Social Worker-client Relationship Research Articles

Digitalization, stress, and social worker–client relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic

Summary The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the possibilities for people to interact and communicate. This article examines Swedish social workers’ experiences of the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the use of digital tools in their work, and whether this use has affected the social worker–client relationship and their stress levels. The article draws on a web survey (N = 541) via a quantitative analysis of responses and a qualitative analysis of answers to an open-ended question. Findings Most respondents agreed on experiencing increased use of digital tools in the relationship with the clients, increased skills in using digital tools, and a more positive view of digital tools in the social worker–client relationship. However, experiences on whether stress levels had increased and the relationship with the clients worsened, were divided. Age correlates positively with increased stress levels, and social workers working with social assistance, as well as women, are more likely to agree on that the relationship with the clients has worsened. Responses from open-ended questions highlight a rapid shift where social workers have gained a more positive view of digital tools, that video meetings can increase efficiency and flexibility, but also work environment problems. Applications This article contributes with useful insights into how the use of digital tools during the COVID-19 pandemic has changed and affected stress and the social worker–client relationship. It can support discussions on the future implementation of digital tools in social work after the pandemic.

Encountering bodies and identity dynamics of social worker: A case of a cleft lip and palate surgeries department

This article highlights social work practices for children with cleft lip and palate (CLP) and their families in a hospital. Embodiment is the main theoretical perspective used to analyse complex encounters between clients (children with CLP and their parents) and social workers in concrete interactive situations. It allows us to symmetrically reflect on how encounters between the bodies of clients, the social worker and medical professionals co-construct and redefine the social worker’s identities. Three body-related identities emerge and coexist as the practice proceeds: a normal person with a normal life, a learner without embodied knowledge of a particular illness and a professional with both medical and social work authorities. These three dimensions show how mutual embodiment in contextualised interactions affects the social worker-client relationship. About implications for social work practice, we draw attention to the situated identities of social worker in a specific context, and explain how embodiment serves as a critical tool to improve our understanding of practitioners’ dynamic identities through embodied reflexivity.

Book Review: The dynamics of the social worker–client relationship by Joseph Walsh

Book Review: <i>The dynamics of the social worker–client relationship</i> by Joseph Walsh

‘I feel … I need to defend myself’: Exploring the influence of social worker’s attachment history on the social worker-client relationship

This paper offers a qualitative exploration of the influence of attachment patterns on individual social worker-client relationships. An attachment theory-informed IPA methodology is employed to gain insight into the experiences of three practicing social workers. The Adult Attachment Interview and Meaning of the Client interview (adapted version of the Meaning of the Child Interview) are used alongside Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis, triangulating findings and common themes. We found evidence of specific childhood experiences and dangers replayed in interactions with their client, albeit in an individualised and context-dependent rather than uniform way. Also, the dangers inherent in the institutional context of child protection work can intensify tensions from workers’ past history, resulting in a more defensive and self-protective approach than might have been expected from considering the professional’s childhood attachment relationships alone. Therefore, expectations of the professional-client relationships in this context should be realistic on what can be achieved, focussing less on transformation and ‘certainty’, and more on increasing awareness and capacity to tolerate difficult feelings arising from past history that may be elicited in the professional-client relationship.

The social worker-client relationship in the digital era: a configurative literature review

ABSTRACT The social worker-client relationship is described as essential to social work but is a broad and multi-layered concept. Today, the relationship is strengthened and challenged by digitalisation. The aim of this configurative literature review is to understand how research on social work from 2015 to 2020 describes and analyses digitalisation’s significance for the social worker-client relationship. Three themes depict the benefits and disadvantages of digitalisation, how digitalisation generates new ethical questions and dilemmas, and the different theoretical perspectives used. Future research should go beyond the pros and cons of digitalisation and should use various theoretical approaches to challenge data, illuminate client perspectives, and pose additional questions.

Dunderhonung för socialt arbete?

