The document outlines the principles and methods of social casework, emphasizing its role in helping individuals cope with life adjustments and social challenges. It details the historical background, objectives, process components, and key principles guiding effective casework, such as individualization and non-judgmental support. Additionally, it discusses the task-centered model and problem-solving processes involved in social work practice.

1. SOW 213 LECTURE NOTES 2020
PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF
SOCIAL CASEWORK
Chinwe R. Nwanna
Associate Professor
Office: Rm007, Phase II, FSS
Consulting Hours: Mondays 2-4pm

2. Definitions
• Social casework (SCWK) is one of the generic
methods of social work (SWK).
• It is concerned with the individual and his
adjustment to life and involves a situation in
which the individual who has a problem seeks the
professional counselling of the social welfare
agency
• SCWK means those processes which develop
personality through adjustment consciously
affected, individual by individual, between men
and their social environment (Richmond, 1922)

3. • SCWK is a process used by certain human welfare
agencies to help individuals cope more effectively with
their problems in social functioning. (Perlman, 1957)
• Biestek (1957), in his famous work The Casework
Relationship defines SCWK as:
• An art in which knowledge of the science of human
relations and skill in relationship are used to mobilize
capacities in the individual and resources in the
community appropriate for better adjustment between
the client and all or any part of his total environment
(pp 12)

4. • According to Davidson (1972) casework refers
to a personal service, provided by qualified
workers for those who need skilled help in
resolving some personal or family problems
with the aim of relieving material and
emotional stress.
• It also aims at helping the client to achieve a
realistic adjustment to his social circumstances
and mutual satisfaction in his personal
relationships.

5. Objectives of social case work
• To understand and solve the internal problems of
individuals
• To strengthen the client’s ego power
• To remedy problems in the client’s social functioning
• To prevent problems in the client’s social functioning
• To develop resources to enhance the client’s social
functioning

6. Background of Social Casework
• SCWK developed from the organized work of the
Charity Organization Society (COS).
• COS worked personally with individuals who were
caught in poverty.
• Volunteers were recruited to visit and befriend applicants
of social welfare, make individual assessments and correct
their problems.
• Emphasis was laid on detailed investigations of individual
client, rehabilitation and self-help.

7. • Records of data collected from each applicant were kept.
• This was the beginning of recording.
• The first type of recording was introduced into casework by
Octavia Hill of the COS.
• The charity workers and the volunteers faced many challenges
in the process of their work.
• This led to the desire for specific trainings and scientific
methods in order to have a better understanding of the
behaviour of individuals and of social and economic problems.

8. • In Africa and in Nigeria in particular, social casework
developed in response to social problems that
emanated from industrialization, westernization,
modernization and urbanization.
• At this time in Africa social casework was more
difficult than what obtained in advanced countries.
• It was and is influenced by cultural factors that cannot
be overlooked. Furthermore, the African caseworker
had no professional training or competence for social
casework and could be called upon to handle a wide
variety of situations within the family.

9. • The worker was a general-purpose worker, served as
a probation officer for the court, child caseworker,
medical social worker and marriage counselor.
• The worker used his ingenuity in performing all these
functions.
• The worker was faced with many challenges that he
could not cope with the new occupation (social
work) e.g. inadequate financial and material
resources to work with and to provide all the
expensive remedies required.

10. • He also lacked the knowledge of legal systems,
African anthropological family systems and
traditions; child development and child psychology
and therefore he required training.
• Training that would be based on indigenous
methods.
• In view of this, School of Social Work was established
in Emene in Eastern Nigeria
• Before this, first professional caseworkers were
trained abroad

11. Essentials/components of Social
casework process
• The components are 5 ‘P’s:
1. The Person
2. The Problem
3. The Place
4. The Process
5. The Professional representative

12. The Person
• Any individual with problem is the focus of
attention. In technical language of case work
such person is referred as “client”
• A person can be a man, woman, a child, etc.
who is actually in some difficulty which he
/she cannot solve without some help.
• He may voluntarily come, or may be referred
to the agency by some other people or
institutions.

13. • One of the basic assumptions of social case work is
that each individual is different from others, even
two identical twins cannot have same personalities
inspite of having same ancestors, social background
and familial relations.
• Therefore, while studying a client, a case worker
must bear that in mind.
• David Landy has identified the process a person goes
through in seeking help or becoming a client:
• 1. The help seeker must decide something is wrong.

