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Lucy’s Case from
A Strengths Perspective
For the purposes
of Lucy’s case I have decided to use the strengths perspective. The reason I
have chosen to use this theory in managing the case is that the strengths perspective
has an empowerment focus and the idea of turning the “would be victim” into
“the master of their destiny.” One of my values is that I don’t believe anyone
is a victim; we all have some kind of power to change our lives. Also unlike
other approaches the strengths perspective gravitates towards what is right
about a person’s life as opposed to what is wrong about a person’s life. Furthermore,
there is strong evidence supporting the use of strengths perspective when
working with Families and Children (Scerra, 2011). What is strengths
perspective? It can be best defined as an approach to Social Work Practice
emphasises on the positives, strengths or benefits of a person’s life in order
to empower rather than victimise them (Saleeby, 2006). Strengths perspective
does not ignore the evident and apparent issues that are clients face, however
it highlights the fact that an individual or a group cannot and is not merely
defined by its deficits but there are many facets that can be focused on that
do not strip an individual or group of their ability to function or enjoy life
(Saleeby, 1996). “People who seek help with problems and more than the problem”
(Early and GelnMayne, 2000). In fact “Personal qualities and strengths are
sometimes forged in the fires of trauma, sickness, abuse, and oppression”
(Saleeby, 1996).
From the
literature there seem to be 6 resounding principles in play in the practice of
the strengths perspective they are that every group or individual has
strengths, issues are seen more as an opportunity to learn and grow rather than
as detrimental, taking aspirations seriously by turning a blind eye to
limitations, collaboration of resources is most beneficial, empowerment of the
client who is not seen as a victim and finally the client as the expert
(Payne,2014; Saleeby, 2006; Early and GlenMayne, 2000; Cowger, 1994; DeFain and
Asay, 2008) . The role of the social worker is not one of helping, treating,
counselling or even empowering but it is giving the right tools for a person to
empower themselves (Cowger, 1994). Therefore, it is important to realise that
the use of the strengths perspective makes the client the expert and not the social
worker which is the bottom up approach to practice where the social worker is
not working for but with the client (payne, 2014).
In applying the
strengths perspective to Lucy’s case it is important to look at a number of
things namely, how it looks at Lucy’s issues, the relevant factors in Lucy’s
case in relation to strengths perspective, my role in Lucy’s life and the
nature of our relationship, how the strengths perspective brings about change
and the interventions I will use. When using the strengths perspective it is
important to focus on the positive aspects of Lucy and her family. All families
have positives and potential to grow and change, these strengths are often
birthed as a result or hardship or negative situations; also emphasis on strengths
helps us learn how families cope in the face of adversity and avoids obsession
with the deficits of life thus turning a blind eye to the surpluses (DeFain and
Asay, 2008). The positives of Lucys case are her two children whom she loves
they could be a great source of joy for her, the fact that Paul is not a
physically violent man eliminates that form of abuse in his interactions with the
children, Pauls parents willing to help with the children which can relieve
some pressure from Lucy and allows her to seek for support with her issues,
Amys seizures are mostly a minute or less could mean that most of the time they
are manageable, Paul lives locally and sees the children regularly and also
takes them out for outings showing that he is a loving and available father
despite his issues, Paul is happy with the custody arrangement which means
there is no stress of court cases and this also means that he may have some
acknowledgement of his issues and be willing to get help. His time with the
children could free up Lucy’s time to get help with some of her issues. Lucy
also has contact with her family which is support for her and finally she has a
good relationship with her GP which is more support. As a social worker
applying the strengths perspective to Lucy’s case I would focus on those facts
in my interactions with her. Payne (2014) highlights six steps for solution
oriented practice from Greene and Lee (2011), which I will use with Lucy. The
first stage of the process is engagement which involves drawing the client into
a therapeutic relationship of a collaborative nature. I would start by asking
Lucy what she would like to work on or talk about thereby opening the floor for
us to begin communicating. The second step would be to listen to what Lucy has
to say and define and deconstruct her view of the main problem which from the
information provided are her emerging mental health issue which appear to has
surfaced as a result of the stress from Paul and his parents, Amy’s health
condition as well as her lack of support.CALL/ TEXT/ WHATSAPP; +1 213 935 5779 TO GET THIS PAPER CHEAPLY This may involve reframing and
reflecting what she says using strengths perspective e.g. if she says “Paul
lives locally and sees the kids regularly and takes them out often but I’m the
only one who can care for them overnight and who really understands Amy’s
health issues” I would reframe by saying “it sounds like you are experiencing
some challenges but the children have a father who loves them and is there for
them”. The third step would be to define Lucys goals in other words what is the
outcome she would like for her interactions with me. Fourthly, identify how the
Lucy views successful results and what patterns are occurring. Next, intervene
to stop inconsistency and promote stability and finally wrap-up interaction or
organise a follow-up. My relationship with Lucy is one of partnership and
collaboration to achieve, togther Lucys and I must define problems, set goals,
outline strategies to successfully achieve those goals (Early and GlenMaye,
2000).
