Talk about Money. Studying the Interaction between Social Worker and Client

During the last two decades there has been an increase in the number of studies, especially in the Nordic countries, of the talk between social worker and client. This paper presents an overview of these studies. The focus of many of the studies has been the transformation of a private citizen with a personal financial problem into a client with an institutionally legitimate financial problem. This transformation process is mainly effected in the conversation between social worker and client.     

A STUDY OF SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE WITH GROUPS

This paper presents the second stage of a study on group use in social work in Quebec. The first stage had identified 72 practitioners working with 130 client groups, and 60 of these workers participated in the second stage interview. The interview explored characteristics of social work practice with groups, and studied personal and organizational factors which may influence group use. The findings suggest group use in social work is characterized by a diversity of group goals, client populations and service settings. Most groups are small units formed by the worker. and their membership is closed during the duration of the group which is usually from 8 to 15 meetings. Structure varies, but most groups base program on discussion or structured exercises, and most workers assume a facilitator or therapist role. Despite these commonalities, there appear to be several distinct styles of practice which vary according to type of group goal, role of worker, and theoretical influences on the worker. These styles vary especially in the extent to which the worker takes a central leadership position or shares group tasks with members.     

社会工作者个人素质在民族社会工作价值体系中的地位

社会工作者个人素质在民族社会工作价值体系中居于一个重要的地位，它集中体现在尊重、同理心、案主权益第一的原则、知情权四个方面。社会工作者的个人素质不仅会在助人结果方面对受助者产生影响，还会在助人技巧方面对社会工作者本人产生影响，进而对社会工作专业也造成影响。     

Applying for money The encounter between social workers and clients--A question of morality

Correspondence to Lars-Christer Hydén, Department of Social Work, Stockholm University, S-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden Summary The facts of household finances generally obtain their meaningfrom the moral standards of everyday life: it is in relationto these standards that we evaluate our personal finances. Personswho lack money and apply for social welfare compensation generallyhave to turn to a public social welfare bureau where their eligibilityis assessed by a professional social worker. The central questionfor the present study is how social workers and clients dealwith the morally delicate question of personal financial deficitsand how this question should be processed in a formal and institutionalsetting by formal means. This problem is discussed through ananalysis of conversations between social workers and clientsat social welfare bureaux in the municipality of Stockholm,Sweden. In pursuing a formal inquiry the social worker is conductinga moral search: the social worker has to determine the moralcharacter of the client and the circumstances around his/herhandling of his/her own financial situation. The ‘relevantcharacteristics of the citizen’ that the social workertries to match with the beneficiary rules are of a moral nature.In this respect, the social worker is not only a social workerbut also a moral worker. In order to define and defend his orher moral character the client has to pursue the financial issueas a moral issue. In the encounter, the client alludes to everydaycircumstances to account for his/her financial situation andto justify it by applying everyday moral standards.     

An Interactionist View of the Social Work Interview

Summary The paper considers the relevance of the five sub-branches ofthe interactionist perspective to the social work interviewand suggests a model incorporating all five. Such a model illustrateshow conflict between the social worker and the client may ariseand the author tentatively suggests how such conflict may beresolved     

哈氏理论对社会工作的启示——把哈贝马斯带到社工实践中来

本文主要探讨的是哈贝马斯的理论对社会工作四个面向的启示。在社会工作反思方面,批判理论有助于社工警惕服务的异化。在社会工作分析方面,生活世界殖民化理论有助于社工洞察案主困扰的根源。在社会工作伦理方面,商谈伦理学有助于社工走出伦理的迷失。在社会工作实务方面,理想的沟通情境有助于社工开启温馨的对话。总之,本文致力于把哈贝马斯的论述带到社会工作实践中来。在文章最后,也对在社会工作实践中运用哈贝马斯理论的局限性作了说明。     

The Intersubjective Action of Case Advocacy and Engagement in a Working Alliance

This article presents a viewpoint for explaining the positive associations between case advocacy and the engagement in a working alliance of low‐income single mothers at‐risk for physical abuse of their children. Utilizing narrative vignettes from a qualitative study about clinical social workers’ experiences in engaging this population, the article suggests that client/worker partnerships in case advocacy enhanced opportunities for client/worker mutuality and for worker capacities to experience and communicate empathy to their clients. Theoretical constructs from Daniel J. Stern’s infant research and neuroscience are then applied to suggest an intersubjective framework for understanding what occurred.     

