drug Education Classes.
Don worked hard with her parents to come up with clear, concise rules that were coupled with consistent consequences. He also worked with them on how to enforce this new parenting program. He worked with the parents to reenter Rose's life in the "parental role", to help the family develop stronger generational boundaries. Rose's parents were also referred to a parenting class in their native language at Cambodian Family.
