Two Perspectives of Understanding the Client: Self and Client - Essay Example

? Social Work 543 Engagement with from Two Perspectives Two Perspective of Understanding the Client: Self and Client The use of self and the person in the process is the basis upon which an understanding of social work should be based upon (Turner, 2011). This aids the social worker in his endeavours in understanding the relationship with the client in two perspectives, as the client and as self. When the social worker assumes the perspective of the client, he develops a better understanding and can perform better. Assumption of the client’s perspective additionally aids the social worker to evade dogmas and prejudice that ordinarily he might have formed regarding the client. However, there are critics of this approach as they argue that such an action by the social worker leads to crossing of ethical boundaries that should always exist between the client and the social worker. Despite this pessimistic view of this approach to understanding one’s client problem, this is an effective tool in the course of the social worker’s road to understanding his client’s history and vulnerability. In addition, the relationship that exists between the social worker and his client is a professional relationship any thought of friendship should not be conceived. The assumption of the client’s perspective is merely a way of developing a clear view of the client’s mental status, the only challenge that the social worker might face is effectively assuming that perspective of the client. Clients Perspective As a male African- African American client, I prefer the social worker to be naturally kind, warm and sociable with a unique sense of humour, a gregarious character is not preferable, as this character would hinder me from freely expressing my thoughts and opinion. I should have full confidence that my thoughts are well protected by my social worker and that there would be no point that these thoughts of mine would be revealed to the public. I am always looking for elements of honesty and impartiality in the social worker and he must encourage me to feel welcome as this aids the client to functional adequately in the future. The anticipated social relationship between a social worker and me is very important and ideally this is the initial step of building an effective relationship between the two (Hanvey and Philpot, 1994). The social worker must also be able to communicate effectively; effective communication from the social worker enhances professional and positive relationship between the social worker and me. Prejudice and elements of judgment are very important, the social worker based on my race, sexual orientation, gender and others should not improperly perceive me. In as much I would accept the social worker to have his own personal choice and preferences; I would welcome an impartial commitment to my own personal problems and history. Furthermore, he must be ready to accept and acknowledge my prevailing situation and must commit to helping me out of it without undue prejudice and other perceptions The social worker must be one who is thoroughly educated with impeccable curriculum vitae, humanitarian imagination, and a good grasp of the job he has undertaken, some unique skills. The social worker must consider me as his priority and must serve with utmost dedication of time and resources. More importantly, he must ready to put aside his own personal priorities and those of the organizations he is representing and even that of the wider society when. The social worker should be able to put his greatest emphasis on advocating for his clients and help the client meet her needs. From an ethical point of view, this should be his key guiding principle that he should be aware of it in the process of carrying out his duties and work; he should put aside personal interest and those of his employer. In addition, I am keen on the social worker who is very professional in his work and avoids any elements of impropriety in the course of his work. Professional oriented social worker will at all costs avoid dual relationships, where he is working with the client on both personal and social problems (Reamer, 2006). The social worker must avoid any lure to engage into business and personal relationship with the client and that of my immediate family, this will erode my trust in him. Before the social worker sets of his work on helping me, I will inquire into the strategies that he will employ in the course of our interactions. Ambiguity and vagueness imply that the social worker is either semi-professional or just incompetent and, therefore, unreliable to carry out his/her duties effectively as required. I particularly prefer experienced to new social worker; this is because novice social workers are more prone to disillusionment in the process of carrying out their job. This is because experienced social workers derive a lot fulfilment whenever they carry out their jobs and they rarely engage in sideshows such as politicking. Finally, the social worker should always show concern - a very useful attribute that might endear the social worker to me and this might lead to trust and confidence building between the social worker and me. The social worker In this context, the client is a white female from the sprawling ghetto and is struggling after the being abandoned by the father of her child; she contacted the agency and requested the services of the agency concerning her intention to put her child for adoption. Before we met, I asked important personal questions to gauge how she would perceive me, but more importantly my own perception of her before we get down to business. Important factors, which I considered learning before we actually met, were age, race, personal and family status amongst other poignant indicators. Moreover, I would seek to gain knowledge of her mental status upon our meeting, as it is practically impossible before the actual meeting, which is very important as it helps me to assess her future need for the agency services. As the social worker, I would attempt to gain deeper knowledge of the client’s needs , at the same time maintain clear boundaries when dealing with the case to avoid hefty penalties and fines that comes when the social worker breach this key principle (Hepworth et al, 2011). First, I would sympathize with the client and realize that she is in distress and vulnerable; hence, I would maintain a healthy professional relationship with the client and would seek to make her feel safe and comfortable sharing her personal information with me. Considering that the main goal of being a social worker is to help and improve the lives of other people like the client, thus, being one I would ensure that the client is certain that she will always get assistance and support from the agency where possible. In the process of helping the client come out of the trauma, I must apply unique social skills to assist her in the growth and change process; this goes a long way in building trust, confidence and mutual trust between the client and the social worker. In this process I would employ an effective rapport building skill, professionalism and diligence, since these would ensure that our relationship is very healthy and rewarding from the client’s perspective, ensuring that unwanted friendship with the client are avoided at all cost (Berg-Weger, 2013). Considering her age and current situation; having gone through this traumatic experience at her early age by being abandoned by the father of her child, she must be delicate and sensitive. Moreover, she must have lost trust especially with men; this, therefore, becomes a challenging exercise to carry out effectively because, as a male social worker from an African-American background in my mid-20s, I would be the exact age of the father to her child. Thus, in order to gain the trust of my female client considering that she mistrusts men I included, every element of emotional issues must be carefully discussed and that my own personal problems and biasness should not be a distraction to the important role of helping her. Therefore, I should take extreme care when communicating with her including phone, email or fax; secondly, during communication, I must use my hands only as a means of communication, but should avoid kissing and hugging in delivering out my duties to her. The dress code for our meeting should be strictly formal and I may encourage the client to wear non-revealing and non-provocative clothing to avoid any sexual attraction that may be distractive in the delivery of service. Furthermore, the place of meeting should be in a public place in open fields so as not to raise unnecessary alarms; furthermore in order to give the client undivided attention, restaurants and movie theatres should not be a meeting place (Roberts, 2009). Finally, I would discourage the use of drugs and substances by the client during our meetings and in fact, being a social worker I would educate her on the dangers associated with using these substances. Difference and Similarities These insights above identify striking similarities and differences regarding both the clients and the social workers perceptions. First, both cases value confidentiality, the client needs to trust the social worker and the social worker is bounded by his ethical duties to treat the client’s information very confidential. Secondly, both the social worker and the client consider prejudice and elements of judgment as a condition that must be met before the social worker commences work. The major difference is that while the client prefers a social worker who has gained sufficient experience, the agency seconded to her a young male social worker whom is in her mid-20s. Additionally, the client is facing a lot of pressure and has turned to alcohol and other substances to alleviate these pressures yet the social worker has informed her not to indulge in these substances. References Berg-Weger, M. (2013). Social Work and Social Welfare: An Invitation. New York: Routledge. Hanvey, C.P and Terry, P. (1994). Practising Social Work. London: Routledge. Hepworth, D.H, Ronald, H.R, Rooney G.D, and Kimberly S. (2011). Direct Social WorPractice: Theory and Skills. S. l.: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning. Reamer, F.G. (2006). Social Work Values and Ethics. New York: Columbia University Press. Roberts, A. R. (2009). Social Workers' Desk Reference. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Turner, F. J. (2011). Social Work Treatment: Interlocking Theoretical Approaches. New York: Free Press. Read More