Social Casework

(An Introduction)

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 Table of Contents

Preface - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - 1
Chapter One
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL CASEWORK - - - 1-12
Western beginnings
Casework in the Philippines
Definitions
Chapter Two
THE COMPONENTS OF SOCIAL CASEWORK - - - - - 13-14
Theoretical Framework
Person
Problem
Place
Process
Chapter Three
THE HELPING RELATIONSHIP - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - 45-58
Client-worker Relationship
The Relationship Components
Guiding Principles
Chapter Four
THE HELPING PROCESS - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 59-103

Goal of the process

Steps
Identification of the Problem
Data-gathering
Assessment
Planning the Intervention
Intervention
Monitoring and Evaluation
Continuation or Termination
Chapter Five
MODELS OF CASEWORK PRACTICE - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 104-114
The Psychological Approach
The Functional Approach
The Problem-Solving Approach
Appendices
SIX CASE STUDIES - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 115-130

The Abandoned Child

The Battered Child
The Case of Jonas
The Girl with the Tattoo
The Jose de Leons
Perla Estrada

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 CHAPTER ONE

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL CASEWORK

Western Beginnings

The use of social casework as a method of social work intervention

was introduced in the Philippines by the early Americans who came into
the country. Historically the Americans were responsible for its
development as a social work method, first as charity workers, later as
friendly visitors, and last as social worker. However its evolution may be
traced for back to some of the early reformers of Christian Charities. One
was a Spanish philosopher, and the other a Scottish Protestant minister.

Individualization

The idea of helping the poor on an individual basis was first brought
up by a Spanish philosopher, Juan Luis de Vives, who lived in Belgium
during the sixteenth century. He was witness to the indiscriminate
distribution of alms by the pious rich as well as the religious orders with
nary a second thought or concern for the well-being of each individual
poor. He therefore advanced the idea that the fate of the individual poor
deserved attention, that the donors or alms givers should be concerned
with what happened afterwards to each and every recipient. In those days,
all over Europe, they were called “paupers”, a term hat an investigation of
the social conditions of every pauper family should be conduced to
determine specific need and/or problems. He recommended that besides
the distribution of alms, vocational training, employment, and other
rehabilitative services should be provided.

However Spain at that time was the sea of the counter reformation
so his recommendation seems to have been totally ignored. Charitable
acts them were still “steeped” in the old traditions and interpretations of
Christian teaching.

Personal Neighboring Aid

It was not until the 19th century that a similar idea would surface, this
time-in Scotland. The philosophy of personal, parochial relief was

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introduced by Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847) a Scottish parish minister.
He began by initiating in his parish, a program of private charity based on
neighborly aid. He advocated that each case of destitution should be
handled on an individual basis. Instead of simply doing out relief or alms
each case should be investigated, so as to determine the cause of
distress. Only then should a solution to the problem be attempted. Among
others, he stressed that a personal interest in the fate of the individual was
necessary to ensure the rehabilitation and/or upliftment of the individual
poor.
Charity Organization Societies of England

Individual approach
Fifty years after Chalmon’s pioneering work in Scotland his idea was
picked up by he charity workers in England. They incorporated the two
ideas, individualization and personal, neighborly aid in the approach that
they used in dealing with the poor.

The London Charity Organization Society was organized in 1869 to

operate a program of relief based on Chalmer’s idea thus laying the
groundwork for the development of casework as a method in helping the
poor. They established the policy that help would be extended on a case to
case basis depending on each individual circumstances. Soon a number of
Charity Organization Societies sprouted in England.

The COS encouraged the growth of private charities, and the giving
of donations and bequests on their behalf. Volunteers were recruited to
bring aid to the poor families and they were encouraged to be resourceful.
These volunteers were well-to-do. It was assumed that they led very moral
and successful lives and themselves could convey these ideas to their
clients and serve as models as well for the poor to emulate.

The Concept of Poverty

Unlike today’s modern concepts to which recognizes that poverty

may be due to poor environment and/or to deficiencies in the socio-
economic and political systems, the charity organization workers of the
nineteenth century believed that the individual was mainly responsible for
his condition. Therefore poverty was a sure sign of week moral character.
Nonetheless the charity workers were also concerned about the fact that
the acceptance of public relief could destroy the self-respect of the pauper
and make him perpetually dependent on alms. The volunteers ere
therefore directed to see to it that the pauper exerted all his abilities in
maintaining himself.
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 In addition the volunteers were directed to exert a moral influence on
the pauper in such a way that he would change his attitudes and behavior.
In the main this was due to the fact already stated that they believed that
poverty was due to personal failure or lack of a firm moral character on the
part of the individual, hence he must be counseled to change for the better.
Later this would be conceptualized by social workers as one of the
objectives if casework: to change the client’s attitude and behavior within a
given situation.

The COS was quiet popular in England and it is credited with several
achievements. Among these are the introduction of the friendly visitors
who conducted the investigations of each poor individual or family thus
laying the groundwork for casework. It also achieved the coordination of
services among the different relief organizations, of poor relief and private
charities thus paving the way for community organization as a social work
method. It also claims to have succeeded in eliminating fraudulent set-ups,
prevented the duplication of support, and strengthened the concept of
rehabilitation of the poor.

Charity Organization Societies of the United States

The Emergence of Casework

Following the example of England, starting in 187 COS were

established in cities and towns in the United Stated to introduce reforms in
the administration of public relief. In reality the COS was an attempt by
community minded individuals to organize relief giving work and to
established some kind of coordination among all relief giving sources.
They were of the firm belief that the states should leave the field of relief
giving assistance to private and religious organizations. The latter, drew
financial support from voluntary contributions and donations from
philanthropic sources.

The Helping Process

The American charity workers improved on the ideas established by

their English counterparts. Apart from relief giving the American COS
established a separate function: the helping process. As conceptualized it
involved four steps: registration, investigation, cooperation, and friendly
visiting. Here one may recognize familiar elements in today’s casework
practice: intake, data gathering and identification of the problem, the

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establishment of the client-worker relationship, and the home visit.

The Friendly Visitor

The friendly visitor became the American forerunner of the

caseworker. He/she visited individuals and families applying for assistance
to determine whether or not there was a need for relief. Only upon actual
verification was relief given. A significant effort was made to consider need
from the point of view of the sufferer. The friendly visitor emphasized
friendship, not alms. Since then friendship has evolved into a more
professional approach. It is now referred to as the client workers or helping
relationship. It is based on mutual trust and rapport.

Family-Centered Casework
Although the concept of relief had changed from impersonal relief
giving to the individualized approach it was in no way individualized in the
strictest sense of the word. The individual usually was a member of a
family and they were included in the approach. This development took
place in the early 1900s.

The avowed aim of COS was to foster self-reliance among the poor.
Consequently the friendly visitors directed their efforts to educating the
family members, and introducing activities that would result in more self-
help. The objectives of the investigation aspect of family-centered
casework were defined as follows:

1) t learn the nature of the “disease” as the family was considered to

be “socially ailing”,

2) to discover strengths within the family to be used from their

recovery towards self-maintenance.

All the case illustration used in this book are family-centered.

COS Contributions

By the first two decades of this, the 20th century social casework as a
social work method of intervention would emerge clearly, with the COS
playing a major role in its development. Specifically the organization would
be credited with three major contributions:

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 1) Its emphasis on thorough investigation of each case held the
groundwork for the social case study function;

2) It gave rise to the family agency which became the traditional home
of casework; and

3) It generated the first professional training for caseworkers, and

therefore, for social work.

The Scientific Approach to Casework

Mary Richmond was executive head of a large family agency for

many years in the United States. In 1911 she joined the Rusell Sage
Foundation. All the while she was taking notes on the development and
practice of casework for 15 years. Her book “Social Diagnosis” appeared in
1917. It was an attempt to draw together basic knowledge of casework up
to that time.
Richmond then defined social casework as consisting of three steps:
the gathering of social evidence, social diagnosis, and treatment. This is
sometimes referred to as the “casework trilogy”
Richmond while still connected with the family agency also
pioneered in social work education. In 1897 she formulated a plan for a
school; in 1898 this school materialized into the Training School for
Applied Philanthropy and was set up in New York. It became the prototype
of schools of social work.

Other developments

Psychiatric and Medical Social Work

It is quite apparent from the study of its history that casework had
evolved from charity work. In the United States its practice grew with World
War I and II because of the emotional problems of the veterans and their
families. This situation gave rise to the demand for and increases in
numbers of psychiatric social workers.

There also arose during this period the need for continued follow-up
and after care of medical patients necessitating the need for a new broad
of social workers; the medical social worker.

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Behavioral Concepts

The emergence of new knowledge in the behavioral and social

sciences began to influence the approach to casework practice.

Freudian concepts and Rankan views speeded up the psychological

method of helping. This eventually led to the emphasis on ego psychology.

Organismic Approach

The decades of the 50s and 60s saw the growing emphasis on the
organismic approach as enunciated by Gordon Hamilton, and American
social worker. This approach is based on the theory that the total
organization of an organism, rather than the functioning of its individual
parts, is the principal or exclusive determinant of every life process. Its
implications for casework is that not one but several interrelated factors
enter into the social functioning of the individual.
Gordon Hamilton in her exposition of this approach drew attention to
the person in-situation configuration, a consideration of multiple causality
in human events, and an emphasis on growth, development, and change.
She also advocated that apart from understanding the client’s feelings he
too, must be actively engaged in bringing about the change which he and
the caseworker planned together.

These concepts more or less underline the present practice of social

casework.

Casework in the Philippines

Introduction

Casework a scientific method used in dealing with needy individuals and

their families was introduces into the Philippines setting around the 1920s.
This achievement is attributed to Josefa Jara Martinez a pioneering social
worker. In 1921 she obtained a diploma in social work from the New York
School of Social Work. Upon her arrival in the Philippines she was hired as
the first Filipino executive director of the Association Charities of Manila,
an agency that was founded by American residents in 1917. Under her
able leadership the agency began to arouse community consciousness
and involvement in the prevention and remedy of existing social problems.
At the same time it introduces the individualized approach of studying and
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assisting individuals and families. One of Martinez functions was to
supervise volunteer home visitors. She initiated them in the scientific
procedures of casework then being advocated by Mary Richmond.

Child care institution and public assistance settings

There are no historical records to show when the beginnings of social

casework first appeared on the Philippine scene, However there are
indications and in public assistance and medical settings. The presence of
American officials and missionaries would have made it so. Officially it may
have its embryonic appearance in 1915.

Medical and psychiatric social work

An unpublished social work thesis recounts that the first social

services unit was organized at the Philippine General Hospital in 1915.
The workers of the Service were said to have been assigned to conduct
“social services” work in the hospital.

The same study also cited the establishment of psychiatric social

work practice in 1926 at the National Psychiatric Hospital (now known as
the National Mental Hospital). The workers were assigned to gather
statistical information about the families of the patients admitted to the
hospital for the use of the doctors.

In 1949 a medical social services was created in San Lazaro

Hospital. It was patterned after the Almoner Service in England. This event
gave further impetus to the practice of social work in a medical setting. The
workers started to display a more sophisticated approach to the problems
of the patient and his family. The process focused on the social and
emotional components of the illness of the patient, in relation to himself,
his family and community.

However, what may be considered as a major break through in

social work practice in a medical setting was the passage of Republic Act
No. 747 in 1962. The law provided that eligibility for medical assistance
would be based on the fluctuations in the standard of living.
Simultaneously, a medical social worker of the Department of Health was
sent to the United States for training in medical social work. In pursuance
of the law the Department issued a circular in 1964 which among other
things provided for the establishment of a plantilla item of at least one
medical social worker in every national, provincial, city, and emergency
hospital.
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 The circular also directed the organization of a medical social
service unit in the Bureau of Hospitals. In particular it set the minimum
requirements and qualifications of medical social workers.

These government measures, together with the increasing

organization of medical social service units and/or the employment of
social workers in private hospitals brought to headway the practice of
social work and casework in particular, in medical and psychiatric settings.
In the 1970s casework practice has become more identified in work with
juvenile delinquents, and with drug dependents.

Reexamination of Casework

In the beginning the Filipino pioneers tended to adhere strictly to the

teaching of American caseworkers. However, starting in the 1960s there
has been a discerning trend to adapt social work practice including
casework to Philippine social problems and realities. Some examination
has been undertaken with a view to undertaking such modifications as may
be needed or to adapt that which is relevant in order to make it effective
and efficient within the Philippine setting.

The first such attempt was undertaken in 1962 during the first Pan-
Pacific Conference held in Manila. The theme was ”Determining and
Clarifying the Applicability of American and English Methods and
Techniques of Social Work Practice in the Developing Countries of the
Pan-Pacific.” In 1965 the theme of the Fifth National Conference of Social
Work was entitled: “The Philippine Scene Appraised: Its Challenges to
Social Work.” It was sponsored by the Philippine Association of Social
Workers (PASW).

Not to be outdone the Schools of Social Work Association of the

Philippine (SSWAP) has held six national workshops starting in 1967 when
it examined the relevance of social work education to practice.

Casework Literature
In terms of literature there is paucity in the production of casework
material although numerous articles find themselves in print now and then.
Most of the materials have been available in mimeographed from usually
used for teaching and agency training purposes.

To date however, only two books have been published, with

UNICEF/DSW assistance to the authors.
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 These are “Social Work Practice” by Virginia Hebbert, Emma Paras, and
Esther Viloria, all social workers, and “The Filipino Family in Crisis: Ten
Case Studies” by Eugenia Jamias (a social worker), Felicisima C. Serafica
(a clinical psychologist) and Rodolfo Varias (a psychiatrist).

In 1979 the Philippine Association of Social Worker conducted a

case study contest. The three winning entries were published in the Social
Work Journal.

In the past immediate years there have been numerous

conferences, seminars and workshops held by practitioners as well as
casework, group work, and community organization methods more
relevant and effective to the current and emerging Philippine situations,
and to national goals and aspirations. The Ministry of Social Services and
Development has just recently (1981) embarked on a reexamination of the
concept of total family approach.

Definitions

The Philippine Encyclopedia of Social Work simply defines social

casework as “an individualized form of helping people cope with personal
problems usually involving an impairment or breakdown of adequate social
functioning.”
Kazuko Kay on the other hand defines casework as “a method of
social work which intervenes in the psycho-social aspects of a person’s life
to restore, improve, and develop his social functioning or prevent its
malfunctioning by enhancing his role performance as a constructive and
productive individual. It is a problem-solving as well as a helping process.

According to Esther Viloria social casework is “a helping process

which consists of a variety of activities that may include the giving of
material assistance, referrals to other community facilities, rendering
emotional and psychological support through sensitive listening,
expressions of acceptance and reassurances, making suggestions,
appropriately advising and setting limits encouraging the individual to
express his feelings, likewise encouraging him to effect his plans, assisting
the individual to narrate and examine his situation and/or working out
within a consideration and better understanding of the causal connections
between his present attitudes and mode of adjustment with past
experiences. All these may be used in combination to respond to the
person under stress, so as to enable him to meet his needs more fully and
to function more adequately in his social relationships.
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 These stress definitions are more or less agreed on the following
concepts: that social casework is a social work method used in working
with individuals, who have problems in social functioning; that it is a
helping as well as problem-solving process; that the goal is to improve the
individual’s role performance; and that it is attended by a variety of social
work activities that may include the giving of material assistance as well as
emotional and psychological support. These are the basic components of
social work-every practice must contain these. However there may be
variations in practice.

Footnotes

1. Glossary Philippine Encyclopedia of Social Work

Second, issue, PASW 1977

2. Kazuko Kay, “Social Casework” Philippine Encyclopedia of Social

Work, de Guzman ed. Second Issue, PASW, 1977 p. 385

3. Esther Viloria “Social Casework” Philippine Encyclopedia of Social

Work, de Guzman ed. First Issue, PASW, 1971 p.255

References

Philippine

Kay, Kazuko, “Social Casework” Philippine Encyclopedia of Social

Work, de Guzman, Leonora S. Editor, Manila Philippines
Association of Social Workers. 1977

Viloria, Esther, “Social Casework ” Philippine Encyclopedia of Social

Work, de Guzman, Leonora S. Editor, Manila, Philippines
Association of Social Workers, 1971

Foreign

Friedlender, Walter A. Introduction to Social Welfare, New Jersey,

Prentice-Hall,1961

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 CHAPTER TWO

COMPONENTS OF CASEWORK

Theoretical Framework

Sociological concepts indicate that human behavior and social

environment are dynamically interrelated and interdependent. They are
constantly interacting. Throughout man’s life, he attempts continuously to
live a life which is acceptable, satisfying, productive and evolutionary. Man
must establish a condition where there is equilibrium between his needs
and the demands imposed upon him by social environment. A person who
is unable to make an adjustment between himself and his social situation
becomes a person with a problem who seeks for professional help.
This type of person is defined as “client”.

The components of social casework are the nature of the person,

the nature of the problem, the nature of the resources, and the helping
or problem solving process.

Within the concept of man and his social environment, social

casework is concerned with the interaction of the first three components:
- a person in his social problem situation which affects the person’s
social functioning to cope with his tasks, and the person who
needs helping resources;

- the helping process is to facilitate linkages between the person

with problem and the social systems where the resources,
services, and opportunities.

This makes linkages of the three components; the person, the

problem and the resources which are essential means in the helping
process. It is important to understand what kind of person has what kind
of problem and therefore what kind of resources are needed.

In practice, the components are integrated in such a way as to

understand the nature of the person in relevance to the problem, and the
problem in relevance to the resources. These are the essential elements to
be analyzed and assessed by the worker in terms of directing towards
intervention plan; establishing objectives and target, and determining tasks
and strategies.

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 Social casework is a client-centered and humane operation, rather
than problem-centered, as seen separately from the person. It draws for
support and guidance from a scientific body of knowledge and social work
philosophy and its values. It operates in consideration of all social,
economic, psychological, physical, cultural and spiritual factors existing in
the nature of the person and the nature of the problem. These factors
affect the client’s ability to cope with his situation.

The components are essential for the scientific method of helping,

leading toward identification of problem, analysis and intervention. The
significance of this is that the worker should know whether a person can be
helped, and also to know what he wants for himself.

1. The Person

A person is dynamic. In social casework, the person is viewed as a

bio-psycho-social being. The interaction between the person and his
social, cultural, and economic forces in the environment influence his
behavior of thinking, feeling, talking and acting. There is inter-relationship
between the socio-economic and cultural factors on one hand and
physical, psychological and spiritual factors on the other hand. They are
interacting and influencing upon the personality development of the
person, as one area of the problem may cause chain reactions on other
areas. Once a person becomes a person with a problem (client) , he must
be understood, both in terms of his psychological strength and
weaknesses, motivation, and capacities in relation to his problem situation.
It is essential that the worker understands the nature of the person
pertinent to the person’s problems.

In order to understand the dynamics of the person, the worker must

have knowledge of the structure and function of personality, personality
development, mechanisms of defense, concept of stress and conscious
and unconscious behavior. It is recognized that the client brings with him
not only his external facts but also his internal unseen facts and
circumstances.