&#x0D; MI, motivational interviewing, is a counselling method for increasing a person’s motivation for behaviour change that is prevalent in social work. MI emphasizes building trusting social worker-client relationships and is presented as concrete and simple to follow. The benefit of MI is limited by actual opportunities for change through poverty, the labour market and health. The article aims to critically examine the usefulness of MI in connection with the handling of social assistance. It is based on a study of the use of an assessment instrument and of individual action plans (contracts) in a municipality where MI is a central tool. The study is based on analyses of documents, individual interviews and group interviews with staff as well as observations of meetings and training.The results show that MI has been integrated into a comprehensive implementation of other elements to standardize initiatives within income support. The client’s obligations are emphasized through a strong individual focus, although extensive efforts may be needed from surrounding actors. The action plans have inherent problems in terms of clarity and legal certainty. The authors argue that it is paradoxical to use a method based on alliances and collaboration in connection with conditional decisions. The use of MI becomes a commitment that lacks reciprocity and whose activation of self-technologies can be questioned.

Challenges of Social Work Student Conducts A Practice on Family in Context of “Relationship of Social Worker – Client”

Field work in the field of social work is vital to support the application of learning in the class to the form of skills through experience with clients. The core of this study is to examine the challenges faced by the two cohorts of final year students of the social work undergraduate program in building relationships with clients while conducting fieldwork with child and family client. This research applied a qualitative method with a grounded theory approach as the study design. The data collection techniques are through document analysis and Focus Group Discussion (FGD). A total of 37 field work reflection documents written by the first cohort students are analysed to obtain the initial themes related to challenges of social worker-client relationships while 62 second cohort social work students were involved as focus group informants to get more in-depth information. The findings show that there are 5 main issues of challenges of social worker-client relationship namely (i) difficulty building trust because clients lack knowledge about social work (ii) projection towards the agency of social welfare (iii) limited relationship with certain family members (iv) denial of parenting style problem (v) authority of discussion distorted to advice. All identified challenges associated with the society’s understanding of the social work profession itself and few ethics issues are also discussed.

THE SOCIAL WORKER-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP: DIFFICULTIES AND SOLUTIONS

THE SOCIAL WORKER-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP: DIFFICULTIES AND SOLUTIONS

Social Worker–Client Relationships: Social Worker Perspectives

ABSTRACT Social worker–client relationship practice has always been and remains central to contemporary social work purpose and identity. The professional “helping relationship” can and does enable change and alleviate distress. Nevertheless, what happens in social worker–client relationships remains unclear warranting research attention. This article reports on a qualitative study that explored the lived experience of social worker–client relationships with 16 social workers employed in child and family welfare services in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. Findings confirmed the centrality of social worker–client relationships for achieving client outcomes and revealed a distinctive practice approach where the social worker–client relationship is seen as the workspace for the intervention, and the social worker acts as relationship-building agent. Overall this constitutes a distinctive practice approach perhaps usefully described as social work relationship praxis (SWRP). The findings are discussed with reference to the literature and implications for research, practice, and education are outlined. IMPLICATIONS This study valorises the centrality of the social worker–client relationship for achieving client outcomes. A relational paradigm needs to be elevated in social work education to prepare students for practicing relationally. Development of social work practice theory needs to embrace relational views of “the self”.

Romanian social workers facing the challenges of neo-liberalism

ABSTRACTWith a history of almost 90 years, professional social work in Romania once flourished up until World War II. The Communist Party disbanded the profession in 1968 and it was reinstated after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. Within the context of the socio-economic transition from a centralised to a free-market economy, Romanian social policy and social work have evolved from a Marxist/socialist-type ideology, one that advocates for state intervention, to a libertarian/neo-liberal-type ideology, which promotes both state withdrawal from welfare provision and individuals taking responsibility for their own welfare. These two trends continue to co-exist subject to sometimes divergent forces such as international institutions and internal Romanian social pressures. Using a qualitative approach, we explore how Romanian social workers are adapting to the neo-liberal realities and identify three types of perceived challenges: 1. those related to regulation, 2. linked with collaboration in social work activity and 3. those related to the social worker-client relationship. Under neo-liberal pressures, the social worker's role of agent of social change becomes marginalised in daily practice, leaving little power to influence agency policies that negatively impact clients.

