Data Collection and

Assessment
Part II
Assessing a Client’s Social
Functioning
• Assessing a client’s social functioning involves
the client and social worker examining various
facets of the client’s need-meeting activities and
role performance and then drawing conclusions
about his or her current level of functioning.
• Depending on the client’s presenting problem or
concerns, some areas are examined in more
depth than others.
Assessing a Client’s Social
Functioning
• Adult tasks to be assessed:
– Fundamentals of independent living.
– Citizenship and legal concerns.
– Use of community resources.
– Family life.
– Friendships and social supports.
– Spirituality and religious activities.
– Interaction with community.
– Personal appearance and hygiene.
Assessing a Client’s Social
Functioning
• Adult Tasks (continue):
– Education and training.
– Employment and job performance.
– Money management and consumer
awareness.
– Recreational and leisure activity.
– Housing and housekeeping.
– Nutrition and health care
Assessing a Client’s Social
Functioning
• Adult tasks (continue):
– Coping with ordinary problems of living.
– Coping with mental health problems or
addiction.
– Adjustments of physical disabilities.
This list can also provide a starting point for the
social worker who is writing goals and
objectives to be included in a service
agreement or treatment plan.
Assessing a Client’s Social
Functioning
• Children and Adolescent tasks to assess:
– School performance.
– Relationship to Parents, siblings, and family.
– Child or adolescent sexuality.
– Ordinary problems of childhood and
adolescence.
Assessing a Client’s Mental Status

• A mental status exam consists of

conducting a careful observation and
asking a set of simple questions that
attempt to gauge the client’s orientation to
time and place, short- and long-term
memory, accuracy of perceptions,
judgment, and appropriateness of affect.
• These questions should be worked into
the ordinary flow of conversation.
Assessing a Client’s Mental Status

• 11 categories of information that should

be considered in assessing mental status:
– General appearance and attitude.
– Behavior.
– Orientation to time and place.
– Memory (immediate, short-term, recent,
remote).
– Sensorium (ability to utilize data from their
sense organs; hearing, vision, touch, smelling,
and taste).
Assessing a Client’s Mental Status

• Categories of assessment (continue):

– Intellectual functioning.
– Mood and affect.
– Perceptual distortions.
– Thought content.
– Insight.
– Judgment.
Identifying Developmental Delays
in Young Children
• Early warning signs of sensory problems
and developmental delays could include
the following:
– Vision problems.
– Hearing problems.
– Delays in speech development.
– Delays in motor development.
– Delays in social and mental development.
The Person-In-Environment System

• The PIE system is designed for use by

social workers and is built around two key
social work concepts: social functioning
and the person-in-environment construct.
• The PIE provides social workers with the
following:
– Common language to describe their clients’
problems is social functioning.
The Person-In-Environment System

• PIE provides (continue):

– A common capsulated description of social
phenomena that could facilitate treatment or
amelioration of the problems presented.
– A basis for gathering data required to
measure the need for services and to design
human services programs and evaluate
effectiveness.
The Person-In-Environment System

• PIE (continue):
– A mechanism for clearer communication
among social work practitioners and between
practitioners and administrators and
researchers.
– A basis for clarifying the domain of social
work in the human services field.
– PIE groups client problems into four factors
(social functioning, environmental, mental
health, and physical health).
The Person-In-Environment System

• PIE factor I: Social Functioning

– Social role (familial, other interpersonal,
occupational, special life situation)
– Type of problem in social role (power,
ambivalence, responsibility, dependency, loss,
isolation, victimization, mixed)
– Severity of problem (rated on a 6 point scale)
– Duration of problem (six categories)
– Ability of client to cope with problem (six
levels)
The Person-In-Environment System

• PIE factor II: Environmental

– Social system (economic/basic needs;
education and training; judicial and legal;
health, safety, and social services; voluntary
association; affectional support system).
– Specific type of problem within each social
system (71 subcategories)
– Severity of problem (rated on a 6-point scale)
– Duration of problem (six categories)
Referral for Psychological Testing

• A psychological test can provide valuable

information on which to base a decision,
but one should not rely exclusively on test
results, especially if based on a single test
instrument.
• Before referring, be very clear about why
you are seeking a psychological evaluation
of your client.
Referral for Psychological Testing

