Transcript Engaging Clients from a Strength-Based, Solution

Engaging Clients from a StrengthBased, Solution-Focused
Perspective
The University of Pittsburgh
School of Social Work
Pennsylvania Child Welfare
Training Program
Learning Objectives:
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Identify the conditions for establishing effective
engagement with clients;
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Connect the engagement process with the
appropriate application of protective authority
to establish the collaborative/protective
partnership;
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Identify the elements of the solution-focused
intervention model that distinguish it from the
more typical problem-focused approach;
Learning Objectives (continued):
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Identify seven key solution-focused strategies;
Identify the appropriate use of the following skills:
 identifying strengths in a problem situation,
 exploring past successes,
 finding and using exceptions to the problem,
 facilitating a positive vision of the future,
 scaling questions,
 encouraging commitment and
 developing action steps; and
Identify opportunities to implement the solution-focused
interviewing and intervention approach with clients.
Competencies:
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301-3: The Child Welfare Professional is skilled in a variety
of interviewing and casework techniques, and can conduct
individual and family interviews.
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301-4: The Child Welfare Professional can implement
problem-solving strategies, can apply these strategies
to family’s problems and needs, and can teach family
members to use problem-solving methods to resolve
family problems.
Professional Practice
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Clear Mission
Shared Values
Practice Standards
Relevant Knowledge/Skill
Results-oriented
Self-assessment
Ongoing Improvement
Strengths
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What people have learned about
themselves, others and their world
Personal qualities, traits and virtues
What people know about the world
around them
The talents people have
Cultural and personal stories and lore
Pride
The community
Types of Strengths
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Mitigating Strengths: protect children from
threats to safety
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Risk Reducing Strengths: reduce the
likelihood of maltreatment in the future
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Well-being related Strengths: serve to
enhance or support the family’s overall quality
of life
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Neutral Strengths: positive qualities or
conditions in the family that do not directly act to
mitigate safety threats, reduce risk or enhance well-being
Engagement
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Engage: to obtain or contract for; to
obtain and hold the attention of; to
pledge or promise; to interlock or
cause to mesh
(The American Heritage Dictionary).
Engagement: Process & Outcome
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Engagement is both a process
and an outcome.
It requires the effective and
balanced use of helping skills
and protective authority
It produces an ongoing
worker/client relationship that
results in the pursuit and
accomplishment of agreed upon
goals
Promoting Effective Engagement
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Tuning-into Self and Others
Focused listening
Clarification of role and
purpose
Respect
Clear and accurate response
to client questions
Honesty
Dependability
Identification and support of
client strengths
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Seeking to understand the
client’s point of view
Culturally sensitive practice
Connecting agency goals
with client goals
Investment in client
success
Outcomes-oriented practice
Regular feedback
Confrontation
Demand for work
Promoting Effective Engagement
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Tuning-into Self and Others
Focused listening
Clarification of role and
purpose
Respect
Clear and accurate
response to client
questions
Honesty
Dependability
Identification and support of
client strengths
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Seeking to understand the
client’s point of view
Culturally sensitive practice
Connecting agency goals
with client goals
Investment in client success
Outcomes-oriented practice
Regular feedback
Confrontation
Demand for work
Protective Authority
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Protective Authority is the application of helping
and/or coercive strategies that result in client
acceptance of intervention and effective client
engagement leading to the child safety, reduction of
risk of maltreatment, promotion of well-being and
timely permanence.
And
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Protective Authority is a Continuum that
Requires Balance and Flexibility
Clarifying/
Helping
Confronting/
Forced Choice
Low
Moderate
Police/ Courts:
Removal/ TPR
Balance/Flexibility =
Engagement &
Protective Partnership
High
Avoiding Authority Extremes
“Nice”
 Stance: submissive
 Concern: Conflict
 Client potential:
Ambivalent
 Authority: Minimizes
 Goal for client:
cooperation
 Style: inconsistent
Avoiding Authority Extremes
“Tough”
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Stance: superior
Concern: Loss of control
Client potential: Pessimistic
Authority: Heavy
Goal for client: compliance
Style: inflexible
Solution-Focused Core Principles
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If what you are doing
doesn’t work, stop
doing it and do
something else.
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If what you are doing is
working, do more of it.
7 Key Solution-focused Strategies
1.
Identifying strengths
in a problem situation.
2. Exploring past successes.
3. Finding & using exceptions
to the problem.
4. Facilitating a positive
vision of the future.
