Communication in Social Work - Essay Example

Communication in social work Learning to converse with others in a proficient manner in a number of contexts with people from various backgrounds can be hard, but it is a basic skill without which it is barely possible to meet many other social work responsibilities or, probably, to perform the social worker’s role in general. There are several attributes of an effective interview. First, of all, it is important to be an attentive listener. ‘Listening attentively conveys interest and respect, and is an essential part of the turn-taking that characterizes human interaction, starting with pre-verbal ‘conversations’ between the interviewer and interviewee, gesture and gaze’ (Trevarten, 1977). Listening as a rule includes some form of eye contact in adult interactions, too, if we are sighted, but this is different according to a person, gender and cultural differences. It is familiar when listening to make noise, sometimes talking at the same time, but these are not interruptions or attempts to take a turn, rather they support the interlocutor to continue. It is known as ‘impersonal reinforcement’ (Koprovska, 2005, p.76). When I was an interviewer, I tried to listen carefully and demonstrate my interest to the topic, which is being discussed (‘Why do you want to be a social worker?’). According to the social worker’s role, both my colleague, when she was an interviewer, and me listened intentionally, which indicates that we tried to evaluate each word and phrase, to give proper feedback (or empathy). On the other hand, it was quite difficult to keep from talking at the same time with my associate, and it took place several times and in our particular case it has the meaning of communicational reinforcement. When I was an interviewee, my colleague listened more carefully and didn’t interrupt me – it is considered to be more professional in social work practice and has more positive influence on a client, as many people come to social worker with their long stories, complaints and problems, which are necessary to be listened from the beginning up to the end. Also, during the conversation, it is important to remember details, so that we do not continue asking the same questions; this annoys people and is in general an expression of lack of interest. Thus, it is vital to think about each word said by an interviewee in order to build a clear structure of a case. As an interviewer, I have noticed that the topic of conversation is not difficult, so it was easy to keep details in mind. In general, as an interviewee, I saw keen interest, which was conveyed by my colleague by nodding, keeping necessary eye contact and smiling, when there was an appropriate moment. That is to say, staring at the person might irritate them if they are depressed, embarrassed or reluctant to talk about something, so the social worker should use eye contact reasonably. One more important feature of successful interview is congruence and coherence of the gestures. As for me, all the gestures of my interviewee were congruent, which means that she smiled when she told she was glad to be a social worker; also hand gestures were used, which implied the expression of emotions and feelings and showing openness. Also hand gestures can be interpreted as the absence of hesitation, since the interviewer and the interviewee are well acquainted. In addition, both of us sat straight and didn’t fidget, which means that we were ready to speak to each other about particular subject and the topic didn’t indicate any negative emotions. During the conversations it was important for an interviewer to be neutral and rather listen than speak. I think. Both of us have managed with this task successfully and let each other express themselves. The main indicator of self-expression also might be frequent use of ‘I-statement’ by the interviewee. Also there might be seen some coherence of our gestures, for example, the interviewer repeated the interviewee’s gestures, which, according to Marie Diggins, ‘leads to better-organized contact’ (Diggins, 2004, p.65). Furthermore, my interviewee told her story in a coherent way, which implied emotional comfort and self-confidence. ‘Changes in coherence within a single conversation may indicate the advent of difficult topics, and the person will need encouragement and patience to say what they need. When people are very excited, angry and distressed, their speech becomes less coherent’ (Hargle, Dickson, 2004, p.89). As an interviewee, I had some problems with coherence, since it was quite difficult for me to concentrate once I had realized that camera was recording the interview. Providing information that is clear and context-related underpins social work practice. There are several kinds of information, which was used during the conversation: factual information, which includes facts, statistics and information about boundaries (for example, ‘I’ve been studying Social Work for three years’) opinions and proposals, which are considered internal information. It is helpful to set proposals as possibilities and choices, not as something the client should do. If the social worker thinks, it will help; they should explain the reasons of its helpfulness. Each statement of the interviewer should be accompanied by factual information, for example, when I was giving an advice concerning my associate’s studies, I named several reasons of its utility; emotional information is widely known as most important for an interviewee, since during the conversation they seek, either deliberately or unintentionally, some psychological reinforcement and empathy. ‘ Empathy is widely recognized as a core skill. More than any other, it communicates that we understand service user’s concerns and know how they feel. Empathy, like other kinds of information, has cognitive elements, since it involves using words to name feelings, but its cognitive expression has to be anchored in a genuine understanding of the person’s emotional state’ (Okitipki, 2003). Emotional information is communicated in facial expression and vitality affects observed and reflected by the social worker, so the information about emotional conditions comes from either observation or understanding. As I have noticed, empathy took place both from my side and from the side of my associate, while she was an interviewer, especially when we were discussing negative moments of our future occupation. For instance, when I started talking about my concerns about the ability to communicate effectively with my clients the interviewer said: ‘I see, you are worried about it’. On the other hand, prospective social workers should not forget that too much empathy sound like flattery, so it is important to use it reasonable and not to exaggerate the meaning of some problems. ‘Goal-corrected empathy involves purposeful misattunement. So when responding to someone in a very intense emotional state, the energy of social worker should be somewhat lower than theirs’ (McCluskey, 2005, p.115) During the conversation following types of questions were used: narrow questions which were asked to gather factual information; broad questions, which were used to get to know about respondent’s viewpoints, attitudes and emotions. For example, there were such questions as ‘Why have you decided to become a social worker?’ or ‘Why do you think this profession is important in the modern society?’, which provided the main information about the subject inner-person questions, which are sometimes interpreted as an intervention into person’s inner world, since they are related to interviewee’s emotions and feelings. Both of us used them carefully, since it is impossible to do without inner-personal questions, such as ‘How are you feeling now about your current situation at the university?’ or ‘How would you feel, if you had to change your profession under the pressure of your family?’ leading questions, which were used to specify some information, for instance ‘You are from London, aren’t you?’ According to their meaning, leading questions also indicate the answer the interviewer wants to hear, and try to involve other person into agreement. These questions might be dangerous in social work, because they can even result in a quarrel, thus, they are to be used within a neutral context. That is to say, skilled social workers should not only ask questions, answers and empathic responses, but also form and organize the information, which is being received by them. For instance, paraphrasing ‘helps us check our understanding. It involves repeating back the essence of what a person has said, generally using some of the same words, but also some of your own ’ ( Smith, 2005) In some cases exact repetition is necessary, so that the interviewer is sure they do not distort the information. For the period of our interviews both my colleague and me used paraphrase, ending it with a question like ‘Is that right?’. When I was an interviewee, I have noticed that paraphrase can be viewed as an indicator of attentive listening, since it provides the impression that the interviewer really wants to help me in my situation. One more important communicational tool is summarizing. ‘During sessions summarizing gathers together certain types of information before moving on and helps ensure you have a shared understanding’ (Laming, 2003, p.63). I think it is useful to summarize having received much information, as it helps organize it and underline the main points. Social workers who provide anti-oppressive way of interview are also polite, turn up on time and always think before talking. In my opinion, my colleague was a successful interviewer, because the interview itself included both informational and emotional interactions. As I have seen, my associate tried to build correct and neutral questions and felt a little strained because of thinking carefully about each word of the question. I think, it may be also related to me, as it was our first attempt to create a professional interview and apply skills suggested by the course. The main skill, which I had at an outset, was empathy skill, as it reflecting feelings seemed to me difficult. Also I considered it difficult to interpret body language correctly, but it turned out to be apparent and clear after studying the course. For example, hand gestures were extremely important in the interview, as they illustrated or emphasized particular moments of the conversation and sketched a direction of a thought. Also I interpreted leaning forward correctly – as a gesture, which shows attention and interest. Also it was obvious that nonverbal behaviour is the main indicator of emotions and feeling: I noticed how my interviewee’s face was changing from pleasantness to happiness while she was speaking about her future profession. I think, communication skills are vital for me future profession, because social work starts with interview, which includes finding out client’s major problems and needs. It is possible to say that practicing them and working with real, not artificial situations may improve such skills as empathy, and correct questions posing. During the conversation my colleague from time to time lost self-confidence and felt discomfort caused by the atmosphere of face-to-face interaction, but this problem may also be solved by working in the area of social work and consulting. It is always difficult to begin. Moreover, I would like to mention that in some cases we acted intuitively automatically applying only the main social work values. I am aware of the value of human life and dignity and think it is necessary to create conductive atmosphere for trust and openness. I understand clearly that some questions which are necessary to be asked might be offensive for a client, so it is important to build them in other way, without stressing negative moments. The main purpose of such interview is to help interviewee organize their thoughts and consider some essential moments of their life. The present interview, in particular, gave the chance to rethink practitioner’s position and role in social work and reevaluate the importance of our choice for us. Bibliography 1) Trevarten, D. (1977) Community work. CA: Cambridge Brooks/Cole 2) Koprovska, J. (2005) Communication and interpersonal skills in social work. University of York 3) Diggins, M. (2004) Teaching and learning communication skills in social work education. London: Social Care Institute for Excellence 4) Hargle, O.; Dickson, D. (2004) Skilled interpersonal communication: research, theory and practice. 4th edition. London: Routledge 5) McCluskey J. (2005) Surviving college and moving toward a balanced life: strategies for social work students. New social worker, vol.12, #4 6) Smith, M. (2005) The digital and ethical mindset of social work students. New social worker, vol.12, #4 7) Okitikpi, T. (2003). Communication skills in social work education. London, Brunel university Press 8) Laming, H. (2003) The Victoria Climbie Inquiry: report of an inquiry, London: The Stationery Office. Read More