• Explain how and why you and your agency are

involved in providing service to the client, the
case management decisions you face, and the
type of information that would be helpful. List
questions you would like the psychologist to
answer.
• Provide information concerning the client’s age,
sex, education, occupation and employment
history, ethnicity, and any special disabilities.
Provide previous testing, including dates and
names of tests used.
Referral for Psychological Testing

• Prepare the client by giving them basic

information on what to expect, where the
testing will be done, and about how long it
will take.
• The results of testing will confirm the
conclusions already reached by people
who have observed the client for a matter
of weeks or months.
The Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
• The social worker should be familiar with the
DSM in order to better communicate accurately
with other professionals about a client’s mental
disorder and to understand reports.
• Over 200 disorders are classified within 17 broad
categories.
• Each disorder is described in terms of
symptoms, diagnostic criteria, age of onset,
prevalence, level of impairment.
The Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
• The DSM is a classification of mental disorders
not people. A term such as schizophrenic should
be avoided in favor of an expression such as an
individual with schizophrenia.
• The American Psychiatric Association warns
users of the DSM about the inherent difficulties
of assessing the behavior of a person from an
ethnic or cultural group different from that of
the clinician.
Assessing a Child’s Need for
Protection
• State laws require social workers to report cases
of suspected abuse or neglect.
• The observation of several physical and
behavioral indicators suggest the possible
existence of child abuse or neglect.
• In the United States, about 50% of all cases of
child maltreatment are cases of neglect.
• About one-half of all child maltreatment-related
fatalities are caused by neglect.
Assessing a Child’s Need for
Protection
• A high percentage of the neglect cases
occur in families where the parents are
abusing alcohol or addicted to drugs.
• The social worker must be able to
differentiate physical abuse from ordinary
spanking or corporal punishment.
• That decision will be tied to the definition
of physical abuse found in a states legal
code.
Assessing a Child’s Need for
Protection
• Three criteria for making that distinction:
– In corporal punishment, the child experiences
some pain and discomfort. In abuse, there is
injury to body tissue.
– In using corporal punishment, the parent
maintains self-control and is aware of where
and how hard the child is being hit. In an
abusive situation, the parent loses control
over their emotions and strikes the child with
excessive force.
Assessing a Child’s Need for
Protection
• Criteria (continue)
– Nonabusive parents using corporal
punishment may occasionally get carried
away and hit too hard but they quickly realize
what has happened and are able to make
changes in how they discipline the child so
this does not happen again. In situations of
abuse, there are repeated episodes of
excessive corporal punishment and injury
because the parents are unable to gain
control of their anger and make changes.
Assessing a Child’s Need for
Protection
• Most children who are sexually abused do
not tell anyone because they are either
afraid or feel great shame.
• Most cases of child sexual abuse involve
fondling and masturbation but not
penetration.
• It is also important to understand that the
majority of sexually abused children do
not exhibit unusual sexual behavior.
Assessing a Child’s Need for
Protection
• Sexually abused children are more likely
than non-abused children to display adult-
like sexual behavior.
• False allegations by a child are relatively
rare but the rate increases if the child’s
accusation is being encouraged by a
parent and the rate becomes even higher
in cases involving child custody fights
between parents.
Assessing a Child’s Need for
Protection
• Once a case of abuse or neglect has been
identified, the question of risk must be
addressed.
• Factors that should be considered in the
assessment of risk are:
– Child-related factors
– Parent/caregiver-related factors
– Environmental factors
Assessing a Child’s Need for
Protection
• In some cases, the removal of the child
from their home is necessary.
• The separation of parent and child is so
traumatic to the child and disruptive to the
family, an out-of-home placement should
be used only in those cases where the
child is at high risk of serious harm and
there is no less drastic method of
protecting the child.
Assessing a Child’s Need for
Protection
• The following principles should guide
placement decisions:
– If a child must be placed into foster care, it is
to be done for one reason only: to protect the
child from harm.
– A child should be placed in the least restrictive
alternative.
– Efforts to assure protection for child are to be
those that are least intrusive and least
disruptive for both child and family.
Assessing Agency Structure

• The organizational structure of an agency

has a significant impact on the ability of
the social worker to provide effective
services.
• In human services agencies, a variety of
structures exist that range from highly
bureaucratized operations to those that
permit considerable worker autonomy.
Assessing Agency Structure
• It is useful to recognize that various
degrees of bureaucratization can exist and
that adaptations can be made that create
a balance between management and
worker in order to facilitate the provision
of high-quality services.
• Workers must advocate for structural
changes when they find that the agency’s
structure interferes with service to clients.
Assessing Agency Structure
• Bureaucratic Model: an elaborate division of
labor in which work activities are clearly defined
and assigned to specialized workers. They are
stable and consistent, yet slow to change.
• Adhocracy Model: ad hoc groups have
considerable authority and operate with few
agency-wide rules and regulations. These
groups are weak on both structure and stability,
but are able to respond to new issues and
undergo change rapidly.
Assessing Agency Structure

• Functional Model: a second-level

administrative layer reports to the director
and also leads a program unit or
supervises a group of workers.
• Project-team approach: This model
provides for groups of staff to be
organized around specific tasks for limited
periods of time.
Assessing Human Services Needs

• Needs assessment refer to the process of

identifying the incidence, prevalence, and nature
of certain conditions within a community or
target group.
• Purpose is to assess the adequacy of existing
services and resources in addressing those
conditions.
• Two judgments must be made: What constitutes
a need; a willingness to take action if an unmet
need is identified.
Assessing Human Services Needs

• Guidelines for conducting a needs

assessment:
– What problems do the decision makers hope
to solve through the use of a needs
assessment?
– Goals and objectives must be clear before it is
possible to select appropriate methods of data
collection and analysis.
– It is helpful to know how other communities
or agencies have approached the task.
Assessing Human Services Needs

• Guidelines (continue):
– It is important to anticipate possible reasons why
situations of unmet need might exist.
– The assessment should not only identify unmet
service needs but also shed light on the quantity,
quality, and direction of existing services.
– Do not attempt a needs assessment until there is
evidence that the agency and community possess the
administrative and political readiness to use the data
once it is gathered.
Focus Groups
• A focus group is a small group of people
who have had a common experience or
share common knowledge and are led
through a one to two hour discussion of a
particular topic.
• Four essentials of a successful focus group
meeting:
– The participants should be selected carefully.
They should represent a broad range of
people who are willing to speak their minds.
Focus Groups
• Four Essentials (continue):
– The moderator should be well prepared. Their
responsibility is to introduce the topic without
suggesting a bias and to facilitate an open discussion.
– There should be a carefully developed plan for the
group meeting that includes the preparation of a
series of open-ended questions or statements that
stimulate discussion.
– Information provided by the group members must be
recorded and accurately interpreted.
Force Field Analysis
• Force field analysis is a technique that helps to identify
and assess significant factors that may promote or
inhibit change in an organization or community.
• Five steps involved:
– Clearly specify the desired objective.
– Identify the forces that will determine if the objective will be
achieved.
– Assess the strengths of each driving and restraining force.
– Identify the actors that might attempt to influence the outcome.
– Select a strategy for change.
Community Decision-Making
Analysis
• As social workers seek to influence
decisions that affect the quality of human
services in a community, they must
develop a strategy for convincing the
person or persons in authority that a
particular course of action is the best
choice among the possible options.
Community Decision-Making
Analysis
• Variables that affect community decision-
making:
– Size of a city
– Population diversity (class and ethnic)
– Economic diversity
– Structure of local government
Communities in the U.S. have a pluralistic type
of decision-making structure, and only small
rural communities tend to maintain elite
power structures.
Community Decision-Making
Analysis
• The worker should be aware that the task
of influencing decisions requires a careful
assessment of the people who are
authorized to make the decisions.
• One task of the social worker is to assess
the various factors that may affect a
decision maker’s choice.
Social Policy Analysis
• When a social worker engages in activity to
change an existing social policy or to introduce a
new one, it is important that they conduct a
careful analysis of that policy.
• The worker must be prepared to compromise in
most policy change efforts.
• Every social worker should be prepared to
analyze the major elements of a policy proposal
to assure that compromise does not negate the
central goal of the change.
Social Policy Analysis
• The first step in the analysis of a social policy or
program is to have a clear understanding of the
problems that created the situation requiring
such a policy.
– Identify how the problem is defined and locate
estimates of its magnitude.
– Determine the causes and consequences of the
problem.
– Identify the ideological beliefs embedded in the
description of the problem.
– Identify the gainers and losers in relation to the
problem.
Social Policy Analysis

• The second step is to assess the social

policy being considered as a means of
addressing the problem or offering relief
to the victims of the problem.
– Search out the relevant program /policy
history.
– Identify the key elements of the proposed
policy.
– Draw conclusions.