1.1 Factors which determine his social functioning

Social functioning is the product of the person’s activities when he

interacts with his social environment. It relates to the activities which the
person perceives, identifies and performs in the various roles in relation to
his involvement with others.

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 Problems and difficulties in social functioning can be caused by the:
(1) person’s lack of motivation and emotional capacity to cope
with his environmental demands;

(2) person’s inability to link himself with resources; and

(3) combination of both personal and environmental factors

Social Reality

Social reality affects a person’s total functioning. One area of

problem, whether social, economic, psychological, physical or cultural, has
always chain-reactions. And they influence various ways and degrees of
self-expression and life satisfaction of a person. The person who has his
adaptive capacity in relation to his situation, tries to cope with the situation
(his reality) in order to achieve a state of good equilibrium for effective
social functioning. This type of person has a perception of reality and is
ready to cope with his social reality. He knows what his situation is and
knows what has to be done. Therefore, he is willing and motivated to cope
with the situation.

There are four levels of perception of reality, namely:

1. NO RECOGNITION of reality = a person who does not see nor

recognize that he has a problem, inspite of the presence of a serious
problem, has the “ I don’t care” and “ it is not my problem” attitudes
which are negative. He is not motivated and has lack of inner
strength. Negative attitudes are most often a problem area which is
an initial priority for helping.

2. SOME RECOGNITION of reality but not quite ready to cope with it; a
person who knows he has a problem, yet does not know what to do,
is overwhelmed by a problem situation and, thus, rather confused.
This type of person needs encouragement and support from the
worker in order to be motivated, particularly at the beginning phase
of the helping process.

3. ACCEPTANCE of the reality as it is; a person who has motivation

and willingness to cope with his problem situation. The person has
inner strength but needs external resources for his situation.

4. COPING CAPACITIES to deal with the reality; a person who has

both internal and external capacities to cope with the situation. This
15
 type of person does not need any help from the worker. He has both
effective and satisfying social functioning.

Once a person with a problem seeks for help, he is called a “client”,

and he must be viewed as part of his cultural milieu. Thus the Filipino client
needs to be viewed and understood within the context of the Filipino
culture. In this context, the worker must be aware of the important role of
the religion-spiritual dimension in the Filipino culture. Spiritual dimension of
a person’s family and community life has vital influence in the person’s
social functioning.

Social role

A social role is the sum total of the cultural patterns associated with
specific behavior and attitudes which a person assumes in a specific
situation in his relationship with others. According to the situations, a
person has various roles to play, such as husband, son, father, wife,
daughter, mother, supervisor, teacher, student, physician, etc. Every role
has a reciprocal role. An effective performance of such social role depends
upon the capacities and motivation of the person with a given role and
those in roles reciprocal to his.

There are two significant concepts of social role, namely (1) self-
related characteristics; and (2) role-playing skills and capacities. These two
concepts are interrelated and interfunctioning. Self-related characteristics
mean how a person perceives and interprets various types of expectations
into his role performance through his self-concept. Both self and role
performance are highly interrelated since self concept will mediate the
perception of expectations and the way roles are performed. Role-playing
skills and capacities are dependent upon how a person perceives himself
through his self-concept and according, he performs his roles. If the
person’s self-concept is weak, it is likely that his perception of expected
role becomes weak, thus his social functioning is limited and creates the
problem of coping skills and capacities.

There are three important elements which are interrelated in role-

performance. These are (1) prescribed role, which is expected by the norm
and expectation of the society; (2) subjective role, which is perceived
through self-conception; and (3) enacted role, which is ultimately revealed
in behavior through a balance between expectation and subjective
assessment of a person.

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 In the application of the concept of social role in social functioning,
the worker needs to recognize important variables affecting the person’s
perception of roles. These are physical, social, cultural, and psychological
variables.

These are the important factors in the person, from which his
strength and weakness in relation to social functioning could be assessed
and determined.

1.2 Client’s Capacities to Use Casework

Helen H. Perlman states that the clients workability to casework is a

“combination of motivation and capacity that enables a person to engage
himself (with greater or lesser degreed of effort effectiveness) with the
person and the means of solving his problem”. The capacity is classified as
emotional capacity, social intelligence capacity, and physical capacity.

The client’s motivation for casework help is manifested by his

willingness to be involved in the helping process, Seeking for help from a
professional agency itself is his manifestation of a mode of adaptation. He
is motivated to do something about the problem for solution. Willingness is
the adaptive functioning of the ego from his perception of reality that he
has a problem, and that something has to be done to solve it. Another
manifestation is the client’s participation. The client sees himself as an
active participant in the joint effort of solving with his cooperation and
willingness. He can express himself freely and communicate, respond or
think appropriately. The client is able to relate to the worker positively and
constructively with his understanding of agency purposes, services and
limitations. These are the important factors in the client’s motivation.

The client’s capacity refers to the qualities of emotional, intellectual

and physical abilities which are utilized as the clients’ inner resources for
problem-solving.

Emotional capacity is being able to relate to another. It is how he

relates to himself, his situation, family, community and social worker. A
person who has emotional capacity is one who is able to communicate to
other persons with his positive feelings, attitudes and constructive thinking.
He perceives and acts to the realistic situation with consideration of others.
The person related well and sees and accepts appreciatively the
caseworker’s professional help.

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 Emotional capacity is also considered as relationship capacity. It is
the client’s perception of reality situation and how he related to it;
relationship with other persons in his current life and in the concerns and
feelings he expresses in others. He is able to put his efforts to control his
subjective feelings. The client-worker relationship is also analyzed in terms
of emotional capacity; how the client relates to the social worker.

The first essential element of social intelligence capacity is the

person’s perceptiveness. Perceptivity is considered as strength when the
person sees clearly and accepts the reality of his situation and its
relatedness. He is able to perceive meaning into what happens, thus he is
able to make connections and differentiation. This person has
perceptiveness of reality. This client who is perceptive is one who
recognizes and accepts the situation, whatever it may be, and is ready to
cope with it.

The second element of social intelligence is the ability to

communicate both within himself and to others. This is the ability to
communicate clearly and effectively according to what he feels, senses,
thinks and does. The communication is an indication of the person’s
adaptive and integrative functioning.

The third element is the capacity for attention. Capacity for

attention is based upon the person’s motivation and interest in his
involvement. The attention in a helping process requires focusing and
directing. A good judgement and decision-making are major assets of
social intelligence capacity. It is based upon realistic perception and upon
connections made between cause and effects.

The fourth element is capacity to conAstructively and constantly.

The person is able to see his situation realistically and objectively. This
type of person has a positive attitude and feeling and is ready to cope with
the situation. This is a combination of three capacities, namely,
perceptiveness, communication and attention. They are all interrelated.

Physical capacity is relatively easy to assess. However, when the

problem situation is centered on the physical area, a thorough and
appropriate analysis is necessary. Usually, in such cases, consultation with
a physician is required as well as joint work with related disciplines for
problem-solving.

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 In casework practice, motivation and capacity are the essential
elements for assessment of the client’s workability, or capacity to use
casework.

2. The Problem

A second component of casework is the problem. This section deals

with such problems to which social casework intervention is addressed.
Basically these are difficulties of social functioning for which a person
experiences discomfort and needs professional help in order for him
to cope.

For a difficulty in social functioning to be considered a problem

within the context of social casework, the person with the problem, any
member of his family or of his neighborhood, should manifest either a
disguised or expressed dissatisfaction or ambivalence over his situation.
The difficulty should be one which the family or the neighborhood to which
he client belongs cannot help him with. As such assistance from a social
worker or a social work agency is ought or is offered.

2.1 Problems of Livelihood

The client has inadequate means of support-lacks food, clothing,
housing, has no income generating activity. Client has no vocational skills
for employment or needs help for job placement.

He cannot afford to send his children to school. The children are

malnourished because of poverty. Family members cannot go to a hospital
or physician for treatment or purchase of needed medicine, or they have
no means to bury the dead, or pay the cost of social services needed for
diagnosis and rehabilitation, nor needed legal services. The client may
wish to return his home province to resettle. He needs money for
transportation fare for him to land a job or to get a much needed
hospitalization. The man has been motivated to go for vasectomy but
cannot afford to leave work as he is self-employed and will not have any
income on the days he would recuperate from his operation. A woman has
given birth in the pay ward of a hospital where she was rushed. She could
not pay the bill. Likewise, the mother is the only wage earner and has to
have substitute parental care for he pre-school age child. These are some
of the problems of livelihood. In short, client is in financial difficulty arising
from lack of money or other financial resources.

Most of the clients who go to the social agency present this type of
problem. One can easily attribute this problem to the social system where
19
the rich get richer and the poor poorer and external resources or social
welfare services are inadequate. But in a case where the condition has
been intermittent and/or of long duration the problem may be of a different
type. Here are some examples:

Mang Juan has been extended a grant under Self-

Employment Assistance to start him on another income generating
activity after he lost his employment as a carpenter. He was sick
immediately after he was hired. Previous to this his family has been
now a d then receiving emergency cash assistance for medicine of
his sick children, and supplemental feeding for the malnourished
infant. His wife informed the worker at her next visit that her
husband had gone home to his parents after getting drunk and
spending half of the SEA grant given him. The worker had failed to
assess the problem beyond the financial difficulty. How many of the
clients served under SEA have not succeeded because concomitant
problems have not been anticipated?

Mang Juan illustrated a situation which could be classified

as borderline pathology. His acting out in drinking and squandering
the money which could have brought him out of financial difficulty
in effect caused him to return to his parents-regressed into a baby.

An unwed mother had continuously brought her

undernourished son for supplemental feeding as her problems was
considered financial in nature. She cannot afford to feed the infant.
Inspite of her being taught how to select an prepare the food which
was given free for her son, the child’s condition deteriorated. It was
found out that whenever the baby cried she did not feed him but sent
him to sleep. On further assessment her hostility men, which has
been the underlying cause of her out-of wedlock motherhood, was
also affecting her relationship with her son-another male.

The man who came to the agency was very timid and
recounted how dissatisfied he was with his inability to speak up to
his laws and asked how he could improve his relationship with them.
He came again and recounted other circumstances of how his in-
laws are poor but quite understanding of his nature but that he does
not feel right that he is shy. A home visit revealed the fact that his
wife was quite ill and he could not afford to take her to a hospital
but he was not able to talk about his financial difficulty.

20
 These are examples of cases that may not be classified under
problems of livelihood only. For more insights into this type of problem,
read Charlotte Towle, Common Human Needs.

2.2 Difficulty of Role Performance

This type of difficulty refers to a deviation from an achieved social

role which causes dissatisfaction to the client. The client is thus anxious
about the gap between how he would like to perform the role and how he
actually discharges such, or how he would like the other partner to perform
the role in relation to him without the other perceiving the problem.

Most problems of this type relate to roles in the family, i.e. spouse,
parent (including adoptive parent or father parent) siblings, grandparent,
aunt, as in the case of a wife who seed herself as being too critical of her
husband.

Other roles which may result in this difficulty are that of student,
patient, employees, lease-hold tenant, friend, supervisee, etc. For
example, a lease-hold tenant enjoying the benefits of agrarian reform is
irritated with his inability to assert his role. He does not seem able to
manage the farm and got his grown-up children to participate in the
enterprise. (Presently no casework service is operating in this potential
field of practice.)

A working mother went to MSSD with the complaint that

while she was also wage-earner, mother, and wife, her husband
does not help with the household chores. She did not want her
husband to know that she had seen the social worker about her
difficulty because they would quarrel. She was willing to get help in
scheduling her activities so she can discharge those three roles.

One of the mothers of the children in a day care center was

referred to the social worker as hard-to-reach for family planning
practices. She asked why she, as the wife, should be more active in
family planning, while her husband who is sexually aggressive does
nothing about her likely getting her pregnant again, especially since
he comes home from work out of town at times during her fertile
period.

The medical social worker of a private hospital had to work

on the case of a lady patient who had cancer of the uterus. She
refused to be seen by the male physician who was the only specialist

21
 on cancer in that hospital. She would not be a patient to the male
doctor as she does not trust him.

With social workers moving into employment in industry, difficulties

of employees or supervised in coping with the demands of the enterprise
become the object of casework intervention. If it is unlikely that the
employer or supervisor would be brought in to the casework treatment,
aspects of the employee’s or supervisee’s role performance become the
target problem. However, these problems would be best classified and
treated as one of interpersonal conflict.

As illustrated in these cases, it may be difficult to decide how to best

classify a case-as a problem of role performance or one of interpersonal
conflict. There may be elements of both types of problems and the best
criterion in such a decision is what would being about the best resolution of
the problem.

2.3 Difficulty in Interpersonal Relationships

This difficulty arises out of the relationship between two individuals,

where the behavior of one is not acceptable or irritates the other, but
neither can withdraw readily. The most common conflicts under this
classification are those within the family-between husband and wife, parent
and child, between siblings, grandparents and parent, grandparent and
grandchild, daughter-in-law and mother-in-law, houseparent and child
under care, or such other combination. Adoptive parent and adopted child,
foster parent and foster child. Other relationships which may be under this
classification are: between employer and employee, physician and patient,
teacher and pupil, supervisor and supervisee, landlord and tenant, fiancé
and fiancée. While the difficulty lies in the interaction between the two
individuals, the personality characteristics, role expectations, and needs of
the individuals concerned must be understood by the social worker.

In the case of Mrs. P, an adoptive mother, all went well between her
and her husband and their adopted child, until their own daughter was
born. In her reflections on her present difficulties with her husband, she
mentioned, when asked by the social worker, that when her mother died
she had wondered how she could have caused it. She was then ten years
old.

As her father did not get married and she was the oldest child with
two brothers, she had assumed the role of mother. The social worker had
helped Mrs. P relate her guilt feelings over the death of her mother and her
assuming the maternal role which she then enjoyed. (Oedipal Conflict).

22
How that she has her own child, she was unconsciously rejecting her role
as mother and this was projected in her relationship with her husband.
Thus the understanding of this factor in the personality assessment of Mrs.
P and its relationship to the difficulty of interaction between Mrs. P and her
husband is likewise important if one were classify the problem
appropriately.

In handling adoption or foster care services, potential problems of

interaction between the child to be placed and the substitute parents or
their biological children should be anticipated and avoided.

The recommendation of the social worker in her social case

study on the Cruz family is adoptive home for older children was
approved. Alice, 14 years old daughter had written he consent for
their family to adopt a child younger than she. The adoptive child
had talents in music and the arts which were given a high rating by
Mr. and Mrs. Cruz. They were very pleased with the adoptive child
and were demonstrative of their application. After three months of
post placement counseling (supervised trial custody), the quarrels
between Alice and adoptive childe could no longer be handled by
the couple and the social worker. Alice had become violently
aggressive. The social worker who conducted the home study failed
to consider the fact that Alice did not acquire her parents’
inclination for music. The parents were not willing to get Alice for
psychiatric treatment. The child had to be returned to the institution.

Seldom do we find a client whose problem can be classified

under this category, who would initially present her part in the
difficulty so that immediately the social worker could state that the
conflict is occurring in the interaction between her and another
person. The client usually talks about her dissatisfaction over the
manner with which her husband is behaving as a partner and
desires concrete help, e.g. financial assistance, separation,
placement of children, getting a job or some other arrangements.

The woman was referred to the family planning clinic after

she had presented in detail about he discomfort with having sexual
intercourse with her husband and each time ending in pregnancy.
She is attractive even at age 35 and her husband is crazy about her.
She takes advantage of this in other facets of their relationship but
they quarrel over family planning practice. It turned out that this
resistance was based on the interpersonal relations between
husband and wife and as it get received ended with the husband
himself undergoing vasectomy.
23
 Medical social workers find that interpersonal conflict between
physician and patient impede treatment especially in a hospital setting.

Dr. Garcia is always irritated with the questions that Mrs. de

la Cruz asks him about her illness and he becomes sarcastic and
turns off the patient who in turn resists the regimen prescribed by
the doctor and this episode has been going on for sometime. The
husband of Mrs. de la Cruz complained that his wife’s condition has
not improved for the past two months, which is unrealistic according
to his doctor friend. When the problem was finally identified and the
interaction improved with Dr, Garcia’s answering all the questions
that the patient asked, the regimen was carried out as there was
apparently no psychosomatic reactions in the behavior of the
patient.

The social worker is cautioned against classifying difficulties which

are complicated with borderline pathology under this category only since
the form of casework treatment will vary accordingly.

2.4 Problem of Social Transition

Difficulties can arise from sudden changes of role or crisis situations.

Such occurrences include roles related to adolescence, marriage,
parenthood, grandparenthood, starting school, promotion, or situations like
resettlement, return to province, discharge from hospital or child caring
institution, menopause, retirement, separation, bereavement.

The child now 18 years ago has just returned home to her
parents after 12 years in a traditional child caring institution. After
a week her mother went to the institution to complain that her
daughter chooses the household chores that she would be involved
in and requests to be helping as this is causing dissatisfaction
among the family members. The social worker of the institution,
knowing that in their setting the children had been assigned only
certain tasks of the total household chores, referred the mother to
the social worker of the municipality where the family resides. This
social worker focused on the impact of the role transition to the
child and her family. Apparently, it was a problem of adjustment to
the child’s new situation and role.

In some instances a crisis situation can be anticipated and

prevented as it could have been in the foregoing case. Placement of a
child in adoption or foster care, retirement, separation of husband and wife,
all children leaving the parents home after marriage, slum clearance and

24
resettlement, change in tenancy practice, travelling abroad of migrant
workers or older adoptive children, entering a new job, borrowing an
amount money for capital which client may find overwhelming are some of
the difficulties which a social worker would be faced with but may have
lesser impact if the potential problem is analyzed and prevented.
Alternative courses of action can be weighed. Uncertainly about what
alternative to take is the cause of this type of problem.

The other kind of problem of social transition relates to the impact of

the alternative that was taken. Role reversal as in the case of a wife
assuming the wage earner’s role when her husband cannot work because
of a long-term illness, but his condition could allow him to take care of the
children is one example of this difficulty. Another occurrence that illustrated
this problem is role redistribution, as a result of the death, abandonment or
separation of parents, or when a family member is added as in the case of
a new-born, or an adopted or foster child, a daughter-in-law, etc.

The recently amputated husband had taken his having to take

care of his young children, while his wife goes out to work, with
hostility that one day he beat his six year old son. The case was
brought by the Barangay Protective Service Volunteer to the social
worker. It was ascertained that he was reacting to the reversal of
role.

A two year old child was adopted by the parents of a twelve year old
girl. The yaya of the child and the cook went home because their father
died, three months after the child was placed. The adoptive parents had
arranged that their daughter takes care of the child when she returns from
school while the mother cooks their supper. The girl secretly resented the
role of “yaya” during the only time that she could be with her peers and
was manifested her reaction by not joining the family at real time. This
reaction was taken up with the adoption worker who saw that it was only a
temporary result of the role assignment and a problem of adjustment of
having an adopted sibling.

The caseworker, however, should cautioned against classifying a

difficulty as that of social transition if the crisis has activated a dormant
borderline pathology.

