fhdtdt

1. SOCIAL WORK ASSESSMENT
Hasanie Ali

2. CONTENT
 Ecological Assessment
 The Art and Science of Assessment
 Issues in Advanced Generalist
Assessment

3. INTRODUCTION
Assessment is the first step in the problem-solving process in social work.
Assessment can be said as the process in which data is collected from the
concerned person or group in a systematic way using prescribed methods
and skills and is then assembled together for the purpose of analysis, even at
a later period.
Assessment is the exploration part through which the professional gets an
understanding about the clients‟ problems, strengths, inter and intra
personal as well as environmental factors that the client is living in. Goal
setting and interventions largely depends on what is being assessed or has
been assessed.
Social Work Assessment
3

4. ASSESSMENT IN SOCIAL WORK DEFINITIONS:
Hepworth and Larsen (1986) defined assessment as follows:
“Assessment is the process of gathering, analyzing and synthesizing salient data into a formulation that encompasses the
following vital dimensions:
(1) the nature of clients‟ problems, including special attention to developmental needs and stressors associated with life
transitions that require major adaptations;
(2) coping capacities of clients and significant others (usually family members), including strengths, skills, personality assets,
limitations and deficiencies;
(3) relevant systems involved in clients‟ problems and the nature of reciprocal transactions between clients and these
systems;
(4) resources that are available or are needed to remedy or ameliorate problems; and
(5) clients‟ motivation to work on their problems.”

5. BARKER (2003) DEFINED ASSESSMENT AS FOLLOWS:
“THE PROCESS OF DETERMINING THE NATURE, CAUSE,
PROGRESSION AND PROGNOSIS OF A PROBLEM AND
THE PERSONALITIES AND SITUATIONS INVOLVED
THEREIN; THE SOCIAL WORK FUNCTION OF ACQUIRING
AN UNDERSTANDING OF A PROBLEM, WHAT CAUSES IT,
AND WHAT CAN BE CHANGED TO MINIMIZE OR
RESOLVE IT.”

6. ECOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT
Ecological assessment is defined as occurring at multiple
social levels and along a continuum of stages of coalition
readiness. The assessment is aided by the triangulation, or
combining of assessment methods and strategies. Measures
used to assess the coalition's formation, implementation of
community initiatives, and production of community impacts
are described, along with the triangulation strategies used to
enhance the assessment findings.

7. ECOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT IS AN INCLUSIVE
APPROACH TO THE COLLECTION OF DATA IN
PRACTICE. SIMPLY SAID, THE ECOLOGICAL MODEL
IS A SYSTEMATIC FRAMEWORK THAT HELPS THE
SOCIAL WORKER MAKE THE MOST COMPLETE
INVESTIGATION POSSIBLE INTO THE MANY
INTERRELATED FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH ANY
PARTICULAR CASE.

8. ECOLOGICAL LEVEL
1. Biogenetic factors include inherited and other physical characteristics of
the individual. The family history often provides evidence of possible
genetic factors and predispositions.
2. Familial factors include characteristics of the individual's immediate and
extended family. The term family is defined here to include the most
significant members of the client's informal support system.
3. Cultural factors are attributes of the individual's psychosocial
environment. The psychosocial environment includes the characteristics of
all extrafamilial individuals and groups with whom the individual has been
in relationship.

9. 4. Environmental conditions are attributes of the individual's life space
that affect quality of life. These attributes may be related to the natural
environment as well as to man-made environments in the local and
global communities.
5. Resources and opportunities include the safety, freedom,
acceptance, wealth, power, services, and commodities available to the
individual.
6. Patterns of self-care are the individual's ongoing efforts to foster and
nurture personal development.
7. Current indicators of development and health include measurable
signs of developmental growth and well-being in the individual, couple,
family, and community.

10. TIME AS A FACTOR
• Predisposing factor
• Precipitating factors
• System-maintaining factors
• Potentially influencing factors
• historic time period

11. IDENTIFICATION OF DEVELOPMENTAL STRENGTHS
AND LIMITATIONS
Physical strength
Some clients seem to be dominant in physical expressions. They often experience their world and
themselves primarily through bodily sensations, and may have somatic complaints.
Physical limitation
Physical limitations might present as failure to thrive in infants, or perhaps less dramatic delays in
motor functioning in childhood and adolescence.
Affective strength
Some clients are emotionally dominant; they feel most comfortable experiencing and talking about their feelings
about the present and past. They may often have a strong need to both share their own feelings and hear about
the feelings of the social worker

12. Affective limitation
Expressions of affective limitation may include difficulties in experiencing or appropriately
expressing any of the basic feelings (e.g., excitement, anger, sadness, happiness, fright).
Cognitive strength
Many clients are cognitively dominant; they prefer to analyze their past and present
experiences rather than feel or express their emotional and physical reactions to events.
Cognitive limitation
Clients who have limitations in the cognitive dimension may show a variety of
symptoms
Spiritual strength
Some clients may be spiritually dominant in their development. They might prefer to
experience and talk about their level of consciousness; the meaning of their life; their
impressions of the sacred and transcendent; or their sense of idealism, acceptance,
and connectiveness with self and the world.

