diary of a social worker

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DIARY OF A SOCIAL

WORKER.A conversation about the rewards and challenges of the social workprofession.

Social Workers and the scourge of discouragement.Comments on a story Smoking medicinal pot gets terminally ill man

evicted

Home visits vs. office visits in casemanagement effectiveness.

When it comes to client meetings, the ones we do as part of ourhousing case management can be divided into three categories:offices visits, home visits and telephone conversations (andsometimes, though rarely, communication via email messages.) Inany event, communication with the client on a regular basis is veryimportant. In some cases, clients may need intense casemanagement due to the issues they are dealing with, and someclients may be what Ive termed "low maintenance" in that they are

pretty well self-sufficient and require very little intervention on the partof the case manager.

Since becoming a professional social worker, its always been myphilosophy that clients who are doing what they need to do tomaintain their service plan dont need a case manager constantlyhovering over them. I keep my contact at a monthly basis (although Iam always available for them to call) as I know they have lives to leadand may not always have the time to meet more than once a month.This is especially pertinent if they are working full time; I wouldnt wantthem to miss work just to visit with a case manager unless there issomething serious to take care of.

In the case of clients needing the intense case management, its adifferent story. Meetings (or at a minimum, contact by phone) are heldweekly until the particular issue is resolved or on its way to beingresolved. The issue is usually something that can potentially greatly

affect their service plan, such as (in the case of our housing case
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management) unemployment, inability to pay rent or utilities, medicalor mental health emergencies, and so on.

So its easy to see how important it is to manage the timing of client

interaction, but what about the placewhere interactions happen? Isthere really a difference whether you meet a client in their home oryour office?

To begin with, our case management starts out at the shelter to getinto our program, clients are required to be homeless and living in ashelter, sometimes not always ours. The first few meetings will takeplace in the office so that the initial assessment and paperwork can bedone to open the case. Sooner or later, if all goes well, the client will

be in their new home. Initial home visits, once the client does moveinto housing, are mandatory as are monthly home visits for the firstfew months when clients are in HUD subsidized housing, buteventually the case manager gets to decide whether and how often todo a home visit.

So again I propose the question: does it make that big of a differencewhere a case manager meets a client in continuing the case work? Isan office visit as effective as a home visit or vice-versa? Lets look atthe advantages and disadvantages of each.

Advantages, office visit:

Case manager (CM) has all their tools at their immediate disposala computer to look up resources, rolodex of existing resources,access to case management supervisor if needed, etc. Also, copier,fax, etc.

Safety of office (office set up, more people around, etc.)

No travel for the CM, thus more time for other tasks.

(Usually) less distractions for the meeting, as the office door can beclosed if needed.

Disadvantages, office visit:

The client has to take the time to travel. This can be especially

difficult for disabled clients or clients unable to take the bus due tophysical or psychological issues.


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The client has to sit in a waiting room and be in the CMsenvironment, as opposed to their own.

The client has to return to the shelter where the office is, which maydredge up unpleasant memories.

The CM is unable to see the condition of the clients home whichmay be a problem.

Advantages, home visit:

More convenient for the client, no travel time for them.

More comfortable environment in terms of places to sit (if the clienthas furniture) and more relaxed for the client. Less sterile than an

office environment.

Usually less distractions than an office environment, but seedisadvantages too.

Client has more access to personal papers if needed by the CM (i.e.,info from a lease.)

CM is able to monitor the physical condition of the clients home aswell as the environment (any drug dealers living there? Is theenvironment safe for the kids, if present?)

Disadvantages, home visit

Could potentially be unsafe for the CM.

May be other distractions that can interfere with the work rowdykids, scary dogs, loud TVs.

CM is away from their resources (unless they carry an iPhone orlaptop.)

Travel time for the CM. Also, what if the client isnt home at theappointed time?

So there are obviously advantages and disadvantages to each type ofvisit. Where does effectiveness come into play? The answer seems tolie in the advantages of each and matching those up with where theclient is in the case management process. If a client is getting moreintense case management, perhaps home visits would work out betterif, for example, the case manager needed to monitor the homeenvironment more often. While clients who may be low maintenance


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require less communication with the case worker, its still a good ideato analyze which of the two types of visits work out best, especially if aclient happens to work or go to school particular hours of the day.

I guess the thing to take away from this is that the social workerusingdiscretionabout the location of a scheduled visit with a client isan important part of being where a client is (no pun intended,) whichis an important part of Social Work. Agency policies and other factorsaside, it would be really easy for a case worker to just expect a clientto show up at the office for every meeting and not make the effort toaccommodate a client where they can. But you can bet they wouldhave a lot of issues with client non-compliance like missedappointments and clients not following up on case plan goals.

Tags:client preferences,home visits,office visits,Social work practice

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 8th, 2010 at 2:40 pm and is filed

underSocial work practice,The Social Worker as a human being. You can

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2 Responses to Home visits vs. office visits incase management effectiveness.

1. Brandilynn says:

August 15, 2010 at 9:47 am

Thank you for the useful information. I am collaborting

information until I graduate. I am getting my Assocs in Early

Childhood Development and just became intersted in Social

Work.

2. Dave says:
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August 15, 2010 at 9:10 pm

Hi Brandilynn, hopefully the blog can give you a good idea of

what a social worker deals with and the kind of things socialworkers have to think about. If you do go to school for social

work keep us posted on your progress and experiences.

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