Contracting

• The contracting process typically begins during or shortly after the assessment.

• Skills applicable to this phase of practice include the following:– Reflecting an issue– Identifying an issue– Clarifying issues for work– Establishing goals– Developing an action plan

• Identifying action steps• Planning for evaluation• Summarizing the

contract.

Reflecting an Issue

• By using this skill you demonstrate to clients that you understand their view of an identified topic of concern.

• An important form of active, empathic listening.

• Very important to communicate your understanding of the nature of the issues of concern as the clients themselves see them.

Reflecting an Issue

• In effect, you show clients that you intend to help them address the issues they wish to address.

• By confirming that their view of the issues is legitimate, you communicate respect for them as persons and for their right to self-determination.

• Your reflection of an issue does not suggest moral approval or professional agreement to work toward its resolution.

• Regardless of the context, do not assume that the issues client first identify will necessarily remain the focus for work.

Identifying an Issue

• Based on your exploration and assessment of the situation, you may decide to identify an issue that the client did not mention.

• Sometimes, you need to assume primary responsibility for issue identification and goal definition.

• Then the client decides whether or not to participate in the process.

Identifying an Issue

• Based on the tentative assessment, you may suggest that additional issues be considered, or that an identified issue be defined differently.

• You may have professional knowledge or previous experience that leads you to point out an issue not previously discussed.

Identifying an Issue

• You will naturally form opinions about what factors may be relevant to the client’s present situation.

• You will share these ideas with clients as opinions or ideas to consider, not as indisputable facts.

• As part of this process, you routinely seek feedback from the client concerning these newly identified or redefined issues.

Clarifying Issues for Work

• This constitutes the first definitive indication that you and the client have agreed to work together toward resolving certain issues.

• A fundamental component of the social work contract.

• The issues for work are derived from those the client has identified, those you have contributed, or some negotiated combination/compromise of the two.

Clarifying Issues for Work

• The issues for work provide a context for all your subsequent professional activities.

• The issues for work should be stated in clear and descriptive terms.

• Specifying issues for work follows naturally from the processes of exploring and assessing the person-issue-situation.

Clarifying Issues for Work

• When you clarify issues, you suggest that there is an agreement – a contract – that these areas will be the primary focus of the work that you and the client will undertake together.

Establishing Goals

• Setting effective goals is the second critical step of the contracting process.

• Without clear goals, you and your clients are indeed likely to end up somewhere other than where you intend.

• Goals are essential• Goals are the aims toward which you and

the client direct cognitive, emotional, behavioral and situational actions.

Establishing Goals

• In constructing goals with clients, use a SMART format:– Specific– Measurable– Action-oriented– Realistic– timely

Establishing Goals

• Objectives that are defined in a SMART manner are usually easier to understand, undertake, accomplish, and assess.

• Effective goals are:– Stated as accomplishments– Stated in clear and specific terms– Stated in measurable or verifiable terms– Realistic– Adequate, if achieved, to improve the situation– Congruent with clients’ value and cultural systems– Time specific

Establishing Goals

• Do not become so fanatical in your attempt to define goals in a precise manner that you lose touch with the client’s reality.

• Whether stated in specific or general terms, goals should follow logically from and relate directly to the agreed-on issues for work.

Establishing Goals

• Usually, you and your client identify at least one goal for each identified issue.

• However, accomplishing one goal sometimes resolves more than one issue, so it may not be necessary to have a separate goal for every issue.

• Be sure that accomplishing the array of goals would resolve all the identified issues.

Establishing Goals

• Goals are jointly determined with clients and have their consent.

• When you and your client establish goals, you implicitly agree to a contract in which both parties commit to work toward accomplishing them.

• You can often encourage clearer goal descriptions by asking questions that require client to describe specifically how they will know when a particular issue is resolved.