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2.5 Dissatisfaction in Social Relations

How many times does one regret having done or said or not having
done or said something in relation to another person and need a
professional person to talk to? These are incidents which do not refer to
the whole aspects of a role or to interpersonal relations since the difficulty
is not experienced by the other person. One illustration of this problem is
the isolation of a single man or women who is ambivalent in her
relationship with the opposite sex.

A married woman who feels obliged that she has to send her
usual share for the subsistence of her aged parents is unable to
make both ends meet. She resented what is happening and at one
time wished her parents were dead. Her feelings of guilt moved her
to see the social worker as she could not talk comfortably with her
husband about her reactions.

At work, a supervisee’s past conflict with his mother’s authority could

be re-activated especially by a supervisor male of female who unknowingly
reminds him of his mother’s behavior. Such a relationship can cause this
type of difficulty for an employee. This is one factor that should motivate
management especially in industry to hire social workers.

2.6 Problem with Formal Organizations

W. Reid and L. Enstein (Task-Centered Casework 1972) state that

this type of difficulty is similar to a problem of interpersonal relationship,
except that the client is in conflict with the organization or collective
individuals of an organization.

A client can complain to his social worker that when he was referred
for Self-Employment Assistance at MSSD he was not attended to. This is
the client’s perception even if he were told that he was not eligible. Another
example could be the case of handicapped clients who manifest this
problem through picketing or denouncing the MSSD.

A foster parent may compare the way the institution had taken care
of the foster child, now under her care, indicating what she could have
done if child was immediately places in her home. Apparently, her difficulty
with the institution reflects what she failed to do for the foster child.

Easily problems like these are not viewed as relevant to casework

intervention but where clients are involved they should be taken up. The

26
conflict has to be assessed and if not a case appropriately under this
category, the problem presented should be reclassified.

2.7 Impact of Natural Calamity and Social Unrest

The lack of material resources with each to meet the emergency is

not all that the client would present in case of natural calamity or social
unrest. It is a distressful, if not a trauma-laden occurrence. In most areas of
the Philippines, a social worker will be faced with problems of social
functioning due to natural disasters-typhoon, fire, earthquake, drought, and
social unrest in the South and other areas-in about a third of her practice.

It is suggested that the difficulty be classified separately from

emotional distress, not only because of the size of the clientele but also of
the dynamics that differentiates the problem. The elements of shock,
deprivation, uncertainty of its recurrence isolation, enforced idleness in
evacuation centers, loss of family members and belongings may all
together have meaning to the client. The client needs help with his feelings
relative to most, if not all of these components. This affective difficulty of
victims of natural calamity or social unrest within the Filipino context needs
further study.

2.8 Reactive Emotional Distress

This category of problems refers to expressions of feelings of

anxiety, depression, regression-which result from stress or emotional
upset, according to W. Reid and L. Epstein, Task Centered Casework and
Florence Hollis, Casework-A Psychosocial Therapy. The feelings should b
in response to an occurrence that is specific, can be identified, and which
the client is conscious about.

It is said that this same difficulty may be concomitant with

interpersonal conflict or difficulty in role performance, social transition,
even problems of livelihood, etc. The difference however is that the client
in the preceding categories of problems focuses on the situation as the
presenting problems focuses on the situation as the presenting problem.
The basic factor in a reactive emotional distress is the client’s feelings.

Examples of circumstances that can give rise to the problem of

reactive emotional distress are death of family member, abandonment or
separation from husband, illness, removal of a child for foster care,
evacuation, unemployment, marriage of a child, employment of spouse
abroad, strange diagnostic procedures, operation, taking an examination,
loss of status, retirement, failure in class, indebtedness.

27
 An only daughter was getting married in six months’ time.
The mother, Mrs. G had been crying almost every time she thought
of it and could not sleep. She expressed her feeling guilty because of
the superstition that it is bad luck if one cries over a child who is
about to get married. The daughter did not know what was
happening. Mr. G was worried over the wife’s sleepless nights and
bought his wife to PGH. The psychiatrist who gave the medication
referred her to the social worker. The daughter and her fiancé were
involved by the social worker so Mrs. G was able to talk about her
anxiety that her daughter’s future husband might not treat her well.

It is our experience in a pilot project that given the chance to talk to

others with this same problem, the social worker need only to facilitate and
follow up each one individually, when indicated

The social worker was meeting a group of five solo

parents (widows) who individually were living in isolation.
They are struggling to maintain their families and have no time
for their social life. Their children are affected by their
depression which they displace on them. After six sessions,
they decided to form a club.

2.9 Problem of “Borderline Pathology

Dr. Kaufman in his Therapeutic Consideration of the Borderline

Personality Structure indicated that difficulties under this category include
hysterical, phobic, obsessive and psychosomatic reactions, acting out of
behavior, neurosis, character disorder and other ego disturbances
characterized by recurrent overt depressions and inability of the client to
handle the realities of living. In all these situations, however, the client is in
touch with reality in other areas of his functioning.

This type of problem is different from reactive emotional distress

where the response is to a situation that can be identified and the client is
aware of the cause. In the Philippines with the still prevalent strict morality
and close family ties these conditions of severe ego disturbances, although
undiagnosed and the incidence not known, are most likely under cover.
The social workers handling this type of problem are presently employed in
hospitals where psychiatrists practice. On the other hand, if one were to
study in depth the cases of clients whose problems could e categorized
under the foregoing classification, the problem of “borderline” pathology is
also among these presented in the caseload of multi-service and other
social welfare agencies. Social workers dealing with borderline pathology

28
need advance academic preparation and specialized training for more
insights into this category of problems in social functioning.

2.10 Problems of Being a Client

Not only is a client faced with any of the problems mentioned in the
preceding sections, but also with the problem of being a client. Charlotte
Towle has warned social workers that the problem of being a client could
be superimposed on or complicate the presenting problem. The client feels
demoralized and humiliated, feels overly indebted, helpless to ever regain
self-dependence. On the other hand, one can also find even those who are
not eligible for assistance becoming dependent as their conflicts with
parent or authority figures reactivated.

To some asking for help with a problem of relationship or emotional

distress could reinforce the difficulty when this is displaces on the social
worker. These feelings may reflect hostility or resistance to authority.

In the Philippines, there is the problem of “utang na loob”, the

unexpressed question of reciprocating the social worker. We are
accustomed to giving some from of payment for what we get. In a social
agency where no payment is required the conflict can likely affect the
client’s receiving or asking for help.

MSSD Clientele

Problems for casework intervention are also inferred from categories

of clientele of the Ministry of Social Services and Development and other
social service agencies, both primary and secondary setting.

 Jobless and underemployed family head

 solo parent

 married couple of reproductive age presenting psycho-

social difficulty in family planning

 family members with problems of relationship

 abandoned or orphaned children and youth

 neglected children and youth

 abused or maltreated children and youth

29
 undernourished children and youth

 pre-delinquent children and youth with

emotional/behavioral problems

 out-of-school youth

 youthful offender

 mentally retarded

 unwed adolescent

 drug dependent/drug addict

 alcoholic

 patient with emotional problem/mental patient

 physically handicapped

 elderly

 mendicant

 recovered mentally ill patient

 released prisoner

 negative hansenite

 disadvantaged woman

 victim of natural disasters

 evacuee/refugee/returnee and other victims of social unrest

 repatriate

 nomadic cultural communities

 squatter/resettled

 individual in crisis situation

 other displaces individual

30
  employee with work-related problem

 student with school related problem

According to Florence Hollis, Casework- A Psychosocial Therapy,

2nd Edition (1971).

Casework treatment is “Thematic”. It does not deal

thoroughly with all aspects of the client’s adjustment or personality,
rather is studies the current adjustment and life history of the
individual to ascertain where his functioning is inadequate and
causes discomfort and what particular facets of his personality that
need strengthening might be susceptible to change by casework
methods.

As such, classification of the problem may depend to a large degree on the

dynamics of human behavior and personality of the client, the
specialization of the agency where the client goes for help, the perceived
competence and comfort of the social worker in handling a problem
(professional bias), the sequence with which the client and the significant
others are enabled to reveal through both verbal and non-verbal
communication information relative to the difficulty. In this case, there is
also element of tentativeness with which a problem is classified and
verified at different stages of the casework process but the target problem
that the social worker and client should work on has to be identified and
handled immediately.

The recently amputated husband had taken his having to take

care of his young

3. PLACE

(Agencies and Other Resources)

Preventing and remedying the problems of social functioning

require resources other than those of the client’s, his family and
significant others. These refer to the physical set up, finances,
policies, services and manpower of the social casework agency
which could have either a primary or secondary purpose.

31
Types of agencies

A primary agency is one that has full authority and responsibility for
its casework function while the secondary agency derives its social welfare
purpose from the host agency. Examples of the former are the Department
of Social Welfare and Development which is a multi-purpose public or
government social work agency and the Foster Parents Plan, a private
non-governmental or voluntary multi-purpose family and child welfare
agency. Some social casework agencies have resources only for the
prevention or resolution of just one problem and a related problem of social
dysfunctioning, e.g. Kaisahang Buhay Foundation Child Adoption Center
which specializes in enhancing the role performance of adoptive family, the
CRIBS with resources in meeting the difficulties of relationships between
foster parents and biological or adoptive parents.

Casework agencies or caseworkers in secondary settings include

the medical social work units or medical social workers of hospitals, school
social workers, the Social work and Counseling Division of the Juvenile
and Domestic Relations Courts, social workers of the National Housing
Authority, psychiatric clinics, social workers employed by industrial
establishments, etc. In a secondary setting the social work unit or the lone
social worker is a resource for clients who manifest psycho-social
problems which have caused the primary complaint of illness, dropping out
of school, etc. Similarly, the social caseworker is called upon, when the
client is unable to use the primary services of these agencies as in the
case of a patient for whom surgery is prescribed but resists the same or
the child who is intellectually capable but cannot learn, or a tenant in a
PLISS housing who cannot relate with her neighbor.

The physical set up and atmosphere of an agency may be or may

not be a resource for a client, especially one who manifests the difficulty of
being a client. The attractive homelike arrangement of the room where the
client’s child would stay while on residence in a child caring agency had
motivated the mother who maltreated the child to leave her child
temporarily. As such the agency served as a resource for the abused child
and the mother. Another illustration is the situation in a family planning
clinic to which a husband who was not yet quite convinced about
undergoing vasectomy was referred. The social worker failed to anticipate
the reaction of the client to the strange surgical instruments and the many
clients waiting under the sun faced with a discourteous rural health doctor
and the unsanitary condition of the operating table. The vasectomy was
not conducted. The client did not find the clinic as helpful with his problem.
An office or facility that has been arranged and operated to insure the

32
comfort and feelings of self-worth of the client could reinforce, if it does not
become the end, of the helping process.

Material resources

Where the basic need for food, clothing, shelter and education is
often superimposed on problems of interpersonal conflicts and other
psycho-social difficulties, the extension of tangible resources takes
precedence. Material provision or money may be used as a tool in
convincing a client that he has the potential to deal with his other problems
besides meeting his need for income. Self-Employment Assistance (SEA)
as developed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and
implementation also by agencies similarly oriented is an example of this
resource. The client is helped and earn and experience success in the
management of the resources (money) that be receives as a means to
earning a livelihood. The client may have assessed his problem accurately
and identified SEA as a resource and through it discover his own strengths
and those of the members of his family.

On the other hand, extension of free medicines and medical

treatment, school supplies, free or deferred payment of tuition fees, cash
assistance for burial expenses, transportation fare, etc., food in case of
disaster relief and under-nutrition of children, is often the only service of
many social welfare agencies. These include among others, the rural
health units, hospitals and schools.

Sometimes all that the client needs is a vocational skill for

employment. Trade or vocational schools, National Manpower and Youth
Council training centers, practical skills training and job placement services
of DSWD, are some more of the examples of resources that could be used
in attending to problem of inadequate material resources.

Services

Other than the material resources of the agency are the services
which are developed to fulfill its function. As medicines are to the physician
so are the services of the agency to the social caseworker. A service is a
composite of strategies or approaches, activities and procedures which
aim at the prevention or solution of a social dysfunctioning.

Family Counseling Service (FCS) is one type of a service in dealing

with an interpersonal conflict among family members as well as difficulties
in their role performance or emotional distress. Similarly, Family Planning
Information and Counseling Service (FPICS) is focused on the “breaking

33
down” of psycho-social barriers to the practice of family planning-one type
of a problem of relationship between husband and wife. Population
Awareness and Sex Education, Pre-Marital Counseling, Family Life
Enrichment Services are examples of agency resources for the prevention
of difficulties in role performance, social transition or interpersonal
conflicts. Adoption Service and Foster Family Care Service besides
providing substitute parental care for a child, and after-care or Post-
Residential or Foster Care Services for children or adults, serve as
instruments in the prevention and relief of problems in shifting to the role of
adoptive parent or foster parent or return to the family. Drug Information
and other Preventive Education, and Community Education are some of
the services to the out-of-school youth aimed at preventing problems of
social functioning at their present stage of development and adulthood.
Probation and other court-related services to the youthful offenders is one
of the resources relative to difficulties of borderline pathology, e.g. acting-
out as implied from juvenile delinquency.

The rationale for any service is based on the policies of the agency,
among others. For policy to serve as a resource for clients, it should be
dynamic and lend itself to experimentation in order that the corresponding
service is relevant and an effective resource.

These are policies that do not only impede social functioning but in
fact create problems for the client. For example, a child caring agency that
does not favor placement of a child in adoption, once indicated, is doing
“disservice” to the child. If a foster family care agency upholds the policy
that an adoptive family can serve first as a foster family, such agency
places the child at risk of being rejected and minimizes the value of
adoption as a resource and reduces the chance of recruiting appropriate
foster families.

In agencies where the policy-making position are held by

professionally trained social workers the chance that policy is not an
instrument for casework practice is lesser than where staff work or many of
the non-governmental agencies. In any case where responsibility of the
social worker to influence policy-makers to change the policy or modify the
impact of a bad policy on the client on a case to case basis.

Manpower

The most decisive resources of an agency is its manpower. The

effectiveness of the physical set up, of the use of funding, the carrying out
of policies and delivery of the corresponding services depends on the
manpower that handles these other resources. The social caseworker
34
does not only use the facilities, and the funds, but delivers the services
according to policies to remedy the adverse situation of the client. The
social worker also enhances the social functioning of the client to the
extent that the other resources contribute to the total social development of
the client. In order that the client considers the caseworker as helpful and
therefore serves as a resource in the solution of the problem, some
conditions have to be present. These are the caseworker’s:

a. attitude of attentiveness, warmth, and receptivity to start the client

feeling his self-esteem and encourage him to reveal himself and his
problem;
b. ability to maintain a relationship that enables the client to continue
coming for help;
c. knowledge of and skill in the application of the dynamics of human
behavior and personality, role and communications theory;
d. knowledge of and skill in using the strengths of the family, the
spiritual and cultural dimensions
e. knowledge of and skill in generating and using resources of his
agency and other agencies;
f. security as to his identity and competence and to the clarity of his
function and ability to work with other professionals and para-
professionals needed in the solution of the different facets of the
client’s problem;
g. ability to use authority purposefully and avoid dependence,
especially with the Filipino client who is reared in an authoritarian
family or one who is not verbal or introspective and expects direction
or even action to be initiated on his behalf.

Paraprofessionals

For more manpower resource than the social work profession can
provide is that from the host of paraprofessionals in social welfare
agencies. For example, in child caring agencies, we have houseparent’s,
institutional workers, nursing attendants, MSSD employs welfare
assistants, youth development workers, project evaluation officers. The
day care workers are non-social work graduates.

There are certain “front line” activities which are better handled by
paraprofessionals because of specific tasks which they are naturally
inclined to undertake. The houseparents, institutional workers, day care
workers should be psychologically prepared to parent children other than
their own, if they are to serve as resource for biological parents who are

35
unable to take care of their children temporarily. The welfare assistants
and youth development workers should have “naturally helpful
personalities” to undertake aspects of the helping process intuitively for the
specific clientele they each are comfortable in dealing with, adults and
youth, respectively. The project evaluation officer is a graduate of business
management, economics, or allied disciplines and thus brings into the
agency his specialization in helping the client acquire managerial skills for
the pursuit of income generating activities when the client is faced with the
problem of livelihood.

As such there should be a purposeful matching of professional and

paraprofessional manpower resource of an agency in order to meet its
objectives. On the other hand, when an agency cannot provide the needed
mix of paraprofessionals and professionals to carry out its objectives the
professional caseworker must be familiar with the manpower resources of
other agencies and their procedures and policies in the making of referrals.
In this instance and in working with the paraprofessionals of the same
agency where she operates, the caseworker assumes a consultative role
in relation to the paraprofessional.

Family and Community Resources

The primary source of help besides that of the agency which the
caseworker can use for the person presenting a problem is usually
selected members of his family, and/or his neighborhood, friends, other
relatives, parish priest or religious leader, teacher, employer, baranggay
captain, midwife, the wise old man of the baranggay, and significant
others, specially those whom the client considers influential to him. These
people can be considered as resources only when they present naturally
helpful personalities or if in the
shortest possible time the identified potential resource can be developed to
serve as such. This would mean a diagnostic understanding of the
response and personality of the identified resource, his relationship and
attitude toward the client- which if positive, therefore, serves as resources
of the caseworker in helping the client.

Many agencies depend on a corps of volunteer who are recruited on

the basis of their aptitude, inclination and experience to serve specific
categories of clientele. While it is a fact that volunteers also meet their
needs through their involvement with people who need them as such they
can be used as resource only when their involvement is systematic and
directed and become part of the casework process. The elderly and the

36
youth whose roles in the “development” of the family are not primary are
usually potential sources of volunteer work within the community.

Clients Own Resources

Besides the client’s physical and mental health, the client’s own
resources have been discussed in the preceding section.

4. THE PROCESS

This is discussed extensively in Chapter IV.

Chapter II

Footnotes

1. Helen Harris Perlman “Social Casework; A Problem-Solving

Process, Encyclopedia of Social Work R. Morris ed., NASW, 1971 p.
1207
2. Jonathan H. Tumer, “The Structures of Sociological Theory”.
3. Helen Harris Perlman, “Social Casework; A Problem-Solving
Process, The University of Chicago Pres, 1957

References

1. Barlett, Harriett. “The Common Base of Social Work Practice.” New

York: National Association of Social Workers.
2. Compton, Baulah and Galaway, Burt. “Social Work Processes.”
Illinois: Dorsey Press.
3. Garette, Annett. “Interviewing: Its Principles and Methods.” New
York: Family Service Association of America, 1962.
4. Hamilton Gordon. “Theory and Practice of Social Work.” New York:
Columbia University Press, 1962.
5. Perlman, Helen Harris. “Social Casework, A Problem-Solving
Process.” Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964
6. Pincus, Allen and Minahan, Anne. “Social Work Practice: Model and
Mehtod.” Illinois: F.E. Peacock Publishers, Inc. 1973.
7. Aptikar, “Basic Concept in Social Casework.” University N.C. Press,
1961.
8. Biestek, Felix. “The Casework Relationship.” Loyola University
Press.
37
 9. Kay, Kazuko and Afable, Lourdes. “The Course Content of Social
Casework on the Undergraduate Level.” Report of the Third National
Workshop on Social Work Education, 1969.
10. Social Work Journals. Published by the Philippine Association
of Social Workers.
11. Philippine Encyclopedia of Social Work. Second Issue, 1977.
12. Review Notes in Social Work, 1978.

