A Helping Relationship between the Social Worker and the Client - Essay Example

?Social Work: Task Centered Approach and Crisis Intervention Introduction The Crisis intervention therapy as Whittaker (n.d defines focuses on bringing a person back to the normal level of functioning when the person gets disoriented due to a crisis. Similarly, as Reid (1978, p. 83) states, the task centered model aims at helping the client alleviate problems that concern him, and to provide with a constructive problem solving experience that will encourage the client to use help if problems arise in the future and to strengthen own problem-solving skills. The beauty of both theories is that both, almost in the same way, believe in the clients’ desire to solve the problems, and both aim to improve the problem solving skills of the clients, thus promoting independence instead of dependency. The Applicability with Diverse Groups The beauty of these two approaches, according to Hepworth, Rooney and GD Rooney et al (2009, p. 364) is their applicability with different groups, especially the poor, minority and ethnocultural groups. This is largely because they emphasise on the right of clients to identify issues and focus on empowering the marginalised clients. In addition, they are helpful in removing the barriers to multicultural clinical practices as they largely accept the clients’ view of problems. However, the advantage of crisis intervention strategy and task centered approach is their use with different populations. Researchers like James (2008, p. 39) are of the belief that crisis intervention has universal application to people of color as it is common for people of color to experience crisis and due to barriers of culture, ethnicity, and racism. By the time they seek help, the issue will be in a chronic state. This approach has six stages namely: defining the problem, ensuring client safety, providing support, examining alternatives, making plans, and obtaining commitment (ibid). Now, it becomes evident that both the approaches are highly beneficial tools in social work as both believe in the centeredness of individuals and both are based on the theory of empowering the clients to manage their situation themselves, thus promoting independence instead of dependency. Below are certain features that make these approaches more preferable in social situations. The Patient Centeredness Both the approaches are patient-centered in nature. The task centered approach believes in the ability of the clients to solve their problems themselves or to ameliorate their issues to a tolerable level. The task centered approach is based on the assumption that most people possess adequate skills and resources to solve their problems themselves. In addition, it is believed that people have their innate desire to solve their problems. Problems arise in individual, family or social spheres that can block the resolution of problems. The task centered approach believes that people have the inborn capabilities to solve their problems or to remodel the situation to a tolerable level. Similarly, crisis intervention method too is based on the assumption that intervention becomes necessary when an individual is not able to manage the disorganisation and confusion caused by a crisis. This too accepts the fact that crisis can arise in families, groups, communities, and nations. In fact, both the approaches concentrate on empowering the patient, improving the level of functioning, and developing a place for handling crisis. In addition, both believe in the active participation of clients and both are short-term in nature. The purpose of the two approaches is to regain the lost equilibrium in the client’s life. The specialty of these approaches is the total participation of the clients in the procedure, and the success of the approaches is fully dependent on the client’s readiness to perform the tasks they are assigned. In both the cases, once the tasks and goals are set, there are regular meetings to monitor progress and to offer support in the effort to achieve the goals. The skills at this juncture required for a social worker are the ability to set tasks which are result oriented, doable, and to ensure that the client is provided adequate levels of support in the venture. In addition, the approach takes into consideration the fact that in certain circumstances; only the client can undertake the tasks to improve the situation. An example is provided by Beckett (2006, p. 104) in ‘Essential theory for social work practice’. He points out that if a mother is facing problems of her children wetting bed, the task to be undertaken are entirely by the mother or her children. The social worker can only provide support in effecting the change. However, the approaches have their shortcoming in the fact that they force the clients to change themselves during the hours of crisis (ibid). However, the beauty of the approaches is in the fact that they can adopt other forms of therapy including Rogerian counseling and care management to ensure that the goals set are achieved. This is so because once the tasks are set, the social worker’s activities are exclusively aimed at helping the client do it, because the basic concept of task centered approach is that the accomplishment of the tasks is the key to the success of the program. Similarly, in the crisis theory, a crisis is the threat to the homeostasis which leads to confusion and disorganisation. In this concept a crisis is considered time bound, which usually takes four to six weeks. According to the crisis theory, when a person is confronted with a crisis, either the person will develop new skills to cope up with the crisis, or will fail to adapt and will decompensate to a lower level of functioning. The problem handling skills of the person are totally dependent on the person’s previous experience, the way the person views the new situation and the amount of help the person receives. According to the concept, a traumatic event can become a