Data Collection and Assessment

Basic Concepts

Data collection is the activity of securing the information needed to understand the practice situation as a prerequisite to formulating a plan of action.

The worker should identify the subjective perceptions, assumptions, and beliefs regarding the situation held by the client, family members, teachers, employers, and perhaps even a referring agency.

Assessment is the thinking process by which a worker reasons from the information gathered to arrive at tentative conclusions.

Basic Concepts

The social worker should be able to describe the problem accurately and identify what needs to be changed to improve the client’s situation.

The best assessments are multidimensional. Social workers must guard against

unconsciously making the client’s situation fit a particular theory or a preconceived diagnostic category.

Techniques and Guidelines For Direct Practice Data-Collection activities that need to be

considered: Volitional: the personal choices and decisions that

shape one’s life. Intellectual: the ideas, knowledge, and beliefs used to

understand oneself, others, and the world. Spiritual and religious: one’s deepest core beliefs

concerning the meaning and purpose of life. Moral and ethical: one’s standards of right and

wrong.

Techniques and Guidelines For Direct Practice Data-Collection activities (continued):

Emotional: one’s feelings and moods. Physical: one’s level of energy, ease and capacity for

movement. Sexuality: one’s sexual identity and orientation, libido,

capacity for reproduction. Familial: relationships with one’s parents, siblings,

spouse, partner, children, and relatives. Social: interactions with friends and peers, one’s

social support network, one’s interest in recreational activities.

Techniques and Guidelines For Direct Practice Data-Collection Activities (continued):

Community: one’s sense of belonging to a group beyond family and friends.

Work/occupation: the nature of one’s work.Economic: one’s material resources; one’s

capacity to secure the money needed to purchase goods and services.

Legal: one’s rights, responsibilities, protections and entitlements as a citizen.

Techniques and Guidelines For Direct Practice Modes of data collection:

Direct verbal questioning. Direct written questioning. Indirect or projective verbal questioning. Indirect or projective written questioning. Observation of the client in the client’s natural environment. Observation of the client in a simulated situation (role playing).

Client self-monitoring and self-observations (journals and logs). The use of existing documents.

Techniques and Guidelines For Direct Practice Assessment activities requires developing a tool that

combines data collection with a format that facilitates interpretation.

Particular attention needs to be given to assessing client strengths.

Value preferences affect assessments. There must be clarity as to who is the client and who will

be the target system. Diagnosis means the client’s problem, condition, or

situation is classified and assigned to a particular category.

Social Assessment Report

A social assessment report is a type of professional report frequently prepared by social workers in direct practice that focuses on and describes the social aspects of the client’s functioning and their situation.

Social workers are particularly concerned about the match between client needs and the resources available to meet those needs.

Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.

Social Assessment Report

A social assessment report presents the reader with two types of information: The social data, consisting of facts and observations. The worker’s interpretation of those data along with

implications of the data for those who will work with the client.

The information presented should lay a foundation for doing something with the client about their problem or situation.

Social Assessment Report

A good report is characterized by these qualities: Shortness Clarity and simplicity Usefulness Organization (including):

Identifying information Reason for report Reason for social work or agency Statement of problem or situation Statement of family background Physical functioning, health concerns, illness, disabilities,

medications

Social Assessment Report

Characteristics (continued): Organization (continued):

Educational background, school performance, intellectual functioning

Psychological and emotional functioning Strengths, ways of coping, and problem solving capacities Employment, income, work experience and skills Housing, neighborhood, and transportation Current and recent use of community and professional

resources Social worker’s impressions and assessment Intervention and service plan

Social Assessment Report

Characteristics (continued): Confidentiality and client access (remember to

respect the client’s privacy). Objectivity: observations should be expressed in a

nonjudgmental manner. Relevance: The information should have a clear

connection between the client’s concern and the social worker’s involvement.

Focus on client strengths: Avoid preoccupation with pathology, family disorganization, personal weakness, and limitation.

Dual Perspective

One of social work’s unique contributions is its emphasis on understanding the client within the context of their environment.

