Fall 2026 SOWK 486w Week 03 - Direct Social Work Practice

Fall 2026 SOWK 486w Week 03 - Direct Social Work Practice

title: Fall 2026 SOWK 486w Week 03 - Direct Social Work Practice date: 2026-09-07 20:51:28 location: Heritage University tags:

• Heritage University
• BASW Program
• SOWK 486w presentation_video: > “” description: >

Week three of SOWK 486 is about understanding what direct social work practice and some of what makes social workers unique in our helping style. We will start with an exercise, considering how you have been helped in the past. Many clients we work with as social workers are mandated to participate in services involuntary in some manner. We will discuss how to engage with them through some best practices. The agenda for the session is as follows:

• How we help
• Orienting perspectives for social work practice
• Evidence-based practice
• Involuntary clients
• Ecological Systems Model
• Social work jobs and roles

Learning Objectives

• Identify and describe key roles, settings, and practice areas where social workers operate, including local examples.
• Explain the purpose of social work and how the profession addresses prevention, restoration, and remediation.
• Analyze the ecological systems model and orienting perspectives (e.g., strengths-based, cultural humility, trauma-informed) as frameworks for understanding client interactions.
• Reflect on personal and professional alignment with the NASW Code of Ethics and its core values.
• Describe strategies for building trust and promoting cooperation with mandated clients.

Week 03 Plan

Agenda

• How we help
• Orienting perspectives for social work practice
• Evidence-based practice
• Involuntary clients
• Ecological Systems Model
• Social work jobs and roles

Learning Objectives

• Identify and describe key roles, settings, and practice areas where social workers operate, including local examples.
• Explain the purpose of social work and how the profession addresses prevention, restoration, and remediation.
• Analyze the ecological systems model and orienting perspectives (e.g., strengths-based, cultural humility, trauma-informed) as frameworks for understanding client interactions.
• Reflect on personal and professional alignment with the NASW Code of Ethics and its core values.
• Describe strategies for building trust and promoting cooperation with mandated clients.

Deep Dive: Hepworth et al. (2023)

Textbook Podcast

• How do you add it
• It does not replace the reading
• It can sensationalize content and misconstrue ideas

How Have You Been Supported (1 of 2)

“You can close your eyes to the things you don’t want to see, but you can’t close your heart to the things you don’t want to feel.” –Johnny Depp

Each of us, to our own degree, has had difficult experiences, and often we’ve had somebody who has supported or comforted us.

[Small Group Activity] Developing a Poster Showcasing How You Have Been Supported

Working in small groups, 3-5 people, recall a time that you were experiencing an intense emotional difficulty and were comforted and supported. You don’t need to share what it is, or provide overly personal details.

• How did you “know” that person was supportive?
• What behaviors and words did that person use that were helpful to you?

-> Next Slide

How Have You Been Supported (2 of 2)

This slide includes the details of the assignment for the small group activity, “Developing a Poster Showcasing How You Have Been Supported”

Recall a time that you were experiencing an intense emotional difficulty and were comforted and supported…

• How did you “know” that person was being supportive
• What behaviors and words did that person use that were helpful to you
• List these on your poster for future reference

[Whole Group Activity] Share posters

Have students present about their posters and hang them on the wall.

[Whole Group Activity] Debrief the activity.

• Social work isn’t rocket science
• Systematic connection

The Purpose of Social Work

Social work has a threefold purpose. It works to prevent, restore, and remediate.

1. Prevention: involves the timely provision of services to vulnerable persons, promoting social functioning before problems develop. It includes programs and activities such as family planning, well-baby clinics, parent education, premarital and preretirement counseling, and marital enrichment programs.
2. Restoration: Efforts to restore functioning that physical or mental difficulties have impaired. Included in this group of clients are persons with varying degrees of paralysis caused by severe spinal injury, individuals afflicted with chronic mental illness, persons with developmental disabilities, persons with deficient educational backgrounds, and individuals with many other types of disability
3. Remediation: The elimination or amelioration of existing social problems.

(Hepworth et al., 2017)

Contemporary Influences on Social Work

The textbook described seven contemporary influences on the profession of social work and social work practice—the need for self-care, pandemics (COVID-19, violence against Black and Brown people), funding for services, technological advances, globalization, scientific changes, and the sociopolitical environment.

[Whole Class Activity] Invite students to consider contemporary movements or problems not included here, and write them on the board. How do these movements or problems impact social welfare policy, the social work profession, and the practice of social work?