CHAPTER THREE

THE HELPING RELATIONSHIP

A separate chapter on the helping a client worker relationship is

included here to emphasize its importance as a factor in the helping
process:

1. The Client-Worker Relationship

The client-worker relationship is a professional relationship

established for the purpose of attaining objectives of helping. The
relationship involves dynamic interaction and emotional interplay between
the worker and the client. The interaction involves their particular feelings
and attitudes in relation to particular situations. The relationships must be
guided toward positive and constructive directions within the context of
objectivity and professional values in order to promote the client’s inner
security, self-dignity and sense of trust. The establishment of such
relationship is a joint effort which encourages the client’s active
participation. The positive and objective relationship ultimately enhances
the promotion of the client’s inner growth and development and enables
him to accomplish better social functioning. The relationship operated with
the purpose of attaining a problem-solving objective within the constructive
and professional limitations.

It is essential to exert efforts to establish a positive client-worker

relationship, particularly in the beginning phase. The initial relationship
must be started from “where the client is.” This is the recognition and
assessment of the client’s readiness, pace, motivation and capacities. The
worker provides understanding and support to the client’s readiness and
his perception of reality. The relationship is client-centered rather than
problem-centered, realizing that the client’s stress has various reactions to
himself and to situations. Whatever his reactions are, his behavior has
38
purpose and meaning in relation to his adaptation to the problems. Under
the stressful situation, the client’s usual reactions are manifested in the
form of increase in his tensions, fears, frustration and dependency
attitudes. The worker relates to the client in such ways as to lower his
anxiety and to promote his sense of trust and emotional security, help him
express himself and motivate him to become involved in the helping
process. The worker’s supportive and understanding attitudes toward the
client have therapeutic values. Worker develops increasing skill in his
understanding of the client’s tension, fear and frustration to his social
situation and economic conditions. The worker must learn the meaning of
the attitudes and develop skills to establish professional relationship.

Since the relationship is established with a professional purpose, the

worker recognizes the importance and dynamic involvement of SELF and
of “professional use of SELF”. In order to use SELF as a professional
person, the worker must develop “self-awareness”. Self-awareness is the
person’s ability to perceive realistically his response to other persons in
particular situations and to understand others reactions and views on him.
It conveys the person’s capacity to stand on one’s feelings objectively and
to use professional knowledge effectively, and to distinguish and to control
the effectiveness of each of these elements in various situations. Self-
awareness enables the worker to be sensitive to his own needs, anxieties,
subjectively, prejudice, judgemental attitudes and biases. The worker uses
the recognition of SELF in order to improve the conscious and purposeful
use of SELF and to achieve greater objectively and control. Unless the
person recognizes this importance and exerts efforts to transform it. It is
difficult to control subjective feelings. As Hyman Grossbard states, “this
awareness and disciplined control of personal needs and reactions is a
basic equality of professional help and the element that differentiates it
from the kind of help given on a personal or informal basis”. In professional
social work practice, the absence of this important quality undermines the
effectiveness of its service; the worker frequently becomes competitive
with the client or with other social workers, or tends to dominate or over-
protect the client, or he becomes emotionally involved in some issues
giving expression to his own needs rather than for the objectives of helping
the client.

The relationship is a professional relationship which requires self-

awareness objectively and self discipline in the joint involvement of
problem-solving process.

39
 The positive and constructive client-worker relationship lay down the
solid foundation of the helping process. This is the essential objective in
every phase of such process.

2. The Relationship Components

The relationship has three components, namely, reality, transference

and counter-transference. These components manifest themselves in
various ways in the interaction between worker and client. These
manifestations occur unconsciously to understand their occurrence and
manifestation both in terms of analysis and assessment of the client and
development of worker’s self-awareness.

2.1 Reality

This is the realistic and objective perception of existing conditions or

situations. A person who has a perception of reality is the one who
recognizes his problem situation and accepts this situation, then does
something about it. The person who is able to see his situation realistically
is usually the type of person who is motivated and willing to cope with his
problem situation for problem-solving.

2.2 Transference

Transference reactions are the client’s displacement on the worker

of particular feelings and attitudes he originally experiences toward his
family members or people he is close to, in most cases the mother or
father, in his early childhood stage of development, and then he responds
and relates to the worker as if he were the person. This is unconscious and
not reality-based. It is an unrealistic attitude and response to a positive
significance in the establishment of the client-worker relationship. It will be
positive if it corresponds to emotional security and sense of trust, such as
love, affection, etc. felt for the parental figure or close members of the
family. It will be negative if it corresponds to emotional insecurity and if the
manifestation is reverse.

In the relationship the transference is actively operating in the

unconscious level. The worker should recognize and understand its
dynamic mechanism and operation in terms of identifying negative and
positive aspects of the client’s manifestation for its assessment and

40
intervention. Negative manifestation must be helped and positive
manifestation must be maintained and encouraged.

2.3 Counter-Transference

It is the carrying-over of the worker’s particular feelings and

reactions to a person in the worker’s past and projecting them on the
client. This is also unconscious and not reality-based. The nurture of
feelings and attitudes are emotionally biased and prejudiced which affect
seriously the client-worker relationship unless it is objectively controlled.

There is need for the worker to develop awareness of this dynamic

operation and tendency in order to keep it at a minimum and be able to
establish the constructive relationship on the basis of reality. It is
professional responsibility to recognize, control and manage transference
and counter-transference, appropriately emphasizing the reality aspect of
the relationship.

3. Guiding Principle

Felix P. Biestek, S.J. identifies seven important principles which

should guide the casework relationship. They are the following:

3.1 Individualism

This refers to the recognition and understanding of an individual

person’s unique characteristics and quality in relation to his current
problem situation. Individualization has significance both in recognizing the
person’s inherent worth and dignity and integrity, and in analyzing the
person’s “where he is” in relevance to his perception of reality, problems,
motivation capacities and his readiness for casework help. Individualization
is for he purpose of through securing significant facts for assessment of
the nature of the person and the nature of the problem which serve as the
bases for the formulation of intervention plans.

The social worker needs to have analytical ability to listen and

observe the client through encouraging the client’s active participation. The
significant facts are in the client who needs to express his inner feelings,
thinking and attitudes, the more the worker gathers the information and
facts. The worker is able to see and understand the person in a more
holistic view in relation to his social situation. The casework relationship
starts from where the client is and guides the helping process according to
41
the pace of the client rather than the worker’s. Often, an inexperienced
worker unconsciously starts the helping process from his own standard
and values and imposes them upon the client; in return, the client finds
serious gap and difficulty in communicating with the worker a situation
which may create unnecessary disturbance in the relationship. This type of
phenomena should be avoided.

The effective means for individualizing are the worker’s sincerity,

sensitivity, and concern for the client which are manifested through
thoughtfulness, keeping appointments, art of communicating, language
expression, preparation for interviews, supportive attitude, and flexibility.

In the context of Filipino culture, it is noted that the client under the
stressful situation, particularly in front of the social worker as authority
figure, tends to manifestation that would cause the client to think that he
must seek the worker who, in the eyes of the client, is in a position of
authority and has the power to give or withhold financial assistance.

3.2 Purposeful Expression of Feelings

Every expression of feelings has meaning and purpose. Particularly,

the client under the stressful situation expresses various inner feelings
through verbal and nonverbal communication. The expression has
negative as well as positive, significance. The negative aspect of feeling
must be helped and the positive must be utilized and encouraged.

Purposeful expression of feelings is the recognition of

the client’s need to express his feelings freely, especially his
negative feelings. The caseworker listens purposely, neither
discouraging or condemning the expression of these feelings,
sometimes even actively stimulating and encouraging them
when they are therapeutically useful as a part of the casework
service.

The purposeful expression of feelings serves important facts in the

helping process. It has therapeutic values of relieving pressures and
tensions hence it helps the client feel better and see his situation more
realistically, and objectively. The worker, through understanding of the
inner expression, is able to identify the client’s positive and negative
aspects of feelings, thus accordingly directs him into positive and
constructive helping process of study, analysis and intervention. Both
encouraging and listening to the client’s feelings in relation to his problem
are forms of emotional support for the client. The client is able to perceive
the support as acceptance and care from the worker, hence develops a

42
sense of trust and security upon the worker. This strengthens the client
worker relationship.

In order to create a motivating atmosphere for the client’s

participation, the following are vital: (1) the worker’s acceptance of the
client and desire to help him promote his trust and confidence in the
worker; (2) the creation of a permissive atmosphere. The worker himself,
should feel relaxes and comfortable in handling the situation with
appropriate physical facilities such as privacy and no or minimum
interruptions during the interviews so that the worker is able to give his full
attention to the client’s interests and needs. Often, the beginning social
worker has a tendency to talk more than the client and pour overwhelming
questions to the client, instead of encouraging and motivating the client to
express himself. Sometimes, the client is given little opportunity to express
and talk. The client-centered approach is completely ignored. In particular,
when the situation calls for forgetting an overwhelming number of cases,
say 1,000 cases required in a year, it is almost impossible to expect quality
in the service, bringing about the danger of having number-oriented and
problem-oriented residual services. The worker’s attitude becomes
authoritative and judgmental and he loses his sensitivity to the needs and
readiness of the client. The relationship should be client-centered, focusing
“where the client is” (3) Thirdly, another important element needed to
create a permissive atmosphere is the worker’s ability to listen sensitively,
objectively and analytically. It is not easy to be good listener. It requires the
art of communication, sensitivity and direction. The question should guide
and open, and lead to the exploration of the broader areas of information
and relevant facts, and promote the client’s voluntary participation and
active involvement, rather than direct pointing questions which in return
bring the limited information of “yes” or “no”. Predominant information and
facts are in the client himself. The worker must facilitate opportunities and
encourage the client to express freely his feelings which are vital
information and facts for the helping process.

3.3 Controlled Emotional Involvement

This is the worker’s objectivity and control of his own emotions and
attitude. Every communication has a two-way process. The content of
communication often is a combination of thought and feelings. The worker
needs to communicate on both thinking and feeling levels. The worker
needs to respond skillfully to the client’s feelings and thoughts.

43
 The controlled emotional involvement is the caseworker’s
sensitivity to the client’s feelings, and understanding of their
meaning, and a purposeful, appropriate response to the client’s
feelings.

Felix Biestek states that there are three components in this worker’s
controlled emotional involvement. These are sensitivity, understanding and
response. In practice, the components are integrated and processed in
such a way as to enhance coping capacities of the client.

Essentially, sensitivity is observing and gathering the necessary

information and facts for the identification of the problems. It has analytic
and therapeutic importance. Each behavior is significance and meaning
and its manifestation has verbal and non-verbal, external and internal,
communications, such as his way and content of talking, hesitance,
shyness, what he is saying, crying, his movement of hands, facial
expression, etc. Therefore, the worker must develop his sensitivity to
understand the client’s particular manifestations in relation to his problem.

In relation to understanding, the worker needs to know the

significance and meaning of the client’s feelings and thinking. The worker
needs to understand what he is. What his situation is, why it is, and how it
can be helped through the client’s active participation.

Sensitivity and understanding are essential and pre-requisite to

response. Response without sensitivity is blind; response without
understanding is empty. Basically, the response is the worker’s attitude
and feelings, guided by his knowledge and helping objectives. Therefore,
the response is not necessarily only verbal, but also non-verbal. The
response must support the client in such ways as to maintain or enhance
his emotional security and sense of trust, through the worker’s acceptance,
objectivity, and psychological support.

3.4 Acceptance

Acceptance is a principle of action wherein the

caseworker perceives and deals with the client as he really is,
including his strengths and weaknesses, his congenial and
uncongenial qualities, his positive and negative feelings, his
constructive and destructive attitudes and behaviour,
maintaining all the while a sense of the client’s innate dignity
and personal worth.

44
 Acceptance does not mean approval of deviant
attitudes or behaviour. The object of acceptance is not “the
good” but “the real”. The object of acceptance is pertinent
reality.

The purpose of acceptance is therapeutic: to aid the

caseworker in understanding the client as he really is, thus
making casework more effective’ and to help the client free
himself from undesirable defenses, so that he feels safe to
reveal himself and look at himself as he really is, and thus to
deal with his problem and himself in a more realistic way.

The action of acceptance has three steps: (1) perceiving-the worker

sees realistically what he is accepting and what for he is accepting; (2)
analytic understanding-the worker vies the facts of acceptance in relation
to the causes and the problems. Analytic understanding is essentially the
assessment of the nature of the person in relation to the nature of the
problem. The worker finds what is the client-person, what is the situation
and analyzes the reasons “why” in relation to the findings; and (3)
acknowledging it as reality.

Felix Biestek states that there are three components of acceptance,

namely (1) the object of acceptance; (2) the qualities of acceptance, and
(3) the purpose of acceptance. The object of acceptance is the “what” of
acceptance; the client’s integrity as a human-person, individual as he is,
with all his strengths and weaknesses, and positive and negative feelings.
The qualities of acceptance are to support the client with warmth, courtesy,
listening, respect, compassion, concern, commitment, and devotion. The
purpose of acceptance is to enable the helping process to attain the
objective on the basis of a humane operation.

The worker needs to maintain the client-worker relationship on a

realistic basis with the professional values at all times.

3.5 The Non-judgemental Attitude

In relation to the principles of individualization, acceptance, and

controlled emotional involvement, the non-judgemental attitude is an
integral part of the principles of social work. The non-judgemental attitude
refers to the objectivity and quality of the worker’s relationship toward the
client. In order to establish a positive and constructive relationship, the
worker should be free from his own needs, biases, prejudice, interests and
values. He should be able to control his own personal feelings, attitudes,
certain standards and values. He is able to manage them in control and

45
objectivity for the professional relationship. Often in practice the beginning
worker faces a problem without realizing that he is imposing, pushing,
over-identifying and over-personality. Thus, the worker is involved with his
personal subjective feelings and attitudes. He starts the helping process
from where he himself is; “worker-centered” rather than “client-centered”,
and start from where the client is. This type of phenomenon is often
observed among the workers particularly, and the nature of work is
concentrated on quantity rather than professional quality. As a result, the
concept of practice becomes predominantly residual-dole out type of
service rather than the developmental concept of practice.

In order to help the client mobilize his inner and outer resources, his
motivation and capacities, it is essential that the worker starts where the
client is with his strengths, weaknesses, readiness and pace. The principle
is therapeutic and has the analytic purpose of establishing a workable and
effective relationship.

The worker needs to be sensitive to the client’s feelings and

attitudes, particularly to his negative ones which are often areas of
problems and needs. The client under a stressful situation has the
tendency to being dependent in front of the authority and of being unable
to cope with his situation. The overwhelming situation often becomes a
threat to the client. His personal values, human integrity, dignity, and rights
are threatened. The worker needs to develop increasing skill to understand
the client’s tensions, fears and frustrations in his problem situation.

The non-judgemental attitude reduces the client’s fear and tension

and restores the damaged self-esteem and self-identity, thus enhancing
his motivation and coping capacities.

3.6 Client Self-Determination

The principle of client-self determination is the practical

recognition of the right and need of clients to freedom in
making their own choices and decisions in the casework
process. Caseworkers have a corresponding duty to respect
that right, recognize that need, stimulate and help to activate
that potential for self-direction by helping the client to see and
use the available and appropriate resources of the community
and of his own personality. The client’s right to self-
determination, however, is limited by the client’s capacity for
positive and constructive decision making, by the caseworker
of civil and moral law, and by the function of the agency.

46
 This principle is based on the democrative and social work
professional values and firm behalf in (1) the client’s integrity, dignity and
right as human being; (2) every individual’s potentialities for coping with,
and capacity for solving, his problem; (3) active participation of the client
for problem-solving;(4) the client’s responsibility for his own decision-
making. This is an essential principle in social work philosophy. The worker
helps the client help himself. The worker motivates and encourages him to
be self-determining, thus he works with his efforts to become self-reliant
and self-productive. “Help the client help himself to be self-sufficient” is the
goal of social work practice.

The worker is an essential tool and primarily responsible for

facilitating and developing the principle of client’s self-determination in
practice. Encouraging the client’s self determination must be integrated in
every phase of the helping process. Often, the client comes to the agency
to seek for help with his dependency attitudes and overwhelmed feelings
of “I don’t know what to do my problems are beyond my capacity”. This
type of client is not ready for self-determination at the beginning phase of
the helping process. It is important to start the helping process from where
the client is. Development of the client’s self-determination is based upon
the worker’s assessment of where the client is, his motivation and
capacities. Accordingly, the worker enhances development of the client’s
determination. Sometimes, the worker imposes the principle without
considering the client’s readiness and pace, thus it becomes beyond his
capacities and he is overwhelmed. As a result, the worker finds him
discouraged and not motivated.

The development of self-determination is guided and processed into

the client’s positive and constructive decision-making within the framework
of civil and moral laws, and the objectives and services of the agency.

3.7 Confidentiality

Confidentiality is to preserve the client’s information and facts in a

professional manner, respecting the individual person’s right, dignity, and
integrity. This is the most important ethical consideration in working with
the client. The client must be respected and protected in such a way as to
enhance the quality of relationship. The client’s trust, respect and security
upon the professional worker and agency must be maintained or
encouraged through the principle of confidentiality.
This requires the worker and agency to protect and safeguard the
confidential aspects of the client. Sometimes, the worker shares his
47
emotional involvement and personal attitude toward the client to co-
workers and friends in order to relieve his own anxiety and to meet his own
needs. Sharing the client’s information and materials should be done only
with professional purposes and for reasons which should benefit the client.

There are other principles such as communication, participation and

self-awareness. All principles are integrated into the practice. Each
principle implies the application of others. A problem in any one of the
principles implies the defect in the entire relationship; an absence of any
one of them indicates a serious problem in social work practice.

It is very important not only to conceptualize the principles of the

relationship, but also to examine and evaluate the concept of self,
strengths, weakness, feelings and attitudes in relation to each principle.
There would be little value or significance unless the principles are built
into the development of self-awareness and professional use of self. A
social worker’s professional functioning can be enhanced through the
discovery, assessment and development of his own strengths, resources
and potentialities.

CHAPTER FOUR

THE HELPING PROCESS

This chapter will discuss the goal and the steps of the helping or
problem-solving process of social casework. These are: identification of
the problem; data-gathering; assessment; planning solutions; intervention;
monitoring and evaluation; and termination. Case materials will be
analyzed to illustrate these aspects of the helping process.

GOAL OF SOCIAL CASEWORK

Social welfare provisions are never going to be adequate for

meeting needs of individuals and families all over the country who are
encountering multiple survival problems. However, it is possible to use
these limited resources for helping clients mobilize their resources for
solving their current problems are more effectively. There will be those who
cannot be uplifted and who may continue to need social welfare provisions,
however it is possible to uplift many individuals and families, as can be
seen in the increasing number of rehabilitated clients under the existing
socio-economic assistance programs and services of social agencies.