A person’s social environment is comprised of two elements: The nurturing environment is composed of family,

friends, and close associates at work or school. The sustaining environment is made up of the people

one encounters and learns to deal with in the wider community

Dual Perspective

Special concern during the assessment phase of the change process is the question of whether an intervention should be directed toward elements of the nurturing environment or toward the sustaining environment.

The concepts of a nurturing and a sustaining environment can be translated into a simple assessment tool for identifying the location of both the supports and problems a person experiences in the social environment.

Genograms and Ecomapping

A genogram is a diagram similar to a family tree. It describes family relationships for two or three generations.

An ecomap places an individual or a family within a social context by using circles to represent organizations or factors impacting their lives.

An ecomap is developed jointly by the social worker and client and helps both to view the family from a system’s or ecological perspective.

Social Support Assessment

Social support refers to the information, encouragement, and tangible assistance that if offered to a person, by others, and is perceived by the person as being beneficial to their functioning.

Social supports are a component of one’s larger social network – those individuals and groups with which they interact on a regular basis.

To help clients make appropriate and effective use of social supports, it is necessary to engage them in identification and assessment of potential social supports.

Social Support Assessment

This assessment do not objectively describe the client’s support but rather reflect the client’s perceptions and beliefs.

The social worker engages the client in a discussion of how the client might reach out to and use identified social supports.

Whether the supports are likely resources will depend on the nature of the client’s problem or needs and the client’s willingness to use them.

Life History Grid

The life history grid is a method of organizing and presenting data related to the various periods in a client’s life.

The grid is especially useful in work with children and adolescents, where an understanding of life experiences during a particular stage of development may shed light on current functioning.

Life Cycle Matrix

An assessment should consider the client’s stage in the life cycle and the developmental tasks common to that stage.

The use of a matrix can help the social worker organize thoughts about the family members and the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual needs associated with a particular stage of life.

Within a family system, the developmental struggles of one member may interfere with the developmental tasks and crises faced by another.

Identifying Client Strengths

A client strength can be defined as an important, positive, and prosocial action or activity that the client is doing, can do, or wants to do.

To be successful, an intervention must be built on and around client strengths.

Focusing on client strengths requires a paradigm shift – a whole new way of thought and analysis.

Identifying Client Strengths

Examples of individual strengths: Assuming responsibility for one’s actions. Taking reasonable risks in order to made needed changes. Demonstrating loyalty and a sense of duty to family, relatives,

and friends. Showing affection, compassion, and concern for others;

demonstrating a willingness to forgive others. Assisting and encouraging others; protecting others from harm. Seeking employment, holding a job, being responsible

employee, meeting one’s financial obligations.

Identifying Client Strengths

Individual strengths (continue): Exercising self control and making thoughtful

decisions and plans; choosing not to engage in problem or self-defeating behavior.

Being trustworthy, fair, and honest is dealing with others.

Experiencing true and appropriate sorrow and guilt; making amends for having harmed others.

Seeking to understand others and their situations and accepting differences among people.

Identifying Client Strengths

Individual strengths (continue): Willingness to keep trying despite hardship and

setback. Participating in social, community, or religious

organizations and working to improve one’s own neighborhood and community.

Expressing one’s point of view and standing up for one’s own rights and the rights of others.

Making constructive use of special abilities and aptitudes.

Identifying Client Strengths

Important family strengths include: Members trust, respect, and enjoy each other. Members listen to and respect each other’s opinions

even when they disagree. Their communication is clear, positive, and

productive. The family has clear and reasonable rules that govern

behavior and interaction. Each member’s ideas, preferences, and needs are

considered before making a decision that would affect the family.

Identifying Client Strengths

Building on client strengths may require looking at a client’s problems from a different angle.

Another way of orienting your approach to one that recognizes and builds on client strengths is to operate on the assumption that within all people, there are innate tendencies toward psychological health and prosocial behavior.

Identifying Client Strengths

Guidelines to help the worker maintain a focus on strengths: Believe the client. Display an interest is strengths. Assume that the client is an expert on their behavior,

life, and situation, and knows best what will work in a change effort or treatment plan.

