Social Work Skills

1. Social Work Skills Introduction Chapters 1 and 2

2. General Social Work Skills • As a social worker, • You will serve people in all walks of life and in all kinds of situations. • The range of settings in which you might serve is wide and varied. • The contexts for practice are often complex, demanding and challenging. • Competence requires adequate knowledge, ethics, accountability, and proficiency

3. Social Work Skill... ... fundamental to social work practice.

4. Are you in the right place? • 47-304-01 • Tues-Thurs • Room • Fall 2007 If so...Welcome!

5. Maritime School of Social Work About Me • Hail from East Coast of Canada • Born and raised in a coal mining town • Went to university to study philosophy • Led to Social Work • Led to Education • Ended in academia • Been here for 30+ years

6. About Each Other? • Class Exercise • Break into groups of 2 • Introduce one another • Tell person one true statement about yourself and one false statement • Have the person try and decipher which is the false and which is the true statement

7. About Us • Opportunity to learn • Opportunity to share • Opportunity to grow • Opportunity to become hands-on, competent and confident social workers

8. Point of This Course • Come to know, understand and practice the steps important to social work practice. • To use case examples and situations that clearly illustrate the essential skills of social work practice. • To work our way through summaries and skill-building exercises, and get involved in actual hands-on practice.

9. Teaching Methodology • Lectures accompanied by PowerPoint outlines, class and small group discussions, and experiential activities. • My responsibility: • Provide content, and to provide the structure and opportunities to learn. • Your responsibility: • To learn; to be actively engaged in class, to be curious about new ideas, to be willing to try new skills, to ask questions when needed, and to complete all assignments (including assigned reading).

10. Course Work and Grading • Refer to Course Outline • Assignments • Tests • Multiple Choice • Attendance • Participation

11. This Class RULES! • Respect for Self • Do your best • Positively participate in all classroom activities • Respect for Others • Stay on task without disturbing or distracting others • Avoid ‘put downs’ or harass others • Respect other people’s differences and opinions • Respect for School • Raise hand to speak • Enter and exit the room quietly • Complete all assignments on time • Actively listen when others are speaking

12. Course Text: The Social Work Skills Workbook Barry. R. Cournoyer Available in BOOKSTORE

13. Up to here for Thus. Sept. 6th

14. Introduction Professionalism Ethical Decision Making Talking and Listening Preparing Beginning Exploring Assessing Contracting Working and Evaluating Ending Appendices Table of Contents

15. Student Resources • Text Resources • http://infotrac.thomsonlearning.com/ • Student Support Resources • http://www.uwindsor.ca/support • Student Development and Support • http://www.uwindsor.ca/sds • Student Counselling Center • http://www.uwindsor.ca/scc

16. Chapter 1 Introduction

17. Chapter Purpose • The Purpose of this chapter will be to: • Discuss breadth and complexity of social work practice • Define and discuss the concept of “social work” skill • Discuss the significance of social work skills • Identify the phases or processes of social work practice • Discuss common factors and essential facilitative qualities for professional relationships • Discuss the purposes and functions of The Social Work Skills Learning Portfolio • Discuss the qualities and characteristics needed by ethical, effective social workers

18. Social Workers…many the splendid role…

19. And the many splendid tasks…

20. Do you Know Where You’re Going to? What kind of social work would you like to practice in the future?

21. At some point in your career as a social worker, you might: • Serve in a child­ protection capacity, responding to indications that a child may be at risk of abuse or neglect. • Help families improve their child-caring capabilities or serve in the emergency room of a hospital, intervening with persons and families in crises. • Lead therapy groups for children who have been sexually victimized or provide education and counselling to abusive adults.

22. You might also… • Aid couples whose relationships are faltering • Help single parents who seek guidance and support in rearing their children. • Serve persons who abuse alcohol and drugs • Help family members who have been affected by the substance abuse of a parent, child, spouse, or sibling. • Work in a residential setting for youthful offenders, a prison for adults, or a psychiatric institution.

23. You Could Even… • Help people who are in some way physically or mentally challenged. • Serve in a school system or perhaps as a consultant to a police department. • Function in a crisis intervention capacity for a suicide prevention service.

24. The Social workers role - a tiered approach

25. Social Workers can also work in a variety of settings: • Health and Community Services • Health Care • Communities • Long-term care • Justice • Research • Self-employment (Hick, 2002, p. 61)

26. Real Life Scenario Listen to the following audio recording of a client-therapy session Write down what the issue is Note what techniques the therapist uses

27. A RECORDED GRIEF SESSION • MUSIC-BASED INTERVENTION • The scenario demonstrates the strategic use of the Music Impact Inventory Scale (MIIS) with a 48 year old grandmother who lost her grandson accidentally last summer. Gordon was 5 years old and drowned in the family swimming pool. This is the six grief session that I have had with this grandmother.

