Effective intervention implementation is a key component in social work practice. As an advanced practitioner, I have demonstrated the ability to approach intervention strategies with clients and constituencies from a strengths-based perspective focusing on resiliency and goal-attainment. At my practicum setting, I consistently implement components of the Motivational Interviewing Framework to effectively intervene with a diverse range of clients. Additionally, I continue to advocate at the community level to ensure implementation of intervention strategies that address and alter the factors that are contributing to the trauma that both my clients and the community are experiencing due to housing insecurity.
8.1: Implement clinical evidence-based interventions with individuals, families, and/or groups
Course Evidence: In the advanced clinical practice course, I facilitated a pseudo grief therapy session each week where I integrated evidence-based intervention strategies to assist individuals as they each navigated the very complex journey of grieving a loved one. Although these were pseudo sessions, the opportunity to practice each week allowed me to significantly grow my skill set as an advanced social work practitioner. A recording of one of these sessions can be viewed here.
Field Evidence: Intervention strategies were continually implemented each week with clients at my field placement, and were adjusted and extended based on the client’s current progress and any sudden changes in the case, the extent to which varied with each individual client. The clinical approach I consistently utilized was motivational interviewing, as I found this to be most effective with the population I served. I believe the incorporation of this clinical framework greatly contributed to the strong, trusting rapport I was able to establish with each client. The guide I utilized each week can be viewed here.
8.2: Integrate macro level evidence-based strategies with organizations and/or communities
Course Evidence: In my advanced administration class, my group wrote a proposal for non-profit organization, Friends Helping Friends. This proposal was reflective of an outreach project I’d already started implementing in November with individuals experiencing homelessness in Chattanooga. The mission of Friends Helping Friends’ is to provide basic human necessities and resources to the people in our community experiencing homelessness through an approach that reflects the dignity and worth of each person served. Friends Helping Friends is envisioned as an organization that reflects the values of service, the importance of human relationships, and the dignity and worth of each individual through the implementation of evidence-based practices and a relationship-oriented approach. The full organization proposal plan can be viewed here.
Field Evidence: In order to better serve our clients at our practicum setting, my colleague and I drafted a Memorandum of Understanding to submit to local social service agencies in Chattanooga. This agreement would enable our clients to gain quicker access to housing resources while also giving my colleague and I the opportunity to establish a strong, trusting rapport with local agency personnel and, most importantly, our clients. The MOU we drafted can be viewed here.
Skills Present: Fulfilling this competency gave me the opportunity to demonstrate and strengthen my clinical skill set. I demonstrated the clinical skills of empathy, active listening, cultural competence, communication, and patience when implementing clinical, evidence-based intervention strategies with clients at my practicum agency and with pseudo clients during individual and group therapy sessions. I utilized critical thinking skills when developing intervention strategies and processes.
Knowledge Present: Knowledge gained from my clinical practice courses was continually demonstrated throughout the fulfillment of this competency. I continually incorporated components of cognitive behavioral therapy and motivational interviewing when implementing interventions with clients I served on the EPI and with pseudo clients during individual and group therapy sessions. I was given the opportunity to demonstrate my knowledge of macro-level evidence-based intervention strategies when writing the organization proposal for Friends Helping Friends and completing the Memorandum of Understanding to submit to local social service agencies in Chattanooga.
Values Present: My clinical approach reflected competency through the intervention strategies I selected and recognition of each client’s inherent dignity and worth and right to self determination.
Cognitive Processes: Fulfilling this competency required me to recall (knowledge domain) the information clients shared with me, analyze (analysis domain) the client’s presenting needs and concerns, and apply (application domain) the information shared to the formulation of an effective, evidence-based intervention strategy.
Affective Processes: The implementation of effective intervention strategies required that I listened (receiving domain) intently to the client, that I responded (responding domain) with validation, and that I formulated (organization domain) and integrated (organization domain) effective intervention strategies that corresponded with and effectively addressed the client’s presenting needs, concerns, and values.
Theoretical Foundation: From a micro perspective, I believe a theory that directly correlates with this competency is the Theory of Planned Behavior as it addresses the the best predictors of a person’s planned and deliberate behavior. I believe that utilizing this theory when intervening with clients could be beneficial as it enables us to consider how a client might react to a specific intervention strategy. From both a micro and a macro perspective, I believe Systems Theory correlates with this competency in that it enables social workers to look holistically at a client’s conditions and environmental factors to gain a better understanding of why they might face issues or hardships. Additionally, Systems Theory also examines the intersection of systems and how smaller systems come together to affect the greater complex system; from a macro lens, Systems Theory enables social workers to view the community as not just one system but a system of interacting systems in which all types of formal and informal groups and individuals interact. Therefore, utilizing this theoretical foundation can allow social workers to determine which intervention strategy might be most effective at both the micro and macro levels.