View the assessment and the service planning process as joint worker-client activity.

Assess but do not diagnose.

Identifying Client Strengths

Guidelines (continue): Avoid discussions of blame and what the client or

others should or should not have done previously. Assume that within the client’s family, social network,

and community there is an oasis of potential resources, both formal and informal, that can be drawn into the helping process.

Formulate an intervention plan that is specific and individualized to the client and their situation.

Expanding a Client’s Vision of Changes That Are Possible The principles of solution-focused therapy

is to help the client detail descriptions of those times and situations when the problem did not have such strong negative effects on their functioning and also to encourage the client to imagine how they would think, feel, and behave if the problem would suddenly disappear.

Expanding a Client’s Vision of Changes That Are Possible Techniques to implement changes:

Exploring exceptions refers to a type of questioning intended to help the client realize that there are times or situations when the problem is less frequent or less intense.

Scaling questions is designed to help the client realize that the seriousness and the impact of a problem varies over time and also that bringing about desirable change is a matter of taking many small steps, rather than making some large and sudden shift in functioning.

Expanding a Client’s Vision of Changes That Are Possible Techniques to implement changes (cont.):

The miracle question encourages the client to visualize and describe what their life would be like without the problem.

Suggestions for asking the miracle question: Mark the beginning of the solution-building process clearly

and dramatically, by introducing the miracle question as unusual or strange.

Since the question asks for a description of the future, use future-directed words: What would be different? What will be signs of the miracle?

Coping Strategies and Ego Defenses A coping strategy is a fairly deliberate and

conscious effort to solve a problem or handle personal distress.

An ego defense mechanisms is a habitual or unconscious problem-avoiding maneuver.

Coping strategies have two functions: To solve a problem (task-focused coping). To reduce the emotional discomfort cause by

stressors (emotion-focused coping).

Coping Strategies and Ego Defenses Emotion-focused coping strategies:

CryingTalking it outLaughing it offSeeking supportDreaming and nightmares (a common

reaction to traumatic experiences.

Coping Strategies and Ego Defenses Task-focused strategies consist of deliberate and

rational actions that will likely bring about changes in one’s functioning, one’s environment, or both.

Good task-focused strategies will be capable of achieving these tasks: Express thoughts and feelings in a clear, positive, and assertive

manner. Ask questions and gather new information, even when the new

information may challenge current beliefs. Identify one’s personal needs and learn socially acceptable

means of meeting those needs.

Coping Strategies and Ego Defenses Task focused strategies (continue):

Model one’s behavior after persons who behave in an effective and responsible manner.

Recognize that one does have choices and can exert influence on one’s own behavior, feelings, and life events.

“cuts one’s losses” and withdraw from relationships or situations that are unhealthy or stressful and unchangeable.

Examine the religious and spiritual dimension of life and draw on one’s beliefs for insight, strength, and direction.

Coping Strategies and Ego Defenses Task-focused strategies (continue):

Identify early signs or indicators of a developing problem so action can be taken before the problem becomes serious.

Take positive and appropriate steps to solve problems even when such actions are a source of fear and anxiety.

Release pent-up emotion in ways that do not verbally or physically harm self or others.

Take care of one’s body and maintain one’s health.

Coping Strategies and Ego Defenses Task-focused strategies (continue):

Delay immediate gratification in order to stick with a plan that will attain a more distant but desired goal.

Use mental images of future actions or events to mentally rehearse how to handle anticipated difficulties.

Make fair and appropriate changes in one’s daily activities of living so as not to interfere with the needs of others.

Ignore unjustified criticism by others and remove one’s self from situations that lead to self-defeating or harmful outcomes.

Coping Strategies and Ego Defenses If the assessment reveals that a client lacks

necessary coping strategies, the intervention plan should focus on helping the client learn specific coping skills.

Defense mechanisms are automatic psychological processes that protect the individual against anxiety and from awareness of internal or external stressors or dangers. (DSM-IV definition).

