Substance Abuse Case Study

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An important issue within all of the substance abuse programs is child advocacy. Should social work detect and report and intervene when finding a discrepancy in an infants need for feeding and nurturing? Nonorganic failure to thrive (NOFTT) is the term given to infants from three to twelve months who have a deficit in typical weight gain during their first year of life. Since no medical conclusions pertain to the lack of weight gain, it is suggested that external factors are to blame. As discussed by Hutchison (2015), inadequate caregiving such as “environmental neglect (not enough food) stimulus deprivation and problems in the child-caregiver relationship” (p. 129) can consequentially bring about a myriad of developmental and health …show more content…

Her life has not been an easy one; she has had a lifelong struggle with asthma, eczema, numerous allergies (to just about everything) compounded by dyslexia. Her mother died of a drug overdose when she was a teenager and her father only became completely sober after her mom died. By that point she had almost reached maturity and the adverse effects on her developmental years had already taken place. Despite having an impoverished childhood and being the product of parents that neglected her in favor of their drug use, she has managed to overcome her struggles and manage these issues and will be receiving her master’s degree by the end of this year. Now in her late twenties, (her life course has been slightly delayed) this young woman has come a lot farther than many people that have none of the issues that have been working against her; I believe it is because she is personally determined not to follow in her parent’s footsteps and have a life she envisions for herself in spite of herself. She has expressed her lack of desire to ever have children and is apparently still a virgin. With all the of her struggles and her strength I cannot help but wonder how her life would look if someone intervened and shielded her from that environment and provided her with a nurturing place to

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