Chapter 6
Engagement
Forming Partnerships
Dilemma: Social Workers as Experts
• Fabricates hierarchy that may oppress clients
• Passive clients lose their sense of competence and independence
• Unequal application of expertise is the antithesis of empowerment!
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Resolutions: Clients as Experts
• Acknowledges value of clients’ experience and competence
• Activates clients’ resources – Individual strengths and skills– Social and environmental supports
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Viewing Clients as Partners
• Redefines workers' roles in more egalitarian or consultative terms
• Constructs relationship in which clients experience power
• Requires worker self review for paternalistic tendencies
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Making Initial Contacts
• Clients' initial expectations – Range from hopefulness to pessimism– May be shaped by previous contact with
helpers
• Initial contacts set the patterns that will influence outcomes
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Genuineness: A Social Worker Quality
• Initiating authentic relationships with clients
• “Being real”
• Maintaining professional honesty while maintaining personal boundaries
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Acceptance and Respect: Social Worker Qualities
• Regarding clients as partners by:– Listening to their opinions, communicating
cordially, and honoring cultural differences
• Recognizing clients’ potential
• Honoring clients’ preferences for their names
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Trustworthiness: A Social Worker Quality
• Being reliable, honest, credible, and sincere
• Each social worker-client relationship begins with a different level of trust
• To be trusted, workers must show trust in clients
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Cultural Sensitivity: A Social Worker Quality
• Recognize similarities and differences
• Cultural membership defines world view
• Bridge cultural gaps through:– Open communication, active listening, and
appreciation of diversity
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Other Qualities
• Empathy– Respect and nonjudgmental acceptance– Differs from pity and sympathy– Validates clients’ perspectives
• Acceptance and Respect
• Purposefulness
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Constructing Empowering Relationships
• Recognizing client and worker rights
• Social workers bring professional ethics, knowledge, and skills
• Clients involved in all aspects of decision-making
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Discussing Rights and Responsibilities
• Balances and distributes power in the relationship
• Special considerations– When clients feel powerless– Collaborating with oppressed clients– Voluntary and involuntary clients– Partnerships with larger systems
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Dual Relationships
• NASW Code of Ethics – Condemns dual relationships – Places the responsibility for setting clear
boundaries on social workers
• Violations lead to – Disciplinary hearings – Sanctions
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Forming Relationships
• Augmenting Power
• When Clients Feel Powerless
• Collaborating with Oppressed Clients
• Voluntary and Involuntary Clients
• Partnerships with Larger Systems
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Respecting Confidentiality
• Ethical codes and legal requirements
• Absolute confidentiality - unequivocal silence
• Relative confidentiality - allows sharing – Supervision– Case conferences– Team meetings
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© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Violations of Confidentiality
• Believing that not using names or identifying detail protects confidentiality
• Informal sharing with colleagues
• Phone calls taken during client sessions
• Accidental or careless revelation of records
• E-mail and fax communications
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Informed Consent
• Clients grant permission to release information based on a full revelation of – Conditions– Risks– Alternatives
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Privileged Communication
• Legal stipulation
• Prohibits professionals from divulging information in court
• Federal, state, and local laws stipulate conditions of privilege
• Legal loop-holes and exceptions
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