Coping Strategies and Ego Defenses Defense mechanisms are used to cope with

anxiety, stress, and the problems of living. Defensiveness impairs a person’s ability to

accurately perceive reality and get along with others.

The rigid or excessive use of defenses is a barrier to realistic problem solving.

High levels of defensiveness and distortions of reality are characteristic of disturbed personalities.

Coping Strategies and Ego Defenses Ego defenses:

Denial screens out certain realities by refusing to acknowledge them.

Rationalization involves the justification of inappropriate behavior by manufacturing logical or socially acceptable reasons for the behavior.

Denial and rationalization are predominant defenses used by people who are chemically dependent.

Projection views others as being responsible for one’s own shortcomings or unacceptable behavior.

Coping Strategies and Ego Defenses Ego Defenses (continue):

Repression refers to a mental process in which extremely threatening and painful thoughts or experiences are excluded from consciousness.

Emotional insulation is a maneuver aimed at withholding an emotional investment in a desired but unlikely outcome. Used commonly by persons who have grown up in extreme deprivation.

Intellectualization involves the use of abstractions as a way of distancing one’s self from emotional pain.

Regression involves a retreat from one’s present level of maturity to one that has fewer demands and stressors. Common among physically ill persons who are experiencing fear or pain.

Coping Strategies and Ego Defenses Ego defenses (continue):

Reaction formation is utilized when a person defends against troublesome thoughts, feelings, or impulses by rigidly adhering to exactly the opposite set of thoughts and feelings.

Displacement refers to transferring troublesome emotions (often hostility) and acting-out behaviors (violence) from the person who arouses the emotion to another less threatening and less powerful person or thing.

Fantasy refers to a person who daydreams imaginary achievements and pleasant situations as a way of meeting personal needs or counteracting painful feelings of inadequacy.

Acting out is a pattern of thought and behavior designed to alleviate stress and inner conflict (not a true ego defense).

Coping Strategies and Ego Defenses Guidelines to assist the social worker in assessing and

responding to a client’s defense mechanisms: You must look behind the surface behavior and identify and

address the unmet needs and pain that cause the client to rely on the defense mechanism.

Defenses are mostly learned and habitual; an individual tends to utilize those defenses they have used in the past.

People hold tightly to their defensive patterns It can be difficult to tell where a true description leaves off and

rationalization begins

Assessing a Client’s Role Performance The concept of social role derives from the observation

that within a society’s structure and institutions, certain behaviors are expected of persons simply because of a particular status or position they occupy in the society.

Role expectation suggests that for a given role, there is a cluster of behaviors that are deemed appropriate and acceptable by a reference group or by society as a whole.

Role conception refers to an individual’s personal beliefs and assumptions about how they are supposed to behave in a particular role.

Assessing a Client’s Role Performance An individual’s actual behavior while performing a role is

termed their role performance. In order to successfully perform a given role, an

individual must possess certain knowledge, skills, physical and mental abilities, known as role demands.

Inter-role conflict refers to an incompatibility or clash between two or more roles.

Intra-role conflict exists when a person is caught up in a situation where two or more set of expectations are assigned to a single role.

Assessing a Client’s Role Performance Role incapacity exists when an individual cannot

adequately perform a role. Role rejection occurs when an individual refuses to

perform a role. Role ambiguity exist when there are few clear

expectations associated with a role. Self-role incongruence exists when there is little overlap

between the requirements of a role and the individual’s personality.

Role overload exists when a person occupies more roles than they can perform adequately.

Assessing a Client’s Role Performance Questions can help the social worker analyze problems

of role performance and make decisions concerning the type of intervention needed. What is the nature and degree of the discrepancy between

actual performance and role expectation? Is the discrepancy caused by a lack of knowledge or skill? If the discrepancy is caused by a lack of knowledge and skill,

how best can the problem be addressed? If the discrepancy is caused by rejection or a lack of interest in

the role, how can the problem be addressed?

Assessing a Client’s Self-Concept

The term self refers to that private world of perceptions and thoughts that each of us has about ourselves and our life experience.

