Reference no: EM133305967

Case: Confirming issues constitutes the first definitive indication that you and the client agree to work together toward meeting certain needs or resolving particular problems. Focal issues (con-firmed issues) are those that participants agree to address. By confirming issues with your cli-ents, you formalize and indeed emphasize that agreement. Derived from the needs, problems, aspirations, or other issues that the client identifies, those you contribute, or some negotiated combination of the two, the focal issues are central to the change process. They provide the di-rection and context for all subsequent professional activities. Indeed, in our work with clients, social workers must have extremely good professional reasons to depart from the confirmed is-sues. You can imagine a supervisor raising this question with a social worker: "Exactly why aren't you working on the issues that you and the client agreed to address together?" Because of their importance, the focal issues assume a prominent place in the contract portion of the Descrip-tion, Assessment, and Contract (DAC). Whenever possible, state the focal issues for work in clear and descriptive terms. Confirming issues for work follows naturally from the processes of exploration and assessment. Typically, you use the skills of reflecting and identifying issues before you and clients jointly agree on the specific problems or issues to address. When you confirm issues, you make a commitment that your work together will focus primarily on these particular areas. In practicing this skill, con-sider the format outlined below

case situation : As a social worker in a multipurpose social service agency, you frequently serve indi-viduals, couples, and families experiencing various life problems. You know that you are soon scheduled to meet Mr. K for an initial interview. At this point, you know that he is 55 years of age and seems to be struggling socially, emotionally, and psychologically with the aftereffects of a divorce from his wife of many years. It appears that his former spouse initiated the divorce and she currently remains unwilling to consider any kind of?reunification.

Question: Reflect upon earlier exercises and then write words you would use to confirm issues for work as they might apply to Mr. K's situation.