Casework Treatment Research Articles

A History of the Use of Groups in Probation Work: Part One – From ‘Clubbing the Unclubbables’ to Therapeutic Intervention

In recent times, groupwork with people supervised by probation staff has become a central part of the government driven effective practice strategy: it has not always been so. For most of the history of the probation service, groupwork, with some notable exceptions, has been a peripheral activity sustained mainly by the energy and commitment of enthusiastic practitioners. Moreover, it has been a relatively neglected part of the story of probation. This, then, is the first of two articles that set out to tell that story. This first part describes the development of groupwork from the late mission period (characterised by moral exhortation) to the era of professionalisation (characterised by casework treatment). In so doing, it seeks to emphasise the importance of groupwork's contribution to the epistemological history of the supervision of offenders in the community.

Narrative interaction and the development of client autonomy in clinical practice

Data from a psychoanalytic case are used to explore the development of client autonomy in clinical treatment. The client's narratives and the talk about them in which narrative meaning is formulated and reformulated are selected as one series of interactions in which the development of client autonomy can be studied. Discourse analysis methods are adapted to document and describe specific shifts in the structure of client narratives and talk about them which reflect the development of client autonomy over the course of treatment. Implications for casework treatment are discussed.

Explaining Deviant Behaviour: The Social Context Of `Action' and `Infraction' Accounts in the Probation Service

The most familiar sociological image of the probation officer sees him firmly committed to some variant of a psycho-pathological view of deviancy in which both society and volition are disregarded. It was from this assumption that the research sprang, the purpose being to examine the treatment ideologies held by probation officers. But from focussed interviews, it was clear that explanations of deviancy offered by the probation officers were wider than anticipated, encompassing both determinist and voluntarist accounts of behaviour. It is suggested that the structural context of probation work - utilitarian justice and casework treatment notions - creates more `space' for offering a greater variety of explanations than has often been appreciated. And, in offering these explanations probation officers do not necessarily reinterpret their clients' accounts which were sometimes accepted and at other times rejected. How the cases were explained appears to depend on the circumstances of the case. The more serious the offender's criminal history or his personal or social problems, the more likely it was that the probation officer thought in determinist terms offering an `action' account. But equally, the respondents recognised the sometimes voluntary nature .4 delinquency, though this was generally in less serious cases.

Contract Negotiation in the Initial Stage of Casework Service

The emergence of new models of casework treatment has given impetus to a renewed interest in contract negotiation. This study reports on research designed to examine contracting with respect to problem focus and expectations of client and worker roles among worker-client pairs in ongoing treatment cases. Questionnaires addressed to worker and client pairs and audiotape recordings of interviews were data-collecting instruments.

Evaluation: Clinical results and research methodology

The favorable results of two major research reports-Progress on Family Problems by Beck and Jones and a series of studies ofDepressed Patients by Weissmanet al.—are reviewed for the purpose of comparing the methodologies of these studies with that of other well-known research reporting casework treatment to be noneffective. A number of the latter studies are critically examined for their use of social norms rather than client-oriented indicators of improvement, inadequate measuring devices, failure to select appropriate areas of measurement, inappropriate generalization from narrow study populations, overconcentration on delinquents, predelinquents, and multiproblem families, inadequate attention to motivation, inappropriate hypotheses, and serious errors in statistical procedures and in the selection of control groups.

Dream analysis and casework technique

Dreams are not an essential ingredient of casework treatment. When they are part of the reality of an individual client, they can be included as demonstrative of the process within the individual that is being studied by client and social worker together. They help reinforce interpretations, overcome resistances, and point up material that the client might otherwise withhold. In every instance, only that part of the dream which relates to the constant central focus of treatment is utilized by the caseworker. As long as the caseworker respects the boundaries of casework treatment and the limits set by diagnostically focussed treatment, he need not be fearful of including the interpretation of dreams among his skills.

Family Tasks and Reactions in the Crisis of Death

The maladaptive mourning reaction, individual and familial, is not as frequent a reason for casework treatment as other psychosocial problems

Social Class and Attrition in Depressed Outpatients

A study reveals that in the context of high therapist motivation, defined time limits, and informal milieu, patients continue in casework treatment

The middle-age separation crisis and ego-supportive casework treatment

The middle-age separation crisis and ego-supportive casework treatment

Checklist quantification of a psychological therapy: pilot studies of reliability and utility.