(Hepworth et al., 2023)

NASW Core Values (1 of 2) - My Connection to Ethical Principles

In the preamble section, the NASW Code of Ethics gives six different values.

[Whole Class Activity] Go through each of the six values and discuss how they connect with my life and how I understand them personally.

1. Service: Talk about when I once heard about service. I think about this: we, as social workers, have to get our jeans a little bit dirty. (The provision of help, resources, and benefits so that people may achieve their maximum potential.)
2. Social Justice: I think about social justice seeing people in a food line. We have the twofold responsibility to say, “let’s make sure you get some food and are ok…” but let’s also look at the systems that made it possible for you to be here in the first place and tear them down. I haven’t been as active as I would like, but somewhat active in local protests and organizing. (The idea that in a perfect world, all citizens would have “the same basic rights, protection, and opportunities, obligations, and social benefits.”)
3. Dignity and worth of the person: I’m reminded of reading Under the Overpass: A Journey of Faith on the Streets of America by Mike Yankoski… and his discussion of just even looking at people who are homeless. (Holding people in high esteem and appreciating individual value)
4. Importance of human relationships: Building rapport with our clients, colleagues, and, for me, people all around the world. (Valuing the “mutual emotional exchange; dynamic interaction ; and affective, cognitive and behavioral connections… which creates atmosphere”)
5. Integrity: After graduating from the Master’s Commission, my pastor gave me a compass that I keep on my desk as a reminder to follow what’s right (trustworthiness and sound adherence to moral ideals)
6. Competence: Constantly growing, improving… think Dreyfus model of skill acquisition. (Necessary skills and abilities)

NASW Core Values (2 of 2) - Student Connection with Ethical Principles

I want you to go through and talk with a partner about how you connect with the ethical principles within the social worker code of ethics. Social workers do the following:

• Social workers’ primary goal is to help people in need and to address social problems.
• Social workers challenge social injustice.
• Social workers respect the inherent dignity and worth of the person.
• Social workers recognize the central importance of human relationships.
• Social workers behave in a trustworthy manner
• Social workers practice within their areas of competence and develop and enhance their professional expertise.

[Small Group Activity] How I Relate to NASW’s Ethical Principles

With a partner, spend about five minutes discussing these ethical principles and how they relate to your life or how you connect with them.

Reference - Full Text of Ethical Principles

The following broad ethical principles are based on social work’s core values of service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence. These principles set forth ideals to which all social workers should aspire.

Value:Service
Ethical Principle: Social workers’ primary goal is to help people in need and to address social problems

Social workers elevate service to others above self-interest. Social workers draw on their knowledge, values, and skills to help people in need and to address social problems. Social workers are encouraged to volunteer a portion of their professional skills without expecting significant financial return (pro bono service).

Value: Social Justice
Ethical Principle:** Social workers challenge social injustice.

Social workers pursue social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups of people. Social workers’ social change efforts are focused primarily on issues of poverty, unemployment, discrimination, and other forms of social injustice. These activities seek to promote sensitivity to and knowledge about oppression and cultural and ethnic diversity. Social workers strive to ensure access to needed information, services, and resources; equality of opportunity; and meaningful participation in decision-making for all people.

Value: Dignity and Worth of the Person
Ethical Principle: Social workers respect the inherent dignity and worth of the person.

Social workers treat each person in a caring and respectful fashion, mindful of individual differences and cultural and ethnic diversity. Social workers promote clients’ socially responsible self-determination. Social workers seek to enhance clients’ capacity and opportunity to change and to address their own needs. Social workers are cognizant of their dual responsibility to clients and to the broader society. They seek to resolve conflicts between clients’ interests and the broader society’s interests in a socially responsible manner, consistent with the profession’s values, ethical principles, and standards.

Value: Importance of Human Relationships
Ethical Principle: Social workers recognize the central importance of human relationships.

Social workers understand that relationships between and among people are an important vehicle for change. Social workers engage people as partners in the helping process. Social workers seek to strengthen relationships among people in a purposeful effort to promote, restore, maintain, and enhance the well-being of individuals, families, social groups, organizations, and communities.

Value: Integrity
Ethical Principle: Social workers behave in a trustworthy manner.

Social workers are continually aware of the profession’s mission, values, ethical principles, and ethical standards and practice in a manner consistent with them. Social workers should take measures to care for themselves professionally and personally. Social workers act honestly and responsibly and promote ethical practices within the organizations with which they are affiliated.

Value: Competence
Ethical Principle: Social workers practice within their areas of competence and develop and enhance their professional expertise.