13. Spiritual limitation
Limitations of the human spirit may include an inability to connect with self or with the
world, create a personal meaning in life, and have moments of peace of mind.
Psychosocial (social) strength
Some clients may have psychosocial strength. They tend to emphasize interpersonal
relationships in their lives. They may have well- developed communication and
assertiveness skills, although they may not necessarily always use these skills to foster
the highest good of themselves and others.
Psychosocial (social) limitation
Limitations in psychosocial, or interpersonal, development may present in a variety of
ways. For example, maltreated children Ecological Assessment 13 and adolescents
may become quite socially withdrawn (e.g., the young children of cocaine-addicted
parents).
Marital development-Most models of lifespan couple development suggest six
life stages: (a) courtship, (b) marriage, (c) childbirth and children, (d) middle
marriage difficulties, (e) weaning parents from children, and (f) retirement and old
age.

14. Familial development
Most familial models describe eight life-cycle stages of family development:
(a) establishment stage (no children); (b) first parenthood (children under 3);
(c) family with preschool children (oldest child 3-6); (d) family with school
child (oldest child 6-12); (e) family with adolescents (oldest 13-20); (f) family
as launching center (leave-taking of children); (g) family in middle years
(empty nest) ; and (h) family in retirement ("breadwinners" in retirement).
Local community development
Peck suggests that there are several predictable stages in the development
of a community. In the initial stage of "pseudocommunity," members often
pretend to be more friendly and intimate than they are. A period of chaos may
follow, in which members begin to feel safe enough to show more of their
feelings and thoughts and to reveal differences.

15. Globed community Development
Social workers may become more consciously involved
in the evolution of our global human community.

16. ART & SCIENCE OF
ASSESMENT
The science of social work practice includes the use of
ideas, axioms, ethical principles, theoretical orientations,
and practice models based upon knowledge derived
from the scientific method.
The art of practice includes the use of relationship,
creativity, energy, judgment, and personal style and is
often based upon alternative ways of knowing.
Social work practice continues to hold a dualistic
position related to art and science in which the
importance of art is deemphasized

17. Assessment as an Art
Art is the expressions or application of
human creative skill and imagination,
typically in a visual from such as painting
or sculpture, however, in modern times it
could be a pictograph or a video. All of
these works of art are appreciated for
their beauty or emotional power or for
their informational or entertainment
value.

18. SCIENCE IS THE INTELLECTUAL AND
PRACTICAL ACTIVITY ENCOMPASSING THE
SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF THE STRUCTURE AND
BEHAVIOR OF THE PHYSICAL AND NATURAL
WORLD THROUGH OBSERVATION AND
EXPERIMENT.
THE SCIENCE OF ASSESSMENT FOCUSES ON
THE STANDARDS OF PRACTICE THAT ARE
EMPLOYED TO PRODUCE INFORMATION
ABOUT PEOPLE, PLACES OR THINGS THAT IS
RELIABLE AND VALID.
The Science of Assessment

19. ISSUES IN ADVANCED GENERALIST ASSESSMENT
The increased emphasis on interdisciplinary practice within social work is one
example of a way that policies and trends influence the way practitioners
conduct their practice. The trend toward interdisciplinary practice is emerging
in response to persistent, newly emerging, and complex issues.

20. SENSITIVITY TO CLIENT/SYSTEM DIVERSITY
In reality, there is usually as much diversity within particular populations as
there is between them. Particularly in our evolving postmodern society, every
individual who belongs to one population has unique characteristics that may
not fit all of the statistical norms. For example, a social worker can make
some generalizations about how men are different from women (e.g., men
are competitive, women are relational). The worker must use such
generalization with caution, however, because there are as many differences
between men as there are between men and women. For example, the
worker may see a couple in which the woman may be relatively more
competitive than her boyfriend and the man more relational than his
girlfriend.

21. OVERCOMING COMMON OBSTACLES
TO SENSITIVITY TO DIVERSITY
• Individual social worker
• Service setting
• Culture
• Social work profession

22. CLIENT AS SUPERVISOR
In initial assessments, the worker invites the client to begin talking first
and listens to what the client presents. The client's statements give
clues about what is going on in the client's own experience as well as
in the client's environment. For example, a client may come into the
office and say, "Man, what a mess it is outside today! There was a bus
stuck in the snow down the street and the plows have not even gone
down Main Street this morning!" The worker's supervision for the
meeting today may be that the focus should be, at least in part, on the
difficulties that the client is having in navigating through his life.

23. REFERENCES:
Scheafor, B. W, Horejsi, C. R., & Horejsi, G. A. (1988). Techniques and guidelines for social work
practice. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Siporin,M. (1988). Clinical social work as an art form. Social Casework, 69(3), 177-183. 32. Reamer, F. G.
(1993). The philosophical foundations of social work. New York: Columbia University Press.
Schatz, M. W, Jenkins, L.E., & Sheafor, B.W.. (1990). Milford redefined: A model of initial and advanced
generalist social work. Journal Of Social Work Education, 26(3), 217-231. The Association of
Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors (BPD), (2014). Definition of Generalist Social Work Practice.
Alexandria, VA: Author, Retrieved from
http://www.bpdonline.org/bpd_prod/BPDWCMWEB/Resources/Definitions/BPDWCM
WEB/Resources/Definitions.aspx?hkey=3e3a936d-fe8a-4bd9-8d41-45fdf190bc68

24. THANK YOU 
Prepared By:
HASANIE M. ALI, RSW
MSSW-I
Email Address: hasanie.mindalano@lccdo.edu.ph
Mobile Number: 09276300414