CLINICAL ASSESSMENT IN SOCIAL WORK. UNIVERSITY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES, HANOI, AUGUST 2010 LECTURE ONE

Peter Norden, A.O.Vice Chancellor’s Fellow

Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne

CLINICAL ASSESSMENT IN SOCIAL WORK

• Primary Goal of this course: to help social work practitioners provide more effective treatment to their clients.

• Focus on the therapeutic process

• How to make a good diagnosis and assessment that leads to an effective intervention?

CLINICAL ASSESSMENT IN SOCIAL WORK

• History of Diagnosis and Assessment in Social Work:

1. 1917: Mary Richmond, Social Diagnosis

2. 1968: Francis Turner, Differential Diagnosis and Treatment in Social Work

CLINICAL ASSESSMENT IN SOCIAL WORK

• More recent writings on Diagnosis and Assessment:

1. 2005: Eileen Gambrill, Critical Thinking in Clinical Practice, Uni. Of California, Berkeley

2. 2006, Corcoran and Walsh, Clinical Assessment and Diagnosis in Social Work Practice

CLINICAL ASSESSMENT IN SOCIAL WORK

• More recent writings continued:

3. 2004: Sally Holland, Child and Family Assessment in Social Work Practice

4. 1995: Jordan and Franklin, Clinical Assessment for Social Workers

CLINICAL ASSESSMENT IN SOCIAL WORK

An Important Perspective on Clinical Assessment:

• Much clinical assessment can focus on deficits, disease and dysfunction.

• Focus on diagnosing abnormal and pathological conditions.

• It is also critical important to focus on the strengths of the client in order to bring about greater client empowerment.

CLINICAL ASSESSMENT IN SOCIAL WORK

Charles Cowger (Social Work Journal, 1994) Assessing Client Strengths: Clinical Assessment for Client Empowerment.

12 practice guidelines that foster a strengths perspective.

CLINICAL ASSESSMENT IN SOCIAL WORK

• Give pre-eminence to the client’s understanding of the facts

• Believe in the client

• Discover what the client wants

• Move the assessment towards personal and environmental strengths

CLINICAL ASSESSMENT IN SOCIAL WORK

• Make assessment of strengths multidimensional

• Use the assessment to discover uniqueness

• Use language the client can understand

• Make assessment a joint activity between worker and client

CLINICAL ASSESSMENT IN SOCIAL WORK

• Reach a mutual agreement on the assessment

• Avoid blame and blamings

• Avoid cause and effect thinking

• Assess: do not diagnose

CLINICAL ASSESSMENT IN SOCIAL WORK

• CASESTUDIES AND ROLE PLAY:

• FOCUS ON DEFICITS

• FOCUS ON STRENGTHS

CLINICAL ASSESSMENT IN SOCIAL WORK

• Review questions:

• How has social work developed in its understanding of diagnosis and assessment over the last one hundred years?

CLINICAL ASSESSMENT IN SOCIAL WORK

• Review questions:

• What are the critical questions that you bring to this course from your knowledge or your practice experience?

CLINICAL ASSESSMENT IN SOCIAL WORK

• Review questions:

• What skills do you hope to take from this course on clinical assessment and diagnosis in social work practice?

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