Categorization Of Clients Research Articles

Making an (in)appropriate client: Social workers’ use of storylines in gatekeeping processes in the context of collegial case conferences

ABSTRACT Research has explored how social workers in team constellations perform assessments of the needs of clients in case conferences. However, the process in which gatekeeping is applied in the categorization of clients as inappropriate receivers of support in collegial discussions has received less attention. This article presents findings from a case study of a complex case where a 64-year-old person with dementia was assessed by two teams of social workers handling the same case under two different forms of legislation (elder care and disability services). The data consist of recordings of two case conferences in one Swedish social work agency. The conferences were analysed using positioning theory. The findings suggest that the conferences contained different storylines where the social workers categorized the client as an inappropriate receiver of support. Furthermore, the discourses for gatekeeping differed depending on how the social workers positioned the client in the different storylines in the case conferences. The study shows that institutional and professional responsibilities are central to the assessments that the social workers perform, and that there is a risk that the client will be subject to gatekeeping when the case is handled on an ambiguous legal basis in different legislations, which may result in the client falling between two stools. The findings suggest that research needs to explore, in a more systematic manner, how social workers’ gatekeeping practices are performed in collegial team discussions.

The Intersectionality of Deservingness for State Support

AbstractStudies of the ramifications of client race and ethnicity for bureaucrats' judgments treat minority status as homogenous. Yet, individual identity does not boil down to race or ethnicity. Members of racial and ethnic minority groups likely vary in their experiences and capacity to overcome the negative sentiments and stereotypes that burden their inherited group. To transcend unidimensional explanations, we combine Van Oorschot's deservingness framework and a gendered lens to study how the intersection of group identity and gender, as well as individuals' work history, co‐shape bureaucrats' categorization of clients. Empirically, we analyze Israeli professionals' categorization of applicants for state benefits, comparing their assessments of men and women of three social groups: the Jewish majority, ultra‐orthodox Jews, and Muslims. Interpreting the empirical findings, we offer that underlying the effect of applicants' group demographics are perceived cultural affinity to the majority and social contributions that vary with gender.Evidence for Practice Minority status, based on race, ethnicity, or nationality, and the perceived contributions of different groups, shape bureaucrats' judgments of individuals' deservingness for state support. Minorities' workforce opportunities and interactions with members of the majority likely vary with gender roles. If traditional gender roles among some minority communities provide men with greater opportunities for workforce participation and for interaction with members of the majority, bureaucrats may perceive women as less deserving than men. Depending on the task at hand, this could hamper women's likelihood of attaining benefits for which they are entitled.

Social Control of Deviance and Knowledge in Social Work from an Anti-oppressive Perspective

ABSTRACT This paper will examine the relationship between social control of deviance, ethical principles and social work. I will address this issue by adopting a specific social work theoretical perspective, that of “critical social work”. In this article a specific phase of social workers’ control of deviance in social work will be examined: the phase in which they collect information through specific fact-finding modalities, in order to decide whether, and in what way, social services will intervene. I chose a specific aspect of social work with involuntary clients to develop my analysis: child protection. I will organize my analysis in two parts. In the first part I will tackle the issue of social control in social work. I will subsequently analyze two theoretical paradigms (Positivism and Constructionism) within which child neglect and abuse are conceptualized and operationalized. In the second part, I will examine a case study, the story of a drug-addicted mother who had one of her children removed, with the aim of highlighting how the paradigm that guides fact-finding activity on a given phenomenon can influence the forms in which social control is exercised, favoring or hindering anti-oppressive practices. The analysis of mother’s story shows how the positivist framework applied by the social workers in the decision to remove her child, affected the form in which power and social control was exercised, favoring the transition from protective power to oppressive power. The categorization of clients, aimed at the identification of the risks children run in their family contexts, may reduce social workers’ activity to pure control of family life in an “antagonistic role” to their clients.

Using the primary process emotional-behavioural system to better meet patient needs in psychotherapy.