7 Key Solution-focused Strategies
5. Scaling questions.
6. Encouraging commitment.
7. Developing Action Steps
Solution-Building Questions
1.
Tell me about the times when this problem is a
little bit better?
2. How did you make this happen? What else?
3. What are you doing differently during those times
when things are a little bit better?
4. What would your best friend (mother, child, etc) tell
you when things are going a little bit better for
you?
Problem Model vs. Solution Model
The Problem-focused Model
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The practitioner is the expert.
Practitioner must figure out the
type of client problem and the
related solution.
The “Problem” is objectively real.
The job of the professional is to
know about various problems,
have assessment procedures
and techniques for intervention.
Problem Model vs. Solution Model
The Solution-focused Model
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The client is the expert about his/her life.
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Practitioner must facilitate client
solution building.
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Solutions emerge without connection to
the specific related problem.
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The “problem” does not exist apart from
the client as a whole person in context.
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The job of the professional is to
understand the direction that the client
wants to go and identify the supporting
strengths.
Types of Useful Questions:
Exceptions
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Exceptions are those occasions in clients’ lives when
their problems could have occurred but did not – or at
least were less severe.
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Exception questions focus on who, what, when and
where (the conditions that helped the exception to
occur) - NOT WHY; exceptions should be related to
client goals.
Types of Useful Questions: Coping
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Coping questions are related in a way to exploring
for exceptions. They attempt to help the client shift
his/her focus away from the problem elements and
toward what the client is doing to survive the painful
or stressful circumstances.
Types of Useful Questions: Scaling
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Scaling questions invite the clients to put
their observations, impressions, and
predictions on a scale from 0 to 10, with “0”
being no chance, and “10” being every
chance.
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Questions need to be specific, citing specific
times and circumstances.
Types of Useful Questions: Indirect
or Relationship
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Indirect/Relationship questions invite the client to
consider how others might feel or respond to some
aspect of the client’s life, behavior or future changes.
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Indirect questions can be useful in asking the client
to reflect on narrow or faulty perceptions without the
worker directly challenging those perceptions or
behaviors.
Types of Useful Questions: Miracle
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The “Miracle Question” is the opening piece of the
process of developing well-formed goals.
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It gives clients permission to think about an unlimited
range of possibilities for change.
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It begins to move the focus away from their current
and past problems and toward a more satisfying life.
Posing the Miracle Question
“Now, I want to ask you a strange question.
Suppose that while you are sleeping tonight and
the entire house is quiet, a miracle happens. The
miracle is that the problem for which you sought
out assistance is solved. However, because you
are sleeping, you don’t know that the miracle has
happened. So, when you wake up tomorrow
morning, what will be different that will tell you
that a miracle has happened and the problem is
solved?”
(adapted from de Shazer, 1988)
Follow-up Questions to the
Miracle Question
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Through follow-up questions, the interviewer further
extends and amplifies the impact of the miracle by a
series of questions designed to guide the client in
exploring the implications of the miracle in the client’s
life.
“What might others notice about you that would tell
them that the miracle has happened, that things are
different or better?”
“Have there been times when you have seen pieces of
this miracle happen?”
HIGH AUTHORITY, DIRECTIVE APPROACH
ASFA
GOALS:
•Safety
•Permanence
•Well-being
Problem
•Timeliness
Wagon
NON-COERSIVE ENGAGEMENT
ASFA
GOALS:
•Safety
•Permanence
•Well-being
•Timeliness
Strengths/Problem
Wagon
ENGAGEMENT + SOLUTION-FOCUSED
ASFA
GOALS:
•Safety
•Permanence
•Well-being
•Timeliness
Solution
Wagon
Creating Our Vision of
a Positive Future
“Now I want to ask you a strange question. Suppose
that while you are sleeping tonight and the entire
house is quiet, a miracle happens.
The miracle is that you have and are able to perform
at a high level the skills we covered in this training.
And you are capable of managing the clients and
situations you identified as challenging. However,
because you are sleeping, you don’t know that the
miracle has happened.
So, when you wake up tomorrow morning, what will
be different that will tell you that a miracle has
happened?”
WHAT SBSFA CAN & CAN’T DO
No model can give you more time to do your job.
However, the SBSFA can help to focus your
time and energy in the direction of behaviors
and tasks that are sharply focused on the
mission of child welfare, on unit performance
and the most critical elements of your role.
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*BE CURIOUS
*BE PATIENT
*GROW YOUR COMPETENCIES
*TRY OUT NEW KNOWLEDGE &
SKILLS