Social Work Direct Practice Skills - Assignment Example

ROLE PLAY INTERVIEW Name: Institution affiliated: Date of submission: Tutor: Summary of the recording The summary recoding process will try to summarize all the activities that were undertaken during the whole interview session. In order to incorporate all the thoughts and feelings that are presented in the interview, then the summary recording process will be adopted. The summary recording focuses on four major parts namely the subjective, objective, assessment and finally the plan and it is for this reason that it has gain the acronym of SOAP. It was developed and first adopted in the 1960s by several health professionals since it helps to provide a snapshot of the whole session [Roc03]. The subjective part of the summary focuses on the gathering of information from the clients. In this way, the interviewer is able to gather information about some important aspects of the clients such as the reasons that made the client to come for the therapy. It is also possible in this case to understand the opinion of the client in terms of their view of the current problem affecting them, to what extent the problem is affecting them and finally, what they expect to gain from attending the service being provided. Here the relevant information needs to be collected but it should be as brief as possible. Similarly, it is important that the information being provided in this case to include any referrals that have been made to the client by others. in this interview, the interviewer made the subjective collection of information very effective and efficient since it only takes very little time. In the same way, the interviewer is able to gain information on the issues that brought them for the service, what they seek to achieve and the client also made it clear that she had been referred for the service by her younger sister. The objective summary in this case tries to gather the facts that are already known. The facts need to be identified from observations and the client should try to shed more light on the problem that they are facing in this case. Similarly, it is also important that the client is assured of protection from the opinions and facts that they will discuss during the session [Eli10]. In the recording provided, the interviewer tries to remain neutral to the facts that are provided in the case. She does not make any form of judgemental calls or any form of labels. This improves the comfort of the client and she is able to open up more during the session. The interviewer also tries to push for facts to be developed during the session. She asks the client to try and provide information on the facts that she has been observing that are not normal. Some of the observable evidence that is collected in this case includes the fact that the client’s sister has seen change in her emotions and she encourages her to seek professional help. Similarly, the client also observes that her friends have been discussing her behind her back. This made her uncomfortable and she has of late been staying indoors rather than spending her leisure and free time with her friends. Similarly, since she was living far from her parents, they had grown distant with them and she did not have the courage to face them and inform them of their problems. So the only person in her life that she could share her issues with was her younger sister. The third factor provided for the summary of the session is usually the assessment. The assessment part of the plan takes to consider the information that is presented by the client during the session so that expert opinion can be provided [Jea12]. The interviewer in this case will consider the information that has been developed and presented in both the subjective and objective aspects and try to make a conclusion to this form of evidence. At this instance, the interviewer may also seek to pursue important issues that may also shed light on the requirements of the client before the action plan can be developed and adopted. For instance, in the case of the role play interview, the interviewer seeks to identify the expectations of the client before they provide their final opinion and recommendations on the case. The client identifies that she needs help with the isolation problem that she faces. In this way, it is easy for the interviewer to make recommendations to solve the problem at hand. The final factor to consider in the development of the session is the action plan. The plan considers the treatment and recommendations that are provided to the client to ensure that they heal and recover from their problems. In as much as the recommendations for the treatment are being provided by the counsellor, the client should be comfortable with them. Therefore, the recommendations should be the most appropriate and desired by the client [Jod09]. The plan should also consider the referrals that are to be made to other service providers or professionals to make the treatment to be fully effective. The profession first enquires whether the client has had any previous issues that led her to seek help from a mental health profession. She also tries to personalize the issue and compares the client problems with her personal issues. She enquires about the safety of the client and ensures that the client does not have any history of suicidal thoughts. After having identified the main issues affecting the client, she makes three recommendations that are in line with what the client expects from the organization. The client expects to have someone with whom she can communicate with to help her solve the mental problems that she is facing. In line with this, the first recommendation provided is to first have the organization communicate with the client’s sister so that they can deliberate on the best way forward to help the client. Secondly, the interviewer also proposes that the client seeks expert mental health advice from one of the professions within the organization. In this way, the client will enjoy the best assistance and will have their problems easily solved by the mental health professional. Finally, the interviewer requests the client to communicate with the secretary so that she can schedule the date for the next session to ensure that the client get maximum support to help solve the problem that she is facing. Strength areas The bigger part of the interview is well developed except for some few issues that require to be improved. The major strength areas in the interview are the collection of the objective aspects of the recording, the assessment and in the final plan to ensure that the client get value for services that she had sought to get. At the objective aspect f the session, the social worker effectively collects information from the client on the current mental problems that she is facing. Similarly, at the assessment level, the interviewer takes to fully understand all the issues that are currently affecting the client and considers all the information provided before she can give her final opinion and recommendations for the problem that has been presented to her. Finally, the plan aspect of the interview is also an effective and strength area of the session. This is because the interviewer effectively provides recommendations that are aimed at supporting the healing process of the client. Other strength areas in the role play interview that is provided include the clarity of the interviewer and the practice of the ethical competence practices that are expected from the profession. Areas needing development The development of a therapeutic relationship requires that the interviewer considers three main guidelines for the engagement process to be successful. The first guideline is to ensure that they prepare thoroughly for the process. The other guideline is to promote an environment for early communication to be established in the organization and finally to be proactive and collaborative by inviting the client to form a partner like relationship [Lin07]. The preparation part for the interview requires that the interviewer takes time to plan for the first meeting. In this way, they will be able to present themselves as a real person. Similarly, through planning, it is easy for the interviewer to work out the best approach towards the client. Proper preparation will also enhance a number of issues such as patience in the management of the client, reduced conflicts and persistency especially when there is failure