In order to increase therapeutic impact by enhancing awareness of clients' nonverbal communications, this article operationalizes the therapeutic alliance as a needs-satisfaction process. The client's competence as a needs seeker and the therapist assisting with the client's expression and satiation of basic social needs are proposed as being key mechanisms of change. Functional model of primary emotions derived from Panksepp's seven primary emotional systems (care seeking, caretaking, lust, fear and anxiety, anger, play, seeking, plus dominance and disgust) is integrated with Functional Analytic Psychotherapy's emphasis on in-session contingent natural reinforcement of clients' target behaviours. By identifying in-the-moment cues of underlying emotional-behavioural functions drawn from a categorization of clients' nonverbal communication can bridge the gap between client private events and therapist observables, in order to maximize therapist attunement and responsiveness to clients, and to increase the effectiveness of clinical interventions.

“She isn’t Someone I Associate with Pension”—a Vignette Study of Professional Reasoning

What drives frontline workers’ categorization of clients in rule-based settings with a large room for discretion? The literature on street-level bureaucracy offers a structural description of discretion that emphasizes working conditions, policy goals, personal preferences, client pressure and professional norms. However, in order to explain why frontline workers with the same room for discretion categorize clients differently, a theory of an epistemic understanding of discretion may contribute to this literature. Based on a vignette study of 24 interviews with Danish caseworkers, the analysis shows how professional reasoning, rules, and social stereotypes inform categorization and discretion. The findings indicate that caseworkers’ categorizations of clients are less responsive to clients’ needs and more sensitive to administrative reasoning when clients are associated with stereotypes of need. In addition, the analysis contributes to the theory of categorization and discretion in lower levels of government Keywords: Categorization, discretion, professionalism, stereotypes of need

Book Review: Career Counseling for People with Disabilities: A Practical Guide to Finding Employment

Career Counseling for People with Disabilities: A Practical Guide to Finding Employment, Second Edition, by Karen Wolffe, Published by PRO-ED, 2012, 243 pp,, $38, As an academic, I generally compare an older editions of a textbook I use against its most recent edition to see what remains of the old and what's changed in the new. It helps me to decide if the new content justifies using the revised text in lieu of another for a class I am teaching. In reviewing Karen Wolffe's second edition of Career Counseling for People with Disabilities, I can say that the second edition is a very credible update and one that the target audience should seriously consider purchasing. Not only has Dr. Wolffe fine-tuned formats, but she's also brought content up to date and added a supplemental CDROM to aid students as they move through their counseling careers. From the beginning of the publication, Dr. Wolffe clearly describes her text as one that can be used as a primary introduction to the topic of counseling, a resource for current professionals, and one that consumers and their families can use as a guide. Although I will not touch on every chapter in this book review, I do want to highlight a few that make this book an excellent addition to your professional library. In Chapter One, Dr. Wolffe expands upon her earlier categorization of clients by their degree of intervention needs: informational, instructional, and advocacy. Although her descriptions of both informational and advocacy clients remains largely identical to those in her earlier edition, she further develops the concept of the by describing clients in relation to varying levels of instructional need. The first level includes the need for six months to a year of assistance to see how well the client demonstrates a willingness to look for work, the second involves one to three years of assistance to develop the necessary skills for work, and the third level recommends three to five years of assistance when long-term intervention may be necessary. Chapter Three expands on current rehabilitation initiatives such as the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999. Dr. Wolffe brings the efficacy of this program into focus by reporting outcomes data published by the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Advisory Panel. The findings she reveals may surprise you. Chapter Five covers client self-awareness and how knowledge affects and life planning through exploring interests, abilities, values, work personality, and vocational liabilities. Dr. Wolffe wholly recommends that clients be active participants throughout the process of counseling by engaging in homework assignments designed to provide both the client and counselor with valuable information about how the client expresses himself or herself and whether or not the client follows instructions, responds appropriately, and turns in assignments on time. One last item she touches upon is using these assignments as evidence of accomplishments in a career portfolio, which, incidentally, has become an important tool in higher education. In the chapter entitled Career Exploration and Vocational Selection, Dr. …

A Differentiated Approach to Client Protection: The Example of MiFID

In this contribution to the June 2010 SECOLA conference in Istanbul on The Failure of Contracting: Financial Crisis, Financial Services and General European Contract Law, we analyze the system of differentiated client protection under the EU Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (“MiFID”), and compare this regime to the approach used by standard private law. We provide context and background on the genesis of the MiFID client categorization system, and describe its black letter content in detail. We also make an inventory of all MiFID conduct of business rules that differentiate between professional and retail clients. We then analyze to what extent this regulatory system differs from the way in which investor protection is to be differentiated based on general principles of private (contract or tort) law.

