WORKING WITH

INDIVIDUALS
SOCIAL CASEWORK
SOCIAL CASEWORK DEFINED

•It is a process used by human welfare agencies to help

individuals cope more effectively with their problems of
social functioning. It encompasses the four essential
elements or components of social work practice, namely,
the person, the problem, the place and the process. (Helen
Harris Perlman)
• Casework is a
problem-solving
process that is set in • Essential Elements
motion when a • of Social Work
Person with a
• Practice
Problem comes to a
Place where a
professional social
worker helps him by a
given Process.
DEFINING THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS

•Person - A man, woman, or •Place – It is a social service agency

or a social service department of
child, anyone who finds
anther kind of human welfare
himself, or is found to be in agency that has been set up to deal
need of help in some aspect of not with social problems at large but
his social-emotional living, with human beings who are
whether the need be for experiencing problems in the
tangible provisions or management of their own personal
lives, or problems created by
counseling. As he begins to
faulty/unwholesome person-to-
receive such help he is referred person, person-to-group, person-to-
to as “Client situation relationship.
• 
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS…

P rocess – It is a progressive
•Problem -This arises from some transaction between the
need or obstacle or accumulation professional helper and the client.
It consists of a series of problem –
of frustrations or maladjustments,
solving operations carried out
and sometimes all of these
within a meaningful relationship.
together, which threatens or has
Relationship is the means that
already attacked the adequacy of
serves to influence the client to
the person’s living. situation or the
develop effectiveness in coping
effectiveness of his efforts to deal
with his problem and/or to
with it
influence the problem as to resolve
it or vitiate (weaken) its effects.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
CASEWORKER-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP
WORKER-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP

1. Vital relationships 3. The identifying mark of a

professional relationship is its
between people rise out of conscious purposiveness growing out
shared and emotionally- of the knowledge of what must go
charged situations. into achieving the goal.

4. Relationship begins as the client

2. All growth-producing shares some part of his problem, and
relationships contain as the social worker demonstrates
that he feels with the client at the
elements of acceptance,
same time that he has professional
expectations, support and competence to bring into the helping
stimulation. process.
W-C RELATIONSHIP…

5. Relationship has some

therapeutic values. The bond
that emerges serves a
communication channel
operating largely on the
unconscious level, through
which many subtle feelings and
values emanate and penetrate.
W-C RELATIONSHIP

6. Relationship needs and difficulties emanating from

outside the casework relationship may intrude into and
complicate the client-worker relationship, and as such,
may have to be dealt with.
7. The social worker too has relationship reactions, ad part
of his professional skill is the management of them.
 
COMPONENTS OF THE CASEWORK RELATIONSHIP

•Reality

• Transference

• Countertransference
COMPONENTS…

• A clear direction of where the

Reality – An objective relationship between worker
assessment of the client’s and client should move in
situation. It starts from the order to achieve its purpose. It
purpose of the client-worker is purpose that sets limits on
relationship, that is to help the facts and information the
client in some area of his social worker will gather, the
resources that need to be
functioning. mobilized and the interventions
that have to be employed.
•  
- A Freudian concept that relies
heavily on the operation of the
unconscious and affects the attitude,
behavior and action of persons. In
TRANSFERENCE working with individuals, it takes place
when the client unconsciously
transfers to the social worker attributes
or characteristics of some important or
powerful persons in his past life. The
result may be positive or negative
reactions to the social worker.
• 
Counter-transference – This is the
worker’s unconscious response to the
client’s transference. The social
worker has personal reactions to a
COMPONENTS… client. If he is not careful, he may not
be able to control his feelings, thus,
may fall into the trap of reacting
unconsciously based on his own
needs. It is important for the social
worker to be aware of the emergence
of such transactions, failure to do so
would result in a twisted diagnosis of
the client’s situation.
Stages/Phases of the
Casework Process
- Characterized by thorough data-
gathering on the following:
∙ The nature of the presenting problem –
the circumstances of the difficulty, the
obstacles the person wishes to get over,
CASEWORK or the ends he wishes to achieve.
PROCESS ∙ The significance of the problem
Study ∙ The causes, onset, precipitating factors
of the problem
∙ The efforts made to cope with the
problem
∙ The nature of the solution or ends sought
from the social agency.
•The actual nature of the agency and its
problem-solving means in relation to the
client and his problem.
Diagnosis -The Thinking in the Helping Process

