THE CASEWORK METHOD

Social work as a profession uses at least three methods of direct social work intervention
when helping people in difficult situations. These are known as social casework when working
with individuals in a one-to-one situation; social group work when working with composed
groups of people, and. community organization/work when working with people on community
problems. This book is all about casework; working with people as individuals.

Social casework was the very first method of social work intervention that was developed
by the social work pioneers. It is rooted in charity work or almsgiving. The original Charity
workers rooted that material relief did not necessarily solve the client's problem nor did it
improve his functionality, his ability to 'interact positively with his environment, nor enable him to
develop and maintain social relationships which are necessary to attain a more satisfactory life.
The pioneers then gradually developed and adopted a more scientific way of helping people in
distress so that they could meet the problems of daily living more effectively. This method of
helping individuals became known as social casework It is still thé most widely used method in
social work practice because there are always individuals whether in affluent or poor societies
whö need to improve their social functioning. Social work experience in the Philippines has
shown that a resource may be within a person's reach but he may not be able to use it
efficaciously unless he has the motivation and the capacity to do So and is taught how.
Casework seeks 10 improve the client's capability to help himself to improve his living and rise
above the difficult circumstances that may be surrounding him.

CASEWORK DEFINED

There are definitions and definitions of casework according to the practitioners'

orientation. One of these definitions that formulated by Helen Harris Perlman. She defined
soc(al casework as a "process used by human welfare agencies: to help individuals to cope
more effectively with their problems of social functioning."
It is a very broad definition and may apply to different modalities of treatment on a
case-to-case basis but it is also comprehensive. It encompasses the four components of social
work pracüce: the person (client), the problem, the place (agency) end the
helping(problem-solving) process. The worker is the representative of the agency who provides
the individual with the service or links him with resoürces that he needs.
In the Philippines, Where the most frequently presented problem is that of poverty and
its attendant social manifestations and complicätiöns, Esther C. Viloria's definition of social
casework is very appropriate and so far the easiest to understand as pracücally describe what is
it that caseworkers do. According to her casework is a

"helping process Which consists o a variety of_activitiæ that may include the
giving of material assistance, referrals to other community faciliäes, rendering
emotional and psychological support through sensitive listening, expressions of
acceptance and reassurance, making suggestions, appropriately advising and
 setting limits, encouraging the individual to express his feelings, likewise
encouraging him to effect his plans; assisüng the individual to narrate and
•examine his and/or working but Within a con•sideration and better
understanding of the causal connection between his present attitudes and mode
of adjustment v•hth past experiences. All these may be used in combination to
respond to the person under stress, so as to enable him to meet his needs more
fully and to function more adequately in his social relationships.”

This definition should help dispel any doubts int e nun s of social workers working in public
welfare or social assistance agencies whose primary function is to help individuals meet their
basic material needs as to whether or not they are doing casework-or merely delivering the
services in a palliative manner, The over-all goal of social casework is to achieve some
improvement in the person's social functioning by bringing about a change in his economic and
social living or environment. Even if the only resource that the client thinks he needs is a
practical service such as food or work or job placement in better Circumstances still the social
worker need to help the person to improve his social functioning so that he may acquire or
develop certain qualities which will enhance or strengthen his capability to cope with or handle
his problem with just a minimum amount of assistance. One of the strategies of casework is to
bring the client through the problem-solving procæS so thåt he will benefit from the experience
and will be able to apply it in the future as he encounters other problems of daily living when the
caseworker is no there to help him.

The casework process is set in motion when an individual with a problem comes. to a place
where a professional representative, thé social worker, engagæ him in a working relationship
and together they embark on the scientific or problem-solving process. The terms
problQ1-solving or helping process are often used interchangeably. ''Helping process" is more
popularly used nowaäåys to imply that the social worker assists but it is mainly the individual
who solves his problem by taking action on it.

The casework process consists of a series of steps that are interrelated. Each of these steps a
process by itself each determining and in turn being determined by the others. The identification
of the presenting problem, data gathering, diagnostic assessment, treatment planning,
treatment or implementation, evaluation, and continuation or termination are each a process in
thernselvæ although intertwined in the whole casework process. Even the establishment of a
working relationship is a process in itself.

COMPONENTS OF CASEWORK

A person is a man, woman, or child who finds•himseif or is found to be In need of help in

some aspect of his social-emotional living, whether the need is for some tangible provision like
food or work, or counseling. As soon as he begins to receive the help he is called a "client"
 The problem is some need that has not been met arid has caused some disequilibrium
or difficulty in the individual's social functioning, or which threatens or has grossly affected the
adequacy of his living situation or the effectiveness of his efforts to deal with it.
The place is the social welfare agency that has been set up by the government or a
group of concerned citizens to deal with the social, problems of individual human beings who
are experiencing some problems in the management of their personal life. It provides or links
the client with the resources that he needs. Its purpose is to help the person cope %dth, adjust
to; or learn to develop new attitudes or behavior and skills to deal with thße problems. These
may involve personal or family Living problems or problems of faulty person-to-person,
person-to-group, or person-to-situation relationships.