According to
Early and GlenMaye (2000) there are three main underlying assumptions of the
strengths perspective. Firstly, that all human beings have the capacity to
change and grow, this is a positive outlook on things which will help when
working on Lucy’s case but it is an assumption and the parties in Lucy’s case
may be unwilling to change. For one to change they must be willing to do so. The second assumption is that clients have a
knowledge and understanding of their issues and insight into possible
solutions. Lucy may not have any awareness around their issues and therefore it
becomes my job as a social worker to work with her to explore these things. The
last assumption is that all people are resilient and are able to survive all
kinds or make it through all kinds of situation. Lucy may not be resilient, she
has very little support and is under an immense amount of pressure so to assume
that may not be true and she may require the social worker to explore options
with her to build her resilience.
While there are
not many criticisms about the strengths perspective but the main one is that it
is completely against issue focused approaches, however more recent strengths
based approaches acknowledge the need to address problems in practice (Scerra,
2011). Other arguments against the strengths perspective believe that it lacks
empirical support and argues that there is not a lot of clarity about how to
practice it and positive outcomes from using it are rarely directly
attributable to it, having said that it is evident that empirical value is not
easily assessed (Probst, 2009). While these criticisms of strengths perspective
are valid it is more important to realise that strengths perspective offers a
way of managing issues that other theories do not offer. Rather than glorify
the problems that we often cannot avoid helping individuals and clients to move
on and live their lives (Saleeby, 1996). As such, I believe that strengths
perspective is relevant for Lucy’s case because it offers Lucy hope in a very
difficult situation by helping her to see that not everything is bad.
Furthermore, I believe Lucy is well aware of her issues and taking a problem
solving approach would only amplify those issues and give them more power over
her than they need to have. Society has a tendency to “kick the wounded
soldier”, because there a numerous structural inequalities but strengths
perspective helps to address some of these without government intervention (Scerra,
2011).
Reference List
Cowger, C.D. (1994).
Assessing client strengths: Clinical Assessment for Client Empowerment. Social Work, 39(3), 262-268. Retrieved
from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23717543
DeFain, J., &
Asay, S. A. (2008). Strong families around the world. Marriage and Family Review, 41(1-2), 1-10. doi: 10.1300/J002v41n01_01
Early,
T. J., & GlenMaye, L. F. (2000). Valuing Families: Social Work practice
with families from a strengths perspective. Social
Work, 45(2), 119-130. doi: 10.1093/sw/45.2.118
Payne,
M. (2014). Modern social work theory.
Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Probst,
B. (2009). Contextual meanings of strengths perspective for social work
practice in mental health. Family in
Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services, 90 (2), 162-166. doi:
10.1606/1044-3894.3876
Saleeby, D. (2006). The strengths perspective in Social Work
Practice. Boston: Pearson.
Saleeby, D. (1996). The
strengths perspective in Social Work Practice: Extensions and Cautions. Oxford University Press, 41(3), 296-305.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23718172
Scerra,
N. (2011). Strengths based practice: The Evidence. A discussion paper. Retrieved from www.childrenyoungpeopleandfamilies.org.au
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