crisis if a person fails to cope with the new situation; and when it becomes a crisis, the anxiety level of the person increases. At this stage the person looks for help and in the final stage, the person possesses very short attention span, and behaves in an impulsive and unproductive way. At this stage, the relation with others ruins. The stress can be either maturational or situational in nature. Maturational crisis is the result of a gradual development of stress while situations crisis is the result of a sudden traumatic event. The examples of maturational crisis include leaving home, getting married, becoming a parent, starting school, attaining puberty, entering retirement and getting married. There are basically three reasons that lead to maturational crisis in these cases. They are the inability to accept the new role, the lack of personal flexibility to accept the role change, and the refusal of others to accept the role change. These maturational crises are predictable and hence preventable through counseling, and proper preparation for these changes. On the other hand, situational crisis is the result of a sudden, traumatic, and unavoidable event that distracts the existing role. Some examples of these events are failure in school, death of a close one, diagnosis of a chronic illness, and so on. Based on this theory, the crisis intervention approach believes in resolving the immediate problem and regaining emotional balance (ibid). In fact, crises are very important in the social work spheres. Most of the time, social workers meet people for the first time when the clients have their lives ruined by crisis. For example, workers in hospitals see patients whose lives are ruined by illness, and the ones who care the elderly have their clients unable to sustain their day to day lives independently. In fact, though many people look for long term support from social workers, due to restricted resources, they many not be able to provide long term service, and in certain cases, the presence of acute crisis is the basic criterion for people to expect social work service. Involvement of Patient in the Treatment The task centered method is one among the rare theories which had its origin within the social work. This theory does not offer detailed explanations but believes in emphasising on brief, focused interventions, which is solely aimed at helping the client to resolve their issues in short period of time, thus different from the interventions that drag clients into long term dependency on therapy. The theory of task centeredness aims at (1) helping the client solve a specified list of problems, and (2) improving the client’s problem solving skills in general by enhancing the person’s overall confidence level. Thus, the theory is helpful in the fact that it improves independence of individual rather than dependence. As Coady and Lehman (2007, p. 278) observe, action, especially client action is the most important source of change in the task centered theory. In addition, the beauty is that other theories and interventions can be incorporated as and when need arises as the task-centered approach is flexible (ibid). The first step in the task centered approach is identifying the problem. The theory has its specialty in this stage as in this approach, it is not the social worker but it is the client who decides and explains the problem. Many a time, the problem identified by the client may not be a problem at all in the outlook of the practitioner, and hence, the social workers may need to add totally new problems to their list. For example, a person finds problem in leaving their children alone at home. Thus, this method succeeds in developing client commitment and motivation as the issues identified by the clients are entirely included in the agenda and are primarily addressed in the therapy. Central to the task-centered approach is the fact that the client should agree to the problems to be addressed by the therapy and in case of a dislike, the patients are free to refuse help. The advantage of this method is the fact that the social workers will be forced to spend adequate time on identifying the problems. This helps in many ways. Firstly, it makes sure that the practitioner shares the information with the client about the assessment, goals and strategies. This helps not only in developing effective intervention, but also in developing the client’s problem-solving ability. After identifying the problems, a few (up to three) problems are selected as ‘target problems’. This helps as considering a large number of problems simultaneously can spoil the effectiveness of the approach. The next stage is reaching an agreement about the problems to be addressed and to decide what to do about them. At this stage, specific goals are to be set. To example, a teenager can be directed to spend more time with parents at home. In addition, a clear time scale is set for the achievement of each of the task. Thereafter, an agreement is reached between the practitioner and the client on the problems to be addressed, the goals to be achieved, and the tasks to be performed. However, while setting goals, there are a number of things to be considered. First of all, goals should be observable and measurable. In addition, it is highly beneficial if a time limit is set and the same is well-informed to the client. Moreover, it is beneficial if the social worker succeeds in making the client record the progress as this will hugely reduce the power difference and will help improve collaboration. Yet another point is the need to partialise goals. Many a time, the clients may feel that the goals to be achieved are too complex and they may get intimidated by the complexity. In such cases, partialising the goals will empower the client and by dividing the goals into manageable portions, clients will be better able to engage in problem-solving tasks, through improved sense of efficiency. In addition, a number of general tasks are to be set the achievement of which