Theory Informed Direct Practice: SSWG 5101 and SSWG 5102

Several pages on this guide relate to the Social Work “Helping Process” for working with individuals, families, and groups that include:

1. Self Care
2. Engagement
3. Assessment
4. Planning
5. Intervention (Treatment)
6. Monitoring and Evaluation
7. Termination

Content on these pages include definitions and approaches, listing of course readings, sample practice manuals and tools and searching tips.

Self Care

NASW’s Code of Ethics was amended in 2021 to include Self-Care

"Professional self-care is paramount for competent and ethical social work practice. Professional demands, challenging workplace climates, and exposure to trauma warrant that social workers maintain personal and professional health, safety, and integrity. Social work organizations, agencies, and educational institutions are encouraged to promote organizational policies, practices, and materials to support social workers’ self-care."

Course Readings (access via Canvas)

SSWG 5102 Readings

• Singer, J. B. (Host). (2015, November 2). Becoming a clinical social worker: Interview with Dr. Danna Bodenheimer (Episode 99) [Audio podcast episode]. In The Social Work Podcast. Blogspot.
• Singer, J. B. (Host). (2021, May 26). Self-care and cultural humility in the 2021 NASW Code of Ethics: Interview with Allan Barsky, MSW, Ph.D. (Episode 130) [Audio podcast episode]. In The Social Work Podcast.
• National Association of Social Workers (NASW). (n.d.) Code of ethics.

Resources

Engagement

"Relationship building, or engagement, is the first step in the professional helping process and leads to the other steps of assessment, intervention, and evaluation. *** This chapter explores aspects of engagement—the process of building relationships across direct and indirect practice settings—and its critical role in the overall success of social work practice. The first section examines the importance of listening to ascertain the situation and perspective of the client system (i.e., individual, family, group, community, and organization). It introduces interviewing skills and approaches that can help your client share with you and help you to enlist the assistance of others. This section also discusses skill combinations that can help you establish productive connections with your clients. Later sections in the chapter consider the engagement process from strengths-based, social justice, and human rights perspectives."

Source: Birkenmaier, J., Berg-Weger, M., & Dewees, M. P. (2013). Individual engagement: Relationship skills for practice at all levels. In The practice of generalist social work (3rd ed.) (page 68). Routledge

For graphic assessment tools and resources, go to Genogram and Ecomap.

Course Readings (access via Canvas)

Motivational Interviewing Readings

(relevant for practice in all phases, from Engagement to Termination). 

1. The following chapters from Miller, W. & Rollnick, S. (2013). Motivational Interviewing (3rd Edition). Guilford Press.

• Chapters 1-3 What is MI?
• Chapters 4-7 Engaging: The Relational Foundation.
• Chapters 8-11 Focusing: The Strategic Direction.
• Chapters 12-18 Evoking: Preparation for Change
• Chapters 19-22 Planning: The Bridge to Change

2. Miller, W. R. & Rollnick, S. (2009). Ten things that motivational interviewing is not. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 37, 129-140.
3. Boyle, S., Vseteckova, J., & Higgins, M. (2019). Impact of motivational interviewing by social workers on service users: a systematic review. Research on Social Work Practice, 29(8), 863-875.
4. Birkenmaier, J., Berg-Weger, M., & Dewees, M. P. (2013). Individual engagement: Relationship skills for practice at all levels. In The practice of generalist social work (3rd ed.) (pp. 67- 97). Routledge.
5. Victor, E., El-Behadli, A., McDonald, W., Pratt, C., & Faith, M. (2019). Motivational Interviewing Training Outcomes Among Providers in a Children’s Hospital. Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, 26, 364–37.

Additional SSWG 5102 Readings

Social work with Family

• Staudt, M., Lodato, G., & Hickman, C.R. (2012). Therapists talk about the engagement process. Community Mental Health, 48, 212-218.
• Greene, R. R. & Schriver, J. M. (2017). Human Behavior and the Social Environment Theory: Social Work Practice with Individuals (Chapter 5). In Handbook of Human Behavior and the Social Environment (pp. 91-114). Routledge.
• Sommers-Flanagan, J. & Sommers-Flanagan, R. (2015). An overview of the interview process.  In Clinical interviewing (5th Edition) (pp. 203-242). John Wiley & Sons Inc.
• Hutchison, E.D. (2015). Families (Chapter 10). In Dimensions of human behavior: Person and environment (6th Edition) (pp. 299-342). Sage.
• Vaughn, M.G., DeLisi, M., & Matto, H.C. (2014). Social Networks and Psychological Relations (Chapter 10). Human behavior: A cell to society approach (pp. 195-216). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
• Angier, N. (2013, November 25). The changing American family. The New York Times.
• Bowleg, L. (2012). The problem with the phrase women and minorities: Intersectionality – an important theoretical framework for public health. American Journal of Public Health, 102, 1267-1273.