Social workers continually strive to increase their professional knowledge and skills and to apply them in practice. Social workers should aspire to contribute to the profession’s knowledge base. (National Association of Social Workers, 2021, “Ethical Principles” para. 1)

Orienting Perspectives for Social Work Practice

The newest edition of the textbook frames social work practice with what they describe as orienting perspectives. These perspectives go across each of our classes and areas of practice within social work. It is these perspectives that really make social work a unique focus.

Ecosystem Perspective: Behind and/or integrated into all of it is…Ecosystem Perspective, which Hepworth et al. (2023) describe as “That is, it provides a set of metaphors to help us understand the interconnections among people and the various systems in which they interact, but the model does not provide a roadmap for practice. It does not illuminate the mechanisms through which people and their environments influence each other, nor how to achieve an adequate goodness-of-fit.” (p. 21)

Five orienting perspectives are all interrelated and connect with direct social work practice:

1. Strengths Perspective: Social workers acting from a strengths perspective collaborate with clients to the greatest degree possible to support client self-determination in the resolution of their problems. Moreover, the strengths perspective guides social workers in mobilizing clients’ resources, relationships, knowledge, life experiences, and competencies to achieve the goals they value. Harnessing clients’ strengths promotes their autonomy and independence and ensures successful functioning even after contact with the social worker has ended.
2. Cultural Humility: Social workers who practice cultural humility accept cultural differences and affirm the value and importance of all cultures. They exhibit curiosity about cultural differences and reflect deeply about how their own cultural orientation informs their helping efforts. Cultural humility also draws attention to the power differences that are inherent in the social worker–client relationship
3. Antioppressive Practice: The goal of AOP is to foster the full participation of clients in society irrespective of oppressive ideologies that justify exclusion, discrimination, and violence. In doing so, AOP contributes to macro-level change by incrementally replacing oppressive ideologies with alternatives grounded in equality and acceptance.
4. Trauma-Informed Practice: Trauma-informed practice is a strengths-based approach that guides social workers in how to work with individuals who have histories of trauma. It is a relational approach to social work that promotes a sense of safety, collaboration, and empowerment. It creates opportunities for individuals to rebuild, heal, and restore control and well-being.
5. Evidence-Informed Practice: Evidence-informed decision-making and evidence-based practices. (1) Evidence-informed decision-making is a strategy for integrating research evidence into practice and policy decisions. (2) The process of evidence-informed decision-making often leads to the adoption of specific evidence-based practices (EBPs).

(Hepworth et al., 2023)

Principles for Practice

We can also consider the following as the principles we apply to practice across contexts.

First, consistent with the view of the ecological systems perspective, our philosophy of direct practice recognizes that people are embedded in interactions with their social and physical environments. The orienting perspectives share the assumption that people have strengths, defined as resources, relationships, knowledge, life experience, and competencies, that are used to facilitate the problem-solving process, as well as resource deficits that contribute to client problems.

Second, the orienting perspectives all share the assumption of collaborative problem-solving. Only through collaboration can social workers engage in socially just practice with the goal of more inclusive communities and a more just allocation of resources. Collaboration includes respect for client strengths, worldviews, self-determination, and autonomy.

Third, the orienting perspectives all point to self-awareness as a cornerstone of effective, ethical practice. Self-awareness of the themes presented in these orienting perspectives will help you recognize how your role in the helping process can empower or disempower clients.

(Hepworth et al., 2023)

Research-Informed Practice and Practice-Informed Research

Another area of competency for social workers and part of our eclectic base of knowledge is that of Research-Informed Practice and Practice-Informed Research

[Small Group Activity] Pair Discussion

Turn to a partner and share a reason that social work research is significant

[Whole Class Activity] Solicit responses from the partner activity Why is social work research important?

Social workers must be able to effectively evaluate the work they do with clients at all levels—evaluating macrosystem effectiveness and understanding, analyzing, and critically evaluating social literature and research.

Why Knowledge about social work research is important

1. Choosing effective interventions
   • Scientific orientation to identify, evaluate, and choose effective interventions
   • Research-informed practice is evidence-based social work
   • Framing social work interventions so they can be evaluated through research, thus providing information about which specific techniques work best for specific problems.
   • Practice-informed research refers to scientific investigation designed to attain results related to successful social work practice.
2. More effective individual practice The second reason research is important is that this scientific perspective can guide social workers to become more effective in their practice.
3. Development of the profession
   • The third reason is that accumulated research helps to build an effective knowledge base for the social work profession.
   • This helps define social work practice, increase the effectiveness of interventions, and enhance professional accountability.

