Capstone Case Study at a Domestic Violence Shelter

The student will complete a written case study based on a case selected (Domestic Violence Shelter) during the practicum experience and ultimately make an oral presentation to a committee of faculty, adjunct faculty and/or other selected members. After the student has successfully advanced to candidacy and has acquired an approved practicum site, he/she is eligible to begin the Capstone Case Study. The selection of the case occurs in the first or second practicum course and the final oral presentation must be completed prior to graduation. As determined in consultation with faculty the Case Study may include several of the following clinical content areas:
1. Assessment and Treatment of Substance Abuse 2. Ethical and Legal Issues 3. Assessment and Treatment of Sexual Disorders 4. Advanced Psychopathology and Individual Counseling 5. Child/Adolescent Psychopathology 6. Family Therapy, including Human Diversity 7. Crisis/Trauma 8. Community Mental Health Issues
Information for Students and Local Campus Faculty The local campus Full Time Faculty member must approve the subject matter and content of the Case Study Proposal. The approval must be documented in writing. Email is acceptable. The student must pass the written component of the Case Study Paper before the student is eligible to participate in the Oral Defense Presentation. Throughout the Case Study Capstone process the Full Time Faculty member may coordinate with the Practicum Course Advisor (Adjunct Faculty assigned to practicum courses) and/or the Academic Advisor as appropriate and necessary.
Clinical Content Area as appropriate and approved by faculty 1. Assessment and Treatment of Substance Abuse 2. Ethical and Legal Issues
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3. Assessment and Treatment of Sexual Disorders 4. Advanced Psychopathology and Individual Counseling 5. Child/Adolescent Psychopathology 6. Family Therapy, including Human Diversity 7. Crisis/Trauma 8. Community Mental Health Issues
THE CASE STUDY PAPER
The Case Study Paper may be approved, reviewed and scored by local Campus Full Time/Adjunct Faculty/Practicum Course Advisor. The student�s paper will be scored using the Case Study Paper Scoring Rubric. Faculty will determine the student�s readiness for the Oral Defense Presentation of the paper. When necessary the local campus Full Time Faculty may request assistance from other Full Time Faculty to review Case Study Papers.
The student is to choose a client/case from the student�s PSYU 688 Practicum I placement, or a case approved by Full Time/Adjunct Faculty or the Practicum Course Advisor. The client/case which the student selects for the Capstone Paper and Presentation must have been discussed with and approved by the practicum site supervisor, and followed in therapy for a minimum of four (4) sessions.
When completed, the student will email the Case Study Paper as an attachment to the local campus Full Time Faculty/Adjunct or Practicum Course Advisor for review and scoring. The paper should ideally be submitted four weeks before the student wants to do the oral defense.
The student will write a formulation of the case and address the content areas contained in this section. The student is expected to use proper graduate level writing and APA format and style to include supportive references. The case study must be a minimum of 14 pages in length and no more than a maximum of 20, not including the title page (include your student ID# under your name), table of contents, abstract, reference page, and appendices (if any). The paper must include 12-15 scholarly references.
Case Study Paper Scoring Categories
The Case Study paper should include information pertaining to the following categories and answer all applicable questions from these categories:
� Information about your site: 1. Give the name of your site and the type of work that is done there, i.e. type of clientele, types of services, etc. 2. What is the general theoretical orientation of your site?
� Legal and Ethical Issues:
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1. Discuss your procedures for informed consent and informing the client of your trainee status. 2. What legal issues did you encounter with this client? Describe the discussions you had with your supervisor regarding these issues. How did you resolve these issues? 3. What ethical issues did you encounter with this client? Describe the discussions you had with your supervisor regarding these issues. How did you resolve these issues? 4. Discuss the specific laws, regulations or ethical standards that applied to this case.
� Assessment Activities and Client (s) Demographics: 1. Describe your client. Provide demographic information for your client. 2. Name and describe any assessment tools you used and what results you received from their use. 3. Describe any other types of assessment activities you did (e.g. interview with pt, interview with family, reviewing notes, etc.) 4. What previous treatment did the client have? What do they think about how that treatment went for them? 5. Describe how you screened/assessed for “red flag” issues.
� Diagnosis/ Case Conceptualization: 1. From your assessment, what is the client�s diagnosis? Give the criteria upon which you based your diagnosis. 2. What diagnoses, if any, did you rule out and why? 3. What other problems did you identify besides their diagnosis? 4. What did the client describe as their presenting problem? 5. How did the client�s diagnosis and other problems affect their social and occupational/school functioning? 6. What is the history of the problems/diagnosis, and/or precipitating events to the problems/diagnosis? (I.e., how long have they had the problem, how has it affected them in the past, etc.) 7. Describe and discuss any �red flag� issues that came up during your assessment. 8. What strengths did the client have? 9. Describe any other information/issues (e.g. socio-cultural issues, housing issues, financial issues, etc.) that were important to your conceptualization of this client’s issues and the creation of your treatment plan.
� Crisis Management: 1. Describe and discuss any crisis issues that arose during your treatment of this client. 2. Describe and discuss how you used supervision to assist you in dealing with any crises. 3. Describe and discuss how you managed any crises that arose and the outcome.
� Theoretical Orientation: 1. Describe and discuss the theoretical orientation you used to treat this client. 2. Why did you use this orientation with this particular client?
� Treatment: 1.Describe your short and long term treatment goals for this client. Why did you choose these goals? Describe the client�s involvement in setting goals.
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2.Describe the treatment techniques that you used with this client and describe the client�s response to these interventions. 3. Describe any new issues that arose during treatment and how you managed those issues. 4. Did the client reach their treatment goals? Why or why not? 5. Is there anything you would do differently in treating this client? 6. What countertransference issues did you have when treating this client? What steps did you take to manage those issues? 7. Describe how you used supervision to design your treatment plan, decide on appropriate goals and interventions and manage counter-transference or other issues that arose in therapy that you didn�t already discuss previously. 8.Describe any cultural/diversity/socio-cultural issues that you encountered and how you worked with and managed them. Describe how you used supervision to assist you with these issues. 9.Describe if and how you involved family members or others in the treatment, if you were treating an individual. 10. How many sessions did you see the client for? Are you continuing to treat this client or is the treatment finished? Why did treatment end?
� Community Mental Health Issues: (All MFT and CA PCC students only) 1. Describe any psychosocial needs the client may have had (e.g. legal issues, housing issues, occupational/school issues, financial problems, disability issues, resource access needs/barriers, cultural/language barriers, etc.) 2. Describe any client centered advocacy or other efforts you made or resources you provided to assist the client with needs/issues addressed above. 3. Describe any referrals you made for this client and why you made them. 4. Describe if and/or how you used the principles of mental health recovery with this client and whether or not they were successful for the client. Or, if you did not use these principles, describe why not and how you may have used them if you had the opportunity.
� Writing and Format 1. Be sure that your paper is in APA format and free of typos, grammar errors, etc.! Your paper will not be accepted if it demonstrates poor writing and/or incorrect formatting and you will be asked to correct those issues and resubmit your paper.
Case Study Paper Scoring Rubric A minimum of 2 points in each category are required to pass. If the student does not pass the Case Study Paper the student will be required to revise and resubmit the paper.