The Correspondence Between the Staff Observation Aggression Scale-Revised and Two Other Indicators for Aggressive Incidents

Previous research has shown good psychometric properties of the Staff Observation Aggression Scale-Revised (SOAS-R). However, it has never been investigated what proportion of aggressive incidents occurring in facilities is documented with the SOAS-R. Furthermore, if incidents are underreported, the consequences for the categorization of clients into aggressive and nonaggressive subgroups based on the SOAS-R are unknown. To examine this, in four inpatient psychiatric facilities for adults with mild intellectual disabilities, aggressive incidents were documented with the SOAS-R and two other indicators of aggressive incidents: the daily staff reports on clients' behavior and reports on of the use of restraints. Less than half of the incidents documented with the staff and restraint reports were also documented with the SOAS-R. On the other way around, however, it was also found that a substantial proportion of incidents reported on SOAS-R forms were not documented in the daily staff reports, which points to a more general problem of underreporting aggressive behavior. Apart from that, categorization of clients into an aggressive and a nonaggressive subgroup with SOAS-R data collected during 1 month or longer corresponded largely with the categorization based on both other indicators. This study showed that underreporting of aggressive incidents is likely to occur with the SOAS-R, making the instrument less suitable to assess absolute aggression incidence in facilities. Still, the SOAS-R seems a good instrument to categorize clients into aggressive and nonaggressive subgroups. Ways to improve the compliance of the ward team to document all aggressive incidents are addressed in the Discussion section of this article.

Music Therapy Practice with Jewish People in the United States of America

ABSTRACT: The purposes of this study are (a) to highlight the diversity of the cultural and religious practices, including musical traditions and repertoire, of people who are in the United States and (b) to describe, according to practicing music therapists, how those beliefs and practices can influence and interact with music therapy practice. Fart I briefly introduces concepts important to religion and culture while Part Il consists of data from music therapists who work clinically with people gathered through questionnaires and interviews regarding their uses of music and approaches to religious and cultural matters specific to this minority group. Fart Il also emphasizes practical clinical issues and has implications for clinical practice with a variety of people and people from other groups in many music therapy settings. A number of years ago, a brief article appeared in a city newspaper describing a music therapy session with older adults. During the group, one member asked the young music therapist to hear Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, and she honored the request. As Wagner's music streamed into the room, a woman in the group began to scream. She refused to speak for the next two days. After the session, the music therapist learned that the woman was and a survivor of the Holocaust in Europe that killed 6 million people. The Nazis used Wagner's music as a torture device (Moreno, 1999). Although unrealistic to expect mastery of all cultures, this episode exemplifies the need for music therapists in the pluralistic society of the United States to enhance their cultural expertise and to incorporate knowledge and sensitivity regarding different cultures, religions, values, and perspectives into music therapy practice. The purpose of this article is to describe the cultural, religious practices, and music of the population in the United States and how those influence current practice of music therapy and client responses in music therapy. One of the primary aims is to emphasize the diversity that exists within the broad categorization of clients affiliating with the religion and culture in order to enhance understanding applicable to appropriate uses of music and to spark insight into considerations when working with clients from other cultures or religious groups. Part I: A Brief Overview of the Population in the United States Describing a Croup Terminology. Jew. Jewish. religion. Culturally Jewish. There are many words associated with the definition of this group, and questions loom about how to utilize these terms (Whitfield, 1999). Disagreement over terms such as race, people, nation, and ethnicity exists (Levitt & Balkin, 2003; Schlossberger & Hecker, 1998). There is clear acknowledgement of a religion. There are people who practice Judaism. People who identify with the culture and customs or follow the religion may consider themselves Jewish or Jews. The use of the term Jewish is not meant to suggest a singular manner in which all of the people encompassed by this label incorporate religion, background, or culture into their lives. Rather, it can serve as a foundational identifier for this minority group from which further subdivisions and nuances can then be described. How people define their Jewishness may vary person to person as the population is not a homogenous group. Demographics. Considering people whose religion is or includes Judaism, have at least one grandparent, or have a upbringing, it is reported that there are approximately 5.2 million people living in the United States, constituting about 1.8% of the country's total population (National Population Survey, 2003). The largest concentration of people is found in the Northeast region (43%) (National Population Survey, 2003), often in metropolitan areas (Sheskin, 2004). …

