Rosa Lee Cunningham Case Study

Rosa Lee Cunningham is a 52 year old black female. She is short with a long and handsome face. She is a long time heroin addict with a very long arrest record, from petty crime such as theft, to drug trafficking. She has eight children and six out of the eight, has followed into her footsteps of teenage parenthood, drugs, and crime. They are also addicted to drugs. Rosa Lee is unemployed and lives off of welfare assistance. She recently enrolled in a drug treatment program, but does not have any intentions of ending her heroin abuse, and she currently has been diagnosed with HIV. In addition to her heroin drug use, she has an issue with stealing/shoplifting and involves her grandchildren to assist her. Nothing seems to deter her from shoplifting,

She supported her family by waitressing in nightclubs, selling drugs, shoplifting, and working as a prostitute. Regarding Rosa Lee’s romantic and sexual relationships, she started having sex at an early age. Because of the lack of emotional support from her mother and the loss of her father, “the first boy I saw that showed me any kind of feeling, I just took my drawers off…I just took them off.” She recalls thinking that having sex would bond their relationship, but it did the exact opposite. He left her. Rosa Lee’s children were fathered by six different men, which do not help financially. Rosa Lee also reports being married to her third child’s father. She left him when he beat her after he found out she was having an affair with someone else. She reports having a relationship with a woman. During the relationship, her partner use to get high off of a drug called Predulin aka “bam” an amphetamine-like stimulant, which sparked Rosa Lee’s first time using drugs. Rosa Lee was first introduced to heroin in October 1975 by her oldest daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend. She recalls in on 47th birthday she almost died from a “hit” in the neck. Rosa Lee has a history of prostitution, she reports prostituting herself when working at a nightclub as a “stripteaser.” She reports prostituting to provide money for food to support her eight children. She has a long history of shoplifting, she reports her stealing began in her teenage years but her brother Ben, recalls Rosa Lee’s stealing began when we she was nine years old, stealing the kids lunch money in her