301:Engaging Clients from a Strength-Based, Solution-Focused Perspective

1. 301:Engaging Clients from a Strength-Based, Solution-Focused Perspective

2. Learning Objectives: • Identify the conditions for establishing effective engagement with clients; • Connect the engagement process with the appropriate application of protective authority to establish the collaborative/protective partnership; • Identify the elements of the solution-focused intervention model that distinguish it from the more typical problem-focused approach; • Identify seven key solution-focused strategies; • Identify the appropriate use of solution-focused skills and questions; and • Identify opportunities to implement the solution-focused interviewing and intervention approach with child welfare clients.

3. Agenda • Brief Introductions and Workshop Overview • Engagement in the Context of Strength-Based Child Welfare Practice • Protective Authority • Introduction to the Solution-Focused Approach: History, Values and the 7 Key Strategies • Introduction to the Solution-Focused Foundational Skills and Questions • Demonstration of the Strength-Based, Solution-Focused Strategies and Skills • Summary and Transfer of Learning • Evaluation and Closing

4. Professional Practice Clear Mission Shared Values Practice Standards Relevant Knowledge and Skill Results-oriented Self-assessment Ongoing Improvement Professional Interview Give and get information Initiate/maintain client engagement Initiate/sustain movement toward solutions Professionalism:

5. Strengths • What people have learned about themselves, others and their world • Personal qualities, traits and virtues • What people know about the world around them • The talents people have • Cultural and personal stories and lore • Pride • The community

6. Types of Strengths • Mitigating Strengths:protect children from threats to safety • Risk-Reducing Strengths:reduce the likelihood of maltreatment in the future • Well-Being Related Strengths: serve to enhance or support the family’s overall quality of life • Neutral Strengths: positive qualities or conditions in the family that do not directly act to mitigate safety threats, reduce risk or enhance well-being

7. Engagement • Engage: to obtain or contract for; to obtain and hold the attention of; to pledge or promise; to interlock or cause to mesh (The American Heritage Dictionary).

8. Engagement: Process & Outcome • Engagement is both a process and an outcome. • It requires the effective and balanced use of helping skills and protective authority • It produces an ongoing worker/client relationship that results in the pursuit and accomplishment of agreed upon goals (ASFA + client goals)

9. Tuning-in to Self and Others Focused Listening Clarification of Role and Purpose Respect Clear and Accurate Response to Client Questions Honesty Dependability Identification and Support of Client Strengths Seeking to Understand the Client’s Point of View Culturally Sensitive Practice Connecting Agency Goals with Client Goals Investment in Client Success Outcomes-Oriented Practice Regular Feedback Confrontation Demand for Work Promoting Effective Engagement

10. Protective Authority • Protective Authority is the application of helping and/or coercive strategies that result in client acceptance of CYS intervention and effective client engagement leading to the assurance of child safety, reduction of risk of maltreatment, promotion of well-being and timely permanence. And/or

11. Protective Authority is a Continuum that Requires Balance and Flexibility Clarifying/ Helping Confronting/ Forced Choice Police/ Courts: Removal/ TPR Low Moderate High Balance/Flexibility = Engagement & Protective Partnership

12. Avoiding Authority Extremes “Nice” • Stance: submissive • Concern: conflict • Client potential:ambivalent • Authority:minimizes • Goal for client: cooperation • Style: inconsistent

13. Avoiding Authority Extremes “Tough” • Stance: superior • Concern: loss of control • Client potential:pessimistic • Authority: heavy • Goal for client: compliance • Style: inflexible

14. Solution-Focused Core Principles • If what you are doing doesn’t work, stop doing it and do something else. • If what you are doing is working, do more of it.

15. Problem Model vs. Solution Model The Problem-Focused Model • The practitioner is the expert. • Practitioner must figure out the type of client problem and the related solution. • The “Problem” is seen as real and separate from the client as a whole person; the client is “labeled”. • The job of the professional is to know about various problems, have assessment procedures and present interventions for client compliance.

16. Problem Model vs. Solution Model The Solution-Focused Model • The client is the expert about his/her life. • Practitioner must facilitate client solution building. • Solutions emerge without connection to the specific related problem. • The “problem” does not exist apart from the client as a whole person in context. • The job of the professional is to understand the direction that the client wants to go, identify the supporting strengths and co-construct solutions that promote family and ASFA goals.