Sounds of Silence in Psychotherapy: The Categorization of Clients' Pauses

Sounds of Silence in Psychotherapy: The Categorization of Clients' Pauses

Sounds of Silence in Psychotherapy: The Categorization of Clients' Pauses

Empirical studies examined silences in psychotherapy by measuring the duration of pauses and studying this variable as a homogeneous factor. This approach produced a body of inconclusive findings dealing with the relation between silences and therapeutic outcome or alliance. In the present study, interpersonal process recall interviews of 7 clients' self-reported experiences of in-session pauses were analyzed. A qualitative analysis, based on grounded theory methodology, was used. In this inductive process, researchers are guided by the analysis of data to develop an understanding of phenomena grounded in empirical observation. A pausing inventory of 7 categories was generated, reflecting an understanding of silences as heterogeneous phenomena, and included disengaged pauses, emotional pauses, interactional pauses, reflexive pauses, expressive pauses, associational pauses, and mnemonic pauses. This categorization of pauses can facilitate attunement to client pausing experiences both in future research and in the performance of psychotherapy.

Categorización de usuarios: una herramienta para evaluar las cargas de trabajo de enfermería

Client categorization is a management tool that allows an objective and structured assessment of the care demands imposed by patients and nursing workloads. To characterize the need for direct nursing care of patients admitted to a university hospital. During two months, all patients admitted to intensive, intermediate care units and general services were categorized, their need for nursing care and the time invested by nurses in their care was registered. All patients were classified as maximal, high, median or low risk and as independent, totally or partially dependent on nursing care. Considering four degrees of risk and three degrees of dependency, 12 categories of patients were defined. Patients admitted to intensive care units were of maximal risk and totally dependent and required 1 nurse per 2.2 patients. Those admitted in intermediate care units required 1 nurse per 3.8 patients and those in general services, 1 nurse per 11.5 patients. Client categorization is a reproducible method that determines a standard measuring unit to define nursing needs. This allows the comparison of workloads between different services within a hospital or between hospitals.

The Fieldwork Team Response: An Investigation into the Relationship between Client Categories, Referred Problems and Outcome

SUMMARY This paper concerns a study of the outcome achieved following fieldwork responses to referred client problems within particular client categories. The evidence from the study demonstrates that while referred client problems initiate the social work response, administratively assigned client groups were a better determinant of outcome. It is shown that the category of a case is more directly related to outcome than is the problem referred. If social work is to be predominantly based on client categorization then polarization will result, represented by an increasingly professional child care practice and a more basic servicing role for the worker with elderly and handicapped people. This presents dangers for the organization of teams, the allocation of resources, and the training of social workers. Taking account of client problems as part of caseload manage ment should reduce this effect. The day to day fieldwork practice of social work in Britain is an import ant area for research into client problems. The need to reconsider the basic elements of practice is evidenced by the 'production of welfare' (Davies and Knapp, 1988) which emphasizes the need for 'efficiency' in community care and that efficiency is contingent on 'cost-effective' practices; yet if individual social worker client contacts are based on cost-effectiveness rather than benefit to clients, then the work achieved is of a second order. Renshaw (1988), in voicing the need for individual