Assignment

Session number or Contact number: Location of the client interview: Walton County Division of Family and Children

1. Description of Client System (race/ethnicity, age, gender, employment status, education-level, ability status, military status, immigration status, marital status, household composition, religious affiliation):

Today another junior social work intern and I performed an intake session with a new client at Walton County Division of Family and Children. In this meeting I followed the criteria on the intake form and gathered that my client was a 28 year old African American female named Jane Roberts. My client is originally from New York but had relocated to Walton County.

1. Presenting Problem (Most people can tolerate a certain degree of hardship or physical/psychological discomfort before seeking help. What is the reason/problem/condition/circumstance/situation that motivates the client system to seek professional help from your field agency?):

The client came to our facility to enroll for food stamp, after she instructed by her physician to focus on eating healthy meals, to be able to control her obesity situation.

1. Purpose of Session (Why is the client being seen by you at this time?):

The purpose of this session was to develop an interview to enroll the client to food stamp. Due to the fact of our senior interns being out today, the other junior intern and I were in charge of obtaining basic information such as name, age, contact info, goals, schedule, etc. we were also in charge of explaining how Food Stamp works and its terms and agreements.

1. Objectives/Goals of this session (What do you intend to do during this session to help the client system:

The goals of the session were to provide the client with a detailed information regarding the Food Stamp and how it works. Also I would evaluate if the client qualifies for the enrollment of the Food Stamp or not.

1. Centering (What did you do to be present in the moment with the client system – breathing activities, progressive muscle relaxation activities, mediating, praying, grounding activities, self-talk, removing distractions from the environment (e.g. turning ringer of telephone to vibrate/silence, silencing notifications from digital devices, turning on a white noise maker, setting the temperature to a comfortable setting, so forth).

Because this was my first time doing an intake session, a lot of pre-planning happened throughout the day. When the client first arrived, she was introduced to us by the receptionist (Garthwait, 2017). We then moved to the private conference room where the interview would take place. My colleague and I took turns introducing ourselves once again and giving some background history on who we are, what we do at Walton County Division of Family and Children. Instead of being the observation person, I instead assumed the acting position role as the lead social worker.

1. Preparing (What did you do to prepare yourself to deliver competent practice with the client system during the interview?):

To be able to deliver a competent practice my co-junior intern and I were focused at providing the client with an environment where she was relaxed and ready communicate with us without the fear of being judged. The client responded to this in a positive way, but she seemed nervous for the questions we were asking.

1. Orienting: (What information do you need to provide to inform the client system of the agency services, expectation for client sessions, average number of sessions, length of sessions, and location of sessions?):

We went through the intake form with me viewing it as the introduction phase to the role plays, I did in practice class. Because I did not have much background information on my client, and this was my first time actually taking the lead role as the head social worker on the team, I was nervous in the beginning (Osteen, 2011). I was afraid and trying to figure out how to make this interview as comfortable as possible while also remaining professional and obtaining all the information I needed not only for myself, but for her enrollment to Food Stamp.

Add rows as needed to represent the entirety of the client interview by placing mouse pointer beside the left edge of the last horizontal line in the row to reveal a encircled plus sign that adds rows.

6). Summary Assessment/Analysis of the Session

A. Identify the stage of work with client/client system (i.e., pre-engagement, engagement, assessment, intervention, evaluation).Why ?

The stage of work with the client was engagement because I was able to connect with the client and make the interview a success.

B. What did you learn from the session that adds to your understanding of the client?

I think that I need to work on centering myself along with having confidence in myself and my skills before I meet with clients. if I am uneasy that could make my client uneasy. I was blessed to have a down to earth client who I could also relate to very well due to her openness.

C. What were the major themes of the session?

Enrolling for the Food Stamp was the major theme of the session

D. What were the challenges presented during the session?

The major challenge that I experienced during the session was find the balance between being professional and comfortable at the same time.

E. What was accomplished during the session?

I feel I gave an overview regarding Food Stamp, along with background history very well.

F. What concepts or theories or interventions did you apply? And what were the results--what worked and what didn’t given the socio-cultural context of the client's presenting problem(s) and underlying issues?  

System theory worked for me because I focused on provide an excellent interview session which I did even though I experienced some challenges. My mind influenced my entire body to strive to conduct an excellent interview session.

G. Explain how your interpretation of what occurred in the dialogue relates to the week’s lesson (ie. Week #2 – Confidentiality, Week #4 –Role of Supervision, Week #6 – Legal Considerations, Week #8 – Use of Self)

The dialogues relate to this week’s lesson on confidentiality, role of supervision as well as legal consideration by ensuring that the information that the client provided to me would not be leaked to any other person outside our team. Also, I was responsible for ensuring that her personal information is not compromised in any way.

H. A summary of the student’s impression:

I feel like some of my ways of going about obtaining information from the client could have been done better. The introduction phase of practice was connected directly to the intake session for clients at Walton County Division of Family and Children (Ganzer, 2007).

I. Questions for supervision with field/task instructor:

Should the client’s perspective impact the overall interview session?

What should I implement to be able to offer the client an environment that he or she is comfortable?

J. Supervisor’s overall impression regarding the student’s display of social work skills, use of social work practice theories, and areas of improvement to be addressed in supervision: supervisor stated that I did well for the short period of time I had to work on my own.

7). Future Plans

A. What unfinished business remains at the conclusion of the client interview?

The interview was conducted excellently, and no unfinished business was remaining.

B. What are the general and specific tasks to be completed for future work with the client system? Who will complete each task?

The general and specific tasks which are to be completed in the future are attainment of extra information regarding the client. The task for acquiring this information will be conducted by a junior social worker who may be on duty.

C. If the client system needs additional services, what referrals will you make?

If the client may need additional services, I would refer the client to my supervisor who is a senior intern he may be able to assist the client with the additional services she may need.

D. If you will no longer work with this client system, what are the steps you completed for service closure (i.e. termination)?

In case of termination, the steps that should follow are to surrender any information to the required person and also informing the clients about the termination would a good thing to do to avoid any inconveniences.

References

Ganzer, C. (2007). The use of self from a relational perspective. Clinical Social Work Journal .

Garthwait, C. L. (2017). The social work practicum: A guide and workbook for students (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:: Pearson.

Osteen, P. J. (2011). Motivations, values, and conflict resolution: Students’ integration of personal andprofessional identities. . Journal of Social Work Education, .

.