Healy Chapter 6: Problem-Solving Approaches

• Perlman's publication "Social casework: a problem-solving process" was controversial


  1957
• Perlman's view


  The problem-solving process was reforming rather than replacing psychodynamically oriented casework
• John Dewey's view


  Human activity is an instrument for problem-solving and truth is evolutionary and based on experience that can be tested and shared by all those who investigate
• Perlman's approach


  Highly structured and focused approach to social work intervention, unleashed the creative potential of social work
• Perlman's view on diagnosis

  It is simply an argument for making conscious and systematic that which already is operating in us half consciously and loosely
• Task centered approach


  Originally espoused by North American social work scholars William Reid and Laura Epstein, intended for therapeutic practice with individuals and families who had voluntarily committed to social work intervention
• Task centered approach


  • Grew out of Reid and Shyne's comparison of brief and extended therapy and from Studt's work on structured intervention
  • Clients made comparable and sometimes better progress in short term interventions than clients in long term interventions
• Reid and Shane's view

  Time-limited, structured and focused interventions led workers and service users to a greater concentration in the problem-solving effort
• Reid and Epstein established the Task-centered Project at the University of Chicago


  1970
• Objective of Task-centered Project

  To develop scientifically valid social work approaches that could be learned efficiently, increase the effectiveness of direct services, and increase the ability to conduct research on treatment practices
• Problems in living


  • Interpersonal conflict
  • Dissatisfaction with social relations
  • Problems with formal organizations
  • Difficulty in role performance
  • Problems in social transition
  • Reactive emotional distress
  • Inadequate resources
• Task centered framework


  Provides a "shell" in which other theoretical perspectives can be incorporated so long as they do not disrupt the requirements that intervention is structured, focused, and time-limited
• Key principles of task-centered practice

  • Seek mutual clarity with service users
  • Aim for small achievements rather than large changes
  • Focus on the here and now
  • Promote collaboration between worker and service users
  • Build client capacities for action
  • Planned brevity
  • Promote systematic and structured approaches to intervention
  • Adopt a scientific approach to practice evaluation
• Tasks


  The vehicle through which target problems are addressed and clients' skills are developed
• Ultimate goal of tasks

  Empowerment of the client - to enable the client to design and carry out their own problem-solving actions
• Five phases to the task-centered approach

  • Pre-intervention phase
  • Defining target problems
  • Contracting
  • Problem solving implementation
  • Termination
• Pre-intervention phase


  The purpose is to understand and establish the context of intervention, including understanding the reasons for referral and clarifying with the service user any limits or boundaries to the practice relationship
• Themes to be addressed before beginning assessment and intervention


  • The role of the worker
  • Confidentiality and its limits
  • The client's expectations about the casework process
  • What is negotiable and what is not
• Step 1: Defining target problems


  The purpose is for the worker and service user to arrive at a shared understanding of the issues of concern and to begin to narrow down the focus of intervention
• Problem survey


  The service user and provider list the issues as they see them in as concrete and practical of a way as possible and in the client's own words
• Problem ranking


  The worker and service user analyze priority areas of intervention, limiting intervention to no more than three issues
• Step 2: Contracting

  The aim is for the worker and service user to reach an explicit agreement about the target of their intervention and how the target problems are to be addressed
• Goals of intervention


  The worker and service user should identify up to three target problems that will be the focus of their work together
• Statement of the tasks

  Tasks have the purpose of directly addressing the target problems and developing the service user's problem-solving skills
• Responsibility of worker and service user

  In assigning responsibilities, we should bear in mind that a key intention of task centered practice is to develop the client's problem-solving abilities
• Stage 3: problem solving implementation

  Refining the problem and tasks, supporting task performance, and reviewing task performance
• Step 4: termination


  The key purpose is to review overall progress toward addressing the target problem and to point to the future
• Strengths of task centered practice

  • Promotes clarity of thinking and action between service providers and service users, limits potential for confusion and frustration
  • Consistent with core social work values of respect and self-determination by involving service users in determining practice goals, processes, and outcomes
• Weaknesses of task centered practice

  • May only be suitable for relatively superficial problems with people who are atypical of social service users
  • Structured, time limited, goal achievement framework may be inappropriate for practice with issues that have significant emotional content
  • May result in society avoiding longer-term and more deeply seated responses to social oppressions