Every case situation is different, yet human needs are very similar despite these individual differences. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs remains as pertinent today as it was over 40 years ago, when he first maintained that we all have certain basic needs that must be met for us to reach our full potential as humans (Maslow, 1970). The first level of needs includes the fundamental necessities of life, such as food, water, and shelter, which ensure our physical survival. The second level of needs consists of safety considerations; the third is to feel loved and to belong; the fourth is the need for self-esteem. The culminating achievement of “selfactualization” occurs after the lower-level needs have been met and the individual realizes the fulfillment of his or her potential as a person.
CONTRACTING: ENGAGING CLIENTS AND IDENTIFYING THEIR NEEDS
According to Maslow’s schema, Barbie Smith’s life (see Chapters 3 and 4) was characterized by unmet needs on every level. Any helper involved with the Smith family would have had to consider carefully where to start and how to involve Mrs. Smith in the decision-making process. It certainly would have been contraindicated for other people, no matter how good their intentions, to “take over” and disempower Mrs. Smith’s decisions about her own family. In fact, any school social worker must understand that a pupil’s parent is not a client but the parent of a student who may or may not welcome assistance with various family difficulties. For this reason I used the term “unintentional client” in Chapter 3 to refer to Mrs. Smith’s uncertain status. The engagement process of a parent like Mrs. Smith involves making an offer to help with matters other than the presenting problem of her or his child’s education. A person becomes a client only after an of er to help has been made and accepted. Chapter 3 emphasized the importance of focusing on the client’s perception of his or her needs, in preparation for suggesting some strategies that could be useful to engage Mrs. Smith in job-related counseling for herself. The rationale for this relates to the mother’s important role as an identification model for her daughter, Barbie. A commitment from the worker to help the family locate decent housing would have been equally important for the well-being of the entire family, and this ideally would have coincided with the effort to upgrade Mrs. Smith’s employment prospects. Like the job training offer, the housing issue would have had to be couched in terms of Barbie’s needs to capture Mrs. Smith’s attention successfully. This mother’s willingness to discuss her family problems and needs would have depended on repeated emphasis on the interconnection between the family circumstances and Barbie’s learning situation. For example, if the school social worker had mentioned to Mrs. Smith the importance of Barbie’s having a quiet place to do her homework, this topic would inevitably have brought up the issue of the family’s poor housing and lack of privacy. Discussing the family’s housing needs in the context of Barbie’s academic requirements might have been more acceptable to Mrs. Smith than a direct offer of assistance, which she might have perceived as the worker’s prejudgment that she was incompetent to take care of this matter herself. It is not unusual for parents who live in ghetto or substandard environments, such as that in which the Smith family resided, to feel misunderstood by and alienated from middle-class helpers whose life experience differs drastically from theirs. Combrinck-Graham (1989, p. 235; 2006) points out that poverty is more than just a low income. Rather, it is an encompassing lifestyle of opportunism and survival. . . and a dangerous life. Poor families, when they ask for help, need acceptance of their situation, recognition of their efforts to make life livable, and assistance in identifying and connecting with any additional resources the sociopolitical system may have to offer them. When the gap between worker and client appears too great, the client reacts to the perceived lack of empathy by missing appointments, which the worker may subsequently label “client resistance.” Engaging poor families in treatment makes special demands on the worker to understand the problem from the clients’ point of view. This task requires that the clinician understand the context in which the problem is embedded. . . [and pay] attention to the concrete needs of the family, lest the reality of their world be invalidated and the therapist lose all credibility. Immediate intervention in this area is possibly the most powerful and most connecting engagement skill, regardless of the discipline of the clinician. (Parnell & Vanderkloot, 1989, p. 447; emphasis added) It seems probable that Mrs. Smith would have responded positively to an offer to help Barbie through assisting her family to find better housing if the worker making such an offer had indicated respect for her and an understanding of how repeatedly frustrated she had been in her own efforts to accomplish this. Her criminal history as a felon made it difficult for this mother to obtain housing in the absence of a sponsor who would vouch for her dependability in paying the rent regularly. The help of Mrs. Smith’s public assistance worker and probation officer (with Mrs. Smith’s permission) could have been very valuable in working out some form of guaranteed direct-deposit rental system. In this multiproblem family, as in others, environmental interventions such as seeking new housing are generally implemented in concert with other interventions. Hepworth et al. (2002, p. 219) point out that “problems, strengths, and resources encountered in direct social work practice result from interaction of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental systems. Difficulties are rarely confined to one of these systems, for functional imbalance in one system typically contributes to imbalance in others.” Mrs. Smith’s psychological status was not assessed, despite the many stresses to which she alluded on the video. We do not know whether individual counseling was recommended to her. As reported in Chapter 3, Mrs. Smith chose not to become involved in the various opportunities at the school, which might have addressed some of her own parenting challenges in a group format with other, similarly challenged parents (such as in a parenting support group). Even more troubling was the fact that Mrs. Smith did not make it possible for Barbie to attend school on a consistent basis. Despite the availability of transportation, Barbie missed 15 out of the 31 school days (almost half) during the 2 months she was enrolled in the First Place program. One wonders how she occupied her time during these days at home in a motel with her mother. Later, the family obtained Section 8 housing, and Barbie transferred to a neighborhood school briefly before leaving for an extended stay with her father out of state. Just imagine the frustration of a 10-year-old girl in trying to make friends, to understand the academic expectations of different teachers, and to adapt to these successive new neighborhoods and living situations! Choi and Snyder (1999) mention that homelessness can exacerbate existing disorders and contribute to depression and anxiety, thereby making it more difficult for individuals to carry out normal daily functions. A consultant with many years of experience in the addictions field expressed great skepticism that Mrs. Smith would have remained drug-free during the entire time shown on the video, which was the period during which Barbie missed so many days of school. Many former addicts find it formidable to get up in the morning and organize their lives. The consultant also commented that Mrs. Smith actually may have needed Barbie and her brother to help her with various daily living tasks. The tape showed Barbie and David preparing and serving their mother a simple meal and also assisting with the laundry. Of course, many children perform routine chores to help their parents, and we do not know for certain whether or not Mrs. Smith had returned to using drugs or alcohol at this time. However, it is unfortunate that she did not insist on Barbie’s school attendance and that she was not sufficiently engaged by the school to avail herself of any of its potentially useful services for homeless families or to obtain a referral for counseling services outside the school. I would like to consider, in retrospect, how the school personnel might have successfully engaged Mrs. Smith at the time of Barbie’s first contact with them. I do not intend this to be critical of what was done or not done but rather to use hindsight as a way to learn from experience, in order to highlight engagement methods that may be effective with other homeless and disenfranchised populations. Mrs. Smith’s request when she contacted the school initially was for schooling for Barbie. A wide-angle, ecological view of the child’s situation would have challenged the helpers to broaden the mother’s view of her daughter’s needs to include the notion that helping Barbie would require that she simultaneously help herself and the rest of her family. Successful contracting with Mrs. Smith, therefore, would have involved (1) starting with the mother’s request for schooling (i.e., starting where the client was) and then (2) expanding this request to include housing, job training, and supportive counseling to help all family members cope with their past and current stresses. All of this would have had to be presented in a manner that recognized and validated Mrs. Smith’s strong wish to be a good mother and to keep her family together. Thus successful contracting helps clients to want what they need. It culminates in an oral agreement, which then becomes operationalized through putting specific goals in writing.
Commentaires: 0
Enregistrer un commentaire