This sense of self is of critical importance to our social functioning because how we respond to others and to events is strongly influenced by how we think and feel about ourselves.

Self-identity is how we define and describe ourselves to ourselves and differentiate ourselves from other people.

Assessing a Client’s Self-Concept

Self-efficacy has to do with our feelings of being competent and effective and in control of our lives.

Self-worth (self-esteem) refers to our evaluation of our own value or adequacy as human beings.

Self-acceptance can be thought of as the degree to which we are satisfied and at peace with our qualities and attributes, assets and limitations.

Body image refers to our perceptions and evaluations of our own body and physical appearance.

Assessing a Client’s Self-Concept

To a large degree, one’s sense of self is formed during early childhood but experiences during adolescence also exert a strong influence.

A person’s sense of self – one’s inner self- is an element of spirituality meaning that deeply personal thoughts and core beliefs have much to do with the meanings we assign to our lives and life experiences.

Assessing a Client’s Self-Concept

To draw out this type of information, the social worker can ask questions that are organized around five common emotions:Who and what do you love?Who and what have you lost?Who and what do you fear?How have you been hurt in life?Whom have you hurt?

Assessing Family Functioning

A family will be defined as a group of persons related by biological ties, a legal relationship, and/or expectations of long-term loyalty and commitment, often comprising at least two generations and usually inhabiting one household.

Furthermore, some of the adults of this group must have the intention and the capacity to carry out all or most of the activities or functions common to a family.

Assessing Family Functioning

As people create or join a new family, they tend to repeat the behavioral patterns they learned in the family of origin

When people live together for an extended period, their interactions become habitual.

Once the patterns are well established, the tendency is for family members to preserve the status quo and repeat that which is familiar, even when there are obvious problems in the family’s functioning.

Assessing Family Functioning

The social worker should keep in mind these questions when gathering information about a family’s functioning: How is family membership defined? What facts and realities describe the family? Is family functioning supported by the community? How well are family functions performed? What are the boundaries, subsystems, rules, and roles

governing family interaction? How well does each member fit within the family system?

Assessing Family Functioning

Questions on family functioning (cont.) What are the moral and ethical dimensions of the

family’s functioning. What aspects of life are considered beyond human

control? How does the family make decisions? What is the mood of the family? How do family members handle differentness? How clearly do family member communicate their own

expectations and needs? What communication patterns exist within the family?

Assessing Family Functioning

Questions (continue):Do family members allow other members to

get close emotionally?To what tasks and activities do the adults and

older children devote their time?What are the interpersonal payoffs of

troublesome behavior?Who supports and who opposes change?

Multiworker Family Assessment Interviews Purpose is to secure an understanding of how

each family member views the family’s presenting problem or concern by utilizing more than one social worker during family interviews.

Benefits: A great deal of information is gathered. Family members feel they have been listened and

understood. Consultants are now available to the primary social

worker.

The ABC Model and the Behavior Matrix Tools employed to achieve greater precision in

the observation and analysis of client behavior. ABC model: the A stands for antecedent, B for

behavior, and C for consequences. Behavior Matrix is an observational tool that is

comprised of three cells that is designed to collect data based on the social worker’s observations of positive and negative behavior patterns.

Both tools are utilized to modify behavior.

Using Questionnaires, Checklists, and Vignettes A problem-checklist is a data-collection tool

designed to help the client identify and state their concerns.

The checklist serves as an educational tool. The purpose of a questionnaire is to help clients

quickly identify problem areas to be addressed by the social worker.

A vignette is a brief story to which the client is asked to respond.

Using Questionnaires, Checklists and Vignettes Social workers underutilize these aids in their data

collection. In developing your own tools consider:

Be clear about the purpose to be served by the tool. The completion of the questionnaire should be a relatively easy

task. The writing of questions requires knowledge of possible

responses by clients to certain types of questions. Each question should focus on a single idea. Sequence of questions should follow a logical order. A pretest should be used to determine whether clients can

understand all items in the tool, can complete it in a reasonable amount of time, and the data obtained is useful.