Assessing Child Welfare Agency Practices and Attitudes that Affect Father Engagement

ABSTRACTThe importance of fathers' involvement in their children's lives is irrefutable. Supportive, warm, and positive involvement of fathers leads to children being well-adjusted. Indeed, involved fathers positively influence their children's cognitive ability, social behavior, psychological well-being, and educational achievement. For children in foster care, when fathers are involved they have significantly shorter stays in foster care than those whose fathers are not involved. For parents to demonstrate fitness to parent they must show the successful completion of goals specified in a case plan that promotes safety and permanence of their child. This cross-sectional study investigated how fathers' perception of social workers' attitude and practice skills was associated with fathers' understanding and confidence with regard to completing the case plan goals. A purposive sample of 56 child welfare-involved fathers completed the Child Welfare Father Involvement Questionnaire. The findings indicated that the more positive fathers perceived social workers' attitude and skills, the greater their understanding about the case plan goals and greater confidence to complete case plan goals. The results were statistically significant. These results have implications for child welfare training to build the social worker-client relationship in a compassionate manner while maintaining a rigorous assessment and monitoring of fathers' parenting capabilities.

Avoidable Ignorance and the Ethics of Risk in Child Welfare

Sources of risk to children include far more than risk of harm to children from biological parents. Key opportunities to reveal and decrease avoidable ignorance that contribute to avoidable risk to children and families have been neglected such as clearly describing the evidentiary status of services provided and outcomes attained. A systemic view of risk requires attention to faulty assessment, referral to agencies that offer ineffective programs, failure to monitor outcomes and the quality of the social worker–client relationship on an ongoing basis, dysfunctional organizational arrangements and failure to involve clients as informed participants. An examination of the websites of child welfare agencies in the San Francisco Bay Area revealed that not one offered information that would enable informed decision making. Education programs may fail to help students to acquire skills in the process of evidence-informed practice. Based on a systemic view of risk, an agenda to decrease avoidable ignorance that contributes to avoidable risks to children and families is suggested emphasizing informed consent obligations. This includes increasing transparency regarding what is done to what effect including professional education and welcoming criticism of practices and policies and related claims. Reasons for failure to reveal and decrease such ignorance are explored including economic interests in the adoption and child welfare services industry.

Exploring Use of Self: Moving Beyond Definitional Challenges

ABSTRACTUse of self is a central concept throughout social work history and theory, yet no unified definition and little empirical research exist. Thus, a qualitative exploration was required. Three focus groups (n = 10) were conducted with experienced BSW educators. Participants defined use of self in the context of their students’ beginning social work practice. The findings suggest that use of self incorporates personal self qualities such as openness, self-reflectiveness, attunement to others, commitment, and emotional maturity, and results in professional capacities such as nurturing the social worker–client relationship, reflective practice, and practice wisdom. Use of self is the integration of theory and practice embodied in the social worker and enacted in the worker-client relationship.

Social Worker Interventions in Situations of Domestic Violence: What We Can Learn from Survivors' Personal Narratives?

Social workers are an integral provider in the statutory support offered to women experiencing domestic violence. This paper uses information obtained from women's personal narratives to examine this social worker–client relationship in situations of domestic violence. Embracing a feminist standpoint epistemology and focusing on the women's experiences, it is evident that many of the women expressed dissatisfaction with the way they were treated by social workers. Threats to remove the children from the home and victim blaming were among the tactics described. The parallel between such reported forms of coercion employed by social workers and those used by the abuser are striking. The findings suggest a lack of a favourable climate to ensure the safety of the woman and her family through the provision of family-centred care and a need to build more effective and supportive relationships with women experiencing domestic violence. Implications for social work practice are also discussed.

The impact of a child protection investigation: a personal reflective account

ABSTRACTResearchers who undertake parental perception studies agree that the views of the parents can offer valuable insights in relation to child protection work. Respondents to such studies and others who have shared their experiences of child protection investigations are usually mothers. Taken together, this body of work sheds light on some very private, emotive and often painful experiences of child protection intervention and its impact. This article lends my voice to this literature and gives further insight into the ways a mother can experience a child protection investigation. Drawing upon one incident – a swelling on a baby's head – this article draws attention to my feelings and emotions as the baby's mother. Despite a co‐operative social worker–client relationship and case closure, my analysis draws attention to issues concerning power imbalances and the concept of ‘secondary victimization’ to explain the awfulness of my experience and my convoluted emotional disquiet. The article proposes that more attention is directed to the negative feelings and emotions experienced during the investigative process through further research.

