Sociological strategies for developing services, clinical sociology, unit 7, sociology

1. Sociological strategies for
developing services
for the abused
Dr. Sumity Arora

2. Clinical sociology
• Clinical sociology is the application of sociological theories,
research/methods, and interventions to social issues and
problems presented by clients.
• Thus, clinical sociology is the same as all sociology except that
it adds intervention, prevention, and social amelioration
components to its framework.
• “Clinical” means a problem-solving perspective. Clinical
sociologists deal with “problems in living” (Szasz 1970).
• Some sociologists prefer the term “sociological practice” or
“applied sociology.” Others refer to it as “doing sociology.

3. Introduction
• There has been increased concern for the problem of abuse in any
form ( physical, social, psychological, financial etc ) in recent years,
and an accompanying interest in providing services to meet the needs
of victims.
• This has led to the development of new community services. Clinical
sociologists have an important role to assure that the development of
community resources.

4. Role of sociologist in abuse
• Provision of information about social structure and its consequences to enable
members to develop more effective plans;
• Clinical sociologists can use sociological principles and data to make people aware
of aspects of the situation of which they had not been aware; for e.g, many times
people undergoing abuse do not realize that they are victims of abuse,
sociologists make them aware of their situation.
• Clinical sociologists can involve group members and other individuals in the
planning process to maximize the likelihood of an investment in the outcome.
Outcome means the decrease of abuse in society. For example if whole society i.e
group of parents, group of elderly are together solving a problem of abuse, then
abuse can be prevented as well as it occurrence can be reduced.

5. Sociological services for preventing abuse
• Early childhood and child care services
• Education services
• Health services
• Housing services
• Respite care programs
• Services to children and youth with disabilities
• Home visiting
• Parent education program to prevent child abuse
• Parent support group programs
• Family resource centers
• Parenting resources