(Hepworth et al., 2023)

Evidence-Based Practice - Training in Evidence-Based Approaches

Very common is getting specific training in a particular EBP (i.e., ART, Guiding Good Choices, etc.)

“focuses not just on knowing about the intervention but on acquiring the skills necessary to carry it out effectively” (Hepworth, et al. 2017, p. 19)

Concerns Include: Generalize beyond effectiveness, short-term nature of EBP

Evidence-Based Practice - Other

In working with clients, taking a more eclectic approach is sometimes the method. This is especially true with the increased use of training in EBP’s…

Common Elements Approach: In evidence-based practice, examining commonalities across effective interventions (Chorpita, Daleiden, & Weisz, 2005).

Common Factors Approach: In evidence-based practice, emphasizing broad factors shared by different intervention approaches, such as the strength of relationship or alliance (Duncan, Miller, Wampold, & Hubble, 2010).

(Hepworth, et al. 2017)

Deciding when and how to intervene with clients in social work practice

Deciding when and how to intervene with our clients is vital for social workers. The following are some of the criteria that we must consider:

• Increase decision-making: Social workers value maximum feasible self-determination, empowerment, and enhancing of strengths to increase the client’s voice in decision making.
• Assess: Social workers assess circumstances from a systems perspective, mindful of the person in the situation, the setting, the community, and the organization.
• Sensitive to diversity: Social workers are sensitive to diversity in considering interventions.
• Evidence-based practices: Social workers draw on evidence-based practices at both process and intervention levels as well as common factors in determining, together with the client, how to proceed.
• Critical thinking: Social workers think critically about practice, check out assumptions, and examine alternatives.

(Hepworth et al., 2017)

Define Critical Thinking Skills and Apply Them to Practice

The greatest thing you can learn from college is critical thinking as we go into our practice, we should be applying critical thinking. [Discussion] What does critical thinking mean?

• Focuses on the process of reasoning.
• The goal of critical thinking is to evaluate the accuracy of impressions, assess diverse aspects of a situation, and develop creative approaches to finding solutions and making plans.

Paul and Elder (2014) on page 12 describe what they call the universal intellectual standards that we should apply to our thinking. They describe:

1. Purpose: The reason or goal behind the thinking should be clearly stated, relevant, and justifiable.

   • What is the purpose of the reasoner?
   • Is the purpose clearly stated or clearly implied?
   • Is the purpose justifiable?

2. Question: The central issue or problem being addressed should be clear, unbiased, and framed to capture the complexity of the matter.

   • Is the question at issue well-stated?
   • Is it clear and unbiased?
   • Does the question do justice to the complexity of the issue?
   • Are the question and purpose directly relevant to each other?

3. Information: The data, evidence, or experiences used should be accurate, relevant, sufficient, and address the complexities of the issue.

   • Does the writer cite relevant evidence, experiences, and/or information essential to the issue?
   • Is the information accurate?
   • Does the writer address the complexities of the issue?

4. Concepts The ideas, theories, or principles used should be clearly defined, well-explained, and applied appropriately.

   • Does the writer clarify key concepts when necessary?
   • Are the concepts used justifiably?

5. Assumptions: The beliefs or ideas taken for granted should be identified, examined for validity, and not left unquestioned.

   • Does the writer show a sensitivity to what they are taking for granted or assuming?
   • Are any questionable assumptions used without being addressed?

6. Inferences: The reasoning that connects evidence to conclusions should be logical, coherent, and clearly explained.

   • Does the writer develop a logical line of reasoning?
   • Is it clear how they arrive at their main conclusions?

7. Point of View: The perspective from which the issue is considered should recognize alternative viewpoints and engage with relevant objections.

   • Does the writer show sensitivity to alternative relevant points of view?
   • Do they consider and respond to objections from other perspectives?

8. Implications: The consequences and outcomes of the reasoning should include awareness of the potential effects, both intended and unintended.

   • Does the writer show an awareness of the implications and consequences of their position?

Tips for Working with Mandated Clients (1 of 3) Types of Clients

In social work, we have all types of clients that we work with.

[Whole Class Activity] Discuss the differences and possible clients for each client type.

• legally mandated
• voluntary
• non voluntary

Tips for Working with Mandated Clients (2 of 3) Tips 1-5

Involuntary clients are forced into involvement with social workers and really do not want to be involved. They could be mandated or non-mandated.

