Working and Evaluating

Chapter 10

Working and Evaluating

I.Rehearsing Action Steps

A.Rehearsal activities incorporate aspects of doing with thinking and feeling

B.Forms of rehearsal

1.Modeling

2.Role-Playing

3.Visualizing

C.Exercise 10-1: Rehearsing Action Steps

II.Reviewing Action Steps

A.Motivation is enhanced when clients understand that they will have a chance to review the action step after attempting it

B.Adopt an attitude of supportive curiosity

C.Exercise 10-2: Reviewing Action Steps

III.Evaluating

A.Evaluation of progress is crucial during the work and evaluation phase

B.You engage the client in examining data that have been collected in accordance with your plan for evaluating progress

C.Figure 10.l: Sleep Pattern: Lynn Chase

D.Exercise 10-3: Evaluating

IV.Focusing

A.Used to direct or maintain attention to the work at hand

B.Exercise 10-4: Focusing

V.Educating

A.Sharing knowledge and educated opinions

B.Information should be conveyed in such a way that clients may freely consider its relevance for their particular situation and decide whether to accept it

C.Different learning styles

1.Deductive

2.Inductive

3.Story-telling

4.Hearing

5.Seeing

6.Multisensory

D.Self-disclosure

1.Personal experience may carry special meaning to the client

2.There should be a clear relationship between your own self-disclosures and the established goals for work

3.Too much disclosure and the client may begin to see you troubled and less than competent

4.Be careful not to become the client’s client

E.Exercise 10-5: Educating

VI.Advising

A.Almost always convey that the client may freely accept or reject your advice

B.Resist the temptation to offer advice based on your own personal feelings, attitudes, and preferences

C.In an emergency situation you may actually need to direct the actions of clients or other persons

D.Exercise 10-6: Advising

VII.Representing

A.Actions you take on behalf of clients in pursuit of agreed-upon goals

B.Interventive roles incorporated in representing (Compton & Galaway & Cournoyer, 2005)

1.Broker

2.Advocate

3.Mediator

C.During the course of your social work career, collect the names and phone numbers of other social workers and representatives of various community resources

D.Exercise 10-7: Representing

VIII.Responding with Immediacy

A.Involves exploring the client’s experiences and feelings about you, your relationship, or your work together, as they occur

B.Practice Format: Responding with Immediacy

C.In many cases, the manner in which clients relate to you is representative of their general pattern of relating with people

D.Responding with immediacy is not appropriate for use with all clients

E.Often results in a significant increase in energy between you and your client

F.Exercise 10-8: Responding with Immediacy

IX.Reframing

A.Refers to the words you say and the actions you have taken when introducing clients to a new way of looking at some aspect of themselves, the issue, or the situation

B.Forms of reframing

1.Reframing a negative into a positive

2.Personalizing meaning (Carkhuff & Anthony, 1979)—encourage clients to shift the attribution of responsibility away from other people, organizations, or external forces and toward themselves

3.Situational meaning—change the meaning suggested by clients’ expressions

C.Practice format: Personalizing Meaning

D.Exercise 10-9: Reframing

X.Confronting

A.You point out to clients—directly and without disapproval—discrepancies, inconsistencies, or contradictions in their words, feelings, and actions

B.Practice Format: Confronting

C.Before confronting a particular client, be certain that person has the psychological and social resources to endure the impact

D.Exercise 10-10: Confronting

XI.Pointing Out Endings

A.Remind the client “some time before the last sessions that the working relationship is coming to a close” (Shulman, 1992)

B.Extending a timeframe does not necessarily increase the probability of goal achievement

C.By pointing out endings, you may help motivate clients to work hard on the action steps to complete them within the established period

D.Explore thoughts and feelings associated with the idea of ending

E.Exercise 10-11: Point Out Endings

XII.Progress Recording

A.As a professional social worker, you are legally and ethically obligated to keep records throughout all phases of practice

B.Many social workers use a problem-oriented recording (POR) approach during the work phase

1.SOAP format

a.S—Subjective data

b.O—Objective data

c.A—Assessment

d.P—Plan

2.DAR

a.D—Data

b.A—Action

c.R—Response

3.APIE

a.A—Assessment

b.P—Plan

c.I—Implementation

d.E—Evaluation

4.SOAIGP (Kagle, 1991)

a.S—Supplemental information from clients or family members

b.O—Your observations and, if applicable, those of other agency staff

c.A—Activities that you, the client, or others undertake

d.I—Your impressions, hypotheses, assessments, or evaluations

e.G—Current goals

f.P—Plan for additional activities or actions steps

C.Goal-focused format

1.GAAP

a.Goals: Summarize the goals and objectives reflected in the contract

b.Activities: Describe the tasks, activities, and interventions undertaken by participants (e.g., social worker, client, others) during or in-between meetings in pursuit of the goals

c.Assessment: Report the results of assessment and evaluation processes related to effects and outcomes of activities and progress toward goal achievement

d.Plans: Based on the assessment and evaluation, outline plans for additional goal-related tasks and activities including, when necessary, changes to the agreed-upon goals and objectives

D.Progress recordings are legal as well as professional documents

E.Exercise 10-12: Progress Recording

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