14. • 2. The help seeker must face the probability
that family, friends and neighbours will know
of his disability.
• 3. The help seeker must decide to admit to a
helper he is in distress, failed or is not capable
of handling his own problem.
• 4. The help seeker must decide to surrender
enough sovereignty and autonomy to place
himself in a dependency role.

15. • 5. The help seeker must decide to direct his
search for help among persons and resources
known to him.
• 6. The help seeker must decide to take time
off a job or from other responsibilities to
receive help.
• 7. The help seeker may realize that in
receiving help relationship with others may be
threatened

16. Types of Clients
• 1. Those who ask for appropriate help for
themselves.
• 2. Those who ask for help for another person
or system.
• 3. Those who do not seek help but are in
some way blocking or threatening the social
functioning of another person (e.g., the
neglectful parent in a child protection case).

17. • 4. Those who seek or use help as a means to
reach their own goals or ends.
• 5. Those who seek help but for inappropriate
goals

18. The Problem
• The problem is a situation, event or anything which
impairs the normal functioning of the individual and
makes him handicapped e.g. some unmeant needs of
economic, medical, educational and recreational
nature.
• In the process of development human being
develops certain attitude, beliefs, ideas and ways of
reacting and expressing in different situations.
• Problems arise from some needs or obstacle or
accumulation of frustration or maladjustment, and
sometimes all of these together.

19. • Problems may also rest in:
• Interpersonal relationships
• An inability to negotiate with systems in the
environment
• Inadequate or inappropriate role performance
• Lack of or inadequate preparation needed to
carry out a social role

20. • Problems may be due to:
• Disturbances or disorder resulting in
intrapsychic turmoil, constriction or distortion
• Discrepancies between expectations of a
person and the demands of various segments
of that person’s environment
• Discrepancies between environmental
demands and personal needs

21. • When these challenges are there, the
individuals become conscious of it and try to
find out a solution.
• Sometimes the problems are solved by one’s
own efforts but sometimes the individual
needs external help.
• That external help is given by social worker at
individual, group and community level.

22. Types of problems
• Physiological problem
• All the physical disabilities of the body e.g. Blindness, hearing
impairment, speech impairment, organically handicapped,
both internal and external.
• Economic Problem
• Economic problem is related to the management of needs
and resources a person has.
• Psychological Problem
• Psychological problem occurs when a person is disturbed by
some external circumstances. Anxiety, Schizophrenia,
depression, anger is some of the examples of psychological
problem.

23. • Relationship problem
• Human being is engaged in different
interpersonal relationships like family,
neighbours, colleagues etc. sometimes there
comes some problem in maintaining these
relations.
• Divorce, family disturbances are the outcomes
of all these problems.

24. The Place
• The place may be a social service agency, department,
or human welfare agency, which provides psycho-
social services or any other aid to the client with the
help of a social worker.
• An agency embodies a society’s decision to protect its
members against social breakdown, to prevent their
maladjustment and/or to promote the development of
better or higher levels or human functioning.
• The complete process of case work is influenced by
objectives, function, policies and resources of the
agency.

25. The Process: Casework intervention
• The process is a progressive transaction between the
case worker and the client.
• It consists of a series of problem-solving operations
carried on within a meaningful relationship.
• It is the intervention stage in which case worker initiates
the formal procedure of helping the client.
• A client may have several dynamic problems. Besides,
sometimes problem may lie within the person. Thus,
intent of the case work process is to engage the person
himself, both in working on and in coping with the one or
several problems that confront him.

26. Professional representative: the Case Worker
• After client, Case worker is the most significant
component of case work process, as helping process of
client cannot be initiated without him.
• He acts as a liaison between case work agency and the
client,
• Because of his capabilities, he/she is referred as change
agent in social work profession.
• The case worker is the person whose services are
hired by the social service agencies.

27. • He is the person having scientific skills and
knowledge about human behaviour and human
psychology.
• He has the knowledge about the social problems of
the client.
• He is there in the agency to help the client by his
skills and experiences.
• Socials Case Work is a method employed by a social
worker to help individuals, find solutions to their
problems of social adjustment which they are unable
to handle in a satisfactory way by their own efforts.