in the first attempt. Finally, on the issue of proper preparation, the interviewer is able to develop a good relationship with the client as they will have ample time to get to know each other. Early communication will help to avoid jargon and the barriers that are associated with the issue. Communication also helps to encourage openness, honest and a genuine relationship. Finally with proper communication, then it is easy to clarify boundaries. Finally, the proactive collaboration between the interviewer and the client helps in the provision and collection of information by both parties. The collaboration helps the interviewer to check for warning signs in case of boundary transgressions as well as allowing for flexibility in the adoption of the pace that is set by the person. The main area of weakness during the interview was in the preparation process by the interviewer. She had not rehearsed the script in order to understand how she could have approached the interview in different ways. As a result, she ended up wasting more time in reading the interview questions that had been written down instead of interacting more with the client. Therefore, the engagement process between the client and the interviewer from the beginning of the interview to the end was not well established. This would have been made better if the interviewer had taken to rehearse the script. However, in as much as the script for the interview was not well rehearsed, the interviewer still remained calm and tried to establish a common ground for both of them to easily connect. Similarly, the interviewer rushed into the administrative tasks when she asked the client to sign the disclosure forms before they had developed a good understanding of each other. The interviewer should have taken more time to get to develop a better relationship between the two parties before having the client to sign form. Development of the interview The building of a good relationship in the interview should be done at the beginning of the interview. This is so because it will help set ground for easy and proper sharing of information between the two parties. Similarly, the development of a good relationship at the beginning of the interview will encourage communication between the parties as well as develop a proactive collaboration in which information can be easily acquired. In any case the good relationship is not developed at this stage one of the parties or sometimes both parties will be in discomfort during the interview and a flexible pace for the interview may not be set. Similarly, the lack of a good relationship will also not encourage for disclosures to be made by the parties. During this level, it is important that the interviewer asks the client questions about the family, friends and other significant members in the life of the client. Similarly, it is important to understand the career line of the client. At the family and friends questions, the interviewer should try to spend time to get to know the role that the members play in the life of the client. After the development of a good relationship has been made and the client has been assured that the discussions in that will be made during the interview will be treated with at most confidentiality, then the establishment of the story can start. At this point, the interviewer may try to enquire the reasons that led the client to attend the therapeutic session. During this period, to enhance the establishment of the story, it is important that the client receives the full attention. Active listening will be encouraged at this point so that understands what is being said by the client. Requesting for clarifications should also be done in any case that the interviewer does not understand a point that has been put forward by the client. Patience should also be encouraged during the session. The use of reflective, paraphrasing and summarizing skills should be used throughout the sessions and especially after the formal relationship has been developed. The reflective practices are in most cases developed at the end of the session when the final thought needs to be developed for the session. During this stage, the social worker effectively summarizes the problems and issues that have been identified during the session, provides a reflection of the issues and finally provides her recommendations to help solve the issues. It is also at this stage when the social worker preliminary engages in the preliminary assessment process. She asks question for the answers that she expects to find answers for. She tries to explore the environment in which the client lives in so that she can dig deep into the source of the problem so that is can be easy for her to solve the problem. The goal setting process is done after the issues affecting the client have been identified. This should be done in the beginning of the interview. It is during the subjective aspect of the session when the interviewer should consider enquiring about the main problem that the client is facing that made them to visit the organization for their professional help. After this problem has been identified, then it is easy for goals to be set that should be achieved during the course of the session. Pursuing of theoretical approaches with clients There are two main theoretical approaches that can be developed in this case namely; the motivational interviewing and the cognitive therapy. The motivational interviewing therapy will be aimed at develop in a counselling approach to the client. The motivational interviewing method is an intrinsic method that is used by the interviewers to engage in intrinsic motivational activities that are aimed at changing the behaviours and thoughts of the clients that they are handling. The strategy is goal oriented and provides room for change of behaviour and thoughts gradually. For this level, the motivational interviewing provides that the client need to change different issues in their lives and as result, the approach provides for different counselling approaches at different levels [Wil02]. The cognitive theory perspective is concerned with the understanding of mental functions such as memory, perception and attention. The approach easily compares people to computers. With this in mind, the psychologist developed the three stages of memory as being encoding, storage and retrieval. The encoding process is the part of the memory that receives the information. The storage is the part that retains the information and finally, the retrieval is where the information is usually recalled. In modern society, the cognitive psychology perspective has received many applications including the eye witness testimonies and the cognitive therapy [Car07]. In our case, both the cognitive therapy and the motivational interviewing are two theoretical approaches that will work effectively on the client. This is because the client will be allowed the opportunity to easily interact with the professional and share both their experiences. In this way, the approaches will allow for a reflective process to be achieved and through listening and as a result, it is easy to provide a way forward in line with the goals that have been set for the session. Case notes for the session The three major issues that need to factor in to ensure that the interview is a success are the proper preparation by the social worker before the interview, communication and collaboration and relationship building in the course of the interview. From the session, it is clear that the social worker has good communication skills that allow her to easily gather information from the client. Similarly, the client also enjoys the ability to easily collaborate with the client and build a good relationship from the beginning of the session all the way to the end. In this way, the client becomes comfortable and opens up to her problem so that she can be easily assisted by the social worker. Finally, the early preparation by the social worker is not evident during the session. From the session, it is clear that in as much as the interviewer may have prepared for the session, she did not prepare properly since she kept referring to her notes while trying to gather information from the client [Mar04]. REFERENCES Roc03: , (Rocio, 2003), Eli10: , (Elias, 2010), Jea12: , (Jean, 2012), Jod09: , (Jody, Cynthia, & Katie, 2009), Lin07: , (Linda, 2007), Wil02: , (William & Stephen, 2002), Car07: , (Carol, 2007), Mar04: , (Marisa, 2004), Read More