Introduction
Behavioral change is one of the most important decisions people can ever make in their lives. So helping patients change their behavior is one of the most important roles for social workers in the society since it is their vocation to help the mentally ill people in most of our societies. So its argued that change interventions by the social workers can be seen as so much useful so that our patients in the societies we come from can have changed lifestyles, proper management of their behaviors and disease prevention from addictions as a result of so many drugs which people take and a good example is cigarette smoking which can cause many diseases and mental problems as a result of addiction. It is the role of the social worker to try and understand the patients readiness to change since if the patient in this case is ready and willing to change the behavior, then this is the high time for the counselor or even the social worker to have a discussion with this patient and try to advice him on the problems which are associated with the behavior and why he should change. Since there are so many barriers which these social workers face when trying to administer their work, it is good that they overcome such barriers and try to appreciate them since its through accepting such barriers that the counselor will be in a position to improve this patients satisfaction hence try to lower the physical frustration which the patient may face as a resulting of trying to change this behavior. (Kazdin, 1999).
As a social worker whose work is the application of social theory plus the many research methods which are applied in trying to collect data so as to study at the same time trying to improve the behaviors of many people in the societies who have different behaviors such as drug addiction, mental problems among other differences, my volunteer in this case is a cigarette smoker and this particular person is very much willing and ready to change his behavior. We all know that many young people in our societies have fallen victims of cigarette smoking and this is one of the habits which have so many diverse problems associated with the habit. (Hall, 2001).
Description of the volunteer
Now, my volunteer in this case is a fellow student of age 21 who started smoking as olds as 10 years as a result of peer pressure. His height is 5’4” and his weight is 40 kgs. Now when you compare his age with his weight, there is a problem due to poor feeding habits since he spends most time smoking and neglecting time to eat. Also you find that due to his mental problems, he has been affected so much and hence spends most of his time in trying to ponder on the ways he can apply in order to change his behavior. He is fully stressed and this is why his health has been affected so much. (Bates, 1997).
His ethnic background is Luo in Kenya which is one of the strong cultures here. It is a culture which really punishes most of its deviants in the society but John in this case has been one of the deviants. Despite the fact that he smokes, he is one of the social persons which mean that if he happens to stop smoking, he can be one of the role models in this society. He has a poor health because he spends most of his time smoking which has affected his health so much. This is a young person who really needs counseling so that he can be in a position to change is habit. (Higgings-Hains, 2006).
This particular person has a poor health simply because he spends most of his time smoking since we know that smoking can cause addiction hence this particular boy spends most of his time smoking and little time eating. The boy is also not working hence this means that the only cents he has goes to buy cigarettes and less or even none goes to buying food. So his health has been affected so much. (Bates, 1997).
He has also a mental problem because he is an addict hence he is very much wondering how he can quit smoking as a result of the many impacts it has had on his heath. So this person is very much disturbed and hence this is the reason why he approached me for a discussion so that I can try to help him change his behavior. The volunteer in this case is so much ready to accept my advice so that he can change his behavior though he is wondering how to stop it. The boy is educated since he is now in form four hence this means that we will be in a position to try and communicate with each other so well and try to access the advantages and the disadvantages of smoking hence make his own decisions have he ways them all. (Harris, 2003).
Problems identification
The problem with my volunteer is smoking cigarette which has had so many effects on his health. One of these problems is that he is an addict hence it has affected him mentally and secondly is that he has the coronary heart disease which is caused by tobacco. Cigarette is one of the harmful drugs which so many young people have engaged in, knowing very little about the side effects of smoking cigarette. It has so many negative effects and as I said, one of them is the coronary heart disease which is caused by tobacco since most of the cigarettes are made from tobacco. My volunteer is suffering from the coronary heart attack but in this case he is not alone since research was done in US and it was found that 53% of young people are smoking tobacco hence the high chances of suffering from coronary heart disease and addiction. It has also led to the poor performance of this student in class since most of the time is spent on smoking with peers. So my volunteer in this case desires to address are habit of smoking which he started quite along time hence leading to his addiction. The problem originated as a result of peer pressure at his society. We all known that peer pressure is one of the major causes of bad behaviors in our society and hence the need for the youth to choose well peers who are not deviants in our society. This is because my volunteer in my case made wrong decisions of interacting with the wrong peers hence leading to his bad behavior. So because of the negative effects of smoking which the volunteer has experienced, he has decided to change his behavior and hence the need of my assistance as a social workers to try and assist him in changing his behavior. It is not too late to change the behavior because the long we wait, the more the problem escalates. (Barlow, 1997).