[Discussion] What might be some reasons for clients being mandated?

10 suggestions for working with involuntary clients.

1. Acknowledge to yourself that the client is indeed voluntary.
2. Try to put yourself in the clients shoes.
3. Label and help the clients express their negative feelings.
4. Clarify your role for the client.
5. Know the limits of your authority, and in effect power over the client.

(Kirst-Ashman & Hull, 2015)

Tips for Working with Mandated Clients (3 of 3) Tips 6-10

1. Give them as many choices as possible including minor options.
2. Figure out what you can do for the client that he or she wants.
3. Use pro-social modeling and reinforcement in order to encourage and promote client pro–social values and behaviors.
4. Allow the client to gain trust in you and in the intervention process.
5. Accept the fact that, ultimately the client has the right to choose whether or not to cooperate with you.

(Kirst-Ashman & Hull, 2015)

Ecological Systems Framework - The Ramirez Case

The ecological systems perspective is what sits behind multidimensional assessment. Instead of asking “what is wrong with this client,” it asks what is happening between this person and the systems she is embedded in. That reframing is what makes it useful for planning: if the difficulty lives in the transactions, the intervention has more than one place to land.

Hepworth et al. (2023) put it plainly — the model “provides a set of metaphors to help us understand the interconnections among people and the various systems in which they interact, but the model does not provide a roadmap for practice” (p. 21). It tells us where to look, not what to do.

Rather than define it further in the abstract, we are going to use it on the case you already read in Chapter 1. In the textbook they asked you to consider things such as roles, values, social justice issues, and power dynamics in the helping relationship. I’m going to ask you to consider risk and protective factors.

If we only assess Mrs. Ramirez, we get a depressed woman with an injured back whose children miss school. Widen the lens and a different picture shows up.

[Small Group Activity] Mapping Risks and Protective Factors

In small groups, work through the Ramirez case twice. First pass: what in her environment is working against this family? Second pass: what is working for them? Put both lists on the board.

Risk factors — what to draw out

• School: the children report the teachers are mean to them because they are Hispanic. Discrimination is an environmental condition, not a perception to be corrected.
• Neighborhood and community: a new community where the family does not feel welcome; her previous state had a different legal standard, so the same behavior is now a legal matter.
• Policy and structural: undocumented status makes her ineligible for the surgery she needs. There is no health-care safety net available to her.
• Legal: she is a legally mandated client, referred under threat of a court order rather than by her own choice.
• Individual: back injury, depression, anxiety; children frequently ill with flu and asthma.

Protective factors — what to draw out

• Her determination that her children have a better life than their parents. The text names this first.
• Community and spiritual support systems, both locally and in her home country of Mexico.
• Tobias himself, once he chooses to address her concerns rather than only the attendance statute.

[Whole Class Activity] Debrief

• Notice what the record does not tell us. There is nothing here about extended family or kin nearby, nothing about what this family does for recreation, nothing about what the children enjoy. A referral-driven record collects what the referral was about. Multidimensional assessment means going after what is missing.
• Where could an intervention land? Working the list should produce more than one answer — the school, the health system, her own treatment, the legal process. That is the point of the framework.
• What happens to the assessment if we skip the environmental scan? Tobias wrote in his case notes that he suspected the children were not attending because undocumented immigrants “did not value education.” Hepworth et al. name that as a possible bias with profound implications — acting on it would have stopped him from ever looking at the school.

Case Situation: The Ramirez Case

Marta Ramirez was referred to child welfare services because her two elementary school-age children had more than seven days of unexcused absences from school during the semester, the standard for educational neglect in her state. When Tobias, a child welfare social worker, met with Mrs. Ramirez, he found that the children had missed a similar amount of time when they had previously lived in another state, as well as earlier, before they had emigrated without documents from Mexico. There had not been any earlier investigations, however, as the legal standard for educational neglect was different in the previous state. Mrs. Ramirez noted that her children had been frequently ill with “flu and asthma.” She said that the children did not feel comfortable at the school. They felt that the teachers were mean to them because they were Hispanic. In addition, Mrs. Ramirez had sustained a back injury on her job that limited her ability to get out of bed some mornings. As an immigrant without documents, Mrs. Ramirez was ineligible for the surgery that she needed to alleviate her condition. She also expressed fears related to her undocumented immigrant status. Finally, she acknowledged experiencing depression and anxiety.

