Skills In Social Work

The assessment process is the back bone to any package of care and it is vital that it is personal and appropriate to the individual concerned. Although studies have found that there is no singular theory or understanding as to what the purpose of assessment is, there are different approaches and forms of assessment carried out in health and social care. These different approaches can sometimes result in different outcomes.

A typical day for a social worker consists of helping those that are in need, providing appropriate resources, and empowering their clients. Before a social worker can help their clients, they will need to do an assessment. An assessment consists of learning about the individual and their everyday lives. According to Timberlake, Zajicek-Farber, and Sabatino (2008), “The client system and the social worker conduct an assessment of problems, needs, strengths, and resources; establish priorities and goals; and reach agreement about the preintervention date-collection activities necessary to provide a baseline for evaluating change” (p. 79). It is important for the social worker to collect all this information because it will provide insight on

Contact between an addictions counsellor and a client is usually initiated by the client referring him/her self, an outside agency refers them, family physician or the addictions counsellor initiates contact through outreach or other agencies. Assessment can be seen as the beginning of treatment and it becomes an opportunity to encourage the client to begin to move towards change. The initial assessment involves a mutual investigation and exploration between the client

Social work professions need to understand the importance of how individuals interact both with other people and their environment, to have an understanding how individuals are affected by these interactions (Rogers, p. 2). According to Rogers (2016), “Social workers are knowledgeable about human behavior across the life course; the range of social systems in which people live; and the ways social systems promote or deter people in maintaining or achieving health and well-being. Social workers apply theories and knowledge from the liberal arts to understand biological, social, cultural, psychological, and spiritual development (p. 2). Their work with clients begins with assessments to evaluations of intervention and is based in and supports of the core value system of the profession.

Assessment is a basic skill of generalist social workers. As my current place of employment does not employ any defined assessment, I will utilize

In social work practice, client assessments are important because they allow social workers to gather information from clients. This information helps the acting social worker better understand clients presenting problems. The assessment also helps social workers evaluate a client’s progress and evaluate the effectiveness of interventions used. In this paper, a multidimensional assessment will be performed on a client I have been working with at my internship placement, Urban Ministries of Durham. Once all relevant information is presented, and intervention and treatment plan will be discussed.

Constructing a treatment and service plan for a client involves various components. Prior to starting a treatment plan the professional should carry out a client evaluation. The evaluation should determine the basis of the difficulty or issues and assess the back ground of the client. After the completion of the evaluation, a professional can start constructing an agreement to fulfill the needs of the client. The treatment plan should include goals that relate to the difficulties and issues the client is experiencing, this assessment will discuss the components of Mr. McCunes personalized treatment program.

The treatment plan can help the case manager see if what are the needs and what are the strength of the client and also an opportunity to move on.

The structure of the treatment plan includes problem statements, goals, objectives, and strategies/ interventions. The treatment plan must be tailored to the client’s individual needs and written in behavioral terminology, that the client will be able to understand. The treatment plan forces both the client and counselor to focus on the client’s needs and goals they want to accomplish while in treatment.

One of the most important skill to have as a social worker is to identify your client’s strengths. All social workers should have knowledge of an effective leader that are identified by their strengths or limitations in order to improve the one’s they identify. There are several evidence-based assessments that help identify the strengths and limitations of any individual. Thus, it is also necessary to obtain other perspective based on your leadership strengths or limitations in order to improve or strengthen those qualities. The self-assessments used through this paper will help me develop a plan that points out my challenges, help expand and improve on my strengths (Human Services Guide, 2015).

Motivational interviewing is a counseling approach that was studied and understood as an applicable theory of practice that would be beneficial in the environment where I currently work which is an alcohol treatment facility. Whereas, it is understood that clinical and applied aspects of Motivational Interviewing (MI) have shown effective as a relatively brief intervention (Levensky, Cavasos, & Brooks, 2008), especially those dealing with an alcohol dependency. According to Miller and Roderick, MI, has been defined mostly as a directive, client centered counseling approach for eliciting behavior change by helping clients to explore and resolve ambivalence. In addition, with its goal-orientated approach it can help break down resistance to change (Corey, 2013, pp. 191-194). This theoretical approach is the most favored for the environment in my profession of choice, in addition, integrating it with the practice of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) which is already in use.

The client, Maria received a score of nineteen on her Alcohol Screening Questionnaire (AUDIT). Maria’s score can be interpreted as being in zone three which is considered harmful. The appropriate action for the aforementioned zone is a brief intervention or referral to specialized treatment. The intervention process is a procedure that is used to highlight how problematic alcohol use can be in one’s life. After the client and social worker’s realization of the frequency and seriousness of the patient’s alcohol use, it is advantageous to formulate a plan to lessen alcohol usage. Motivational Interviewing is a method that can be used in counseling sessions which encourages the client to become a motivated participator of change by identifying, exploring, and resolving he or she’s ambivalence towards their damaging behavior [PowerPoint Slides]. MI is collaborative and client-centered thus the patient can contribute to their planned change process. The process of MI involves appealing to, concentrating on, evoking, and lastly, planning with the patient. Subsequent steps of MI are reflection, summarization, and exploring inconsistencies [PowerPoint Slides]. Shifting gears,

I think that it is very important for a social worker to tune into their own experience. For the simple fact that as social workers we are taught to connect with the client on their level. In order for a social worker to connect on the clients level that have to be able to have a genuine understanding of the client and the only way to do that it so b able to relate to the client through the social workers experiences.

Everyone can help one another but it is not everyone that has the necessary skills to help people properly. Competency is very important when working with people and being in the school of social work, we are taught the nine competencies and how to use them. Poulin & Matis, S. (2015) wrote, “According to Drisko (2014), competence refers to “the ability of an individual to perform a task,” further adding that “the task must be performed fully and properly” (p. 416)” (p. 1). Not everybody can call themselves a social worker because for them to be able to do that, they have to be able to perform the tasks of a social work to properly and in order to do that they have to go through different sets of training and course for them to be able to execute the job right. Training is not just a one-time thing; it is an ongoing processes that professional have to go through in order to grow in the field. Poulin, J., & Matis, S. (2015) also wrote that “McKnight (2013) proposes that competence is an “ongoing ability” to “integrate knowledge, skills, judgment, and professional attributes in order to practice safely and ethically” within one’s professional scope (p. 460)” (p. 1). It is a way to build on to what you have already learn and by doing that your knowledge will increase, judgment call will increase and you will be able to “practice safe and ethically.”

Motivational Interviewing (MI) refers to a client centred counselling approach, which is directed to enhance motivation in an individual for behaviour change Miller & Rollnick (as cited in Christopher & Dougher, 2009). MI as a method understands and accepts that the clients are at different levels of readiness to change their behavior. It consistently focuses on goals to prepare the client for transformation by providing motivation for commitment to change (Bricker & Tollison, 2011) in the domains of substance abuse, addiction and risky health problems. It proceeds to make the client aware of the causes, consequences and risks that could be a result of the behavior. Through this, the client foresees the possibilities of enhancement and becomes motivated to achieve it (Jenson, Cushing, Aylward, Craig, Sorell & Steel, 2011). MI is coherent with the