Competency 6: Engage with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
Advanced generalist practitioners anticipate special challenges to engagement present in rural settings. They are equipped to address the closed nature of rural systems, the high level of interconnectedness in these settings, and the variable boundaries presented. The special nature of rural engagement is critical considering the challenge of dual relationships in rural areas. Effective use of personal and professional self demands that firm boundaries and limits are utilized. Advanced generalist practitioners possess a high level of self-awareness and understand how their personal experiences and reactions may impact their ability to effectively engage with diverse clients and constituencies in rural settings. Advanced generalist practitioners value principles of relationship-building, empathy, authenticity, the amplification of strengths, and inter-professional collaboration to facilitate engagement with rural clients, constituencies, and other professionals as appropriate. Advanced generalist practitioners:
- Apply knowledge of human behavior and the social environment, person-in-environment, and interprofessional conceptual frameworks to engage with rural clients and constituencies;
- Ensure informed consent while using empathy, reflection, and interpersonal skills at an advanced level to effectively engage in culturally responsive practice in rural settings; and
- Utilize the most appropriate anti-racist and anti-oppressive engagement strategy according to each practice context.
Competency #6 In Practice
As a social worker, I strive to embody the value of the importance of human relationships in my social work practice. Therefore, I will utilize active listening skills and genuine concern to connect with my clients and the communities I serve. I will build rapport with clients, families, and groups to establish therapeutic alignment and will use motivational interviewing, and Socratic questioning to help them discover and use their own and community strengths. To engage communities I will use community discussion spaces such as City hall meetings, social media, and newspapers to reach people and start conversations. I will also use focus groups with community leaders to build rapport and engage with the community as a whole.
6.1 Examine evidence-based practices to prepare for professional engagement across systems
Class Evidence: This Video Presentation for our mental health emphasis class reviews a comprehensive character diagnosis based on a biblical account. We describe what was known about the character and their potential symptoms from biblical and historical accounts, categorize this as clinical evidence based on a DSM-5 TR diagnosis, and then suggest different treatments. For this project, we were assigned to review different therapeutic approaches, on which we also wrote individual papers. In this presentation, I presented on dialectical behavioral therapy and gestalt therapy. I described the pros and cons of how they could help address post-traumatic stress disorder and depression with our client Bathsheba and also the cons of how neither of these are necessarily first-line approaches for either of these issues specifically. I chose this piece as evidence because it shows good research and presentation skills, collaboration skills, and working with an interdisciplinary team to create, brainstorm, and discuss various treatment options that could benefit the client in a treatment planning meeting. This presentation and group project, which resulted in a video demonstration, is an excellent example of how these skills and examining evidence-based practices demonstrate my competency in preparing for professional engagement across systems, specifically clinical treatment planning preparation.
Field Evidence: In this Clinical Foundations training for my internship at Youth Villages, I attended a two-day conference with a licensed program expert, an LCSW, to prepare for my professional engagement with my clients, their families, and related professionals. In this training, I was debriefed on safety planning, finding problems to be solved using a collaborative problem-solving philosophy and treatment planning protocol. By discussing different ideas and scenarios with my colleagues and facilitator and role-playing a few to master different skills, I learned how to increase therapeutic alignment by building rapport and clarifying the most pressing safety concerns and drivers of behaviors to effectively provide Intercept services. By preparing for engagement this way, I was prepared to be a more competent social worker in my internship.
6.2 Engage with systems utilizing evidence-based practice strategies
Class Evidence: In this Family Treatment Plan for my Mental Health Emphasis II class, I got experience creating a treatment plan for an individual and a family. This family is outlined in a genogram that depicts their relationship styles through a legend included on this family chart. I loosely based the concepts this family faces on a case in my internship. I could pull from my real-life experience to integrate theoretical approaches I was learning about in class with real-life problems and complexities I saw in my internship. I appreciated this project and was able to apply a Bowen family systems theory perspective and the strength of structural family therapy to an approach to address all the complexities that were going on in this family system. By addressing the family’s strengths and weaknesses, the subsystems and boundaries, and the nuances of how they relate to each other, this treatment plan is better positioned to address the family’s concerns holistically. In this family treatment plan, I demonstrate engaging with systems, specifically family systems, through this paper utilizing evidence-based practice strategies of Bowen family systems theory and structural family therapy.
Field Evidence: In this evidence, you see interventions that I listed on a treatment plan for youth in my internship with Youth Villages. Through this evidence of interventions on treatment plans, I demonstrate an ability to engage with systems, including Youth Villages software service called Guidetree, which I used to figure out the drivers behind the referral behaviors and trace those to appropriate interventions that would be a good fit for this family and Youth. I also met with my treatment group and clinical supervisor to discuss the interventions and treatment direction, and then I consulted with my licensed program expert on this treatment direction. By engaging with clinical supervision, we utilize evidence-based practice strategies to ensure the best route of treatment direction that I use in engaging with my clients and my internship with Youth Villages in The Intercept program.