intervention model for Social Work

intervention model for Social Work

Introduction

Social workers are crucial members of the community who ensures proper social functioning of the members of the community. Social work mostly specializes in assisting individuals who require social care services. Social workers also protect and advocates for the community members who are vulnerable from abuse by the other members of society. Social workers provide social care to the mentally affected members of society through the use of various intervention models. A particular intervention model is administered to the client depending on the nature of the problem associated with the client. Proper selection of the intervention model to be used to certain client aid to the faster recovery of the client. Task-centered and crisis intervention are two intervention models that vary in terms of the role of the social worker, client problem to be improved, and the approach used to improve the client’s problem.

Model 1: Task-Centered Model

Description

Task-centered approach is an intervention method where the clients are allowed to establish specific goals of the treatment. William Reid and Laura Epstein established Task-centered intervention method (Hunter, 2917). The intervention places the client at the center stage of the intervention to ensure that the client does not offer resistance to the tasks administered to him/her for improvement of the client’s problem. Task-centered intervention model ensures that the client and the social-worker are collectively involved in determining the condition of the client, and the treatment that should be taken to improve the condition of the client.

The social worker creates a friendly relationship with the client to motivate the client to speak out his/her views in the treatment procedure that should be taken to achieve the stipulated goals. In the task-centered intervention model, both the client and the social worker collaborate in determining the steps that should be taken to achieve the goals of the intervention.

Role of Social Worker.

To achieve the goal of the treatment, both the social worker and the client have to play their roles efficiently. The main aim of the task-centered intervention approach is to ensure that a client is engaged to solve his problems (Bakker, 2015). Therefore, the primary role of the social worker in the task-centered intervention model is to effectively engage the client to ensure that the client solves his/ her problems. The social worker builds rapport with the client to make it easy for the client to bring his/her views. The social worker is responsible for evaluating the goals suggested by the client. The social worker can add some other goals or reduce the goals indicated by the client to ensure that the objective of the intervention is clear and achievable. The social worker also suggests the possible steps that should be taken to solve client problems. The social worker is also responsible for ensuring that the tasks indicated by the client are effectively implemented in the task-centered intervention model.

Types of the Problems Experienced

The task-centered intervention model can be applied to patients with depression problems. For instance, a client who is the father of two children leaves at a rental house in the city, and he eventually loses his job. The father of the family desires to purchase a housing facility for his family. The father of the family does not have enough money to buy a new house. The problem makes the father of the family to develop depression disorder because of the loss of the job and lack of funds.

 

Problem Solving Approach

The problems of the client are first identified by engaging the client in an active conversation. The next step is the process of the social worker and the client to set the goals to be achieved. The client and the social worker collaborates in the process of determining the tasks that should be taken to solve the client’s problems. The tasks suggested in the task-centered approach are structured to meet the already set goals. The process of monitoring how the client undertakes the suggested tasks is the last step in the problem-solving approach of the task-centered intervention model.

Tasks for Improving Problems

Tasks are undertaken to meet the suggested goals. The tasks involve the actions taken by both the client and the social worker. In the case of the father who had lost his job, the task of the social worker was to help the client to determine the most significant task between looking for the job and purchasing a new housing facility. The most significant task is undertaken as the first task. In the case study, the father of the family of the two children will first search for the job, which will enable him to purchase the new housing facility, hence solving the problem of depression.

Model 2: The Crisis Intervention Model

Description

The crisis intervention model is used to the clients who are struggling with an acute crisis. The Roberts seven-stage crisis intervention model is commonly used (Garr, 2016). The crisis intervention model involves rapport building, identification of the problem, addressing feelings, coming up with alternatives, and making a follow-up. The social worker guides a client experiencing crisis to undergo through the crisis intervention model process.

Role of Social Worker

The social worker first role in the crisis intervention model is to determine whether the client has any intentions of committing suicide because of the crisis accompanying the client. The social worker then creates rapport with the client by establishing eye contact and respecting the client views. The social worker is then responsible for coming up with alternatives that can be employed to solve the crisis. The last role of the social worker in this model is making a follow-up after the initial intervention to ensure that the crisis is resolved.

Types of Problems Experienced

The crisis intervention model is used to assist the clients experiencing trauma and crisis. A crisis is the perception of a situation as intolerable difficulty beyond the resources and coping mechanism of an individual. Job loss is a situation that causes crisis to many people who loses their jobs. A person under crisis can easily commit suicide, hence the necessity of crisis intervention procedure. Problems such as divorce, domestic violence, evection, diagnoses of a dangerous disease, and child abuse causes trauma to the members of the community, and the problems can be improved by crisis intervention model.

Problem Solving Approach

Crisis intervention model is a seven-step approach that promotes the well-being of community members by solving crisis among the clients. The first step in this approach includes the social worker testing the lethality of the assessment. The social worker then establishes a collaborative relationship with the client. A good relationship between the client and the social worker is important in ensuring that the client gives information about the cause of the crisis. The social worker evaluates the level of the crisis to determine the nature of the task that will be taken to improve the problem of the client. The client and the social worker then agree on the tasks to be taken to solve the client’s issues. The agreed tasks are then implemented, and the social worker makes a follow-up in the client’s recovery process.

Tasks for Improving Problems

For the crisis intervention model, tasks are developed by considering the safety of the client. The tasks are also designed based on the indented goals of the intervention. Both the social worker and the crisis affected client are involved in the process of developing the tasks. The tasks are classified according to their significance in improving the problem of the client. In the process of determining the task to be taken, the participation of the client is very important to ensure that the tasks do not interfere with the safety of the client. Both the social worker and the client have their tasks for the improvement of the client’s problem. For a crisis affected client, the client has the task of calling the 24-hour crisis social worker line when the client feels that he/she is overwhelmed by the crisis situation.

Conclusion

Social workers are important persons in the community because they offer social care services to the members of the community. Social work practices ensure the wellbeing of community members. Also, social workers protect and advocates for the minors in the community from being abused by the other members of the community. Crisis intervention model and task-centered model are two intervention models that are used by social workers to promote proper social functioning of the community members. The task-related intervention model ensures that clients use their views to solve their problems. Crisis intervention model is used to assist clients who are experiencing a crisis. The task-related intervention and crisis intervention models have different frameworks, and the two intervention models are selected depending on the client’s problems to be improved.

References

Bakker, A., Albert, M. S., Krauss, G., Speck, C. L., & Gallagher, M. (2015). Response of the       medial temporal lobe network in amnestic mild cognitive impairment to therapeutic intervention assessed by fMRI and memory task performance. NeuroImage: Clinical, 7,          688-698.

Garr, M. (2016). Interfacing between short-term, time-limited crisis intervention, treating trauma and shock, and trance and subtle energy work: Case study. Journal of Heart Centered        Therapies, 19(2), 3-18.

Hunter, W., Williamson, R. L., Jasper, A. D., Casey, L. B., & Smith, C. (2017). Examining Self-  Monitoring Interventions for Academic Support of Students with Emotional and          Behavioral Disorders. Journal of International Special Needs Education, 20(2), 67-78.