The Fieldwork Team Response: An Investigation into the Relationship between Client Categories, Referred Problems and Outcome

Correspondence to Peter C. Burke, Lecturer in Social Work, Department of Social Policy and Professional Studies, The University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX. Summary This paper concerns a study of the outcome achieved followingfieldwork responses to referred client problems within particularclient categories. The evidence from the study demonstratesthat while referred client problems initiate the social workresponse, administratively assigned client groups were a betterdeterminant of outcome. It is shown that the category of a caseis more directly related to outcome than is the problem referred.If social work is to be predominantly based on client categorizationthen polarization will result, represented by an increasinglyprofessional child care practice and a more basic servicingrole for the worker with elderly and handicapped people. Thispresents dangers for the organization of teams, the allocationof resources, and the training of social workers. Taking accountof client problems as part of caseload management should reducethis effect.     

“Point–Counterpoint: Can You Hear Me? A Therapist Listens”: A Case Study

This article explores the experiential psychotherapeutic process between two people: client and therapist. Ethnic, cultural, racial, socioeconomic, and religious diversity is seen through the clinical social worker’s biopsychosocial lenses with a psychoanalytic foundation and social context. Focus is on the transformational potential within the client–therapist relationship via the art of listening and the concomitant struggle toward deepening meaning, clarity of biographical narrative, and, thus, life-enhancing trajectories. Levels of therapeutic listening are noted and explored.     

The story of the PPO queen: the development and acceptance of a spoiled identity in child protection social work

The efficacy of child protection social work is regularly being questioned in the media as vociferous critics deride the profession for the apparent failings of its practitioners. This paper aims to examine the impact this hostility can have on practice and the relationship practitioners develop with their organization and subsequently the families they work with. By using autoethnography, a personal experience I encountered whilst working as a statutory social worker for an Emergency Duty Team will be explored in detail in order to analyse how discursive regimes can endorse and encourage particular ways of thinking and doing for social workers. I also intend to demonstrate that when workers operate in a risk averse environment, oppressive practices can develop subconsciously. These not only affect professionals’ values and assumptions but also fortify distance between the social worker and the client. If social work is to facilitate positive change in the current climate of uncertainty, then it is hoped that this story may enable both practitioners, and their critics, to recognize that being open to different forms of knowledge could lead to better outcomes for all involved.     

Client contribution in negotiations on employability – categories revised?

Eskelinen L, Olesen SP, Caswell D. Client contribution in negotiations on employability – categories revised? Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 330–338 © 2010 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and International Journal of Social Welfare. In this article, we explore how the institutional category ‘unemployed’ is specified in everyday practice when implementing an active employment policy. We illustrate the process of categorisation as an aspect of the in situ positioning and self‐representation of the client by examining one social worker–client talk: how the category unemployed is shaped and ‘translated’ when the client negotiates her situation with the social worker. Two types of category revisions are identified. First, the employability of the client, rather than her unemployment situation, is the issue under negotiation. Second, the client introduces new categories that are compatible with the demands of the employment system. She contributes by drawing on discursive resources related to the category of ‘active job seeker’ but does this with an own agenda of looking for a suitable job. The analysis elucidates the client's contribution to institutional practice and discusses constitutive and constituted elements of categorisation.     

Open Records: The Client's Right to Partnership

Summary Many Social Services Departments have opened their files totheir clients or intend to do so. This reflects the incomingtide of concern about citizens' rights and client participation,but what effect might the opening of records have on the practiceof social work? The paper summarizes the findings of a small scale study inwhich a team of social workers opened their case recording toa selected number of clients. The workers’ and clients‘views of this process are described, along with the implicationsfor practice. The study suggests that a focus on shared recordingcan begin to alter the kind of work done by the social worker,helping to promote a partnership between the worker and theclient. Finally, the paper argues that a policy of client access enforcedonly as a right is prone to sabotage or a fall into disuse.A seven point training programme is outlined in order to helpsocial workers use Open Records as an opportunity to promotea partnership in their work with clients.     