28. Principles of casework relationship
• Felix Biestek has identified seven Principle of
casework relationship:
• Principle of individualization
• Purposeful expression of feelings
• Principle of controlled emotional involvement
• Principle of self determination
• Principle of Acceptance
• Principle of non-judgemental attitude
• Principle of Confidentiality

29. Principle of individualization
It is the client’s need to be dealt with as an individual rather
than a type or category.
Individualization means analyzing an individual not from a
single aspect but from various of aspects.
Every Individual is different from others & unique in itself.
Problem of every individual is different from another &
depends on her/his intelligence, so the mode of helping
(Technique) must be according to the Intellectual level, socio-
economic situation and ego strength, ones capacity and
resource

30. Purposeful expression of feelings
• Client’s need to express feelings both positive and negative.
• Case worker must give the client chance to express her/his
feelings freely, especially her/his negative feelings because
maximum time feelings are negative in nature.
• The caseworker listens purposefully to client’s feelings neither
praising nor condemning.
• Sometimes actively stimulating and encouraging them, when
they are therapeutically useful as a part of the casework
service.
• Don’t point out any one as good or bad because of ones
psycho-social problems

31. Principle of controlled emotional involvement
• This is the caseworker’s sensitivity to the
client’s feelings,
• An understanding of their meaning,
• A purposeful, appropriate use of the worker’s
emotions in response to the client’s feelings.
• Without feeling any one’s emotion with sensitivity
it’s impossible to find-out her/his problem & get a
solution of that problem.

32. Principle of self determination
• Client’s need to make own choices and decisions
concerning one’s own life.
• Giving chance her/him to decide, what is Wright
or wrong for them.
• The caseworker has a corresponding duty to
respect client’s right, in theory and in practice, by
refraining from any direct or indirect interference
with it, and by positively helping the client to
exercise that right.

33. Principle of Acceptance
• This principle presents the process of
democratization of casework.
• Caseworker recognizes the innate dignity,
ultimate destiny, human equality, basic rights,
and the needs of the client regardless of his
individual qualities.
• It does not mean an approval of the client’s
behaviour, attitudes, or standards. It includes
thought and feeling elements, and is express
primarily in the manner of service.

34. Principle of non-judgemental attitude
• It is based upon the conviction that the
casework function precludes assigning guilt or
innocence, or degree of client responsibility
for causation of the problems or needs,
• It includes making evaluative judgments about
the attitudes, standards, or actions of the
client.
• Client’s need to be neither judged nor
condemned for the difficulty in which the clients

35. Principle of Confidentiality
• It is the preservation of secret information concerning the
client which is disclosed in the professional relationship.
• Confidentiality is based upon a basic right of the client
• It is an ethical obligation of the caseworker and is necessary
for effective casework service.
• The client’s right, however, is not absolute.
• Moreover, the client’s secret is often shared with other
professional persons within the agency and in other agencies;
the obligation then binds all equally.

36. Problem – solving process
• This theory was propounded by Helen Harris Perlman in
the book “Social Case Work : A Problem Solving Process”
• The primary goal of problem solving model is to help a
person cope as effectively as possible with such
problems in carrying social tasks and to know his/her
strengths and weaknesses and how to remove those
weaknesses.
• Rather than tell clients what to do, social workers teach
clients how to apply a problem solving method so they
can develop their own solutions. The process starts at
once, from the first movement with treating the person.

37. Functions of Problem- solving casework process
• 1) It tries to release, energize and gives
directions to the client’s motivation for
change.
• 2) It tries to release and exercise the client’s
mental, emotional and action capacities for
coping with the problem.
• 3) It tries to find and make accessible to the
client such aids and resources as are
necessary to the solution of the problem.

38. Steps in Problem- solving casework process
• 1. Assessment: This is the 1st step & is also known as
study phase and intake phase. It involves:
Identification of client, Assessing the client in the
situation and identifying issues and client’s strength
• 2. Data collection/ Assessment: This is done with
different techniques like direct verbal questions,
written questions by monitoring and self-
observation.
• After collecting data, assessment is done and
different systems of social work practice are analyzed

39. • 3. Intervention: This is the time to implement
the plan that will bring about the desired
outcome. It is also known as action phase.
• The greatest challenges for social worker while
helping individual, family, group or community
is to select the most appropriate approach
and technique to facilitate change.
• The intervention phases need to be flexible

40. • 4. Evaluation: Evaluation plays a vital role in
the success of planned change effort.
• The social worker has to carefully and
constantly evaluate all the steps of problem
solving process, especially intervention
planning, activities, and effort.
• It measures the extent of both positive and
negative changes and the effectiveness of the
planned change effort.

