1. Chapter Nine Social Work Practice with Individuals & Families
Social Work & Social Welfare: An Invitation (3rd ed.)

2. Getting Started
Describe a change you have made in your life…

3. Key Ideas The planned change process Engagement Assessment
Intervention
Evaluation
Termination

4. Practice with Individuals & Families
Micro level of practice
Working one-on-one with the client system to identify and assess a need and develop a plan for facilitating a change
From social casework to generalist practice model
96% of social work practitioners spend a portion of their time providing direct services to clients

5. The Change Process Overview
Engagement
Assessment
Intervention
Evaluation
“Start where the client is”
Homework: “Starting where the client is”

6. Engagement
The process of eliciting information using both verbal and nonverbal communication
Establish a working relationship: rapport, trust, and respect
Skills: speech, language, nonverbal cues, cultural considerations
Engagement is the process of eliciting information using both verbal and nonverbal communication
Engagement can be facilitated by:
Use language appropriate to the client’s culture, ethnicity, and social group
Patiently listening without interrupting, prompting, or interjecting words
Maintaining eye contact where culturally appropriate
Avoiding distracting behaviors

7. Assessment
Provides the basis for understanding the client’s system’s situation and planning the intervention
Gather relevant information
Define and prioritize issues
Plan intervention
Appropriate interview practice behaviors can include:
Using a balance of open- and closed-ended questions
Avoiding excessive questioning
Periodic reflection (recapping or rephrasing the client’s response)

8. Family Assessment: Genogram
Not in textbook - online

9. Intervention
The phase of the social work relationship in which the actual work is completed
Planning: identifying needs, strengths, and resources
Implementation: regular review of contract
Two steps in intervention
Planning: the social worker and the client identify areas for change, prioritize goals and define each goal in specific achievable terms
Implementation: reviewing the contract on a regular basis enables the client and the social worker to monitor progress

10. Evaluation
The process by which the social worker and client system assess the progress and success of their efforts
Contract as basis for evaluation
Documentation: “If it isn’t documented, it didn’t happen.”
Evaluation is the process by which the worker and client assess the success of their efforts and determine whether it is time to terminate the relationship
Process evaluations focus on the way in which the service was delivered to the client
Outcome evaluations focus on empirical examinations of the change that occurred
Timing may be determined by agency protocol

11. Termination
Defined as the official breaking-off of the social worker-client relationship
Part of empowerment perspective
Successful termination includes:
Plan for maintaining change
Expressing feelings about the relationship
Termination is built into the intervention – concept is introduced at the first encounter
Termination can occur when:
The goals have successfully been achieved
The client withdraws from the relationship
The client is no longer eligible to receive services.
The social worker feels that the goals cannot be achieved
The social worker or agency is no longer the most appropriate service provider
The social worker leaves the agency

12. Exercise
Practice applying the planned change process