Tobias shared with Mrs. Ramirez the reason for the referral under statute and asked for her perspective on school attendance. He explained that child welfare workers are called on to assist families in having their children educated. He also asked about how things were going for Mrs. Ramirez and her family in their community. In so doing, Tobias explained his dual roles of responding to the law violation and helping families address issues of concern to them. (p. 14)

(Hepworth et al., 2023)

Direct Social Work Practice and Components

Social work is an extremely diverse field. One of the benefits of the generalist methods for social work is that we can practice in so many different fields of practice. While the specific job titles might not be “social worker” for each of these professions, these are all areas we practice in.

[Whole Class Activity - Discussion] Discuss each of the fields of practice, with potential examples of roles social workers might take:

Most of the problems that social workers face are complex and could fall in more than one field of practice, and it is important to know a wide range of services.

• Work with Immigrants: Agencies that provide legal aid, resettlement support, language access programs, and cultural integration services for immigrant and refugee populations. Local examples include Tri-Cities Immigrant Coalition, World Relief (Tri-Cities), Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP), and B5 (Bridges to New Beginnings).
• Housing or Financial Services: Organizations offering rental assistance, homelessness prevention, housing development, and financial counseling. Local examples include the Benton-Franklin Community Action Committee (CAC), Housing Authorities, and the Benton-Franklin Counties Housing Resource Center.
• Hospital and Health Services: Hospitals and clinics providing acute, specialized, and primary care services to support patients’ medical needs. Also consider hospice. Local examples include Kadlec Regional Medical Center, Trios Health, and Lourdes Medical Center.
• Mental Health Services: Counseling centers, crisis intervention teams, and psychiatric programs offering therapy, case management, and medication support. Local examples include Tri-Cities Community Health, Lourdes Counseling Center, Comprehensive, private agencies, WISE, etc.
• Disability Services: Agencies supporting individuals with physical or developmental disabilities through vocational training, life skills development, and inclusive social services. Local examples include Columbia Ability Alliance (formerly Columbia Industries) and The Arc of Tri-Cities.
• Chemical and Substance Abuse Services: Programs addressing addiction and recovery through counseling, detox, and peer support. Local examples include Choices and Changes, Somerset Counseling Center, and Ideal Balance.
• Child, Youth, and Family Services: Organizations offering parenting education, youth mentorship, and after-school programs to support children and families. Local examples include Ignight Youth Mentoring, Head Start/ECEAP programs, and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Benton and Franklin Counties.
• Child Welfare: Government or nonprofit agencies focused on child protection, foster care, adoption, and family reunification. Local examples include the Washington State Children’s Administration (CPS), Catholic Family and Child Services, and foster/adoption services through Service Alternatives.
• School Social Work: Services embedded within school systems to support students’ academic, socio-emotional, and family engagement needs. Program social worker, general social workers in Richland, Mental Health Therapists
• Working with Aging Clients: Agencies and programs that support older adults in maintaining independence, navigating services, and improving their quality of life. Local examples include the Aging and Long-Term Support Administration (ALTSA), working in a rehab center.

[Small Group Activity - Discussion] What areas of practice do you think of when you think of social work?

Levels of Case Management

Summers (2015) describes case management and notes that different positions have varying caseloads. These vary and tend to be on a continuum.

• Administrative case management
  • Limited assistance is being offered
  • Higher functioning patients
  • Maybe an example of a DSHS Worker
• Resource coordination
  • Higher level of care
  • More in-depth planning
  • Moderate level of function
  • Maybe example of a worker at a community mental health
• Blended case management
  • Mixture of high-need clients and lower-need clients
  • Variable level of functioning
  • Maybe example of a worker at a community mental health
• Intensive case management
  • High level of care is necessary
  • Going with clients
  • Low level of functioning
  • Maybe an example of wraparound, PAC Team… etc

Roles Social Workers Play

Along with the various areas of practice that we fulfill, we also have roles that we implement. These include the following:

• Direct Service Provider
  • Individual casework or counseling
  • Couples or family therapy
  • Group work services
  • Educator, disseminator of information
• System Linkage Roles
  • Broker
  • Case manager, coordinator
  • Mediator, arbitrator, advocate
• System Developer
  • Program developer
  • Planner
  • Policy and procedure developer
  • Advocate
• Researcher & Research Consumer
• System Maintenance Roles
  • Organizational analyst (worker who pinpoints factors in agency structure, policy, and procedures that have a negative impact on service delivery)
  • Facilitator, expediter
  • Team member
  • Consultant / consultee
  • Supervisor

There is a list in the current version, but it isn’t organized the same.

(Heptworth, et al., 2017)