48
 The goal of problem-solving, as Helen Perlman described it, is “to
help a person to cope as effectively as possible with such problems as
carrying social tasks and relationships which he now perceives as
stressful, and finds insuperable without outside help.”

The achievement of this goal will depend much on the special

worker’s capacity to actively make professional use of herself for helping
the client to become his own problem-solving. She must have a positive
outlook if she is to help this person (family) mobilize his resources for
solving his problem.

Majority of recipients and potential recipients of social welfare

services are encountering multiple social problems. A typical example is
the W Family whose crisis situations are described in the following case
report:

Mrs. N is in the social agency to request for financial

assistance because their landlady is demanding payment of
11 months unpaid rent. She is a fish and vegetable vendor
whose average daily income is about P5.00. She supports her
husband and their seven children, and the only ones helping
her are their two teenage sons who earn few pesos
occasionally by working for fisherman. Her husband used to
be a passenger jeepney driver, but he is now jobless due to
his liver and kidney diseases. An alcoholic, he is trying to
control his drinking habit but he needs at least a bottle of
cheap wine a day to overcome his withdrawal symptoms. He
known that alcohol is bad for him, but he cannot refuse his
friends whenever they incite him for a drink. Mrs. N’s
complaint about him are his intoxication, and his habit of
threatening to kill her and scaring away bill collectors with his
bolo.

The two sons are looking for better hobs, while the
eldest duather resigned from her work as housemaid due to
frequent migraine headaches. The younger ones stay home
much more than go to school because they do not have
enough food to eat.

Social workers have helped families like the N’s., and have
succeeded in uplifting many, in spite of the very limited agency funds.
Success and failure can be expected of any helping situation, since the
effectiveness of the helping service depends also on the family’s capacity
49
to use these resources for solving their problems. If helping services are
geared to improving the family’s problem-solving capacities, social workers
can have more successes than failures from their interventions.

STEPS OF THE HELPING PROCESS

The steps of this helping process are also known as problem-solving

processes. These “operations”, as Perlman explained it, may not occur in
the order in which linear sequence have set them down. They “may occur
simultaneously, or in unlogical sequence”. She said further that “any effort
to move from quandary to resolution must involve these modes of internal
or external actions”. She described each one as follows:

1. The problem must be identified by the person (client) that is

to say, recognized, named and placed in the center of attention.

2. The person’s subjective experience of the problem must be

identified- that is, how he feels it, how he sees it, how he
interprets it, what it does to him to cause, exacerbate, avoid, or
deal with it.

3. The facts of the problem’s cause and effects and its

important and influence upon the person-in-his-life-space must be
identified and examined.

4. The search for possible means and modes of solution must

be initiated and considered, and alternative must be weighed and
tried out in the exchange of ideas and reactions that precede
action.

5. Some choice or decision must be made as a result of

thinking and feeling through what behaviors or material means
seek likely to affect the problem or the person’s relation to it.

6. Action taken on the basis of this consideration will test, out

the validity and the workability of the decision. Then some
ensuing steps may be considered to reinforce and broaden the
opening-wedge effort; or, if it is proved workable or useful,
alternative perspectives and actions may need to be subject of
discussion and change and decision.

The steps or operations discussed in this chapter include two other

components (monitoring and evaluation) which are essential for
50
determining the direction of the problem solving activity. The seven steps
may be categorized as follows:

1. Identification of the problem

2. Data-gathering
3. Assessment and/or diagnosis
4. Planning of Intervention
5. Intervention
6. Monitoring and evaluation
7. Termination

1. IDENTIFICATION OF THE PROBLEM

The first task of the caseworker is to appraise applicant’s presenting

complaint or request and to arrive at a clear definition of the problem to be
worked. If it shown that the problem does not fall within the agency
function, the worker’s activity will focus on the applicant’s need for a
referral to an appropriate resource or for interventions which can be made
available to him at this stage. If it shows that the problem falls with in the
agency’s services, the interview proceeds to further exploration of various
aspects of the identified problem. Simultaneous with this is the task of
identifying which part of the problem will need immediate intervention,
which part of the program will need immediate intervention, which part will
need further assessment or intervention planning.

The applicant’s trouble as perceived by him may not necessarily be

what the worker sees as the problem to be worked. If the applicant cannot
agree with the caseworker, what becomes the immediate problem is that of
helping the applicant to understand the latter’s interpretation more clearly
through discussions and clarifications of the different facets of his own
story from which the interpretation is based. Before problem-solving work
can begin, there needs to be a joint agreement between the worker and
the client on what problem they are to work on together. Some authorities
call this the “target” problem.

Case Illustrations:

1. The 15 year-old Asthmatic Patient-

Anita was referred by the night supervisor for medical social

assessment and casework treatment because of her frequent severe
asthmatic attacks for over two months, and her need for Emergency

51
 Room services every time she had an attack. She was earlier advised
to report to the Out Patient Department (OPD) for regular check-up
since she was a patient in there, but she had not done this. As such
her family still had to rush her in the Emergency Room for
treatment, often at about 5:00 o’clock in the morning. At the time of
referral, she was brought to the hospital for emergency treatment
for the sixth time, this time by her older brother, who left before she
could be attended to by the medical staff. The night supervisor
suspected that the patient’s attack could be precipitated by personal
and domestic problems. She also suspected that the early morning
consultation at the Emergency Room could be Anita’s way of
avoiding referral to the out-patient department.

Problem Definition

In this referral, the referring person denied the problem in relation to

the patient’s medical care and management. The patient’s series of
asthmatic attacks which where occurring within the two-month period, her
need for emergency care whenever she had the attack, and her failure to
comply with doctor’s orders to report to the OPD were medical
management problems. These problems needed to be dealt with, primarily
because medical care service and facilities must be used to help patients
return to normal state of health. These problems led to Anita’s referral for
medical social assessment, as well as the concern over her health which
was seen to be affected by her personal and domestic problems.

On this request for assessment, the caseworker’s initial task with the
patient was to find out what the trouble was, of what could be the reason
for her frequent need for emergency care and failure to comply with
doctor’s orders. As shown by the information obtained from the interview
she was reacting to effects of socio-economic rearrangements in her family
which have caused her to leave school so that her brother could finish his
high school education. These reactions surfaced in her illness, which made
her attacks quite peculiar and which made her become a cause for
concern by the hospital staff. There was also her reaction to be long
waiting time at the Out Patient Department, as well as her experience of
emergency care which did not require waiting.

The following initial intervention with Anita shows how the

caseworker explored various aspects of the presenting problem, how the
problem was defined, and the way the caseworker and Anita made plans
for the succeeding interview:

52
The interview:

Anita was still upset about her brother’s disappearing when

the worker went to see her in the Emergency Room. She immediately
agreed to the worker’s suggestion to follow her to the Social
Services Office. At the office, the worker asked that the trouble was,
to which Anita replied that her brother left her to go home alone
without saying a word to her. When asked if she had money for
transportation, she said she had enough money for a jeepney fare.
When asked if she knew how to go home, she said she knew and then
explained that she could get a ride at the corner from the hospital.
The worker was interested to know how many times this had
happened to her, and Anita replied that it was only this morning
because no one could accompany her except him. She went on to say
that she and her brother could not get along with each other,
especially this time that he was given the privileged of studying and
finishing high school education first. When she was asked why, she
explained that her parents decided to let her stop her studies this
year so that they would be able to finance her brother’s education.
She added that she could continue her studies. She added that she
could not do anything but obey her father’s orders.

The worker inquired about her illnesses and medical care.

Upon learning that Anita need to report for check-up at the OPD
she asked what had happened to these check-ups. Anita said she
stopped because “matagal and paghintay sa doktor” (it takes so
long to wait for the doctor). When she was asked what was
happening lately, she covered her face with both hands, sobbed, and
it took some time before she spoke again. When she spoke she said
that her mother had been very mean to her. She complained about
the household chores given to her, particularly the cooking, the
cleaning of their house everyday, and the laundry work. She
complained about waking up early in the morning to cook breakfast
when she did not really need to because she was not going to school.
At this part of the interview Anita seemed to have noticed that the
worker was quite amused by the story. She smiled and said, “It is
true ma’am.

The worker commented that there seemed to be arguments

over breakfast-preparation. Anita agreed, but explained that it was
not the cooking-she just did not like the idea of doing it because she
was like the maid to her siblings. When asked how many they were,
she replied that she had six brother and sisters-her eldest brother

53
 and five younger brothers and sisters. She remarked that her brother
should be the one cooking breakfast since he was the one who must
leave for school at 7:00 a.m. The worker asked if these arguments
about who should cook breakfast have anything to do with her
attacks. Anita was quite for a while. She seemed to be thinking about
the question before she agreed, saying that the argument often
began between her and her mother, and then her father would join
in to tell her to do as she was told.

The worker was under the impression that this girl had given
an exaggerated story so she asked if Anita could describe how wide
the floor area she was cleaning. Again Anita covered her face with
one hand before saying that their dwelling unit was as wide as the
worker’s office, plus a small kitchen space. She added quickly that
she had to go to the street corner to wash clothes, where their water
source was. She nodded to agree that she was not really doing all
the work she had earlier mentioned. She also agreed that she and
her mother could not get along with each other, explaining further
that sometimes she felt she was not loved.

When the worker asked when she planned to report to the

OPD Anita seemed hesitant to answer. She complained about
having to come to the hospital early just to get a calling number and
having to wait all morning to be seen by the doctor. The worker
explained the regulations on the use of the Emergency Room, then
asked if Anita thought her attacks really required emergency
treatment. At this point the girl said she would report to the clinic
the next day- that she would come early for a low calling number so
that she could be seen early. Would she be willing to see the worker
together with her mother? She did not have any objection. When
asked what would be the best time for a joint interview, she replied
that she would talk to her mother for them to come the next morning.

1. A mother’s Request for Help on Her Son’s Release From Jail. -

Juanito is a 15 year-old high school drop-out who has had

school assistance under the Community Center’s Family Helper
Project. He dropped out of school about four months prior to this
interview with his mother. Within the period mentioned, he was
arrested four times for shoplifting and on the second arrest the
owner of the department store filed charges against him. His mother
decided to see the Community Center’s social worker to ask the
latter to contact the Judge under the custody of his parents. Before
this, the mother went to the Free Legal Aid Clinic for the same
54
 purpose. When she was told that only the Judge could make a
decision, she thought of asking the help of the Community Center
since Juanito was a client of that agency.

Problem-definition

The mother wanted her son’s release from jail which she perceived
could be done if the worker contacted the Judge. The worker saw the
problem differently and interpreted it to be one delay of Juanito’s case to
reach the Judge. There was also the other problem about parental custody
which the Judge might deny. Related to this was the earlier problem about
Juanito’s decision to quit school which would have meant cancellation of
his sponsorship if the parents did not request that they be given time to
persuade him to return to school.

The Interview:

Juanito’s mother was at the Community Center to request the

worker to contact the Judge in their behalf and to appeal for
Juanito’s release to their custody. When the worker asked what had
happened this time, the mother answered that this boy was arrested
for the fourth time for shop-lifting and the owner of the store had
filed charges against him. She added that she and her husband went
to the city jail to ask for his release but they were informed that only
the Judge could decide on this. She also said that they have
approached the Court social worker and the Free Legal aid clinic
but they were given the same information, and assurance that they
would be given free legal services. When the worker asked if a date
had already been scheduled for the court hearing on Juanito the
mother replied that there was none.

The worker interpreted the problem as delayed action on

Juanito’s case, which could be due to delay in the preparation of
documents needed by the court. She explained that the Jedge would
need documents to support a legal decision. The mother asked what
could be done. The worker replied that she could make inquiries in
behalf of the family, and would inform her about it as soon as she
had the information. With regard to this boy’s school sponsorship
under the center, the worker wanted to know what had happened to
their plan of persuading him to return to school in the next year. The
mother seamed embarrassed when she heard this question. She
explained that she and her husband did not allow Juanito to sell
cigarettes. They gave him only two choices-to go back to school or
stay at home, but he ignored both. Sine the time he dropped out of

55
 school four months ago, the mother said that he had been arrested
four times for shop-lifting. She did not seek help from the agency on
his previous offenses because they did not have any problem about
his release. The worker explained that a decision about Juanito’s
school-sponsorship must be made before the end of the school year.
Since their plan did not work out well, she suggested an interview
with both parents for the purpose of reviewing this and helping them
make more realistic ones which would enable their son to utilize his
time constructively. The worker accepted the offer of appointment
for joint interview.

Continuing Exploration of the Problem

The task of exploring, discussing and clarifying various aspects of

the presenting problem is part of the casework process. It must be
continuous and must be repeated at every phase of the helping process. In
the case of Anita, changes in the definition of the identified problem can be
expected on the second interview, especially if she carries out her decision
to report to the Out Patient Department and to return with her mother for
the session. At this second meeting problem-exploration may begin with an
inquiry into what is happening I the home to understand Anita’s attention-
getting type of reaction, to the effects on her of the family’s financial
resource reorganization. The interview may help identify more clearly the
source of her symptomatic behavior, which needs be known and
intervened with so as to help Anita to overcome her faulty problem-solving
pattern.

In the case of Juanito a change in the identified problem will result

from the kind of information which the social worker will obtain from the
court. In the case of Mrs. N and family, the overwhelming crisis situations
may change as one of the pressures are eased, or may stay the same
way.

2. DATA-GATHERING

The sources of data for problem-solving work are: the applicant and
members of his family and significant others in his life, test reports, letters,
and document. Data-gathering as a primary task of the interview is
accomplished to serve the purpose of study, assessment and intervention.
It goes on throughout the duration of the interview situation or incident
contact, as the caseworker makes a study, assessment makes some direct
interventions, and as she develops and maintains the helping relationship.
Data-collection continues throughout the life of the case.
56
Methods of data-gathering

The methods of data-collection are the methods of interviewing

which Annette Garrett has identified as: observation; listening as a form of
observation; beginning where the client is; interpretation; and leadership
and direction. Participant observation is the major interviewing method
preferred by social workers. It is used to obtain empirical facts of specific
behavior and relationships, as well as the subjective definitions and
meaning made by the client about herself, his problem and his situation.

The agency’s eligibility requirements for the service, and the

problem for which help is requested are essential guides to data collection,
as well as the specific purpose for which the information will be used. One
does not need information about the client’s marital relationship if the
purpose for which the data is needed is to understand her problem about
her son’s delayed release from jail. A detailed description of the conditions
of the neighborhood will not be necessary when the problem to be worked
with the client has nothing to do with the deteriorated conditions of the
community.

Case Illustration
The following narrative report of a home visit was written by the
caseworker after her visit with a mother who requested the agency’s
assistance for her son, whose temporary release from jail might be
cancelled because of the transfer of his case to another court. The
purpose of home visit was to interview the mother and the rest of the family
for inquiry about the problem, and for data-gathering.

I went to Barangay 20 with the health worker who introduced

the client at around 4:00 in the afternoon. I inquired if the client was
informed about this visit and I was assured that this was done.

Barangay 20 is one kilometer away from the Community

Center. Part of this Barangay is the seashore (government-owned)
where the client’s home is situated. The neighborhood is littered
with pieces of paper and other kinds of trash.

The client was home when we arrived. A neighbor was there

talking to her when we arrived but the latter went away upon seeing
us. The client came down to meet us. She was introduced to me by
the health worker. I gave her my name which she acknowledged with
a nod and smile. She asked us to go up her house which is one meter

57
away from the ground with two bamboo steps. I noticed at the
entrance the empty pails and the clothes hanging on the cloth line
inside the house, which gave the impression that she is a laundry
woman. She is dark and thin and she looks older that her age. She
indicated to me the only chair in the house and asked me to occupy
it. My two companions and the client seated themselves on the floor
near the door.

I started the conversation by saying that she seemed to be

alone. She said her eldest son Nardo was working and earning
P25.00 a day. Emily, the eldest daughter was employed as a
housemaid and was home only last week to give her P40.00. The
two younger children were in school. She also said that the younger
ones have been washing empty bottles for a neighbor to earn their
pocket money. The youngest was out playing.

I said I was happy that she was available for the interview.
She told me she just finished washing clothes. She informed me that
on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays she had to go and wash
clothes for the Floro family nearby and on the other days she
washed clothes for other families.

At the start of the interview three children came to the door to

watch us. I inquired if they were her children thinking they have
returned for my visit. She answered that they were her neighbor’s
children. The children stayed for a few minutes looking at us before
deciding to leave.

Going back to our discussion I asked her as to what she had

expected of this interview. She said she thought it had something to
do with Nardo whose case, she was informed, was transferred from
the city court to the JDRC. I explained that the invitation for an
interview was primarily to inquire about the case so that I would
know how to help her. I explained also that I did not know about her
son’s detention until I received the referral from the health worker.

At this point I asked how her son gets involved in the fight.
She informed me that he was scheduled to attend a benefit dance
that night and on his way to the highway he passed by a kitchenette
where some of his friends were drinking beer. After a few minutes
there was a commotion, and later he was pointed out as the one who
had hit the victim. Policemen arrived and confiscated from him a
“papa” so he was brought to jail.

58
 I was interested to know the reaction of the family members
to what had happened so I asked how her children felt about the
case. She replied that her daughter was pleased about the detention
because this would teach her brother a lesson. The rest of the family
cried when they learned that he was going to be imprisoned. I
wanted to know why her son was employed and working when he
was supposed to be jail. She said that she and her father-in-law went
to ask the help of their mayor so that the case may be settled
amicably but the best help the mayor could do was to bail him out,
which was why he stayed in jail for only four days.

“I was puzzled by her daughter Emily’s indifference so I

asked why. The client said that Emily could not get along with her
brother. I then asked what she (the client) thought about her son.
She said he is a good boy because he is helping her with her laundry
work and with house chores. Prior to the incident she said he was
always out with his barkada.

I proceeded by asking her plans for the boy. She verbalized

her becoming sleepless and worried about the case because the
“hearing” might interfere with his job and he might be sent back to
jail.

I explained that I would be able to help her by contacting the

JDRC to find out about the status of the case. I assured her that the
case would be dealt with according to the provisions of P.D. 603,
and explained the JDRC is a special court which handles cases for
youthful offenders, i.e. minors. I inquired about the boy’s plans. She
replied that he had applied for employment at the San Miguel
Corporation. I asked why he was interested in changing jobs. She
explained that he was one of those chosen to go to Palawan but he
did not want to go because of his asthma.

Feeling that I had enough information on the family problem

I asked the client if she had any questions to ask about the son’s
case or other concern. To this she answered in the negative.

Before leaving I asked if she would be interested to know the

result of our coordination with the court and she said she would be
glad to know. I then assured her that I would visit her within three
days to inform her about it. I also said that I would like to meet her
son that day.

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Discussion:

This narrative report is loaded with description of the worker’s direct

observation and what took place during the interview. It shows that she
has selected some aspects of the neighborhood and the client’s home but
the descriptions do not have any relevance to the presenting problem. The
problem is about the client’s worry about her eldest son because his
temporary release from the jail might be affected by the recent transfer of
his case from the City Court to JDRC.