• The diagnostic process • To diagnose – is a process

of thought To make a
is the mental work of
diagnosis – is the product of
examining the parts of a that process of thought. It is
problem, its nature, the the taking of responsibility
interrelationships among for consciously thinking
about what we (worker) feel,
its parts, the relation sense, know, or half-know, in
between the parts/nature order to have it ready as
of the problem and the guide fo what further needs
to be known, understood, or
means to their solutions.
done.
Content of diagnosis:

1. The nature of the problem and the goal/s sought by the client

2. The nature of the person who bears the problem (his social and
psychological situation and functioning

3. The nature and purpose of the agency, and the kind of help it can
offer and/or make available
DIAGNOSIS…
• Dynamic Diagnosis–
analysis of the forces in active • Stated otherwise, dynamic
play in the person-problem - diagnosis seeks to establish what
the problem is, what social,
situation configuration. It
psychological and physical factors
embraces a psycho-social
contribute to (or cause it), what
analysis of the client’s effects it has on the individual
situation, the client’s current well-being (and that of others),
functioning to ascertain his what solution is sought, and what
workability, and the birth or means exist within the client, the
history of the problem and its situation, and organized services
cause-effect-cause and resources by which the
problem may be affected.
development or etiology.
Treatment-

• Treatment begins with the •Willingness connotes three conditions:

first contact. It emphasizes ∙ Discomfort and Hope – This stresses
the client’s workability which the discomfort felt by the client with
means: his problem that pushes him to want
to do something. Accompanying this
⮚ ability to work and is the promise of greater ease or
satisfaction which pulls the person to
exert effort toward some goal.
⮚responsiveness to ∙ Client’s drive must be directed toward
therapeutic influence. a valid, realizable solution or goal.
∙ Client’s Capacity to Use Help –
emotional, intelligence, physical
⮚Other than this is the
element of willingness
SETTING UP A PLAN OF ACTION

Goals and Objective setting: Goals are

desired state the client envisions
himself/herself to be after a successful
helping relationship. Objectives are
smaller in scope but expresses a desired
condition that points to the achievement of
the overall goal (involves partializing
goals). Objectives are directed specifically
to a particular client.
Both goal and objectives are stated with
specificity, measurability, attainability,
realistically, and with a period/time frame
(SMART).
Effective strategies flow from
assessment. It involves identifying
appropriate activities, programs
INTERVENTION and services, skills and techniques
PLANNING
necessary in the delivery of
services.
• ***Formulating tasks
• ***Enhancing commitment
Models/Approaches in
Working with Individuals
∙ Most commonly used approach, is similar to
the generalist direct provision model.
∙ It is a SW method characterized by a
relationship essentially one-to-one in the use
FUNCTIONAL of a service
APPROACH ∙ The focus of intervention is the delivery of
(SMALLEY service/s to the client. The process includes a
definition of the service being offered and
how the client will be able to use it toward
his own welfare
∙ Emphasis on the use of time and the use of
agency function; the giving and receiving
help. The offer of service unites the client
with the skill of the worker and the function
and services of the agency.
PROBLEM-SOLVING MODEL
(PERLMAN)

∙ The model uses the problem- ∙ The focus of treatment is in

solving process as the helping the person go through
medium of treatment. the scientific problem solving
∙ It assumes that the client’s process so that, with the
normal problem-solving encouraging assistance of the
capabilities or resources have social worker, he can act and
been impaired or have broken resolve his problem with
down that compels him to minimum help.
seek help from a social
agency to cope with his
problem.
P-S MODEL…

∙ Characteristics: the identification of the problem by the person, subjective

aspects of the person-in-situation, a thorough assessment of the person’s
situation, the search for a realistic solution and the decision as to what
action is most appropriate and therefore should be implemented.

∙ The process involves the following means: a) motivation, b) exercise of

the client’s mental, emotional and physical capacities in coping with the
problem, c) making accessible to the client opportunities and resource
necessary to solve or mitigate the problem toward satisfactory role
performance.
 
PSYCHOSOCIAL APPROACH
(CLINICAL MODEL)

• Also known as the diagnostic

approach concerned with the
realities of the person, his
emotional, mental and social
processes, and the context in
which he lives.
• It has a strong orientation on the
use of the concept of ego and
ego psychology for
understanding in-depth social
functioning.
• It recognizes the interplay of
both internal and external
causes of dysfunctioning.
PSYCHO-SOCIAL MODEL…

• The model focuses on the efforts of the individual to meet his needs
more fully and to function more adequately in his social relationships.

• Client comes for treatment because there is a breakdown in his

social adjustment with the following sources of causation:
• Infantile needs an drives that are leftover from childhood that cause
the individual to make inappropriate demands upon his adult world.

• Current situation that exerts pressure on him with which he cannot

cope
•
• Faulty ego and superego functioning.
• Treatment is focused on
helping the individual to
achieve specific or limited
TASK-CENTERED
APPROACH (REID goals of his own choice
AND EPSTEIN) within a brief and bounded
periods of service.
• It works on the assumption
that a short-term time-
limited approach to helping
individuals with their
problem/s is equally
effective as a long-term
approach.
• Treatment focuses on the specific
task/s to be implemented. Worker
and client reach an agreement on
the particular problem to be
worked, the service to be provided
TASK- or the task to be done, and the
CENTERED… duration or probable time of the
helping process.
• It is organized around problem-
solving actions – the task/s
assigned states the general
direction for the client’s actions, or
a specific behavior the client will
follow. The client follows a specific
program for task performance.
• It is a short-term Casework
approach that focuses its goals
on the following:
CRISIS ⮚a) reducing the immediate
INTERVENTION harmful effects of the stressful
(GOLAN)
events;
⮚b) helping mobilize the latent
capacities of the person directly
affected so that he can cope more
effectively with the effects of the
crisis.
• The treatment tries to actively
influence the psycho-social
functioning of the person during
the period of disequilibrium
CRISIS INTERVENTION…

• Considers three interrelated factors that produce a state of crisis:

❖Stressful hazardous event/s that pose some threats;
❖The value that is threatened, or a threat to current or past
instinctual needs which are symbolically linked to earlier threats
that result in vulnerability of or conflict in the person; and,
❖The inability of the person to respond with adequate coping
mechanisms.
FAMILY-CENTERED APPROACH

• Especially applicable in the

• Somehow similar to family
Philippines because of its
therapy because of its focus family orientation, meaning, it
on the family as the unit of locates the family as the center
intervention. of the field of action.
• Casework is not limited to
the individual, it includes the • Human beings can be
person’s immediate understood and best helped in
environment which is the context of the intimate and
normally the family. powerful system of which they
are a part – the family.

•  
FAMILY-CENTERED…

• Through family interview, the worker and the family become aware
of how the family members interact and discover the dysfunctional
elements in the interaction.

• Transactions reveal role expectations and role performance of

members, collusion and reciprocal relationships, expression of
feelings, use of defenses and coping mechanisms in response to
conflicts, and communication difficulties resulting from opposing
messages.
CASEWORK TECHNIQUES
(FLORENCE HOLLIS)

• Psychological support
–
Such process is premised on
the confidence in client’s
It is applied by the worker ability to solve his problem
especially when the and to make his own
situation requires an depth decisions. The worker shows
understanding of the client’s strong interest in and desire
problem. It involves to help client confident that a
encouraging the client to way can be found to improve
open up, talk and express client’s situation.
his feelings openly. • 
• –

A technique that involves the ability of

TECHNIQUES… the worker to change or make
Environmental some improvement in the
manipulation environment of the client. It
requires direct action on the part of
the worker.
TECHNIQUES…

• Clarification – It is directed toward increasing

the client’s ability to see
external realities more clearly
This technique may be to understand his own
combined with or it usually emotions, attitudes and
accompanies psychological behavior, as well as the effects
support. and significance of his actions.
Through this technique, the
client is enabled to think more
clearly, react more realistically,
and plan for his improvement
more wisely.
• The application involves a
therapeutic atmosphere where the
client is encouraged to surface and
recognize current and past
TECHNIQUES… emotions that accompany his
Insight Development situation. The process can help the
client see his inner realities and
develop an understanding of how
these affect his behavior and
actions. The use of this technique
needs careful management and
reassurance of support on the part
of the social worker.
***End of Lecture and
Discussion***

ATLEYSON 2013