Assignment 2

Consumer I have chosen is a 39 year old male.  He comes from a Jewish family, but was not raised abiding by Jewish traditions.  His mother celebrates Christmas. Recently, approximately 8 months ago, the consumer lost his father. He currently resides in an apartment by himself, and relies on staff for assistance with more complex planning of everyday activities and financial planning. He currently likes his working arrangement with the agency.  The consumer is very proud of his independence.  In the past he was in and out of the hospital, yet for the past two years he has been able to control his outbursts and stay out of the hospital all together. Consumer displays self-injurious behavior when he gets anxious or upset.  Behavior such as biting finger nails, banging head against the wall or banging his fists against his head, poking himself in face or eyes.  Some things that get upset or get him mad are when people get firm with him, if something is moved
or is misplaced, and change. Things that calm him down are, workbooks, music, watching movies, and talking on the phone. 
He has been diagnosed with organic personality disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and Asperger’s syndrome.  Consumer was referred to agency from a mental health hospital.  Before coming to the agency, the consumer was in and out of the hospital, with each time doing worse than before.
Asperger’s syndrome criterion, according to the DSM-IV, “ are severe and sustained impairment in social interaction, and development of restricted repetitive patterns of behavior, interest’s and activities.” 
Organic Personality Disorder is an old term no longer used in psychiatry. It dates back a number of years, and includes dementia, delirium; psychosis not related to schizophrenia or mood disorders, brain injured patients, patients with diseases that affect behavior. 
Consumer D shows more obsessions, than compulsions.  Obsessions are, “persistent ideas, thoughts, impulses, that are experienced as intrusive and cause marked anxiety and distress.” (DSM _ IV p, 457) Currently, he takes only two prescriptions to manage his symptoms.   On his last visit to the hospital he became violent

Consumer D and I have been working on maintaining his independence. Throughout our sessions we write out his behavior before he was independent and his behavior now.  We go over his coping skills and how to maintain them.  By writing down his coping skills repeatedly he has a physical reminder he can look to when he becomes upset. Consumer D is an incredibly intelligent man. 

The behaviors I have chosen to intervene with is the consumers lack of desire and follow through with his general hygiene; an overt behavior.

The consumer is eager to assist me with the study.  I had presented the study to him from a “ I need your help with this..”  and he was very willing to help.

My field instructor is interested to see the outcomes of the study.  She believes that having this consumer self record will help him commit to the behaviors.

1st assignment

Currently I am an inter at an agency that works with developmentally disabled individuals. It is a non-profit agency that has been serving New Jersey's special needs community since 1986. The agency was the brainstorm of prominent UJA Federation Board members who identified a growing need within the Jewish (and non-Jewish) community for services for individuals with developmental disabilities within community settings. After much advocacy the New Jersey Department of Human Services, Division for Developmental Disabilities agreed to the establishment of the first Kosher group home in New Jersey. Currently the organization operates 10 residences (group homes and supportive apartments) in Bergen County. New Jersey’s first kosher group home opened in 1988. It’s second was dedicated in 1994.


Currently I work with the apartments community of independent as supervised apartments. My consumers are all males.

I have not chosen which consumer I would like to track the progressive of. My supervisor and I discussed two potential consumers that would be eligible for these assignments. One consumer M, I would be tracking his daily activity level. He also has a problem with gorging on food, so I would like to track his ability to control himself throughout the week. Consumer D has weekly responsibilities that he must complete but still needs prompting to get them done, I would be working on completing those activities with no prompting making him more independent this achieving a goal and having the ability to track. I was thinking of tracking both of these consumers and seeing who does better, and see how and why.