Problem assessment
Cigarette smoking is one of the growing behaviors in most of our youths today. This is because cigarettes are been sold everywhere and there is no any law which is against cigarette smoking. This is a legal business done in almost all the countries and people smoke anywhere even in the streets. So it is due to legalizing of cigarette smoking that many people find it good to smoke. Peer pressure is also another cause of smoking in that when you mingle with bad peers, who are smokers, it definite that you will also find yourself smoking. The price of cigarettes is also cheap as when compared with other drugs like marijuana, bhang, cannabis sativa so because it is one of the cheapest drugs, it means that it can be accessed by the majority in the society hence many people find themselves smoking not knowing the side effects of smoking. So in this case my volunteer has a difficult in coping with the behavior simply because he has a coronary heart disease which is one of the killer diseases. His doctor advised him to stop smoking but because he is already addicted, he is so much willing to stop but he does not know how to do it since addiction is one of the bad side effects of smoking. When I tried to assess his behavior, I found that it is at the last stage since most of the effects of smoking have already affected him. But there is nothing which can not be changed. It’s quite easy to change this behavior since my volunteer has to say no to smoking and things will be good for him. So here, I think the best measurement toll to use is the readiness to change ruler since it has various stages whereby the volunteer can be in a position to mark on the progress he is making when trying to change his behavior. (Hersen, 2000).
Proposed remediation
There are a number of behavior change objectives which the volunteer can experience as a result of quitting smoking. One of the objectives in this case is concentration in class. This is because this person is still in school and lacks concentration since he spends most time thinking about smoking. Another objective is healthy of the volunteer will improve. This is because this person has a bad health simply because the little dollars he has goes to purchasing cigarette. The last but not the list is that he will be in a position to overcome his coronary heart disease because he was advised by his doctor to stop smoking so that the situation can be healed.
Due to the issue of addiction, there will be a timeline since it has to take time for it to treat. So with this case, the volunteer will be given a period of two weeks to try and stop the habit. It is after the two weeks that the volunteer has to come again for further discussions. This is because behavior change has to go through stages before it stops hence patient very important. (Baer, 2005).
Measurement instrument used
The measurement tools to be used in this case are the readiness to change ruler. This is because changing this particular behavior needs some stages which need to be undergone due to the addiction problem. This is because these are the tools which can best fit in this process in trying to change the behavior of this person. The line below represents the readiness to change ruler whereby the volunteer will record the various stages of changing behavior. There is a follow up to be done to ensure that if there is any change which is happening to my volunteer. When using the readiness to change ruler, the volunteer has to follow the stages as shown in the diagram whereby he is supposed to go marking the proceedings he is making as far the change of behavior is concerned. This instrument will be useful to the volunteer simply because he will be in a position to know the progress he is making. The following set of questions needs to be answered. (Alvard, 2001).
(Not prepared to change) (Already changing)
- If you consider changing, what would be the benefits?
- What chances are you taking not changing your behavior?
- What are some of the benefits you will experience after changing the behavior?
- What obstacles you will come across when trying to change the behavior?
- What will be different about your environment?
- What things do you require in order to change your behavior? I.e. people, places or even things. (Cooper, 2002).
Conclusion
Behavior change is important since it’s through behavior change that people can have changed lifestyles hence leading to their improvements on their health. So with the behavior change, it is important to understand the behavior and its repercussions so as to be in a position to change it. Various helping skills were useful in my assessment since it’s out of my knowledge of counseling that I was in a position to help this volunteer. My knowledge of trying to understand the major causes and the effects of smoking was also useful in this case.
Reference
Cooper, J. (2002): Measurement and analysis of behavioral techniques. Columbus, Ohio: Merrill.
Hersen, M. (2000): Strategies for studying behavior change. New York: Pergamon Press.
Baer, D. (2005): Some current dimensions of applied behavior analysis. Journal of Applied behavioral analysis. Vol. 1. pp 91-97.
Barlow, D. (1997): Single case experimental design: Strategies for studying behavior Change. New York: Pergamon.
Hall, R. (2001): Changing criterion designs: An applied behavior analysis procedure. Hillsdale, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc, Publishers.
Bates, P. (1997): Improving the work performance of severely retarded young adults: The Use of the changing criterion procedural design. Education and training of the mentally retarded, Vol. 15. pp 67-104.
Higgings-Hains, A. (2006): A multi-element design for early interventions research: Some considerations. Journal of applied behavior analysis. Vol. 15. pp 67-79.
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Harris, F. (2003): Effects of adult’s social reinforcement on child behavior. The control Of human behavior. Vol. 21.
Alvard, M. (2001): The various approaches to behavioral change. Gainesville: University Of Florida Press.