Social Work with Groups

• Birkenmaier, J., Berg-Weger, M., & Dewees, M. P. (2013). Social work practice with Groups: Engagement, assessment and planning (Chapter 8). In The practice of generalist social work (3rd Edition) (pp. 344-355). Routledge.

Additional SSWG 5101 Readings

• Greene, R.R. & Schriver, J. (2017). Chapter 2 Human behavior and the social environment (HBSE): Ecological base. In Handbook of human behavior and the social environment (pp.17-34). Routledge.
• Cameron, M. & King Keegan, E. (2010). The common factors model: Implications for transtheoretical clinical social work practice. Social Work, 55, 63-73. https://doi.org/10/1093/sw/55/1/63
• Greene & Schriver (2017). Chapter 5 HBSE Theory: Social work practice with individuals and families. In Handbook of human behavior and the social environment (pp. 91-111). Routledge.
• Brown, D., Rodgers, Y.H., Kapadia, K. (2008). Multicultural considerations for the application of attachment theory. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 62(4), p. 353-363.
• Greene, R.R. & Schriver (2017). Chapter 10 Risk and resilience theory: A bridge from neuroscience to global practice. In Handbook of human behavior and the social environment (pp. 203-226). Routledge.
• Larkin, H., Felitti, V. J., & Anda, R. F. (2014). Social work and Adverse Childhood Experiences

Resources are in the process of being added.

Theories and Concepts

• Alliance
• Boundaries
• Subsystems
• Communications
• Resources/Resilience
• Family Structures
• Family Functioning

SSWG 5102 Course Readings (access via Canvas)

• Birkenmaier, J., Berg-Weger, M., & Dewees, M. P. (2013). Social work practice with Groups: Engagement, assessment and planning (Chapter 8). In The practice of generalist social work (3rd Edition) (pp. 344-355). Routledge.
• Greene, R.R. & Schriver, J. M. (2017). Human Behavior and the Social Environment Theory: Social Work Practice with Groups (Chapter 7). In Handbook of Human Behavior and the Social Environment (pp. 139-155). Routledge.

What is going on with my search results?

Course readings provide a starter list of the "literature on engagement" in social work and can help you identify the seminal or most influential work/article, language, authors/experts, theories, skills, and location (source) for searching.

Understanding the language, logic, and location (fields) used by databases will help you to learn from the results and adjust your search terms and strategies.

Engagement is generally not a subject heading or thesaurus term used in indexing databases relevant to social work. Instead, for example, Library of Congress Subject Headings "social work with [group]" is used to index books and media. Results in Library Search will show LCSH terms in the subject field. 

Engagement and its synonyms or variants may also be entered as keywords or search terms.

• Brainstorm synonyms or words that describe what the engagement phase is about, such as connecting with clients, client relationship, confidentiality, building rapport and trust, cooperative or collaborative relationship. You may also want to use words for specific theories, approaches and skills, such as attachment theory, empathy and reflective listening.
   
• Think about all the contexts in which the term(s) might appear. Dictionaries can help with this. Client engagement is discussed by many professions, so you might start by first looking in social work specific databases to identify language used by the social work profession.
   
• Many databases also recognize proximity operators like PRE, ADJ, and NEAR and wildcard symbols, such as an asterisk (*), to string search terms for a more precise match. Entering "client engagement" (exact phrase searching) may only match results that have those words in that order. Entering client NEAR/3 engag* will return results where the word client appear in any order, within three words of engage, engagement, engaging, engaged.
   
• Know how the search engine/database determines relevance and handle operators. Some examples:
  • Automatic stemming: Google search engine (Google) and Library Search automatically find different ending for a term, so you do not have to add * to the end of a word. Google will also automatically search synonyms and variants for the word.  Databases may do something similar with thesaurus terms and controlled vocabularly.
     
  • Exact phrase and variant searching:  Google will breakdown an exact phrase into words with AND between to search. Likewise, ProQuest curly brackets search the exact phrase and variants “{client engagement}”.  
     
  • Automatic term mapping: Exact phrases in PubMed does the opposite and narrow your search to exact matching. Without the quotes, automatic term mapping "translates" your terms into the database language and search fields to return results.  You can review and make adjustments.

Five Key Strategies

1. Start with what you have (article, author, term, etc) and follow the language, location (source), and links.
2. Identify Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) and demographic/ethnic group terms for controlled vocabulary, synonyms and related terms. For example:

• Social work with alcoholics
• Social work with drug addicts
• Substance-Related Disorders — therapy
• For other Social Work with [individuals and population targets or groups], view the LCSH for social work.

3. Use the database controlled vocabulary, such as thesaurus, subject or descriptors.  Usually found in Advanced Search.
4. Search in Library Search and browse the results and topic filters/fields (on left side) to identify terms and sources.
5. Ask your professor, faculty experts on the subject, and the Temple University Libraries Social Work or other subject librarians.