17. Problem Questions What is the worst this problem has been? What’s going on during those bad times? Can you think of anything you are doing to set him off? Have you thought about getting treatment for this problem? Solution Questions Tell me about the times when this problem is a little bit better? How did you make this happen? What are you doing differently during those times when things are a little bit better? What would your best friend (mother, child, etc.) tell you when things are going a little bit better for you? Contrasting Types of Questions

18. 7 Key Solution-Focused Strategies 1. Identifying strengths in a problem situation. 2. Exploring past successes. 3. Finding & using exceptions to the problem. 4. Facilitating a positive vision of the future. 5. Developing Action Steps. 6. Scaling questions. 7. Encouraging commitment.

19. Types of Useful Questions: Exceptions • Exceptionsare those occasions in clients’ lives when their problems could have occurred but did not – or at least were less severe. • Exception questions focus on who, what, when and where (the conditions that helped the exception to occur) - NOT WHY; exceptions should be related to client goals.

20. Types of Useful Questions: Coping • Coping questions are related in a way to exploring for exceptions. They attempt to help the client shift his/her focus away from the problem elements and toward what the client is doing to survive the painful or stressful circumstances.

21. Types of Useful Questions: Indirect or Relationship • Indirect/Relationship questionsinvite the client to consider how others might feel or respond to some aspect of the client’s life, behavior or future changes. • Indirect questions can be useful in asking the client to reflect on narrow or faulty perceptions without the worker directly challenging those perceptions or behaviors.

22. Types of Useful Questions: Scaling • Scaling questions invite the clients to put their observations, impressions, and predictions on a scale from 0 to 10, with “0” being no chance, and “10” being every chance. • Questions need to be specific, citing specific times and circumstances.

23. Types of Useful Questions: Miracle • The “Miracle Question”is the opening piece of the process of developing well-formed goals. • It gives clients permission to think about an unlimited range of possibilities for change. • It begins to move the focus away from their current and past problems and toward a more satisfying life.

24. Posing the Miracle Question “Now, I want to ask you a different kind of question. I want you to imagine a time in the future when the problem which brought you to the attention of CYS is solved. All the present barriers are gone. So, when this miracle happens what will be different that will tell you that this positive future has happened and the problem is solved?” (adapted from de Shazer, 1988)

25. Follow-up Questions to the Miracle Question Throughfollow-up questions, the interviewer further extends and amplifies the impact of the miracle by a series of questions designed to guide the client in exploring the implications of the miracle in the client’s life. • “What might others notice about you that would tell them that the miracle has happened, that things are different or better?” • “Have there been times when you have seen pieces of this miracle/positive future happen?”

26. Dialogue I: Review High Authority • 2 Asking about change, difference or exceptions 3,5 • 2Asking for client feedback 10,11 • 3Asking for information about a problem 6,8,13 • 2Clarification of purpose or role 2,14 • 0 Demonstrating understanding of the client’s words and feelings • 1Reinforcing client strengths and accomplishments 4 • 0 Scaling and scaling follow-up questions • 4Confrontation 7,9,12,12 • 3 Explaining actual or possible consequences of client behavior,12,14,15 • 2 Demand for work 15,16 • 0 Summarizing • 1 Planning next steps 17

27. Comparison of Interview Styles

28. Problem Wagon • ASFA GOALS: • Safety • Permanence • Well-being • Timeliness Problem Wagon

29. Strength/Problem Wagon • ASFA GOALS: • Safety • Permanence • Well-being • Timeliness Strengths/Problem Wagon

30. Solution Wagon • ASFA GOALS: • Safety • Permanence • Well-being • Timeliness Solution Wagon

31. Summary of Key Concepts • Prepareto be Strength-Based and Solution-Focused. • Clarify your role and the purpose of your meeting or interview. • Listen and seek to understand the client’s perceptions. • Look for client/family strengths. • Negotiate an agreement to do the work. • Use the least intrusive effective level of protective authority. • Identify and develop clear goals. • Use scaling questions to assess and build client confidence and commitment. • Work on developing small steps toward goals. • Support progressand work to overcome barriers. • Celebrateaccomplishments. • Check: Was the interview a professional interview?.

32. WHATSBSFA CAN & CAN’T DO No model can give you more time to do your job. However, the SBSFA can help to focus your time and energy in the direction of behaviors and tasks that are sharply focused on the mission of child welfare, on unit performance and the most critical elements of your role. • *BE CURIOUS • *BE PATIENT • *GROW YOUR COMPETENCIES • *TRY OUT NEW KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS