Involuntary Clients In Social Work Practice

Involuntary clients are required to see a professional, such as juveniles on probation, or are pressured to seek help, such as alcoholics threatened with the desertion of a spouse. For close to two decades, Strategies for Work with Involuntary Clients has led in its honest analysis of the involuntary transaction, suggesting the kind of effective legal and ethical intervention that can lead to more cooperative encounters, successful contracts, and less burnout on both sides of the treatment relationship. For this second edition, Ronald H. Rooney has invited experts to address recent theories and provide new information on the best practices for specific populations and settings. He also adds practical examples and questions to each chapter to better facilitate the involvement of students and readers, plus a section on motivational interviewing.

'Working with Involuntary Clients' aims to be a practical guide to working with both clients and their families. The book offers a new problem-solving model which places emphasis on clarifying roles, promoting pro-social values, and more.

Often in their careers, social workers will encounter clients who are either legally required to attend treatment services or are otherwise coerced or pressured into those services. Practitioners in settings from prisons to emergency rooms to nursing homes to child protection agencies will find themselves with involuntary clients. In an update to this classic text, social workers Ronald H. Rooney and Rebecca G. Mirick explore the best ways to work with unwilling clients. While work with involuntary clients is common, it can be challenging, frustrating, and unproductive unless practitioners are well trained for it. This book provides a theoretical framework for understanding the legal, ethical, and practical concerns when working with involuntary clients, offering theory, treatment models, and specific practice strategies influenced by the best available knowledge. Animated by case studies across diverse settings, these resources can be used by practitioners to facilitate collaborative, effective working relationships with involuntary clients.

Involuntary clients who are legally mandated to find counseling or who are strongly pressured by friends or family members to "seek help" create unique situations that social workers and other professional counselors have tended to ignore or overlook. The first comprehensive and practical methodology for work with involuntary clients.

Suitable for practice courses at the BSW or MSW levels, the 40 carefully crafted vignettes in this collection are drawn from actual cases and combine practitioner expertise, rigorous scholarship, and current social work knowledge. A wide range of settings, client systems, and problems are presented, as are suggestions for assessing the information provided and formulating an intervention plan. The first three units are organized chronologically, proceeding from beginning to middle and ending phases of practice with clients. Unit four includes cases focusing on special issues-exceptions to the rule-in social work practice, such as conflicting values and ethics, working with diverse populations, and working with involuntary clients. Readers interested in focusing on particular groups and kinds of issues will also find a helpful index of cases organized by issue and client population.

Many social workers are employed in positions where they deal with involuntary clients. These positions are demanding, and require a specific set of skills. The new edition of this successful book provides an accessible and practical guide for managing difficult and sensitive relationships and communicating with reluctant clients. The author directly links theory to real-life by adopting a jargon-free and accessible guide to working in partnership with involuntary clients. Written in a lively and engaging style, the book is relevant across the curriculum and richly illustrated with case examples drawn from a variety of service-user groups, such as work with people with addictions, young people who refuse to go to school and mental health patients who refuse treatment, as well as examples from criminal justice and child protection. The author's integrated and systematic approach promotes prosocial values; emphasizes clarifying roles; and deals with issues of authority and goal-setting. Fully revised and updated throughout to reflect contemporary research and practice, the book includes increased emphasis on risk assessment, cognitive behavioural approaches, including manualised intervention programs, and reflective practice. The result is an invaluable practical guide for social work and social care students and professionals to working with both clients and their families.