The Client

The Client - Social Worker Relationship

The term "client"

Customers (the Social Welfare Department started to use this term in the mid-90s)
Service users - a more generic terms used in social welfare services in Hong Kong
Clients (a preferred terms in a "professional" sense).
Respondents (referred to those receiving services required by law, e.g. probationers)

Underlying reasons for participation in the problem-solving effort

Clients develop their own strengths (empowerment, goal of practice)
Client take ownership of their lives (independence, goal and value of practice)
Contribute to a democratic process (value of practice)
Respect of individuals (value of practice)
Self-determination (empowerment, goal and value of practice)

Nature of the Client - Social Worker Relationship

Open
Egalitarian
Mutual

Bases of relationship

Trust - Client's trust towards the Social Worker, not simply as a person, but as a professional. Social worker's trust towards the Social Worker as both a belief (that people would take responsibility and trust-worthy) and a means of intervention (building up self-confidence in clients and empowerment)
Respect - Without respect on either side, there is no working relationship.

Fostering Participation throughout the helping process

	Skills set	Essential Knowledge set
Assessment (identification and definition of the problem)	Negotiation Framing/re-framing	Psycho-social theories Knowledge about various systems (dyad, family, groups, neighbourhood, community, economic and political systems) Life experience
Development of Intervention plans (objectives to be achieved and action plan)	Negotiation	Theories in intervention
Implementation	General skills including communication skills	As above
Evaluation	Analytical skills	Research methodologies and Statistics

The helping relationship is

not to cure or simply providing help
to assist client to recognize strength / resources
to assist client to enhance strength
to link client with resources (additional informal or formal resources)

To build up a good client-social worker partnership

Concern/passion for people's well being
Acceptance
Commitment to change and betterment of welfare
Empathy
Appropriate use of authority

How should human dignity be promoted in social work intervention -

by treating people as individuals and avoid "labels" or stereotyping or over generalization
by encouraging client's participation in the intervention process
by discovering and making use of client's strengths
by holding people accountable to their actions
by carefully conveying our respect in our communication with client
by keeping things (such as emotions of the clients) obtained in the intervention process confidential

Self Determination

　

To facilitate self determination

Securing the views of clients
Frame your own views to support client's view/with reference to client's view
Clearly label your own views as alternatives for consideration

Making Self-determination possible

by overcoming learned helplessness
by increasing opportunities in the environment, such as bringing resources external to the client's own system
by removing external barriers in the environment that deny clients' access to opportunities
by removing internal barriers (such as mis-beliefs, emotions like anger, etc.) in the client that inhibit his/her from considering some of the alternatives

Fostering self-determination is to assist clients to make decisions on

what the issue/problem is (definition process)
which issue/problem is to be dealt with in the intervention process
what is the objective of the intervention
what are the alternatives of planned actions

what course of actions are to be chosen and taken
how such actions should be evaluated

Self-determination is NOT

without limits - self-determination should operate within the parameters of not hurting others, acceptable legal standards, within statutory requirements particular in the case of correctional settings
avoiding expression of opinion on the part of the social worker - expression of views by the social worker is to assist the client to explore more alternatives and make informed choice
avoiding use of authority - authority is to be appropriately exercised when limits are to be clearly spelt out

Additional Notes on "Value" , "Belief", and "Theory"

Compton and Galaway took value as unproven beliefs used to guide and direct the work of a professional and shared with others in the culture.

This use of the terms, "value" and "belief", is confusing and lack of rigour. I have to labour a little bit to clarify this issue.

"Value" is something that we consider as important or something dear to us.

"Belief" is something that we consider as true but without sufficient evidence. The use of the term "unproven belief" is redundant. If it is proven, then it is "knowledge". Using the term "belief" already implies that it is not proven.

Unfortunately, this confusing use of the terms is quite common in social work. Statement, such as "we believe in human dignity", is frequently treated as a "value statement" in social work. Apparently, this is a linguistic issue that the social work literature is not quite serious about. When we say, "we believe in human dignity", what is the "thing" that we believe is true? It is hardly clear. If we say, "treating people in a dignified way is important", then we are making a value statement. We can also consider the statement that "people should be treated in a dignified manner" as a value statement. On the other hand, if we say, "every person needs dignity", then we are making a "belief" statement, i.e. we believe that the statement, "every person needs dignity", is true and we do not have sufficient evidence to prove it. Perhaps, when we see people behaving as if he does not need dignity, then we would probably say that he is just hiding his needs, because we believe that everyone needs dignity.

This is basically impossible for us to correct this confusing use of concepts (as in this case "belief" and "value") in social work, and perhaps in social sciences, when it has become a general practice. However, as student of social work, we should seek to clarify our concepts instead of treating them loosely. We should be clear at least to ourselves what we mean when we are making the following value or belief statement:

Social work believes in the uniqueness and inherent dignity of the individual.

We mean that:

Value statement: Treating every individual as a unique person and with dignity is an important value for social workers; and

Belief statement: Every individual needs to be treated as a unique person and with dignity.

We should also note that the concept of "belief" discussed in the above context is very close to the use of the concept "theory". "Theory", similar to "belief", is constructed on the bases of and with some support from empirical evidence or observation in daily experience. As "beliefs", the proof to "theories" is fall short of being definitive. One basic reason for using the term "belief" instead of "theory" is that there is no particular person associated with the "theory", such as XYZ's Theory. If we want to assign a higher "prestige" to these "beliefs", we can actually call them Social Work Theory I, II, III, etc. Social workers' preference to call them "beliefs" is a reflection of their values towards commitment and conviction. Calling them "theory" sounds aloof, which is inconsistent with the emphasis on client-worker partnership, though scientific.

Because of this confusing use of the terms, "belief" and "value", and using "beliefs" instead of "theory", there is a further confusion on "means" and "ends". When we use the term "value", it sounds more like an "end". If we call it a "theory", the application of that theory would become a means to achieve an end. For example, if we take "self determination" as a "value", it is an end. However, when we call it "theory", such as "it is more effective to commit the client in implementing the intervention plan, involving the client in making decision and having the client making the final choice of alternatives", the use of self-determination becomes a means to bring about more effective intervention.