41. • 5. Termination: It is the important final phase in
helping the client. There 3 types:
• Natural termination: It is terminated when the goal
has to be achieved.
• Forced termination: It is terminated when a social
worker or client leaves or loses the agency or
services.
• Unplanned termination: It occurs when client leaves
or discontinue services due to a different reason.

42. • 6. Follow-up: This is the final step of problem solving
process.
• After the termination, social worker has to find out,
check or reassess whether the client has been
maintaining progress or not. If the client needs any
further support or intervention for his/her well-being.
• It helps to increase the effectiveness of the previous
intervention and also determine whether the planned
change effort or intervention worked or not.
• It provides a learning experience for the social worker
for future exercise or practice.

43. The task-centered model
• The task-centered model is a short-term, problem-solving
approach to social work practice designed to help individuals
and families with specific psycho-social problems
• It is a promising general service model developed by William
J. Reid and Laura Epstein. It originally grew out of the short-
term psychodynamic model of the early 1960s.
• The practitioner and client are expected to reach an explicit
agreement on the particular problem to be dealt with and on
the probable duration of service (6 to 12 sessions).
• It is a major approach in clinical social work.

44. Assumptions of task-centred model
• Most people have adequate resources to solve their
problems.
• Most people have the innate desire to solve their
problems.
• Problems occur in a context of individual, family and
environmental systems that may at times block or
facilitate their resolution.
• Human beings are seen as having inherent capacities
to solve their problems or to at least ameliorate them
to a tolerable level

45. Phases of task centred model
• The model consists of three phases:
• Initial phase,
• Middle Phase and
• Termination phase

46. Initial phase
• During the initial phase, the social worker works with
the client to identify problems.
• He/she accepts the client's understanding of the
problems at face value, showing respect at all times for
the client's concerns and expertise about his or her
own life.
• The worker determines all relevant information and
explores the problem in detail: their frequency, the
client's understanding of the seriousness of the
problem, its origins, and the client's attempts to
resolve it and the outcome of those attempts.

47. • The worker encourages the client to choose no more
than three problems to work on during an intervention
and asks her/him to set in what priority they should be
tackled.
• Finally the client sets goals that will show that progress
has been made toward resolution of the problem
during the intervention.
• Assessment, process, and outcome data are collected
systematically.
• Target goals are defined by specific measurable
behaviors

48. Middle phase
• Both the client and worker mutually agree to share
tasks and plan actions that will take the client step by
step toward a resolution of their problems.
• There are 3 kinds of tasks.
• 1. Session tasks: These are actions taken during
counselling sessions to further external progress
toward the goals e.g. reviewing progress since the last
session, discussing obstacles or resources, and, when
necessary, discussing a client's feelings about their
tasks when they experience discomfort attempting
them.

49. • 2. Client external: These are tasks that the
client practices outside of session, attempting
to learn and use new behaviours.
• 3. Worker’s tasks also take place outside of
session e.g. preparing psychoeducational
information on new behaviours e.g. training a
parent in coping skills, locating resources, or
preparing a reading list for the client.
• Client actively participates in setting tasks and
goals.

50. • Every task should lead to increased independence
and the client's sense of control.
• Potential problems or obstacles are dealt with
directly during session e.g. lack of social skills (the
worker might suggest role-playing), lack of
environmental resources (the worker might help the
client locate government or other support), lack of a
social network (the worker might encourage the
client to rekindle family ties), or lack of motivation
(the worker might explore with the client the goals
contracted for and whether the client still found
them valid for her or himself).

51. Termination phase
• The termination phase begins in the first session when
the worker outlines suggested time limits for the
intervention.
• The model proposes a relatively structured
termination session:
• The worker and the client review the task
accomplishments and what remains to be done,
• He/she highlights the new life skills learned and being
exhibited by the client and makes recommendations

52. • Although this model is based on defined time
limits, it is not unusual to extend the
intervention, to work on goals that were not
yet completed or new problems that might
have arisen during the intervention.
• The emphasis, however, is on ending the
treatment when the problems have been
resolved or ameliorated.