The narrative report shows that the caseworker visited the client for
an interview with her and the rest of the family for the reason for which the
request for agency services was made. Although this visit was planned
with the family, the only one at home when the caseworker arrived was the
mother. The report shows that there was an inquiry into the mother’s
reason to request for help, and the caseworker found out that it had to do
with the mother’s fear that the transfer of her son’s case to the
responsibility of another court might result in the cancellation of his
temporary release from jail and the loss of his present job. The caseworker
explained that she would be able to inquire about the status of the son’s
case and to inform the mother about the result of this inquiry. She had also
assured the mother that the case was covered by a provision of the Child
Welfare Code, which implied what her would not detained. However, the
report does not show if the mother knew what this provision was all about,
and if the worker explained it. The report ends with a statement that the
caseworker would visit again (“within three days”) to inform the mother
about results of the inquiry.

The caseworker’s findings show that the mother’s problem was

related to administrative procedures of an external resource which might
have some unfavorable consequences on her son. This was the very
presenting problem which became the caseworker’s reason for conducting
home visit. As such, there was no reason for an interview with the whole
family, or for a home visit, since this problem could have been explored
with the client when she went to make the request for help.

The case material illustrates a typical data-gathering which goes

beyond the boundaries set by the specified purpose of the casework
activity. The report shows that the caseworker did a socio-economic study
on the client, her family, and the neighborhood, which was not necessary
for the client’s kind of problem. She also elicited some information about
the family members’ reactions to their brother’s arrest and detention, which
60
interrupted the client from describing the circumstances that led to her
son’s arrest. Instead of helping her to finish the story, she asked about the
client’s plan for her son. The client did not answer this question. Instead,
she picked up her story from where she left and finished it, which enabled
her to get the worker’s opinion on what the latter could do about the
problem, and succeeded.

Data-gathering must be done within the limits or boundaries set by

the purpose for which it will be used. This is the reason the caseworker
must start out by exploring the various aspects of the presenting problem,
elicit information relevant to the problem, and plan for subsequent data-
gathering activities in relation to it. She must know what kinds of data she
will need for problem-identification and further assessment before she
begins, or continues.

3. ASSESSMENT

Assessment is both a process and an outcome of an understanding

upon which helping action is based. As a process, it is on-going throughout
the life of the case. As part of a social case study, diagnosis or
assessment is an integrative formulation upon which intervention plans are
made.

Content of Casework Assessment

The content of casework assessment is determined by the helping

model used. The content of the problem-solving model as Perlman
described, it includes the following variables: (1) the specification of the
problem to be worked (at any given time), its objective and subjective
stresses, its precipitating causes, and its current spirals of cause-effects,
effect-causes; (2) the person seeking help, assessed especially in relation
to his motivation and capacity for using help to resolve his difficulty, and
the forces within and outside him which thwart or disturbs his optimal level
of problem-solving; and (3) the resources and opportunities within the
person’s own commend which must be mobilized for him in order to fill
realistic deficits or to aid him in coping.

Statement of the Problem

In stating the problem, the caseworker should define and describe

the troublesome difficulty or problematic behavior, and the meanings of
these behaviors and difficulties to the help-seeker and his social
environment. The problem to be worked on is usually a constellation of
61
interrelated problems and can be examined and classified in such a way
that helping efforts can be directed to those problems of immediate
concern for the client. Brill suggests the following frames of reference for
defining the problem:

1. Immediate- that about which the client is most concerned, which

is causing the current difficulty and in terms of which he
perceives his need for help…
2. Underlying- the overall situation that created and which tends to
perpetuate the immediate problem…
3. Working problems- those contributing factors which stand in the
way of both remedy and prevention which must be dealt
with if change is to take place…

Outline for problem-solving assessment

The following outline is based on Perlman’s description of content of

the problem-solving assessment:

1. Statement of the Problem

2. Assessment of the Client’s Resources:
2.1. Resources which are available to the client
(individual, or individual and family)

2.1.1. internal
2.1.2. external

2.2. How these resources are being used now in

relation to the problem

2.3. How these resources can be mobilized more

functionally

2.4. Potential resources of the client and family:

2.4.1. internal
2.4.2. external

2.5. Why these resources are not being used now

2.6 How these resources can be utilized for solving the problem.

62
 3. Diagnostic formulation-relationship of resources for the problem-
solving patterns of the client and family.

To illustrate, the data on the N family for assessment of the problem

and the family’s problem-solving resources:

1. Statement of the Problem

Mrs. N is an old client under the agency’s Self Employment Assistance

program and who is in the agency this time to seek financial help on the agency
this time to seek financial help on her multiple socio-economic problems: a) her
11 months unpaid rent; b) her husband’s potentially dangerous and damaging
behavior when intoxicated and his inability to refuse invitations from his drinking
friends; c) his habit of threatening to kill her or bill collectors when he is
intoxicated; d) Mr. N’s and their daughter’ need for medical care; and e) Mrs.
N’s very inadequate income. She can only earn P5.00 or less each day which is
hardly enough for their food for the day.

2. Assessment of the client/family’s resources:

2.1. Resources available to the client and family:

2.1.1. Internal:

a. Mrs. N’s skill as fish and vegetable vendor, her

capacity to keep the family together and to lock after
a chronically ill, dependent husband;
b. The two sons work for fishermen occasionally while
they cannot get regular jobs.
c. The daughter who is jobless due to illness

2.1.2. External

a. the fisherman
b. the social worker
c. the city hospital

2.2 How these resources are now being used for solving the
problem:

2.2.1. Mrs. N sells fish and vegetables everyday in spite of

illnesses in her family.
63
 2.2.2. The sons contribute to the family income but they
cannot find regular jobs.
2.2.3. Mrs. N treats her husband’s withdrawal symptoms by
giving him a bottle of cheap wine each day, which is about
P30.00 a month.
2.2.4. Mrs. N has decided to seek agency assistance because
she cannot cope with their kinds of problems.

2.3 How these resources can be mobilized more functionally:

2.3.1. Persuade Mr. N to accept referral for free hospital care,

for detoxification under medical supervision, and for
treatment of his liver and kidney diseases.
2.3.2. Refer the daughter for out-patient treatment at the city
hospital and help her to learn to live with her migraines so
that she can go and get a job again.
2.3.3. Recommend family for emergency assistance. If the
funds are not yet available, request assistance in the
family’s behalf from non-government agencies

2.4. Potential Resources of the Client and Family:

2.4.1. Internal

a. The two sons

b. The daughter

2.4.2. External
a. The social agency
b. The city hospital
2.5. Why these resources are not being used now:

2.5.1. The sons, both out-of-schools, seem not to have the

skills for available jobs or for self-employment opportunities
2.5.2. There is meager information about the daughter to
understand what has been happening with her.
2.5.3. Mrs. N’s failure to pay her loan under the agency’s Self-
Employment Assistance Program disqualifies her for
another kind of loan
2.5.4. The city hospital provides free medical care but patients
must buy their own medicines.

2.6. How these resources can be utilized for solving the problem:
64
 2.6.1. The sons enroll for skills training to give them better
chances for regular employment or for self-employment.
2.6.2. Job placement for the daughter (as domestic)
2.6.3. Emergency assistance for the family
2.6.4. Referral of father and daughter to the hospital and
assistance on their medicines
2.6.5. Family counseling service to help them sort out
relationship conflicts so that they can work together to
solve their problems.

4. Diagnostic formulation-relationship of resources and

problem-solving patterns of the family:

Mrs. N and family have been using their limited internal

resources for solving their problems. They have not used external
resources available to them until this time that the landlady is
demanding payment for rent. If the request for help had been made
earlier, the maximum amount of agency cash assistance given by
the agency for every client would have been sufficient. They have
not availed of services at the city hospital, primarily because they do
not have money to buy medicines. The social agency or the hospital
could have helped to obtain those in their behalf. They have tried to
save themselves from expenses by using their own medical care
methods, which were not helping.

At this time of request for help, the family’s functioning is at

survival level of socio-economic adequacy, and their kinds of
emergency needs are insurmountable without outside help.

The outcome of assessment serves s the basis for decisions on

what can be done about the problem, what agency resources can be best
utilized for helping the family, and how the worker and the family will
proceed to work together in solving the problem. Predictive decisions guide
the planning of intervention.

4. PLANNING THE INTERVENTION

The planning process is concerned with moving from problem

definition to solve solution, and transforming the problem into partialized,
short-term goals and specific objectives. It involves the task of developing
a course of action which is expected to have a successful outcome for the

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client. It requires the client’s participation since he is to be involved in the
implementation of the plan.

The outcome of planning is the intervention plan or the plan of action. The
plan consist of: immediate, intermediate, and long-term goals and specific
objectives; the services which are needed for accomplishing specific
objectives; casework activities to be performed in relation to these goals
and objectives; and the caseworker’s decisions on how case progress or
movement is to be monitored, how these case is to be evaluated, and how
it is to be terminated.

Setting of Goals and Specific Objectives

Goal-setting should always be based on what is realistic and

attainable through the client’s participation. They should be explicit and
understandable to the client and members of his family who are involved in
the planning process. They should be related directly to the client’s
concerns and capacities, and they should be expressive of desired
qualities of improved social functioning for the client in his life situation.

There are basic steps which lead to the formulation of goals and
helping objectives. First, the caseworker should define what is wrong, or
describe the observable behaviors of the client to which intervention is to
be focused. Although there are no measuring standards for determining
behavioral baselines, there are specific eligibility requirements for agency
service and expected outcome of the service which can be used for such
purposes. Second, she should decide what can be done realistically about
the problem, and specify terminal behaviors which can be expected
changes at the time the helping service is completed. Third, after defining
where the client is at the beginning of the service and the expected
changes in the client’s functioning, she should decide how long it will take
to achieve this goal. It may take six months, or one year or more. Fourth,
after determining the long-term goal, she should now decide how this goal
can be realistically achieved. It means determining which part of the
problem initial intervention is to be focused on in order to start the process
leading to the achievement and subsidiary or intermediate goals which will
give focus and direction to the ongoing work.

When all the five steps have been accomplished, the caseworker
should choose the agency services which are to be used for achieving
goals and specific objectives. Brill suggests the following criteria for this
purpose:

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 1. Maximum feasibility- that which possesses the greatest chance of
producing desired results… and what is possible and attainable.
2. Availability of resources to carry out the plan- either already present
or capable of being created…
3. Workability of the client

When the intervention made has been chosen, the casework

activities needed for accomplishing goals and specific objectives should be
identified, and the purpose of each activity should be described. The
caseworker should also decide how case progress or movement is to be
monitored, how the case is to be evaluated, and how it is to be terminated.

Case Illustration: Mrs. N and family

On the basis of the assessment on this family, it can be said that

they are functioning at survival level of socio economic adequacy. In the
absence of social welfare indicators for determining levels, the following
observable behaviors are identified to support the decision on the family’s
level of socio-economic functioning:

a. As bread earner, Mrs. N is earning a very inadequate income of

P5.00 a day.
b. She is the only one supporting the family
c. The family has not paid house rent for 11 months
d. Her teenage sons cannot find jobs other than occasional ones
which they do for fishermen
e. Four children cannot go to school regularly because they do not
have enough to eat
f. Her eldest daughter is unemployed due to frequent migraine
headaches
g. Mr. N is chronically ill and is depending on home remedies for
relief of pain
h. When he is intoxicated, he threatens to kill his wife and drives bill
collectors away.

It is possible to uplift this family to second level subsistence of socio-

economic adequacy because there are resources in the group which can
be mobilized for solving their problem:

a. Mrs. N’s earning capacity can be improved

b. Her sons can have better chances for employment or self-
employment, given the opportunity for skills training.
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Page 81 doesn’t exist

2. Hospital visit - to refer Mr. and daughter for free medical care at
the city hospital.
3. Visit to X Agency – to request for assistance on medicines
4. Home Visit- to inform Mrs. N about the request for emergency
assistance service and when the check is ready: to assist her in
negotiating with her landlady for an extension of their unpaid rent.

The outcome of the goal setting serves as the basis for monitoring
the progress on the case, for case evaluation, and for determining how the
case is to be terminated. In the N family, the basis for terminating the case
will be the gains made or failures in problem solving work as may be seen
in the following goals set:

1. Improvement in Mrs. N’s coming capacity;

2. Employment of self-employment of the sons;
3. The daughter’s return to work; and
4. Minimized physical pains of Mr. N.

Establishment of a Contract

A contract in casework practice is an agreement reached by the

caseworker and the client as they commit themselves to carry out the
tasks and specific objectives of the intervention plan. It may be unspoken,
or it may be verbally discussed. It is flexible enough to allow periodic
review and changing.

5. INTERVENTION

Assessment, planning and implementing intervention plans are

shared activities of the caseworker and the client. In implementing planned
actions, the caseworker helps accomplish tasks and objectives through
skilled performances of interventive and managerial roles, and through the
application of interventive techniques and procedures. All these activities
will require her assertive influence on the client, and her professional use
of self if she is to help this client is mobilize resources available to him for
solving his problem in efficient ways.

Influence and Authority

Influence is a basic dynamic for helping intervention and change. It

refers to the ability or power to realize one’s own intentions and to affect
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one’s own actions and the actions of other in desired directions. To have
influence is to be able to obtain, control, exchange and dispense resources
for live, status, information, money, goods and services): to be able to
obtain assent, allegiance or compliance of others: to define social roles
and the reality of their life situations. To use influence means to assert
one’s will to overcome obstacles, and to persuade others in accordance
with one’s wishes.

Authority is influence that is delegated, legitimized, and sanctioned

by society as having official warrant and compliance with its directives. The
social worker’s sources of authority are: the social work profession, the
social agency, personal source of authority, and the client. As member of a
helping discipline, she is sanctioned to practice social work under the laws
of the Republic of the Philippines, and in accordance with the Code of
Ethics for Social Workers. As member of the staff of a social agency, she
performs social work functions in accordance with the agency’s policies
and procedures. Personal authority is derived from the characteristic and
leadership attributes of the social worker’s personality, from her reputation
and prestige, personal credibility and attractiveness, demonstrated
competence and expertness in knowledge and skill. As help-giver, she is
guided by the client’s acceptance of help and agreement to use helping
services for solving his problem.

Conscious positive use of authority is required by the social work

profession. Coercion is not sanctioned. Influence and authority must be
used constructively and therapeutically in the client’s behalf. They must be
based as much as possible on the client’s conscious consent, and must be
used to meet the client’s specific needs.

Through the use of influence processes, a caseworker may

prescribe or proscribe a behavior, cause a behavior to be tolerated,
encouraged, reinforced, limited or forbidden. She may assert influence and
authority by accepting or rejecting and applicant for agency service; by
advising and encouraging a couple to consider using contraceptive method
of family planning.

Influence processes operate along a continuum of authority and of

voluntary compliance with it, from inducement, persuasion and direction to
coercion:

1. One may induce voluntary change in a client’s behavior by

making a request on the basis of identification and liking by
conveying personal acceptance, respect, and concern. One may

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 help a client to terms with unrealistic fears that block forward
movement.

2. One may persuade a person to comply with a suggestion

or advice, to change or adopt a new attitude or action by providing
convincing interpretations and explanations, and presenting logical
reasoning or evidence.

3. One may direct obedience to an instruction or order, by

clarifying the legitimate authority of one’s position, for example, as a
social agency representative evident control over resources desired
by a client.

4. One may coerce by compelling through pressure of threats

or clear sanctions, of physical or moral force. The social worker is
ethically required to avoid violence and to take precautions against
its occurrence.

Assertive Interventions

Crisis Intervention

Crisis intervention is a way of helping a person or a family as a

group to surmount chaotic and critical situation. The aim is to halt, or at
least reduce unbridled destructiveness, and thereby foster a climate that is
conducive to further treatment. One way intervene by giving immediate
cash assistance in a given situation like the N Family, and negotiating for
medical assistance in their behalf. One may remove a child from the home
of his foster parents to protect him from further physical abuse by them.
One may help a family group sort out their relationship conflicts in order to
reduce effects of their problems on the Christian Children’s Fund (CCF)
sponsored member who is refusing to go to school.

Crisis intervention is a technique, as well as an agency service or

program. The Ministry of Social Services and Development has a crisis
intervention program for individuals and families in socio-economic crisis
situations. The Good Shepherd Sisters operate the Welcome House in
Manila, primarily for the purpose of providing counseling or other kinds of
services to those individuals and families who cannot cope with their
current problems without help from outside. It may be a telephone
counseling service to a teenager who is contemplating suicide, or one who
wants someone to talk to. It may be a brief residential service worn-out
housewife who cannot seem to go on with her chores and cope with the
demands of her large family. It may be a referral service, to help on

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unmarried, pregnant young woman have a place to stay. Crisis intervention
may be the only service needed, and the client may be able to cope from
thereon, It may also be a beginning of a longer intervention period.

Helping clients with internal resources

Assertive, problem-solving techniques labeled by Hallowitz are ways

of helping a client mobilize and use his own resources efficiently:

1. Correcting disparities between perception and reality:

The worker helps the client to accurately perceive external reality.

This technique is illustrated the way the community worker
helped Juanito’s mother to understand that it was not the judge
who was delaying the boy’s release detention, and helping her
understand her son’s freedom could not be obtained by
approaching the judge directly for a decision.

2. Dealing with discrepancies between behavior and goals:

The worker confronts the client with ways in which so-sighted

impulsive, momentarily gratifying behavior block the allotment of
desired goals. She helps the client to see the understandable
consequences of his actions and become aware of the dynamics
that determine his maladaptive functioning. Example: The worker
explains to a high school girl that the latter cannot stay n the
Home if she defies rules. The worker agrees that this girl’s
completion of high school education is very important to her, but
the latter must wear her uniform to school and must not go out
and see her friends as she pleases.

3. Taking a position: The worker expresses her observations and

understanding in a forthright manner. When necessary, she takes
stand on an issue for the vital purpose of providing the client with
something tangible to react to in working out his own solutions.
The client’s specific request for advice and guidance is not turned
back to him but directly answered. They are accepted at face
value as indicative of gaps in the client’s experience and
knowledge. Example: The worker may explain to Mr. N that his
family cares about him and he does not need to threaten them,
that he might only add more problems to what they already have.

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 4. Active direction finding: The worker recommends suggests, or
implies by his questions the objectives towards which the client
may strive and the concrete resources by which the client may
achieve his objectives. He leaves this decision-making
responsibility to the client. This active direction-finding is done by
means of discussion in which the client’s own ideas are fully
elicited and supported. This helping technique is useful when the
client can qualify for the self-employment assistance program or
similar programs.