There is a need for an economical and quantified technique for describing the dosage and content of psychological therapies in research studies. This need is highlighted in studies of combined pharmacotherapy and psychological therapy, since techniques for describing the classes and dosages of drugs, but not the psychotherapies, have been well worked out. A research study of maintenance treatment of depressed women undergoing combinations of drugs and casework therapy led to the development of a quantitative checklist for therapists to record, immediately following the interview, the quantity, content, and quality of the casework treatment. The form is precoded for keypunching and computer analysis. Information collected included such “dosage” issues as the numbers, place, and recipients of casework contacts; the length of contact; and numbers of missed contacts. Detailed information on the content arid quality of individual sessions included time spent on various topics, affects expressed, and quality of patient's participation. The checklist was quick and simple to complete. Reliability studies indicated that the instrument was reliable between I trained raters, except for one qualitative rating which appeared infrequently. Validity, as measured by agreement between therapist and other raters, was acceptable on most variables In pilot studies of utility, the instrument gave meaningful descriptions of the nature of therapy in 40 patients during 8 months of treatment. Two patients selected for further analysis showed contrasting profiles of topics discussed and affect expressed; these profiles were consistent with clinical impressions. This simple checklist method is restricted to relatively uncomplicated non inferential aspects of patients´ interview behavior. It nonetheless ap-Vi pears capable of generating, in an economical way, data suitable for statistical testing of hypotheses, relating content in psychotherapy to such variables as personality and social background and to outcome.

The Conditioning Treatment of Childhood Enuresis

Enuresis is described as a learning deficiency and conditioning treatment discussed as the logical positive outcome. The process of conditioning treatment is described and compared, and common objections discussed. Explanation is given of the practical application of conditioning treatment in social casework and residential child care

A Life-model Approach to Change

The concept of action as a way in which positive change can be enhanced is discussed in relation to its appropriate use in casework treatment

Intensive Work with a Deprived Family

Imaginative casework treatment provides gratification of some basic needs of immature, deprived parents and enables them to assume responsibility

Education and Mental Health: New Directions for Interaction

Traditionally, mental health workers (psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers) provide diagnostic evaluations and individual or group psychotherapeutic or casework treatment. With the advent of the community mental health movement, a new role model, that of “mental health consultant,” has emerged. This paper outlines the functions of the “mental health consultant” in the Job Corps program as a way of highlighting the functions of the mental health professional working in this new way. Educational, training, and work programs may be enriched by mental health consultation, and the new directions for interaction between education and mental health are described in this paper.

The Relation between Diagnosis and Treatment in Casework

A report of the examination of the relationship between twenty-seven client diagnostic variables and eleven treatment procedures in family counseling

Emphasis on Personal Dynamics in Treating Marital Conflict

Illustrations of casework treatment of the intrapsychic problems of two married couples using the modality of joint interviews

Its Meaning and Treatment in Case Work

Its Meaning and Treatment in Case Work

Casework Treatment of Parent-Child Conflicts

Casework Treatment of Parent-Child Conflicts

Reconsiderations in Casework Treatment of the Unmarried Mother

■ Examination of the casework literature on the unmarried mother and Investigation of cases in selected agencies have led the author to the view that the traditional diagnostic picture of the unmarried mother—namely, that the answer to her behavior lies in her relationship with her own mother—provides too narrow a focus. The client must be viewed in her total family context. In the light of this enriched understanding, the author presents a suggested treatment plan that has evolved, a principal feature of which is concurrent use of both male and female caseworkers. *

Peer group membership of young women with cancer

Described here is the influence of peer group membership on the adaptive behavior of 100 women hospitalized with gestational trophoblastic disease. Little attempt was made to screen these patients from reality. They went where they wanted and saw what they wanted with few barriers. They were deliberately educated about their disease to insure their participation in its treatment. Although such an approach led in the long run to confidence in staff and cooperation in treatment, it was nevertheless at first shocking and overwhelming. Individual casework treatment was necessary especially when The Group was threatened by an individual's anxiety or an individual was threatened by The Group's anxiety. While The Group served as a supportive device and functioned well in reducing day by day stresses, it was not a problem-solving device and had to relinquish responsibility when treatment was needed. The support of The Group was consciously encouraged and utilized when it served as an added strength for the patient. The Group's limitations were recognized and its actions supplemented when necessary.