would ensure that the decided goals are achieved. For example, if achieving higher grade in an exam is the goal, general tasks can be attending classes regularly, and completing assignments in time are all general tasks. Furthermore, goals must be feasible. It is an accepted fact that unachievable goals can lead to discouragement. It is common for clients to possess distorted ideas about the achievability of goals and tasks and hence, it is the duty of the social worker to confront them through discussions on the feasibility of the goals. Another point is determining client’s readiness for goal negotiation. Though as Hepworth et al (2009, p. 325) state, the voluntary users readily agree discussing goals, the involuntary ones will be reluctant, in which case, the success is doubtful. However, there are instances when social workers, in their efforts to affect crisis management, become creators of crisis. For example, as Beckett (2006, p. 111) points out social worker warns a young offender that if he refuses to show up for appointments, his case would be taken back to court. In such cases, the existing equilibrium, if any, is destroyed. Common Features Both the task centered and crisis intervention approaches are problem-solving approaches. In these cases, the problems or behaviours are identified, assessed, and identifying their context, frequency, duration, and antecedents, these issues are addressed through goal setting. As their names indicate, these problem-based approaches are different from other solution-focused approaches. In addition, both the approaches are divided into different stages ranging from assessment, intervention, termination and evaluation. In addition, both the approaches have the purpose of mobilising clients positively. Moreover, both are useful in individual, family, and social contexts. In both the cases, the most important thing is strengthening of the clients’ self-efficiency. Thus, the core of both the approaches is empowerment. In addition, both the approaches follow the systematic generalist-eclectic practice provided by Coady and Lehmann (2007, p.5), the essential elements according to Alex Gitterman and Germain (2008, p. 1) are as follows: The focus is informed by ecological theory and it is primarily on person and environment. The ecological thinking concentrates on the reciprocity of person-environment relation in which one influences the other over time (ibid). Stress is given on establishing a helping relationship between the social worker and the client Assessment is holistic and multilevel in nature. Dominelli (2004, p. 200) in ‘Social work: theory and practice for a changing profession’ points out how important it is to focus on establishing a reciprocal relationship which combines individual responsibility with social responsibility in managing criminals. In such cases, the methods of problem identification and goal setting adopted in task centered approach and crisis intervention will be beneficial. In addition, in ‘Anti-oppressive social work theory and practice’ (Dominelli, 2002, p. 3), the issue of oppressive social relations is taken into consideration. It is pointed out that the growth in poverty and marginalisation in the lives of those who survive at the edges of society exacerbate the oppression that already exists in their lives (ibid). In such cases, these approaches have their specific value in the fact that they succeed in eliciting the real problem as identified by the client; not by the practitioner. At this juncture, Brandell (2010, p. XIII) says that in clinical social work, each client is unique in character, and hence, clinical social work means many things to many people; in such cases, the flexibility enjoyed by the approaches helps enormously in focusing on individual clients. Thus, as Turner (1996, p. 617) suggest, these short-term approaches are more effective than the long term psychological practices in helping individuals and families with problems. In addition, the increasing need for crisis intervention in cases like child abuse, elderly confused, terminally ill, and adolescents in conflict with parents is acknowledged by Lishman (1991, p. 138). Conclusion In total, it becomes evident that both the approaches are highly effective and useful in social work. The features that set these approaches apart from other approaches are the problem based approach, the total freedom allowed to the clients, the short term nature, the involvement of clients in the task fulfillment, and the stress given on the client’s need to solve the problems. References Beckett, C 2006, Essential Theory for Social Work Practice, SAGE, London. Brandwell, JR 2010, Theory & Practice in Clinical Social Work, SAGE, UK. ‘Crisis theory & intervention’, n.d, Angelfire, viewed 16 March 2011 Coady, N & Lehmann, P 2007, Theoretical Perspectives for Direct Social Work Practice: A Generalist- Ecletic Approach, 2nd Edn, Springer Publishing Company, New York. Dominelli, L 2004, Social Work: Theory and practice for a changing profession, Wiley-Blackwell, UK. Dominelli, L 2002, Anti-Oppressive Social Work Theory and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan, New York. Gitterman, A & Germain, C 2008, The Life Model Of Social Work Practice: Advances in theory and practice, 3rd Edn, Columbia University Press, New York. Hepworth, DH, Rooney, RH, Rooney, GD, Gottfried, KS & Larsen, J 2009, Direct Social Work Practice: Theory and Skills, 8th Edn, Cengage Learning, USA.. James, RK 2008, Crisis Intervention Strategies, 6th Edn, Cengage Learning, USA. Lishman, J 1991, Handbook of Theory for Practice Teachers in Social Work, 2nd Edn, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, UK. Reid, WJ (1978), ‘The task- centered system’, Questia.com, p.83, viewed 15 March 2011 Turner, FJ 1996, Social Work Treatment: Interlocking theoretical approaches, 4th Edn, Simon and Schuster, New York. Whittaker, JK n.d, ‘Contemporary theories and therapies crisis intervention’, Tripod, viewed 16 March 2011 Read More