Therapeutic Communication with Psychotic Clients

With the current emphasis on evidence-based practice, the significance of the social worker–client relationship as a prerequisite to client goal attainment has been de-emphasized. This is particularly problematic with regard to practice with psychotic clients, with whom practitioners often have difficulty establishing therapeutic relationships. The purposes of this article are to examine the communication deficits of persons with psychotic disorders and, with an extended example, to describe five intervention guidelines for social workers toward the goal of developing positive working relationships with them.

The Lived Body

Through conducting a phenomenology of phenomenology — -reflection on and association to the lived experience of conducting a phenomenological study in which fifteen older women engaged in reflection on their experience of their body/‘self’(s) throughout the lifecourse from the perspective of food and eating — the lived body emerged as the essential dimension of the researcher—participant relationship. Further reflection, from the disciplinary perspective of social work, led to the emergence of the lived body as the essential dimension in social work practice. Beginning by identifying the key components of this conceptualization: the lived body and the relationship, this article considers the lived body from three perspectives: feminist theory, social work and phenomenology, and describes the role of the relationship in phenomenological human science research and in social work practice. It parallels phenomenological research and social work practice as relationship-based ways of knowing. From this position, the lived body is the essential dimension in the researcher—participant and social worker—client relationships. Narrative excerpts from this study are used to embody the theoretical presentation.

The Virtuous Social Worker: The Role of “Thirdness” in Ethical Decision Making

The meaning of the term empathy has been refined in the last few decades. The updated understanding of the term impacts the understanding of the social worker–client relationship. The nature and meaning of relationship may impact one's ethical decision making. For some, ethical practice is premised upon being able to enter into a relationship with the client that is based on empathy as it is currently defined. Practice implications follow from the relationship between empathy and ethics. These include clarification of methods to support the clients agency the nature of boundaries, and the use of self. All of the practice suggestions flow from the notion that we must critically analyze our orientation toward relationship in social work practice.

Caring, Mutuality and Reciprocity in Social Worker—Client Relationships

• Summary: In this article we report the findings of a qualitative study of social workers' experiences of receiving care from their clients to present a case for a re-examination of the social worker—client relationship. • Findings: Participating social workers describe their awareness of the mutuality within their relationships with clients, including an awareness of the care their clients have and express towards them. However, participants report that this openness to mutuality and reciprocity in their relationships with clients is subversive of social work practice norms, which warn against dual relationships. These findings indicate that there is a serious disconnection between social work training and standards, and the ways social workers practice in the field. This puts workers in a potentially untenable position caught between ideals of professional behaviour and their relationships with their clients. • Application: The findings of this study suggest the need for potentially radical shifts in how we conceptualize worker—client relationships within social work practice. We suggest that the accommodation of a theoretical orientation that incorporates an understanding of mutuality of care and the interdependency of identity and human development within all interpersonal relationships provides a significant opportunity to our profession to reexamine how we interact with our clients.

Strengthening Social Worker-Client Relationships in Child Protective Services

Few researchers have set out to explore parents’ feelings about their experiences with Child Protective Services (CPS) particularly as they relate to the relationship between workers and parents who come to the attention of CPS. Yet the worker-client relationship is a central aspect of social work intervention, contributing to positive case resolutions. Understanding aspects of this relationship can contribute to improved CPS. This article reports findings from a qualitative study that used in-depth interviews to explore the experiences of 61 parents who had involvement with CPS.1 Parents appreciated workers who were caring, genuine, empathetic, exceptionally helpful, non-judgmental, and accepting. Negative qualities of workers identified by parents were being judgmental, cold and uncaring, poor listeners, critical, and insincere. Child protection interventions can result in greater actual and/or perceived power imbalances between the client and the worker compared to other social work interventions. Our findings, however, suggest that a positive alliance can be achieved within the context of the adversarial and complex nature of CPS. Possible ways to maintain relationships or rebuild ‘ruptured’ relationships are suggested.