Competency #8: Intervene with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
8.1 – Critically choose and implement interventions to achieve practice goals and enhance capacities of clients and constituencies.
8.2 – Apply knowledge of human behavior and the social environment, person-in-environment, and other multidisciplinary theoretical frameworks in interventions with clients and constituencies.
8.3 – Use inter-professional collaboration as appropriate to achieve beneficial practice outcomes.
8.4 – Negotiate, mediate, and advocate with and on behalf of diverse clients and constituencies.
8.5 – Facilitate effective transitions and endings that advance mutually agreed-on goals.
As a competent social worker, it is important to know when and how to intervene in a client’s life. I have been privileged, and have experience with both macro and micro-level interventions. Social work is about empowering the client and through intervention we can do that. Whether it is working on macro-level teaching skills to a class or one-on-one with a client, intervention is key in helping the clients meet their goals.
Evidence:
Evidence 1 (Field) –
As Pillowcase Project Coordinator, I have had the pleasure and responsibility of teaching over 1100 children the lifesaving emergency preparedness information taught in the Pillowcase Project. Not only have I been able to facilitate these classes for children in the third through fifth grade in Hamilton County, but I have brought the program to other counties served by the SETN American Red Cross. Below is the workbook used to teach the class that students get to take home with them and a photo of me teaching the course at a local school.
Evidence 2 (Academic) –
While taking Practice with Families and Groups, we did recordings of our facilitating the groups. I am including a recording of my facilitation that was on peer pressure with the group. We started with some ice breakers and watched a video about good and bad peer pressures. We also had a great discussion about what peer pressure the group members had experienced personally.
Evidence 3 (Additional) –
As a caseworker, I have had to make many SMART goals with clients. At the ARC, we give lots of referrals and help clients on their path to recovery after natural disasters and home fires. We give clients the resources to guide them on their way and sometimes clients choose not to follow through on their goals, this is part of casework. We are there to encourage them and make the resources accessible to them. I am including a journal entry that depicts a client intervention scenario. The situation wasn’t directly correlated with making a SMART goal but my process of helping this client was not working, and I needed an intervention to assist the client more. After making my hours known and giving the chapter phone number, I was receiving a phone call after phone call from the client on days that I was not able to return her messages. In order to rectify the situation, I added important information to my voicemail box that had my hours, the national suicide hotline, and the chapter office number in case it was an emergency. Below is a journal entry detailing the situation, see week four.
Monthly Field Journal October (Week 4)
Knowledge Used: I have drawn a lot from my classes practice with individuals and human behavior and the social environment to fulfill this competency. I have used interpersonal skills learned in practice with individuals to create SMART goals and remain empathetic with my clients. I also have to remember that behavior is an expression of a need. We can’t just focus on the one incident that brought the client to us, we have to look at the entire history and environment of the client and take that into consideration.
Skills Used: Through intervention, I have had to demonstrate critical thinking and active listening skills. When working with the Pillowcase Project, I have to continuously asses the way the children are reacting to the material and my teaching to create an environment that nurtures learning and is not disruptive.
Values Presented: While fulfilling this competency, I have demonstrated multiple social work core values. I have honored the Dignity and Worth of a Person, throughout my presentations and while interacting one-on-one with clients. I have given respect to everyone I speak to and allowed for their voices to be heard and honored. I have also demonstrated Competence and Integrity. If I did not know an answer to a question during a Pillowcase Presentation, I let the children know that instead of making up something to seem all-knowing.
Cognitive Process Used: Through my casework, I have been able to use different cognitive processes. I have been able to judge and select (evaluating) interventions appropriate for my clients on a case-by-case basis. Not only have I done this, but I have been able to develop (creating) my own ways of working with clients to incorporate interventions when things are not going as planned.
Affective Processes Used: Also through my casework, I have had to use different affective processes. When working with clients, after listening to their concerns, needs, and goals we together create and choose (characterization) the best plan of attack for them at the time. As cases progress these priorities may change and at that time, the client and I consider and act on (organization) other factors and make the best decision for them.
Theoretical Foundation: I have used the actor-observer difference theory a lot in working on casework. Sometimes a client says one thing and does another thing and it is easy to assume that the client is lazy or does not care, but we have to remember it is not always the clients’ disposition to be that way, and that they are going through a time of crisis.