5. Direction-implementation: When decisions have been made

about the modes of behaving and specific steps that are needed
to achieve desired objectives, the worker suggests that they can
be concretely implemented during the period between interviews.
In a sense, she gave the client a “home work”. As the client
moves toward constructive change, the worker provides
substantial support, encouragement, and recognition. His aim is
to help the client agement, and recognition. His aim is to help the
client make the experience growth-producing. The client will
experience delight in the expansion of his ego and be better able
to cope with later crisis. The educational concept, the use of
repetition by mastery, is basic to the maturational process. The
client finds out by experiencing the little success at a time that the
new behavior is really worthwhile, and progress in treatment is
advanced. This technique is illustrated in the Guevara case which
is discussed at the later part of this chapter.

In helping clients with internal resources, the caseworker serves

primarily as a counselor, teacher, and also a rehabilitator, therapist, healer.
As confident and therapist, the caseworker gives reassurance and
encouragement, enables ventilation of conflicted feelings, provides
interpretations, explanations and confrontation that further the insight into
the self and the situation. As a teacher and socializer, the caseworker uses
socio-behavioral modification techniques, such as home work and practice
assignments, or may use cognitive conditioning procedures, such as
modeling and role-playing.

Situational interventions

External material and social resources required by clients to resolve

their problems are made available by the social worker through situational
interventions. These types of interventions are aimed at making social
situations more functioned. For example, the plan with the N family is to

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help them share the responsibility of earning an income for then as a group
because Mrs. N alone cannot cope with it.

Some of the frequently used situational interventions are identified

by Siporin are as follows:

1. Situational redefinition- It is done by relabeling difficulties,

behavior, beliefs, and self-concepts; creating or reducing
cognitive biases in one’s perception of the situation; encouraging
a more accurate, discriminating and appropriate, relabeling a
disaster as an opportunity or as a blessing in disguise.

2. Refocusing attention - Attention directed to behavior that are

better focused and better express one’s good intentions.

3. Stress reduction – This procedure ameliorates or removes

excessive external stress, demands, such as exhausting and
prolonged overwork; insufficient income to provide basic needs of
a family; incessant criticism of a child by a parent, or repeated
harassment by landlady.

4. Acculturation – In this procedure, the client and others are aided

to choose and commit themselves to new values, life goals, and
life styles that are adaptive and functional in a given culture or
subculture. This is similar to what today is often referred to as
“consciousness raising”.

5. Member-separation- one or more individuals may be temporarily

removed from the family group to allow energy replenishment,
relief from prolonged stress, or termination of vicious cycles of
pathological interaction. Separation may be affected through
institutionalization in a hospital, temporary residential care
placement, custodial care placement, foster home care
placement, or placement of the family member in the home of
relatives.

6. Situational or behavior change- Socio-behavioral modification

techniques and socialization learning mechanisms are used to
extinguish the maladaptive behavior of an individual.

7. Socio identity-role change- Reformulation or relabeling of a

member’s self-concept may be accomplished through official
confirmation of status change, as in certifying that a person is no
longer a neglectful mother. There is also may be a personal re-

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 evaluation of one’s past life client, for example, from that of a
long-suffering martyr in a family to that of a person strengthened
by adversity and really a family leader.

8. Placement in a therapeutic situation- An individual or a family

group is placed or placed itself in a clearly labeled therapeutic-
rehabilitative situation. There is an assignment to or acceptance
and occupancy of a public setting or a public role as a client (or
patient, inmate, parolee, or foster child) with physical and
emotional separation from his natural life situation. Example:
placement in a mental hospital, or temporary residential care
setting, or in foster home.

9. Primary preventive intervention – This is a category for many

interventions that help people to prepare for recurrent life
problems, to complete developmental life tasks, and to make the
necessary transitions from one life cycle to another. Examples of
these types of programs are: family life education, sex education,
marriage enrichment, and sensitivity training programs.

Helping with Social Welfare Resources

Social welfare resource provision is another form of situational

intervention. Social welfare resources may be:

1. Directly offered to the client from one’s own agency for immediate
use.

2. Identified and interpreted – so as to increase their attractiveness,

specifically, and availability, as in the interpretation of eligibility
requirements, and procedures for their use.

3. Mobilized, “found”, created, and developed – where not explicitly

available, as in developing a foster home n the basis of a neighbor’s
sympathy for a family with incapacitated parents.

4. Recruited for – in that people in need of and entitled to programs

and services are located and encouraged to make use of them.

5. Referral to- so as to provide the client with access and linkage to a

resource at another place or agency.

6. Coordinated in their provision – this means arranging and

synchronizing the delivery of a specific service or program of
services at a needed time, or in a needed sequence. Such
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 coordination may require some inter-agency conferences, and a
series of agency visits, home visits, or telephone calls.

7. Administered and managed – so that they are properly, legally and

efficiently delivered and used. Eligibility requirements may need to
be determined so that entitlement can be certified.

Case Management

In order to insure effective service results, the caseworker will

need to use her administrative and managerial skills for maintaining the
helping relationship and dealing with the ongoing work with the client. As
manager, it is her responsibility to make sure that the social welfare
resources made available to the client are utilized appropriately, to
supervise activities with the client, to trouble-shoot and deal with problems
in the helping relationship, and to monitor and evaluate the progress on the
case as well as the outcomes of the service. Effective management of
intervention work is illustrated in the following case material:

Source of Referral

Leticia- 19 years old, George, 18 years old, and the rest of the
Guevara family were referred for help with their consent because of
financial and other problems about their psychiatric care and treatment.
The referring person was their new psychiatrist.

Leticia and George were both schizophrenic patients for over two-
years at the time they were referred for casework services. Each one had
a history of six hospitalizations. George was on his seventh admission and
Leticia might also be readmitted if their alternating pattern of
hospitalization continued. The parents were worried because there was no
sign that they were getting well.

The Family

The Guevaras were an average middle class family of five

dependent children. The father-50 years old, was a branch manager of an
industrial firm, while the mother- 50 years old was a full-time housewife.
The eldest son was away from home for college studies. Leticia and
George were the consistent scholars in the family from high school to their
second year of college studies, or until the onset of their illness. The
youngest sons- 13 and 15 years olds were high school students. They
have no relatives in the city.

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 Both parents did not have much social involvement outside their
home even before the chronic illness in their family. Much of their activities
were with their children, such as weekend outings to the beach, to the
park, to the movies, other places of interest. Both parents usually did the
grocery shopping together, and the shopping for the rest of the family.
They used to go to their home province for Christmas vacation, on their
children went for summer vacations with grandparents. Most of these were
discontinued since the time Leticia and George became mentally ill
because of the high cost of their psychiatric care and treatment.

Both patients were looked after at home between their

hospitalizations. Their mother supervised their medications, took them to
the doctor and contacted the doctor as needed. Problems about their
management at home were mostly due to their strong sibling rivalry with
each other, made worse by Leticia’s violent, provocative behavior, and her
hostile feelings towards her mother. The frequent fights between her and
her brothers could not be stopped by their mother. This was the reason
why she always called up her husband to rush home from work and settle
these troubles and why they made arrangements with one of his sisters to
come over and be with the family whenever he had to leave town on
business. However, she could not always do this since she had her own
family and problems to cope with.

The father was worried about the future of the patients and the
whole family because there was no one who could take over responsibility
from him if he died suddenly or got incapacitated. His wife could go back to
work, but he could not see how this could be done with two chronically ill
patients to look after.

Organization of problem-solving work with the family:

Helping-activities with this family were carried out over a period of

six months by a caseworker-psychiatrist team, with the caseworker serving
as primary therapist and the doctor as co therapist. As primary therapist of
George and Leticia, she coordinated both ongoing treatment programs.

The series of ten family sessions were individually contracted, and

the two-week intervals were regularized. The same time and day (Monday,
4:00 p.m.) was kept.

The agenda after the first assessment session consisted of: a.)
review of, and discussions on the family’s activities between sessions,
gains made, failures, and problems; and b) discussions of other problems
and concerns of the family which were related to the problem being

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worked. All sessions were always informal, with about thirty minutes spent
on merienda and socialization, but the sessions were kept within a one and
a half hour period.

Family members attending the sessions were Leticia, George, and

both parents. The younger ones did not join but they knew they could if
they wanted to. The eldest brother was too far away to make the trip for
this meeting.

Initial Assessment Session:

This session focus on the presenting problem of the family, the

family’s knowledge and understanding of the patients’ illness, initial
treatment planning and contract-negotiation for a second family session.

Findings showed that the father’s perception of getting well was

getting cured. To help redefine their problem, they were informed that they
were dealing with a kind of illness that needed to be lived with but without
having to be crippled by it,, their case was likened to the diabetic who has
to live with diabetes. They were loaned a book on the subject which would
give them a better understanding of the disease, the types of treatment
available, and rehabilitation programs for the mentally ill. They were
informed about the non-availability of rehabilitation programs in the city,
and the possible opening of a day care center for adolescents like Leticia
and George.

As interpreted to them, their current problems were related to:

frequent, competitive type of hospitalizations; their home care and
management of two patients at home; and the very limited activities of the
family. There were also ample resources within the family that they could
use. Both parents were not only intelligent but were also a strong potential
team, except that they were overpowered by Leticia. They were giving in to
her childlike demands in their desire to prevent hospitalization. As a family,
they have always been closely attached to one another. With only one
maid in the family, there were many simple chores which could keep both
patients occupied, and which could be just as good or better than other
available rehabilitation programs in the country.

The parents were informed that it would be possible to help; prevent

the frequent, competitive type of hospital admissions of Leticia and
George, to minimize problems related to their home care management, to
increase their activities as a group, and to help them live with the chronic
illness more functionally. They were informed further that both patients

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could be helped to be able to go to the Day Care Center at the end of three
months.

Their acceptance of the offer of appointment indicated that they

were ready to work towards the above mentioned objectives. For a start,
the therapists suggested a set of early morning routines which Leticia and
parents would work on. For her, these routines were: waking up before
seven o’clock, self care, breakfast, and performing one household activity
at seven thirty. Leticia agreed to dust their set of living room furniture.
These routines were geared to the goal of enabling her to get ready and to
be at the Center at eight o’clock in the morning. The parents were
reminded that it may take her a longer time to get used to doing these,
considering that she had no structured activities for over two years.

Immediate interventions focused on their need for recording the flow

of authority in their household, and strengthening the parents’ leadership
role. For this purpose, Leticia’s observable problematic behaviors were
reviewed with them. Identified with them were behaviors which existed
even before the onset of illness and which could not been modified by
medicines, the ones which looked like secondary gains which did not need
reinforcing. Her distorted perceptions about herself and others in and
outside her immediate environment (whether she was Leticia or Laty, that
her father and President Marcos are one and the same, etc.) were illness-
related. The complaints about her mother, about lack of friend, about
feeling ugly due to her acne, and her lack of interest in household and
other activities were to be always part of her even before illness but were
much magnified due to her prolonged illness. With the explanations given
them, they would be in a better position to respond to her bids for attention
without being afraid that they would be causing another hospital
admission.

Rechanneling of problem-solving efforts was suggested. For

instance, they did not need to continue investigating their family
backgrounds for the origin of mental illness because their findings would
not help them plan for the future. Revival of family outings was suggested
for all of tem.

Behavioral baselines at the beginning of family treatment:

1. The father- As the family’s main support, he looked worn out,

worried about the future and the family’s inability to take
over responsibilities form him in case he died suddenly or
got incapacitated. He was catering to Leticia’s child-like
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 demands in his desire to prevent hospitalization, and
using up energy trying to correct her distorted perceptions
and her complaints about her mother. He always rushed
home to settle troubles, believing perhaps that no one
could do it except him.
2. The mother – She was coping reasonably well with her household
chores with only one maid assisting her. She could not
assert authority on Leticia and always needed her
husband to help convince their daughter to take
medicines, or to calm her down, or to settle fights.
3. Leticia - She was very manipulative, provocative. She often or
always for father’s attention or got him to give into her
demands. Her routine activities were limited to eating,
sleeping, reading, writing, provoking trouble, fault-finding
on mother, calling up father, complaining about her lack
of friends, unfair treatment of parents, her not being their
daughter, and her medicines. She watched their gate and
would go out if left unlocked.
4. George - He was manageable at home. He was always helping
their mother or he would keep himself busy by visiting
friends or going out with them. Their problems about him
were his worrying about burdening his father with
expenses, his not getting well, and his tendency to be
over-religious.

Problem-Solving Patterns of the Family:

- The father always rushed home to settle fights, gave in to

Leticia’s demands and bids for attention in his desire to
minimize family problems.

- The father’s sister care over from the province to be with

the family when he had to leave town on business. This
arrangement could not be continued by the sister.

- Their family weekend settings were out down to save them

from expenses.

- George was discouraged from going to church.

- They kept their gate locked to prevent Leticia from going

out without them.

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Management of the Ongoing Work:

To keep the problem-solving work going, the caseworker as primary

therapist made sure she kept her appointments with the family, checked
notes with the co-therapist before and after each session, and dealt with
problems which were interfering or blocking forward movements of the
problem-solving work. The following decisions were made during the first
three months of the treatment period:

1. Caseworker disapproved the request of parents to exclude Leticia

from sessions because she became very restless after the first
interview. The reason given was her suspiciousness, as well as
her inability to decide whether she could or could not join the
session. Her reactions after the first meeting were not assessed
since it was too early to say whether these were due to changes
in the father or were illness-related factors.
2. Leticia’s absence from the third and fourth sessions was
presented as a problem which the parents would have to deal
with because she seemed to be timing her medicine intake so
that she would be asleep during the session. The caseworker
explained that there were enough reasons why she would not be
at the meetings, such as: her failure to do the suggested routines;
changes in the father; and the tightened controls which have
prevented her from going out of their gate. The problem about her
absence was seen as an opportunity for the parents to test their
capacity to assert their authority over Leticia on a matter which
required her compliance. Their success was evidenced by
Leticia’s presence at the fifth session.
3. Worker decided to deal with the problem about Leticia’s
continued refusal to do any kind of household chore on the
grounds that by doing, the mother and the maid would be
deprived of work. Related to this was Leticia’s view point that as
member of the family, it would be unnecessary to pay board and
lodging by way of sharing tasks. In dealing with this, the
caseworker took Leticia’s refusal to do suggest routines as
indications that the latter needed to be take care of in a hospital
like the National Mental Hospital. The hospital’s name was
mentioned because the father had already threatened to take her
there. The caseworker presented this as an opinion which Leticia
would have to think of and to do something about, if she really
believed she did not need to e taken care of in a hospital, and
that she could do this before the sixth session. It was risky to
make this kind of confrontation because it would mean that the
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 therapists and the family would really need to plan on
hospitalizing her.

The favorable results of the confrontation had moved problem-

solving work. It had saved the father from making his threats real.
Results showed that: both parents could get her to do a share of
household work even if it was only a matter of dusting furniture
places; the mother could handle Leticia’s violent behavior without
asking the father rush home and do it; that George could help on
this, instead of reacting violently to Leticia’s provocations; and that
Leticia could accept her mother’s authority after seeing that her
mother could be stronger than what she thought she was.
4. She decided, in consultation with the co-therapist, that
discussions on the termination of family therapy should be
introduced at the eight sessions since reports at the seventh
meeting showed that the family members have been able to
maintain the gains made by them. The number of sessions
needed prior to termination for the family to determine.

Discussion:

Theoretical and practical knowledge of the problem being worked,

and the agreements arrived at on the way the objectives are to be
accomplished are essential for formulating management-related decisions.
The caseworker’s disapproval of the parents’ request for Leticia’s
exclusion from sessions could not have been possible if she did not
foresee the unfavorable consequences of such kind of exclusion on a
patient with paranoid tendencies. It could not have been possible without
the caseworker’s theoretical and practical knowledge of reaction to social
environment changes which Leticia was going through. There were
changes in the father at the time he made the request. He was not aware
that his daughter was affected by his decision to say “no” to her child-like
demands, and was only looking at her restlessness as an inability to cope
with group discussions.

Appropriate timing of a decision is necessary if the goal is to move

problem-solving work forward. For instance, Leticia’s absence could not
have been presented as a problem for the parents to deal with if this was
on the first absence since they would not have known what was causing
her non-attendance. Doing it on the second absence was not only a ways
of getting Leticia back to the session but was also a basis for testing the
capacity of the parents to solve a problem. It also served as an opportunity
to help the father resolve his vacillating thoughts about custodial care
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placement so that he could look at it positively as one reality which had to
be accepted instead of using it as a threat.

Management-related decisions are themselves interventive

procedures which must be made within the context of a positive
therapeutic relationship. There are risks involved, as can be seen in the
caseworker’s decision to give Leticia a problem to solve, but it is a risk that
sometimes must be made.

The decision to prepare the family for termination of the family

therapy was based on observable positive changes in their relationships
and problem-solving patterns. At the eight session they were observed to
be much more functional, compared to observations of them at the first
assessment interview. First, the father had become more relaxed and
more secure when responding to his daughter’s child-like demands. He
had also been relieved of his peace-maker role because his wife had
discovered she could perform this role in his absence. Leticia had began to
participate in chores she previously labeled as her mother’s and the maid’s
duties. Second, there were no reports regarding sibling rivalries since the
time family treatment began. Third, both patients have not been
hospitalized during the treatment period, and this could be seen as
indicators that the home care and management have improved.

6. MONITORING AND EVALUATION

Monitoring and evaluation are considered to be ethical

responsibilities of the social worker. Monitoring is a way of checking and
reviewing the case movement or the progress being made in relation to the
problem-solving goals and objectives. Evaluation refers to the appraisal of
the intervention program to find out if the stated objectives accomplisher
expected outcomes. It is done at the end of an intervention program, and
or after its termination, and in the follow-up contacts with the client.

Social workers have been characteristically concerned with the

process of helping and have given much emphasis to be evaluation of the
process. Present-day needs require appraisal of both process and
outcome. Evaluation of process is necessary for improvement of practice,
while the evaluation of outcome is necessary for practice and for
demonstration effectiveness of social work methods of helping people.
Results are useful for appraising social work performance and efficiency.

Monitoring and Evaluation Procedures

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 Siporin suggests the following principles to assist practitioners in
carrying out monitoring and evaluation tasks:

1. In monitoring and evaluation process, the social worker needs to

make judgements concerning significant variables for problems, for
client personality and situation, and for the ecological system as a
whole. This is in accord with the basic helping approach. The current
focus on helping tasks, as pieces of doing in situations, should
facilitate the evaluation of performance of practitioners and include
situations conditions and influence on the outcome of interventions.

2. The social worker needs to appraise achievement of both the

process and outcome objectives in terms of clearly stated, empirical,
measurable behaviors. This means that the behavioral baselines
needs to be obtained at the beginning of the service, and the
behavioral changes needed to be measured during, at the close of
service, or after the period of service. That a client feels better,…
needs to be specified in concrete behavior terms.

3. Evaluations should be based on objectives that are also contractly

agreed upon with the clients. We have noted that intervention is
more successful and effective where helping purposes are explicitly
and mutually agreed upon by client and social worker. Attention to
this aspect should encourage the choice of short-term objectives
and choice of controllable variables, as a basis for sequential,
contracted and achievable helping tasks. This does not preclude the
choice of long-term service program, or of creative, innovative tasks
in risks situations, that client and social worker may agree to pursue.
4. The measures and procedures that are selected and used should be
realistic and appropriate for social work objectives and concerns,
particularly about process objectives and situational as well as
personality aspects of a case or programs. This means not only that
measures be in accord with scientific, effectiveness, cost-benefit, or
efficiency standards, but also that they be appropriate to social work
values.

