SOCW 6101-5 DISCUSSION QUESTION: CHALLENGES IN MICROWORK

VIDEO SCRIPT # 2

HELLO, THIS IS THE VIDEO SCRIPT THAT MUST BE READ TO COMPLETE THE ASSIGNMENT I COULD NOT PULL THE VIDEO SO I PULLED THE SCRIPT FROM IT…

[sipping]

[music playing]

FEMALE SPEAKER: So what is empathy and why

is it very different than sympathy?

Empathy fuels connection.

Sympathy drives disconnection.

Empathy, it's very interesting.

Teresa Wiseman is a nursing scholar

who studied professions, very diverse professions where

empathy is relevant and came up with four qualities of empathy.

Perspective taking, the ability to take

the perspective of another person

or recognize their perspective as their truth.

Staying out of judgment, not easy when you enjoy

it as much as most of us do.

Recognizing emotion in other people

and then communicating that.

Empathy is feeling with people.

And to me, I always think of empathy

as this kind of sacred space when

someone's kind of in a deep hole and they

shout out from the bottom and they say, "I'm stuck.

It's dark.

I'm overwhelmed."

And then we look and we say, "Hey," and we climb down,

"I know what it's like down here.

And you're not alone."

Sympathy is, "Oh!"

[laughter]

"It's bad, uh-huh."

[laughter]

"No.

You want a sandwich?"

[laughter]

Empathy is a choice, and it's a vulnerable choice,

because in order to connect with you

I have to connect with something in myself that

knows that feeling.

Rarely, if ever, does an empathic response begin with,

"at least."

[laughter]

I had a, yeah.

And we do it all the time, because you know what?

Someone just shared something with us

that's incredibly painful and we're

trying to silver lining it.

I don't think that's a verb, but I'm using it as one.

We're trying to put this silver lining around it.

So, "I had a miscarriage."

"At least you know you can get pregnant."

"I think my marriage is falling apart."

"At least you have a marriage."

[laughter]

"John's getting kicked out of school."

"At least Sarah is an A student."

But one of the things we do sometimes

in the face of very difficult conversations

is we try to make things better.

If I share something with you that's very difficult,

I'd rather you say, "I don't even

know what to say right now, I'm just so glad you told me."

Because the truth is, rarely, can a response

make something better.

What makes something better is connection.

VIDEO SCRIPT #1

HELLO, THIS IS THE VIDEO SCRIPT THAT MUST BE READ TO COMPLETE THE ASSIGNMENT I COULD NOT PULL THE VIDEO SO I PULLED THE SCRIPT FROM IT…

MISS PARKER: I can't believe you did this.

MRS. PARKER: Shut up!

You had it coming.

MISS PARKER: Got what coming?

FEMALE SPEAKER: Please, Ms. Parker.

I was telling your mother here that I was referred by the

social worker in her day program.

MISS PARKER: What did you say?

What lies did you tell?

MRS. PARKER: Not lies, the truth.

You're always yelling at me and throwing out my stuff.

MISS PARKER: Like you can tell!

All this mess!

You're choking me with it!

I am not the one with the problem.

She is.

Just look!

MRS. PARKER: That's right.

Go to your room and sulk baby girl and leave my cats alone.

FEMALE SPEAKER: How many cats do you have, Mrs. Parker?

MRS. PARKER: Six.

One big family.

FEMALE SPEAKER: Can you explain what's happening here?

I can see that you're very angry with your daughter.

Her name's Stephanie, right?

MRS. PARKER: Yes.

Princess Stephanie.

You want to help me?

Tell the princess to stop throwing out my stuff.

FEMALE SPEAKER: Well that's not something I am able to do.

I think the best course is for me to assign an intensive case

manager to help work with you on your home situation.

MRS. PARKER: What do you mean?

FEMALE SPEAKER: You'll work together, set up goals for

your relationship with Stephanie, how to deal with

the two of you living here.

Mrs. Parker?

MRS. PARKER: Maybe.

All this fighting has to stop.

FEMALE SPEAKER: I want to go talk to

Stephanie, Mrs. Parker.

But first, I want to ask you some general questions.

May I?

MRS. PARKER: OK.

FEMALE SPEAKER: OK.

How long have you and Stephanie

lived in this apartment?

[knocking]

Hello, Miss.

Parker?

MISS PARKER: Come on in out of that garbage dump.

I knew you'd want to talk.

