A Case Study Of People With Disabilities Social Work Essay

A Case Study Of People With Disabilities Social Work Essay This case study is in relation to a 19 year old adult, Shaku who suffers from learning disability. Shakus heritage is East African/ Punjabi and both her parents are people who work full time. Shaku lives with her parents, bothers, sister and grand mother. The family of Shaku is not a devoted Muslim family but it has been observed that they value their traditions. Regarding Shaku’s learning disability, her speech is impaired and she is physically disabled and requires assistance with personal care tasks. Although she is disabled, but she is like a normal girl in many ways, who loves fashionable cloths, loves to watch movies and misses her friends from school. Shaku has a speech and language therapist, Jean who is working with her with computerized assistive technology. A learning disability affects the way someone learns, communicates or does some everyday things. Someone has a learning disability all through his or her life. There are many different types of learning disabili ty. They can be mild, moderate or severe. Some people with a mild learning disability do not need a lot of support in their lives. But other people may need support with all sorts of things, like getting dressed, going shopping, or filling out forms. Some people with a learning disability also have a physical disability. This can mean they need a lot of mental and physical support 24 hours a day. Shaku has been attending a local authority ran day centre, Hopefield Road Resource Centre for people with learning disabilities three times a week for the last 12 months. In addition to this she has a care agency, Helpful hands visiting at home three times a day, for one and a half hours at a time to help her with simple everyday tasks. Shaku is getting more and more frustrated and angry everyday. There are many reasons for her verbally abusive out bursts. After interviewing her, this is what I came to know about her family back ground and the way things are going for Shaku. Shaku feels she is a burden on her parents, as both of them are working parents; they do not have the time to look after her. This also frustrated Shaku as she needs more time from people who love her and are close to her. Shaku does get some amount of support from her grandmother but that is not enough as she can not openly communicate with her in Punjabi. Shaku feels uncomfortable being left up to others. Even though she can not perform everyday tasks by herself, she still finds this inconvenient. For example, she does not like to go to bed early. Shaku is disturbed by the thought of the centre closing because then she would not have any activities to do. Although Shaku portrays a friendly attitude towards Kerry, she is not comfortable with her presence and is somewhat feeling being abused. Another important issue in Shaku’s life is about what will happen to her in future. She is unsure and uncertain. Her parents plan on marrying her, to which she does not give a favourable response.