Question

Charlie is a 14-year-old boy, 5 feet tall and weighing 100 lbs. He had a juvenile criminal history. He was arrested and put in an adult prison for shooting and killing Charlie, his mother’s boyfriend George, who also was a local police officer. George had a history of physically and psychologically abusing Charlie’s mother and enacting physical and psychological trauma on Charlie.

1. Describe and analyze the physical and psychological trauma that Charlie experienced.
2. Briefly explain how you as Charlie’s social worker would engage and assess him for trauma.

Answer 1

Describe and analyze the physical and psychological trauma that Charlie experienced.

As George has physically abused Charlie's mother, so he might have experienced physical trauma in terms of concussions, deep cuts, broken bones or sudden forceful blows.

The psychological trauma might be in terms of child abuse, frustration, depression and anxiety.

Briefly explain how you as Charlie’s social worker would engage and assess him for trauma.

Being Charlie's social worker, I would first soothe him by saying that now George is no more and worst is over, so there is no need to panic. Then I would engage him with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) because this would be highly beneficial for him to come out of distress, trauma and guilt of killing someone.