It's quite a difference, isn't it?

It's the only place I can feel like I can

breathe around here.

FEMALE SPEAKER: May I sit down?

I understand that you're very angry with your mother.

I heard you say earlier that you want

your home to be clean.

MISS PARKER: Wouldn't you?

You saw it.

FEMALE SPEAKER: How long has it been like this?

MISS PARKER: Since my dad died about three years ago.

It's gotten worse lately.

Every time I try to clean anywhere outside of this room,

throw something away, she freaks out.

I have to keep this in here.

The last time I tried cleaning up, she chased me with it,

swinging it like some crazy woman.

I don't know how much more of this I can take.

I just want to hit her with it.

FEMALE SPEAKER: I understand that this is very difficult

for you because your mother gets so angry when you try to

clean house.

That's why I'm making a referral for an

intensive case manager.

I've already spoken with your mother about this.

MISS PARKER: Do you really think that you and your case

manager are going to make a difference?

My mother is getting dementia and the princess is bipolar.

She and I, we're like gasoline and fire.

You really think you can fix that?

WEEK 2: AT A GLANCE

MICRO SKILLS

INTRODUCTION

The social work process can be accomplished in a series of steps described in the Generalist Intervention Model (GIM). While these steps are the same regardless of whether you are working with individuals, families, groups, organizations, or communities, social workers need to be prepared with specific skills to implement the GIM stages at the micro, mezzo, or macro level. Over the next 4 weeks, you will consider skills for each practice level, starting with micro-skills. You then build skills related to culturally competent and ethical practice in Weeks 6 and 7. In Weeks 8–10, you apply these skills in the specific GIM stages. The course ends with a discussion of advocacy.

This week, you examine the challenges associated with micro practice skills in social work practice and the skills necessary to overcome them. In the Discussion, you practice interviewing techniques and analyze techniques used by colleagues. Then, you complete a video quiz in which you connect social work case portrayals with concepts and skills presented in the first 2 weeks of this course.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Students will:

Analyze use of specific micro skills to address challenges

Analyze skills for overcoming challenges in micro practice

Apply social work concepts to social work practice scenarios

LEARNING RESOURCES

Required Readings

Kirst-Ashman, K. K., & Hull, G. H., Jr. (2018). Empowerment series: Understanding generalist practice (8th ed.). CENGAGE Learning. PLEASE FIND THIS READING IN THE ATTACHMENT

Chapter 2, “Practice Skills for Working With Individuals” (pp. 59–101) PLEASE FIND THE READING IN THE ATTACHMENT

Szczygiel, P. (2019). Navigating student self-disclosure through a relational lens: Examples of increased self-awareness from a social work classroom.Links to an external site. Clinical Social Work Journal, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-019-00714-2 PLEASE FIND THIS READING IN THE ATTACHMENT AND YOU CAN ALSO REFERENCE YOUR WORK FROM THESE CHAPTERS. I WILL REATTACH ALL OF THE OTHER REFERENCES THAT CAN BE USED THROUGHOUT THIS COURSE

DISCUSSION QUESTION:

CHALLENGES IN MICROWORK

Working effectively with individuals means building relationships. As a social worker, there are certain qualities, such as empathy, warmth, and genuineness, that help you develop rapport with clients. However, even when you appropriately utilize your micro skills, rapport building can be difficult with some clients. Challenges may include client hostility, silence, a request for self-disclosure, or the necessity of using confrontation. Social workers need to develop skills to appropriately work through these challenges.

For this Discussion, you begin developing these skills through practice and analysis of practice.

RESOURCES

Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.

Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.

TO PREPARE

Watch the Parker video. In the video, the client’s express hostility toward each other, as well as toward the social worker. In addition, Stephanie asks the social worker for self-disclosure when she asks, “Wouldn’t you?” and “You really think you can fix that?” The scene ends with the client and social worker falling into silence. Consider the challenges depicted in the video. How would you respond?

Post a response to the following:

Explain when it would be appropriate to use self-disclosure.

Provide a specific example of the type of self-disclosure you might use in this scenario.

Identify an interviewing technique you learned from this week’s resources that you would use when working with this client.

Provide a specific example of the interviewing technique.

For example, if you would use an empathetic statement or an open-ended question to elicit information, provide a specific example of the statement or question that you would use.

Explain why you would use this technique.

Support your post with examples from the course text to demonstrate that you have completed the required readings, understand the material, and are able to apply the concepts.