Reference no: EM133706928

Problem

Sheila, age 22 and in her first semester at the state university, experienced a crisis during the 7th week of classes. It was the midpoint of the semester, when instructors were required to give interim grades so that students would clearly understand their academic status before the final date for course drops passed. Sheila knew that she was having trouble in all four of her courses but was shocked to receive two Cs and two Ds. She realized that she was at risk of failing two courses! Her chronic sense of sadness became worse; she had the occasional thoughts of suicide that she had experienced in the past. Sheila knew that she needed to study that weekend, but instead she made the 5-hour drive to her parents' home, feeling a need to be around familiar faces. She had no close friends at school. Distraught, Sheila considered dropping out, but her parents convinced her to talk to her academic adviser first.

Sheila has told you that she was quiet during her only previous meeting with the adviser, but this time she vented much emotion. Her adviser learned that Sheila had been a troubled young woman for quite some time. In fact, Sheila said that she had felt depressed and inferior to her peers since childhood. The patterns of negative thinking and feeling that influenced Sheila's current crisis had been in place for 10 years. At this moment, Sheila believed that she simply did not have the intelligence to succeed in college. She did, in fact, have a diagnosed learning disability, a type of dyslexia that made it difficult for her to read and write. A special university adviser was helping her manage this problem within her course load, although not all the professors seemed sympathetic to her situation. Neither did Sheila believe that she had the social competence to make friends, male or female, or the strength of will to overcome her negative moods and outlook. She believed her depression was a basic part of her personality. After all, she couldn't recall ever feeling differently.

Sheila's family included her parents and an older sister (by 2 years), Amy. During the previous 2 years, Sheila had commuted from her family home to a nearby community college. She had stayed home and worked for 1 year after high school graduation, without the motivation or direction to continue with schooling. Amy was, in contrast, the "star" child, who attended a major university to pursue a career in commercial art after winning academic awards throughout her high school years. Sheila had watched Amy, so polished and popular, make her way easily and independently into function so well. Eventually, she decided to enroll in the community college for general education studies. She felt awkward around the other students, as usual, but liked the small size of the school. It was peaceful and kept Sheila near her parents.

When Sheila completed her studies at the community college, she applied for admission to the state university. She decided to major in art preservation, an area of study similar to Amy's. Sheila's adjustment to the state university had been difficult from the beginning. She was intimidated by the grand scale of the institution: the size of the classes, the more distant, formal manner of her professors, the large numbers of students she saw on the campus streets, and the crowds in the student union. The university seemed cold, and the students unfriendly.

Sheila was a white middle-class student like the majority at her campus, but she believed that the other students saw her as a misfit. She didn't dress in the latest styles, was not interesting or sophisticated, and was not intelligent enough to stand out in her classes. Even as she sat in the back of her classrooms, she believed that others were thinking of her, in her own words, as a "geek." Sheila even felt out of place in her off-campus living quarters. A cousin had found her a basement apartment in a house in which a married couple resided. The walls were thin, and Sheila felt that she lacked privacy.

Many students experience a difficult transition to college. Sheila's academic adviser, however, was struck by several family themes that seemed to contribute to Sheila's low self-esteem. Sheila's paternal grandmother, a powerful matriarch, had always lived near the family. She disapproved of much of her grandchildren's behavior, and was frequently critical of them to the point of cruelty. She had good social graces, and thus was particularly unhappy with Sheila's lack of social competence. Sheila's mother was always reluctant to disagree with her mother-in-law or defend her children. This passivity made Sheila angry at her mother, as did the fact that her mother argued with her father quite often and was known to have had several affairs.

Sheila was closer to her father, who was also fond of her, but he maintained a strict work ethic and believed that productive people should have no time for play. He felt that his children showed disrespect to him when they "wasted time" with recreation. Amy seemed able to take her father's admonitions in stride, and was closer in spirit and personality to her exuberant mother. Sheila, however, felt guilty when violating her father's wishes. They did have a special relationship, and her father tended to confide in Sheila, but he sometimes did so inappropriately. He told her on several occasions that he was thinking of divorcing his wife, and that in fact Sheila might have been fathered by one of his wife's boyfriends.

Thus, during her transition to the university, Sheila was faced with the task of making her way with a learning disability, a work ethic that did not permit her to enjoy college life and young adulthood, a personal history of being criticized with little balancing support, and even a lack of identity. Now, in her 7th week, Sheila is depressed and vaguely suicidal--an outsider among her peers, without acknowledged strengths, and feeling all alone, She has come to you for help on her academic adviser's suggestion.

What is the overall assessment of the client and solutions as a social worker.