28. You may ask yourself, • "Can I possibly learn what I need to so that I can serve competently as a social worker in all those places, serving such different people, and helping them to address such complex issues?" • The answer to that question is certainly No! • TAKE HEED THOUGH • You can acquire expertise in those skills that are common to social work practice

29. Regardless of situation or setting… • Social workers are trained to function • Within established codes of ethics and professionalism • Within a holistic theoretical and practice framework • By taking into account and working within the person-and-situation (PAS) or person-in-environment (PIE) or person-issue-situation (PIS) paradigm • By employing social work skills

30. Social Work Code of Ethics • Social workers pledge adherence as follows: • The social work profession promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well being. • Utilising theories of human behaviour and social systems, social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments.

31. Person-in-environment (PIE) • Social Work seeks to recognize both the client (person), their environment, and the interaction between them. • Florence Hollis (1964) PIE or "person-in-the situation" • Stresses person's physical, social, and psychological realities that both define and limit that person. • Social Workers seek to examine both the personal, and the social aspects of all 'Problems' social/personal problems • Most intervention happens at the individual level, with system approaches to problem solving seek mainly to improve individual functioning.

32. For Example: PIE for Child

33. It is for these reasons that this 304 course is invaluable, not only in your professional relationships but they will help you in your own communication skills in general • in truly understanding others, affirming their uniqueness and celebrating their individuality

34. “I’m a full human being. I want you to be able to relate to me as one human being to another”.

35. Social Work Skill "the practice component that brings knowledge and values together and converts them to action as a response to concern and need (Johnson, 1995, p. 55), "a complex organization of behaviour directed toward a particular goal or activity" (Johnson, 1995, p. 431)

37. And a "social worker's capacity to use a method in order to further a process directed toward the accomplishment of a social work purpose as that purpose finds expression in a specific program or service" (Smalley, 1967, p. 17). Skill is "the production of specific behaviours under the precise conditions designated for their use" (Middleman & Gold­berg, 1990, p. 12).

38. Social Work Skill • Circumscribed set of discrete cognitive and behavioural actions that: • Derive from social work knowledge and from social work values, ethics, and obligations, • Are consistent with the essential facilitative qualities, • Reflect the characteristics of professionalism, and • Comport with a social work purpose within the context of a phase or process of practice.

39. A "social worker's skills include being proficient in communication, assessing problems and client workability, matching needs with resources, developing resources, and changing social structures" (Barker, 1995).

40. Twelve skills outlined by the National Association of Social Workers’ skills (NASW, 1981) • Listen to others with understanding and purpose • Elicit information and assemble relevant facts to prepare a social history, assessment, and report • Create and maintain professional helping relationships • Observe and interpret verbal and nonverbal behavior and use knowledge of personality theory and diagnostic methods • Engage clients (including individuals, families, groups, and communities) in efforts to resolve their own problems and to gain trust • Discuss sensitive emotional subjects supportively and without being threatening

41. Skills Continued • Create innovative solutions to clients’ needs • Determine the need to terminate the therapeutic relationship • Conduct research, or interpret the findings of research and professional literature • Mediate and negotiate between conflicting parties • Provide inter-organizational liaison services • Interpret and communicate social needs to funding sources, the public, or legislators

42. The skills are derived from the tasks associated with commonly identified phases or processes of social work practice, the essential facilitative qualities exhibited by most effective professional helpers, and the fundamental characteristics of professionalism and include

43. Phases or processes of social work practice • Preparing • Beginning • Exploring • Assessing • Contracting • Working and evaluating • Ending

44. T herapy of Limits

45. Common Factors Research • A review by Asay and Lambert (1999) of six decades of therapy outcomes and identified 4 common therapeutic factors which contribute to successful therapeutic outcomes: • 15% Model and Technique factors • 40% Client variables and extratherapeutic variables • 30% Therapeutic relationship factors such as: • warmth, acceptance, empathic understanding, and client-therapist agreement • 15% expectancy and placebo effects

47. CLIENT FACTORS (40 %) Pre-existing characteristics of the client: • Intelligence • Personality traits • Temperament • Ethnic background • Abilities • Family size • Family support • Social network • Etc.

48. Who are the clients? • Clients, like social workers, vary is several characteristics, but with one notable exception: • ***Most clients that seek help have reached a point wheretheir coping mechanisms no longer function.*** • Some clients seek services because someone else is distressed (e.g., a parent, employer, spouse, or other family member) or because they are referred, appointed or mandated to seek social services • These clients tend to be less motivated than clients seeking help for themselves.

49. Which clients tend to fare better in their treatment outcomes? • Clients who “do their homework” tend to do better. That is, clients who “complete” assignments given to them by their therapists (e.g., keep a diary of emotions, etc.) show better treatment outcomes. • Burns & Spangler (2000) reported that depressed patients who were homework compliant, reported decreases in depression. • Clients who are cooperative & open tend to have better treatment outcomes than clients who are resistant & defensive. (Orlinksy, Grawe, & Parks, 1994).

50. RELATIONSHIP FACTORS (30 %) Factors that influence the quality of the relationship between therapist and the client: • Perceived empathy • Acceptance • Warmth • Confidence • Client’s selfexpression • Etc.