Can Anyone Help?

Sarah Harris, your supervisor at the New York pretrial diversion program, has been pleased with your work and believes you are ready to handle an entire case on your own. The facts of the case are as follows:

Steve Z. is a 15-year-old who is chronically truant to and absent from school. He is living with his single father, Larry Z., who believes he does not have any control or say over what his son does. The 15-year-old’s parents divorced when he was 11, and a bitter custody fight ensued that eventually led to his father gaining sole legal and sole physical custody of him. His mother was a severe substance abuser addicted to methamphetamine, had several arrests for prostitution, and had sporadic housing. While her mental health has always been questionable, she was never formally diagnosed with any DSM IV TR mental disorder, but this may simply be a function of her refusal to show up at scheduled evaluations as part of her probation. She could not physically care for him according to court documents from the parties’ custody trial. The 15-year-old was recently suspended from school for bringing marijuana to his history class. The school contacted the police and the 15-year-old has been charged with possession of marijuana, which is a minor misdemeanor. The court has released him to the pretrial diversion program. The school has reported the father to the local Child Protective Services (CPS) Agency for educational neglect because of the 15-year-old’s repeated absence and truancy to school.

Determine which issues are important to address based on the fact pattern. You should identify at least 5–6 issues raised by the scenario. Once you have determined which issues to address, your job is to prepare a memo to your supervisor outlining an entire case management plan for Steve Z. Your case management plan should contain the following sections: Needs assessment

1. Service plan
2. Coordination of client to appropriate services
3. Monitoring progress of client
4. Advocacy for client

• Prepare a memo to your supervisor outlining an entire case management plan for Steve Z.
• Make sure that your plan is constructed keeping in mind that the agency in which you are working deals with pretrial diversion. Your memo should demonstrate an understanding of what pretrial diversion is, and how diversion can benefit Steve Z.
• The memo should include each of the 5 functions of case management listed above, and be specific to Steve Z.’s case.

Be certain to use the facts within the scenario. Post your individual portion to the small group files.