e.g.

Client systems are seeking services and are

expected beneficiaries of services. As such, the
professional working relationship with clients
includes the more facilitative relational
conditions of respect, empathy, warmth,
genuineness and unconditional positive regard
and conveys energy and hope for goal
accomplishment
 Before discussing the problem in any
depth, it is necessary for the social worker
to prepare for the contract. The worker
tries to learn about the culture, need,
strengths and resources of the system. He
also tries to understand his own culture,
needs and resources to form a “fit” for
positive interaction. After brief
introduction, the purpose for coming
needs to be expressed.
 The social worker tries to become aware
of the feelings of the client system as they
relate to the problem situation. It maybe
awkward for a person to engage in a
discussion about private feelings with a social
worker in the early phase of working
relationship.
To be able to help a client system discuss
relevant feelings, the social worker needs to
have a broad vocabulary to discuss feelings.
 The social worker should be able to build
collaborative relationship to the client system. To
achieve this, he should make use of active and
reflective listening behavior, paying full attention
to client system’s verbal and non verbal
expressions of thoughts, feelings, and experiences
with the present problem, current situation, and
means of coping and changes that may have
occurred.
Techniques could be paraphrasing, clarifying,
questioning and summarizing themes and points in
the client system’s narrative to accurately reflect
the content and process of their messages.
 Goals are desired outcome towards which
intervention activity is directed.
Forms:
•Learning a skill or acquiring particular knowledge
for decision making or fulfilling particular role
•Making an important decision about a course of
action
•Changing behavior to increase desired outcome
•Altering feelings or attitudes towards self or others
•Resolving a conflicted relationship
•Changing appraisal of life events to develop a new
perspective
 A working climate is established wherein a
client system’s fears, problems, needs, strengths
and goals are exposed. There are 3 possible
outcomes:
•Role induction―the client system agrees to
proceed with the outline intervention process
•Referral―Since the client system cannot be
adequately served by the present agency and
the social worker has an obligation to help the
system gain access to needed services, linking
or brokering services is offered
•Discontinuation of services―reasons: (1) the
 Involves reviewing up to what
extent engagement principles and
processes (identifying problems
and needs, identifying strengths
and resources, recognizing feelings
and reactions and etc.) has been
accomplished.
 a process and a product of
understanding that serves as
the basis of action (Boyet et
al. 2006, Timberlake et al.
2008)
According to Adams, Dominelli,
and Payne P. (292), it consists of
these tasks:
1. gathering relevant information;
2. Constructing a “picture” of the
situation;
3. Considering possible courses of
action; and
4. Deciding upon the courses of
action to be pursued
 In data gathering, its essential to
apply “principle of parsimony” wherein
only information that has relevance to
the situation and is essential to the
formation of valid working judgement
must be collected. Sources: client
(primary), people who play significant
role in client’s life (secondary), and
records, test reports, studies and
evaluation of various kind (final).
 Johnson supports that social work
assessment is a picture, made up of all
available facts and fit together within a
particular frame of reference for a
particular purpose.
The skills that are used during
assessment include goal setting, planning,
contracting, and recording. Goal
emphasizes client system’s growth and
gains. According to Timberlake et al.
(2008), goals have multiple functions:
 goal setting is explored in the context of
the client system’s values as well as the goals’
feasibility in light of agency functions,
environmental constraints, and the reality of
the situation, behaviors and attitudes
targeted for change.
As social workers involve the client or
action system in contracting, interviewing
skills, such as clarifying, bargaining, and
confronting, may be needed. The supportive
skills of listening, guiding, feeling, and
sensing are prevalent throughout the
assessment and contract planning process.
 the link between
assessment and intervention
and is the activity focused on
change. During this phase,
every effort is made to
conceptualize and verbalize the
identified problems, strengths,
and corresponding goals.
 All these are put into what is
called control plan. It specifies
each component and action in the
plan. In developing a contract, full
participation of the client is
imperative to increase chances of
success, giving the client a sense
of ownership. At this stage, the
client should have a sense of being
in control to not foster dependency.
 A tool has been developed
that incorporated the essential
components of the contracted
plan. (1) problems, issues, and
needs (2) the goals to be
achieved (3). tasks to be
performed (4) the people who
will implement each task (5) the
projected date
 to facilitate empowerment
transactions between the client and the
environment. The goal is to enable
people to overcome conditions that
keep them from enjoying the benefits of
society. This includes finding ways to
meet the client’s needs so that they may
develop and function within their
environment to the best of their
potential.
 The goal of direct intervention is to promote
client system empowerment through objectives:
•Educating the client system about resources, critical
problem solving, and skills for taking action
•Providing support as the client system carries our
contracted tasks
•Creating opportunities for the client system to be
successful in strengths-based problem solving and
become empowered
•Assisting the client system to bring about planned
change
•Creating opportunities for the client system to gain
multiple collective aid
 Generalist practice intervention
with individuals, families, and
groups is derived from social study
and assessment. It is sanctioned by
the contract between practitioner
and the client. The implementation
phase of the intervention is
directed to meeting established
goals and may involve activities:
Evaluation is the process of determining
the effectiveness of our work with
clients and is concerned with whether
the outcomes the worker and client
hoped for what have been achieved.
When evaluating practice, social
worker must be alert to ways in which
decisions in this arena may have ethical
implications and must adhere to
obligation.
The purpose of termination is to sever the
professional relationship between the social
worker and client in a timely and responsible
manner. These factors should be considered
whether terminating our relationship with a
client is appropriate or not:
•Were the intervention objectives reached?
•Has an agreed upon time limit to service
provision been reached?
•Was the problem that the client brought to
the agency resolved?
•Will now the client be able to function at an
acceptable level and not be at risk of being
harmed by self or others?
An intra agency transfer (a transfer of client to
another worker within agency) is necessary when
any of the ff. occurs: the worker will no longer be
available to serve the client; the client will be
better served by another agency staff member
due to conflict; or there is a mutual
understanding between the client and the social
worker due to their differences. Ideally,
termination happens when the objectives set by
the worker and client for the helping relationship
have already been achieved. There are some
cases that termination happens because the client
is considered to be a physical danger to the
worker.
•The worker should avoid at all costs the
possibility of an abrupt termination.
•As termination approaches, it’s desirable to
gradually decrease the frequency of contact. If
the client is quite dependent to the worker, he
should exert effort to connect the client to the
available social network
•Utilize rituals (hugging, shaking hands,
exchange of small gifts, potluck meals, and
celebration at which the participants recall
highlights in the experience) to mark the ending
of a meaningful relationship.