The process, in this case, the casework of the helping process consists of a series of
actions, changes, or functions that are intended to bring about the goal previously agreed upon.
For the social worker, the professional goal is to influence the client person in such a way that
he develops effectiveness in coping with his problem and/or to so influence the problem as to
resolve it or vitiate its effects.

CASEWORK APPROACHES

The above are the four components of social casework whatever approach is used to
correspond to the nature of the client’s problem: As society becomes modernized, urbanized
and industrialized new social problem' are likely to arise, while the old one may escalate and
become graver. The urban dweller bereft of the tiadiäonal social support systems found in the
coüntryside provided by family, group, and community becomes isolated and in the struggle for
survival in the city may develop probleli}s of psychosocial functioning. To deal with persOnal
problems social work' through the years gradually developed. more sophisticated ånd
specialized ways of social work intervention. The Philippines has reached that stage where Cné
emerging social problems afflicting men, women, and children and youth Call for différentiated
modalities of treatment. A few of these approaches will be mentioned here briefly. These are the
functional, problem-solving, psychosocial, task-centered, crisis intervention, and family-centered
approaches.
The ​functional approach in social casework method for engaging the client through a
relationship essentially one-to-one in the use of a social service toward his own and the general
social welfare. This approach was conceptualized by Smalley. The focus of intervention is the
delivery of a service or services to the client. It is incidentally, the most common approach used
in the Philippines during this period because of the all-pervading poverty situation.
The second approach, according to Perlman, uses the procæs of ​problem-solving as the
medium of treatment. It assumes that the person's normal problem-solving capabilities or
resources have broken down or been impaired or are maladaptive. So he has turned to a social
agency for material and/or psychosocial help to cope with his present problem. The focus is on
helping the person go through the scientific problem-solving process so that he will act and his
problem with only minimum help The experience of problem-solving may be so significant that
the client imbibes and transfers the learning to other problems he may encounter in the future
even when the worker is no longer there to help him.
The ​psychosocial approach is the diagnostic approach. According to Gordon Hamilton
treatment here is focused on the individual action with the inner realities of man, his emotional,
mental and-social proces,s and the social context in which he lives. Used mainly in psychiatric
and other clinical settings there is now a growing trend in the Philippines to use it with clients
affected by traumatic incidents or are in especially difficult circumstances resulting from-the
sheer exploitation of men-and-women, youth, and children, violent family relationships, armed
conflicts between government troops and dissidents .or left-wing or right-wing oppositionists, or
natural disasters such as those caused by disastrous typhoons, earthquakes, and volcanic
eruptions.

The task-centered approach is the most recent one to be. conceptualized. As Reid and
Epstein see it treatment concentrates n helping individual clients to achieve specific or limited
goals own choice within the brief and bounded period of Service.6 It assumes t at a short-term
approach can be as effective as a long-term one. It may focus on a specific behavior that needs
to be changed or change in the physical or social environment. It is similar to crisis intervention
but it focuses on a task to achieve by the client.

Crisis intervention as explained by Golan is the application of the casework approach

which tries to actively influence the psychosocial functioning of a person during a period of
disequilibrium. ts goals are to (1) reduce the immediate harmful effects of the stressful events
and (2) to help mobilize the latent capadti$ and capabilitiö of the-person directly affected so that
he can cope more effectively with the effects of the crisis. It is a short-term treatment.
Last but not least is the approach. The family is the unit of interest. Although casework is
the process of working the worker also works with that person's immediate environment which
normally is the family. The Philippinæ casework, is family-centered or oriented. According to
Hartman and Laird this approach locates the family as the center of the field of action. This does
not mean that the person must be subordinated to the family nor does it necessarily imply that
the social worker must work for the entire family. It nears rather that human beings can be
understood and helped best in the context of the intimate and powerful systems of whiéh they
are apart. The most important of these systems is the family.

Although casework may use a different approach on a case-!o-Case basis depending on

the nature of the problem this book focuses on social casework as a method used in helping
individualsfåcing an economic or a personal, social problem or a combination of the two. It
describes the casework method or process in a very general way such that it is applicable to
whichever approach is used. It contains the basics of the one-to-one method, -the steps to be
taken, its structure, and the dynamics involved. These generics are. also used when working
with groups and communities. The next chapters are devoted to this end.