Correlates of Social Worker Contact with Clients' Family Networks

The study examined the degree of social worker contact with the family networks of a sample of new elderly applicants (N = 122) to the social welfare services of Jerusalem. Greater contact was correlated with frail status of the client and a request for institutional care. A curvilinear relationship was found with network accessibility. These correlations disappeared, however, when degree of family initiated contact with the social worker was considered together with the other variables, through multiple classification analysis. Implication of these findings for the interweaving of formal and informal supports are considered.     

The Effects of Physical Attractiveness on Clinical Judgments

Seventy-two social workers were the subjects in a study investigating the effects of two client characteristics, physical attractiveness and verbal expressiveness, upon the clinical perceptions of the social worker. Subjects completed questionnaires containing vignettes experimentally manipulating the two client characteristics. Subjects were randomly assigned one of the vignettes and completed two separate rating scales. The data analysis revealed strong main effects for verbal expressiveness. However, there was no main effect found for physical attractiveness nor any interaction effect for verbal expressiveness and physical attractiveness. The results of this study demonstrate that verbal clients are perceived more favorably by social workers than are nonverbal clients regardless of the physical attractiveness of the client.     

An Interview: Constructing Reality

Summary This paper is concerned with the relevance of interactionistperspectives in sociology to social work practice. Crucial tothese perspectives are the ‘meanings’ that peoplegive to situations and the ways they interpret actions. Basically,they are grounded on the assumption that there is no such thingas a single social reality. There are many different constructionswhich depend on the identities of the different people involvedand on the context in which they occur. The paper is based ontape recorded excerpts from an interview between a client, MrsSmith, and a social worker, from a discussion about some aspectsof that interview between the social worker and the writer,and from a discussion about the case between the team leaderand the writer. This material suggests different interpretationsof the situation, information gained in the discussion withthe social worker providing new ideas about the original interview.The views of the different people involved indicate that itis helpful to take into account the organizational context ofthe interviews. It is also suggested that conceiving of interviewsas ways of constructing reality has implications for the studyof social work practice.     

Agency-Family Partnerships

This paper describes a research and demonstration project in which partnerships are formed between agency social workers and family members of elderly clients. While the social worker retains responsibility for counseling and provision of support to the elderly client, the family member is taught by the social worker to assume responsibility for the case management of services provided to his/her elderly relative. Practice issues which have emerged during the first year of this three-year project include: the generalizability of findings in light of the special characteristics of agency clients, the definition of the agency-family partnership, confidentiality in the context of this partnership, exceptions to family involvement, clients without families, and our experiences with research-practice collaboration. Each of these issues is discussed in this paper.     

助人关系量表简介

助人关系量表是社会工作实务中用于评估助人关系强度的量表。它有助于社会工作者和案主检验他们对助人关系的认知。该量表由工作者版本和案主版本组成,信效度高。它既是一个测量工具,又可促进助人关系,适合于各种助人情境。     

心理社会治疗模式在老年个案中的运用及反思

本个案通过运用心理社会治疗模式和技巧,帮助案主面对现实,消除情绪困扰,适应养老机构环境,康复身体等,并达到了预期的效果。兹为对我国老年社会工作的发展提供参考。     

心理社会治疗模式在老年个案中的运用及反思

本个案通过运用心理社会治疗模式和技巧，帮助案主面对现实，消除情绪困扰，适应养老机构环境，康复身体等，并达到了预期的效果。兹为对我国老年社会工作的发展提供参考。     

A Comparative Study of the Management of Cases of Deliberate Self-Harm in a District General Hospital

Correspondence to Michael Bateson, Senior Psychiatric Social Worker, Lancaster Moor Hospital, Lancaster, Lanes. Summary A controlled study was undertaken of two services assessingand managing cases of deliberate self-harm admitted to a casualtydepartment. The first service featured psychiatrists only andthe second included psychiatric social workers as well as psychiatrists. A combination of standardized instruments, a structured questionnaire,a twelve month diary and medical and social work files wereused to collect information. Demographic factors, repetitionrates, types of help offered, client satisfaction, social circumstancesand general health were investigated. Few significant differences were found to have existed betweenthe client populations of the two services at initial assessment.Also, there were no apparent differences in factors interveningbetween initial assessment and follow-up. However, the analysisof outcome measures indicates that clients benefited substantiallyfrom the addition of a psychiatric social worker in the followingareas: help offered, client satisfaction, social circumstancesand general health. These results are discussed.