Principle and tools of case work

Principles and tools of case work

Principle of acceptance

Acceptance is one of the fundamental principles of social work practice. Without acceptance, a social worker cannot turn a stone during helping the process. Acceptance is the first step which helps him/her to take client as s/he is. A social worker who accepts the client treats them humanly and considerately and offer them dignity and worth. Social worker conveys acceptance by expressing genuine concern, listening receptively, acknowledging others point of view and creating climates of mutual respect.

In the case of the girl first step of a social worker is to accept the girl with her current situation. But sometimes acceptance is difficult for the social worker due to his/her personal presupposition, prejudice, confusion, cultural background, lack of awareness and knowledge and lack of understanding of girls perception. In this situation, social work intervention is not possible since the social worker has a tendency to reject the girl without treatment or with poor treatment. Therefore a professional social worker has to understand this dynamic nature of acceptance and its importance on plan changed effort.

Principle of individualization

The principle of individualization for social worker means acceptance of all individual clients as a unique individual who has distinct quality and capacity. The principle rejects the notion of the client as an object, case or subject of study. It is also an appreciation and recognizing individual differences of people or clients. Individualization requires freedom from bias and prejudice, and avoidance of labeling and stereotyping, understanding of diversity and knowledge of human behavior.

In the case of the girl, a social worker has to accept the girl as a unique individual who has a personal situation, problem and coping capacity to the problem. Maybe she bears similar kind of traumatic situation as other rescued girls but social worker should not be generalized her problem with other. Rather s/he has to understand her situation on the basis of individualization. The social worker has to implement treatment method which could be unique in nature.

Principle of self-determination

The principle of self-determination for social worker means not being forced or manipulated. In another way, it means having freedom or liberty to make choose from alternatives. The social worker has a responsibility to maximize the client’s opportunity for self-determination. This means the social worker has to collect all important information about the client. On the basis of collective information and knowledge about the client-social worker has to empower the client to make his/her own choices and decision. Therefore social workers role in client self-determination involves providing information, identifying possible consequences and exploring alternatives with the participation of the client. The social worker has a responsibility to create a working relationship in which choice or option can be exercised, explored and studied. In addition, social worker needs to inform and discuss all the choice with the client so that client can make an informed choice.

In the case of rescued girl social worker has to get detail information about her. She may need psychological or physical treatment and again she might need to be rehabilitees and integrated into the community. But before this, she needs to heal her traumatic experience. These processes are said by social worker thinking that it would be best for her. On the contrary, there could be a chance that she would not like any of that pre decided process or choices made by the social worker. Therefore, the social worker has to inform all the options of intervention process and empower her to make an informed choice from the alternatives.

Principle of confidentiality

Confidentiality is one of the important principles of social work practice. It refers to protection of information provided by or received from the client. According to the principle of confidentiality, it should be applied by the social worker while disclosing private information. In this regards social worker has to inform the client about the discloser of confidential information and the potential consequences when feasible before the discloser is made. The social worker should respect confidential information shared by a colleague during professional relationship and transaction. The social worker should ensure that such colleague understands social workers obligation to respect clients right to privacy. The social worker should not disclose private information from the client until it is essential to providing services or conducting social work evaluation or research. The social worker should understand that in some situation confidentiality has its limitation or where it does not apply. This situation generally includes where the client is at risk for self-impose harm or harm to others like suicide or likely to kill or harm another person. In some specific setting where confidentiality does not apply includes impatient hospitals, medical or psychiatric and various residential treatment programs where teams of the profession are providing services. In a case of child abuse and neglect different confidentiality does not apply. The limits of confidentiality are different in the case of a person who by virtue of age or mental handicap does not have same rights and protection as other.

Problem-solving tools in case work

Observation

Observation is a tool of information collection. It helps the social worker to analyze the situation of the client. On the basis of observation social worker can evaluate his/her intervention effort, impact and progress in the client. Observation helps the social worker to collect information by direct observation without asking the clients. Observation is more than seeing, therefore it includes hearing, touching and smelling. A social worker can use different types of observation as per need and convenience. Social worker often uses observation during face to face interview, counseling, home visit, group discussion, meeting and document studies.

Listening

Listening is one of the most important tools use by a social worker during problem-solving process. Listening is also a vital part of effective communication that helps the social worker to establish a professional relationship with clients. In the same time, it also helps the social worker to collect data for assessment.

Interview

An interview is an important tool that case worker use for data collection during problem-solving process. The interview can be conducted through telephone or in person at an office setting. It is also way communication. The social worker has to be careful that the interview used in problem-solving process is quite different than the interview used by journalist and researcher. The social worker has to prepare for an interview before meeting with client especially for the first interview. In this context, social worker has to make clear about his/her role like the role of active listener who tries to listen and understand client’s perception and problems. The social worker has to develop a professional relation with the client so that the client feels comfortable with a case worker and agency.

Home visit

The term home visit simply means and activity that requires case worker to visit client’s home. The main purpose of the home visit is the assessment of client’s situation in their home inorders to promote professional service. Home visit helps to assess family and neighborhood environment, where the client is living in. a home visit can reveal significant information to the social worker that could not be possible to obtain some interview in an agency setting. It helps the client to develop trust and confidence upon social worker which ultimately helps in rapport building. The social worker needs to remain objective and able to see the situation from the clients perceptive during a home visit. It is because sometimes the client’s situation in the home might be extremely worst or difficult than social worker imagination.