Exam 2 Slides

• The planning phase is when the client and social worker develop a plan with goals and objectives as to what needs to be done to address the problem. A plan is developed to help the client meet their need or address the problem.
• The planning phase is a joint process where the worker and the client identify the strengths and resources gathered from the assessment phase.
• Once the strengths and resources are identified, the social worker and the client come up with a plan by outlining goals, objectives, and tasks to help meets the clients goal to address the need or problem.
• During the planning phase, keep in mind that the goals should be what the client is comfortable with and finds feasible to obtain.
• The social worker’s most important job during this phase is to help the client identify strengths and resources, notto come up with the client’s goals for them.
• The importance of involving clients in every part of the intervention process cannot be emphasized enough.
• Planning step 1: Work with Your Client(s)
• Clients are usually the best source of information in the assessment phase and must be fully involved in setting the goals in the planning process
• Planning Step 2: Prioritize Problems— Which Problem Should You Work on First
• As practitioners we should focus on the most important one first.
• The first thing to do is to focus on only those problems that fulfill three criteria:1. the client must recognize that the problem exists.2. the problems should be clearly defined in understandable terms.3. must be realistically possible that you and your client will be able to do something about the problem.
• When you and the client decide on which problem(s) to work on first, these problems now become the ‘ target problems ’.
• Target problems are now the main focus.
• working on target problems - A. Identify with the client the problems that are most significant to the client.Which problem comes first◦ Explore the clients concerns◦ List may be long or short◦ You may disagree with the client◦ You may feel some problems are insignificant, include them anyway
• working on target problems - B. Explicitly state each problem in behavioral terms.◦ The precise nature of the problems should be clear in your mind.◦ Additionally, the problems statement should include descriptions of behaviors that will later allow you to measure your progress and determine when you havesucceeded in solving the problems.
• working on target problems - C. Prioritize the problems in order of their importance to the client .
• working on target problems - D. Establish an initial agreement with the client regarding the problem you will attend first.
• Step 3: Translate Problems into Needs
• Problems involve any source of perplexity or distress
• Needs, on the other hand, typically fall into three categories: 1. depend upon survival, including food, water and shelter. 2. things we require in order to maintain a sense of well being.-things to keep us comfortable and health wise 3. things we require to achieve a sense of fulfillment in your life-job-feel valued.
• Step 4: Evaluate Levels of Intervention — selecting a strategy
• Selecting a Strategy-  1. Focus on the first need you and the client have selected to work on.
• Selecting a Strategy- 2. Review the need and consider identifying micro, mezzo, and macro alternatives strategies to arrive at a solution.
• Selecting a Strategy- 3. Emphasize your client’s strengths when establishing strategies.
• Selecting a Strategy- 4. Evaluate the pros and cons of eachstrategy you have considered with your client.
• Selecting a Strategy- 5. Select and pursue the strategy that appears to be most efficient and effective.
• Step 5: Establish goals  Goals are established to clarify the purpose of the intervention. Social workers set goals to help a client system identify and specify what it wants to achieve within the worker-client relationship. Worker and client must be moving in the same direction. They must clearly understand what they are trying to accomplish.
• Establish goals - 1. Establishing goals helps ensure that clients and workers are in agreement about such matters as problem definition and the changes that must occur to produce a suitable out come.
• Establish goals - 2. they validate the client’s concerns and definition of the problem and facilitate client empowerment.
• Establish goals - 3. Goals suggest that direction and nature of the intervention, which helps both client and social worker stay on course.
• Establish goals - 4. Carefully defined goals lend themselves more easily to evaluation
• Goals are broad statement of what you and your client want to achieve.
• Step 6: Specify Objectives - Goals are broad - Objectives are behaviorally specific regarding what is to be achieved and how success will be measured.
• Step 7: Specify Action Steps - Action steps are important because they help identify appropriate intervention strategies.
• Action steps - The basic formula for delegating responsiblyis to specify who will do what by when.
• Action steps - Who- is the individual specified for accomplishing a task
• Action steps - What- involves that tasks the individual hasto complete in order to achieve the goal.
• Action steps - When - sets a time limit so that the task is not lost in some endless eternity.
• Step 8: Formalize a Contract - A agreement between a client and worker about what will occur in the intervention process.
• Formalize a Contract - 1. a contract specifies what will occur during the intervention process.