5. The social worker needs to be vigilantly alert to his or her own

contribution to the intervention program. Such self-awareness is
essential in evaluating the effects of intervention and of the
measures and measurement procedures that are used.

6. As Carter suggests, “There is no one best approach for evaluation.

Rather, it becomes a matter of assessing the evaluation situation
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 before determining if a particular approach or a combination of
approaches best fits the task at hand.”

Monitoring case progress

With the Guevara family, the therapists specified the tasks and
objectives to be accomplished which would enable the patients and the
rest of the family to be functional. They identified the problematic behaviors
which were contributing to their dysfunctioning, and offered review
sessions for monitoring progress, obstacles in the ongoing problem-solving
work, and failures. There were only two items in their agenda, such as:a)
review of and discussions on the family’s activities during the two weeks
prior to each session, and b) discussions of problems and other family
concerns related to the problem being worked. Because the problematic
behaviors were clearly identified at the beginning of treatment, it was
possible for them to check and review what was causing movement and
what was obstructing the course of action. Having dealt with the obstacles,
the case moved forward to a stage when the therapists could introduce a
new item in their agenda with the family.

Evaluation of an Intervention Plan

Essentials for evaluation of an intervention plan are: a clear

definition of the problem; baseline behaviors which identify where the client
is at the beginning of treatment; the long term goal which identifies where
the client is expected to be at the time treatment is terminated the length of
time it will take to achieve the goal; the short term goals and specific
objectives for achieving the treatment goal; and casework service/s and
casework activities carried out for accomplishing tasks and objectives. To
illustrate, the problem-solving work with the Guevares will be evaluated:

1. Definition of the Problem:

As redefined, the problem was about the long, expensive psychiatric

care and treatment of Leticia and George, and how they could become
functional so that they would not need frequent hospitalization.

2. Baseline behaviors:

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 Dysfunctioning in this family was contributed by dysfunctional
behaviors identified in the father, the mother, in Leticia and George, and so
shown by their faulty problem-solving patterns (see behavioral baselines
on the family).

3. The long-term goal is to help the family as a group to become

functional.

4. The length of time for achieving this goal was not specified.

5. The short term goals and objectives:

Immediate

- To help the family understand the facts about the patients’

mental illness.
- To help the parents understand Leticia’s behaviors which
were illness-related, which were secondary gains, and
which were there prior to illness so that they would know
how to respond appropriately to her bids for attention.

Intermediate

- To help Leticia learn morning routines which would enable

her to be at the Day Care Center at 8:00 a.m.

6. Casework services- Family therapy by a caseworker psychiatrist

team.

7. Caseworker activities

- home visits for sessions with the family.

The outcome of the problem-solving work showed that at the time

termination was introduced as a new item in the agenda for which family
therapy session, there were observable behavior changes which
suggested improvement in the family functioning, such as: absence of
hospital admission during the treatment period; mother’s ability to cope
with the home care and management of Leticia and George; minimized
sibling rivalry; the father was more relaxed and was no longer asked to
rush home to settle troubles; Leticia was already participating in doing
house work. Her complaints against her mother were much minimized.
What was not achieved at the time treatment was terminated was the goal
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of helping her prepare to go to the Day-Care Center. However, her failure
was used by the therapists for testing her need for placement with the
National Mental Hospital, or her capacity to move forward to desired ends.

The final session with the family was used by the therapists for a
joint evaluation of objective outcomes. From the family’s side, the
therapists learned that Mr. Guevara was not rattled anymore whenever
Leticia called him up, or when his wife called him up about troubles at
home. He said he had learned to say “no” to Leticia’s demands, and to
listen to her complaints without making lengthy corrective explanations.
The mother said she was coping much better and George was much more
helpful than he used to, when he always reacted to Leticia’s provocations.

7. CONTINUATION OR TERMINATION

Continuation is indicated when the outcome of the helping tasks and

objectives show progression towards the desired ends. Movement towards
desired direction confirms the validity of the problem assessment, the
mode of intervention, and the contract. If it is not moving, or if it moving
much more slowly than expected, it will be necessary to evaluate the
intervention program and find out what went wrong.

Termination is the process of ending the helping relationship or

closing the case. It is often a difficult process to go through for many social
workers and for clients because of the separation anxiety that goes with it.
To minimize problem at termination period, it usually helps to prepare
oneself and the client for the expected ending of the relationship. This can
be done by discussing expected ending of the relationship. This can be
done by discussing expected ending of the helping services, by spacing
the interviews to lessen client-worker contact as the intervention goals are
about to be achieved, and to assure the client that he or she can seek help
in the future if services of the agency will be needed again.

Indications for Termination

Termination is indicated when:

- the goal has been reached and the agency service is

completed;

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 - when nothing further can be gained from the service;

- when the client wants to end the service;

- when referral is made to another agency and the original

worker will no longer be involved;

- either the worker or the client are unable to continue, and

the progress made warrants termination.

(when the worker leaves the agency)

REFERENCES

Brill, Nacmi I, Working With People: The Helping Process. Philadelphia: J.

B. Lippincott Company, 1973.

Perlman, Helen Harris. Social Casework: A Problem-Solving Process,

1957.

________________________” Problem-Solving Model in Social

Casework.” Theories of Social Casework. Roberts Roberts W. et. al., (ed.)
Chicago Press, 1970 p. 129-179.

Germain, Craig, “Casework and Science: A Historical Encounter.”

Theories of Social Casework, 1970, p.3-32.

Hallowitz, David. “Problem-Solving Theory.” Social Work Treatment:

Interlocking Theoretical Approaches, Turner, (ed.) Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1975, p. 112-143.

Hamilton, Gordon. Principle of Social Case Recording. New York:

Collumbia University Press, 1946.

Hebbert, Virginia et. al., Social Casework Practice: A Philippine Casebook,

Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1972.

Siporin, Max. Introduction to Social Work Practice. New York: Momillan

Publishing House, 1975.

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 CHAPTER FIVE

MODELS OF CASEWORK PRACTICE

In the preceding chapter several cases were used to illustrate the

helping process. In one case, the N family, the principal request was for
material/financial aid. The family was several months behind in house rent
and Mrs. N had failed to pay back her loan under the Self-Employment
Assistance program. In another case, that of Juanito, the mother sought
assistance for her son to be released from jail. She did not know how to go
about it nor was she aware of the procedure. In a third case, the one used
to illustrate case management, the clients were referred specifically for
casework services by their psychiatrist. Each of these three cases
presented a type of problem which necessitated a different approach.

The helping process in casework is generic and applicable to all

types of cases. However, the application may differ according to the needs
or problems of each individual client. While a caseworker may use the
same steps, skills and techniques, and even social welfare resources, the
way she puts them together, i.e. combines them as intervention is dictated
by the client’s need and situation. The Americans who practice casework
extensively have conceptualized some of these approaches. Out of these
we have selected those models which are closely similar to casework
practice in the Philippines. After you have gone over each one you may
able to point out which one among the cases presented in Chapter Four
used which approach.

For beginning casework practice it will not be necessary for you to

choose which model to use for which problem. What is important is that the
helping process should come naturally to you. As you gain more
experience and the cases that are given to you become more complicated
and/or sophisticated only then may you find it necessary to know to which
combination or model to use for each case in order to be more effective.

The Psychosocial Approach

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 The foremost advocates of this model are Mary Richmond, Florence
Hollis, Gordon Hamilton and Charlotte Towle. To them casework is a form
of psycho-social treatment of individuals and families. This is the model
that has been more or less adapted for use in the Philippines in working
with clients with impaired social functioning. Among, these are some types
of juvenile delinquents, drug dependents, alcoholics, and behavior is
pathological- there is disorientation.

This model is also sometimes called the “diagnostic”, sometimes the

“clinical” approach. It emphasizes the importance of diagnosis and
treatment in casework. The goal is to “cure”. Sometimes it is called the
Freudian or psychoanalytic school because it drawn heavily upon Freudian
theory for its understanding of the personality factor in problems of social
adjustment.

Mary Richmond was of the belief that the answer to what needs to
be done to help the client will be found in data collected through careful
and systematic study of the case. As long as the worker has enough facts
about the case the solution to the problem will soon become apparent. The
process consists of social study and “social diagnosis”.

The psychosocial approach is concerned with both the inner

psychological realities of man and the social context in which he lives
hence the term “person in-situation.

Casework treatment from this viewpoint embraces both the

intervention in the situation on the client’s behalf and direct work with the
individual or several individuals as in the case of a family.

In this approach the well- being of the client is the central concern
hence it is client centered. Its objectives may consist of any of the
following: to

- meet the client’s need

- help him deal with the predicament of the problem with
which he is confronted
- strengthen him in his general capacity to function
comfortably and productively
- lessen his suffering and distress
- Enhance his opportunities and capacities for fulfillment of
his own objectives and aspiration.

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 According to the exponents there are at least three steps in this
approach: the gathering of social evidence, social diagnosis, and
treatment. (Casework trilogy)

Social evidence

The social evidence may include data and information from infancy
to the present, the family profile, background of each parent, the marriage
situation as well as such other information that may be needed to
understand the client’s present attitudes and behavior.

Diagnostic assessment

The psychosocial approach requires that the treatment must be

individualized in terms of the worker’s diagnostic understanding of the
person-in- situation problem. The term “diagnosis” is used here to refer to
the process of drawing inferences or tentative conclusions about the
nature of the problem. This may be done by examining the problem from
as many perspectives as necessary or helpful in order to decide what
kinds of social work intervention are likely to contribute to its alleviation. In
effect one looks at the person or client within the totality of his situation to
determine first, how he is interacting with his environment, and second,
how persons in his social network interact with him and with each other.
The objectives are first: to learn what the nature of the dysfunction is, and
second, to understand what contributes to the difficulty.

Social treatment

The so- called social treatment here is two kinds: social therapy, and
psychotherapy.

The social therapy treatment emphasizes changes in the

environment; psychotherapy is concerned with changes in the person
himself. Inasmuch as the client’s problem usually springs from a
combination of interlocking components, treatment must be responsive in a
multiple way.

The psychosocial approach attempts to mobilize the strengths of the

client and the resources of the environment at strategic points to achieve
an improvement in the opportunities available to the individual and to
develop more effective and interpersonal functioning.

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 Simultaneously the caseworker must attempt to influence those
parts in the person situation that are:

1) Salient in contributing to the total problem;

2) Most accessible to influence; and
3) Most likely to have a strong reverberating effect in enabling
the system to function in a more comfortable and productive
manner.

The psychosocial approach is used in the Philippines although in a

less specified degree, in medical and psychiatric settings.

The functional approach

The functional approach in caseworker is defined as a method for

engaging the client, through a relationship process essentially one- to-
one, in the use of social service toward his own and the general social
welfare. This approach was first developed in the 1930s by the faculty of
the School of Social Work of the University of Pennsylvania, principally
Jessie Taft, Virginia Robinson, and Ruth Smallev.

Agency function (service): purpose and use

This model considers casework as a method for administering some

specific social service with such psychological understanding of and skill in
the helping process so that the agency service somehow contributes to or
promotes the individual’s social welfare. In effect the primary purpose is to
provide a social service which the agency has and which the client needs.
The process is accompanied by social work interceptive skills in such a
way that there emerges a visible change in the client or in his life condition.
Viewed in this light this is the approach that closely approximates the
“service delivery” model extensively used by the social workers of the
Philippines Ministry of Social Services and Development.

Functional casework then is a form of practice that utilizes the

agency function (service) as an integral part of the social worker’s skill.
The use of this function (service) gives focus, content and direction to a
specific helping, process and assures the social responsibility as well.
(Note that the term “helping” is used instead of “treatment”.) More simply
stated it means that the caseworker is using the helping process to
accomplish a specific social purpose or, (in local parlance) to deliver a
specific service for which the social agency has been counseling, job
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placement, self- employment assistance or any other service it has been
empowered by existing social policy to provide. Ostensibly the
caseworker’s primary purpose is to deliver the service i.e. accomplish the
function of the agency. However, by using his professional knowledge and
methodological skill he also, while helping the client, develops, recovers, or
improves the latter’s capacity for self- direction and self- control. The
caseworker’s keeps a sensitive diagnostic orientation to the client’s
possible difficulty in making use of the service and utilizes his skill in
furthering its productive use.

Individual in relation to service

In this model no attempt is made to know how the “total” individual in

his “total” situation. Rather, the focus throughout the relationship is on an
understanding of the individual in relation to the service offered. For
example, the social worker dealing with a school drop- out will focus on
what in the child and in his environment seems to be interfering with his full
use of the school. The service to be rendered must resolve the obstacle or
impediment. Thus, the purpose of the service such as the “balik paaralan”
(back to school) program will help to give sharpness and focus to the
diagnosis or understanding needed.

While the psycho- social approach is geared towards the restoration

of impaired social functioning the avowed purpose of the functional
approach is to release the human power in individuals, groups and
communities for personal fulfillment and social goal, and the release of
social power for the creation of the kind of society, social policy, and social
institutions that make self- realization most possible for all men.”

The Problem- Solving Approach

Temporary disequilibrium

Helen Harris Perlman was the chief exponent of the problem-

solving approach which emerged during the fifties; it contains elements of
both the diagnostic and functional approaches. Its chief difference lies
mainly in its basic assumption- that all human living is a problem solving
process the exercise of which may severally tax the ego functions of the
person. It may happen that the usual problem solving capacity or
resources of the individual suffers or breaks down under the strain so that
a disequilibrium occurs, making him incapable of solving his problems by
himself. Such a state usually lasts from four to six weeks. In such a
situation the person turns or has to turn to someone for material aid or
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psychological help in the solution of his problem. Lacking anyone he can
comfortably turn to, he may opt to seek the help of a social welfare agency.

Four “P”s

This model emphasizes the four “P”s. A person beset by a

problem seeks some solution from a place (a social agency or some other
societal institution) where he is helped by a social worker who uses the
professional process to engage and enhance that person’s own problem-
solving powers and/or supplement his problem- solving resources.

In contrast to the diagnostic model which views the client as

someone with impaired functioning the problem-solving approach assures
that the person’s inability to cope with a problem in his own may be due to
lack of motivation, capacity knowledge and/or opportunity to work on,
solve or mitigate the problem in appropriate ways. The client is neither
“sick” nor does he possess a “weak” ago. It just so happens that in a
specific, given situation he is unable to cope with or solve his problem due
to any of the reasons already stated.

Goal

Under the above circumstances the chief aim of the problem-solving

model is to help individuals or families cope with whatever they are
currently finding insurmountable and to do so in ways that make maximum
use of their own conscious efforts, choices, and competences.
The primary goal of the problem-solving model is to help the client to
deal more effectively and satisfactorily as possible with the present social
problems he is encountering.

The by-product of this process which makes intensive use of ego

functioning is the learning of ways by which future difficulties and decisions
might be dealt with. This is a hoped for by-product, which may be said to
be another goal in the problem-solving model that of engaging a person in
ways of coping that may serve him for the new problems he may inevitably
encounter as long he is alive.

Diagnosis

As in all social work practice two of the major components of this

casework model process are diagnosis and treatment.

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 The diagnosis aims to identify and explain the nature of a person’s
problem, to appraise it within a framework of specific intentions and goals,
and to use that appraisal as a guide to action.

The act itself involves an examination of facts and figures relevant to

the goal or the outcome sought of the helping efforts, and to use the
findings as a guide to action.

Treatment

The test of the effectiveness of the helping process or of the ongoing

work between the client and the caseworker will lie in the actions the client
is able to take in relation to his problems. In this model the caseworker will
provide the client with any single or combination of the following services:

1. a sustaining and stimulating emotional experience of

connection with a concerned and competent professional
helper;
2. a clarified perception and understanding of his problem and of
himself as an actor in it;
3. the repeated exercise of his drives and capacities to cope
more competently;
4. the provision of material means or enriched opportunities; and
5. a strengthening of the linkages between and person and such
people and prospects in his social network through whom he
can find greater fulfillment.

The special emphasis on problem solving in this model bears close

affinity to some aspects of Philippine casework practice specifically, short-
term treatment, crisis intervention, and casework with the multi-deficit
(multi-problem) family.

Short Term Treatment

Short term treatment is often resorted to in cases of interpersonal

problems which yield satisfactory results more easily.

The problem may not go away, may still be there but the client may
have learned ways of coping so that the threat or stress is reduced
somewhat and the client is more or less comfortable with it, or he may
have learned to live with it in the meantime.
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 Crisis Intervention

The crisis intervention model is slowly gaining adherents among

social work practitioners in the Philippines. In this model the crisis may
consist of and inability to determine what action to take or lack of
knowledge of the alternatives open to the client, in a given situation, in a
specific time. It denotes the here and now problem implying urgency and
perhaps immediate action. There are three types of events where crisis
intervention may be applied. These are: natural and man made disasters;
developmental and transitional crisis states; and acute situational crisis.
Sometimes there may be an overlapping of situations. A crisis occurs
when a person faces an obstacle to important life goals that is for the time
being insurmountable although he may be using his customary methods of
problem-solving.

The main features of crisis treatment are clear identification and

clarification of an immediate and identified problem, expansion and
management of feelings, and the use of both interpersonal and institutional
resources, on the basis that the person in crisis is most susceptible to the
influence of significant others.

The goal of the treatment rests on the concept of restoration and

enhancement of functioning rather than cure.

Multi-problem family

However the problem-solving model seems to have been used albeit

unconsciously but most appropriately with the multi-problem family
especially those from the marginal, and disadvantaged sector-those with
multiple and massive economic, educational, social, and motivational
problems. One frequently hears and reads in professional documents work
by social workers with “normal” persons, groups and families. They are
considered normal because their social functioning is adequate under the
circumstances in which they live, but inadequate compared to others under
other conditions or new environment. Sometimes they may lack the spirit-
to rise above their poverty. More often than not the social functioning is
poorly developed because of the lack of opportunities to improve
themselves, their standard of living or even just increase their income to
maintain themselves satisfactorily.

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 The immensity of the poverty problem, the sheer inability to reach
each and every one of the poor (in a developing country) has prompted
many social workers to relegate casework to the background. Instead
there is an emerging trend to work more with community groups” using the
problem-solving model because of the multiplier effect. Group work or
community organization reaches more persons than casework ever will,
where there is no problem or impairment of social functioning. However
social workers of the MSSD are the first to attest that they have observed
increasing need for casework services among their clients because of the
pressures and stress brought on by increasing urbanization and
industrialization and the influence of new values and influences from
external sources outside the country.

Chapter V

References

From:

Morris Robert ed: Encyclopedia of Social Work, NASW, New York,

1971.

Smalley, Ruth E “Social Casework: The Functional Approach” pp.

1195-1205.

Perlman, Helen Harris, “Social Casework: The Problem-Solving

Approach pp. 1206-1216.

Hollis, Florence “Social Casework: The Psychological Approach” pp.

1217-1225.

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97