Generalist Intervention Model

When one thinks about intervention models, the firs thing that usually comes to mind is crisis intervention. What I'm going to be addressing here is a general overview of what any standard intervention should look like.

Step 1: Get an overview of the client/s situation. What is the client/s point of view of the problem? What do they believe is causing the problem? What possible solutions have been tried? How did they work? Think of this as information gathering.

Step 2: Assessment. Develop a possible hypothesis. What is making the situation worse? What systems are involved here? How are external and internal forces acting on the situation? This is not set in stone and may change as more information is presented. Assessment is key to intervention, so this should be done very carefully and thoroughly, and updated necessary. Good assessments are culturally competent.

Step 3: Come to a consensus with client on what needs to happen. What goals should be accomplished to work towards resolving the issue?

Step 4: Agree with the client on the client's role and your role in the intervention.

Step 5: Proceed with the intervention! (Example interventions, agreed on in step #3, could be drug and alcohol counseling, finding and applying for subsidized daycare, attending vocational training, etc.)

Step 6: Evaluate! Always evaluate! Evaluation is both for the client and yourself. After the intervention is over you want to know if it had lasting results.

Adapted from:
Ambrosino, R., Heffernan, J., Shuttlesworth, G., & Amrosino, R. (2001). Social work and social welfare: An introduction (4th ed.) Belmont: Brooks/Cole.

Systems Theory

Back to freshman year of the BSW!

A 'system' is a group of parts that together make up a whole of something. Like our organs and tissue are parts that make up our bodies. In the same way, individual people, families, and organizations together make systems.

A key part of systems is the boundary. Boundaries are the outside of the system. For example, one could see my husband and I as a system. Together we are a married couple. You could also expand this system to include any children we may have (we just have cats, but you get the idea) and us and our children would make up another system. Or you could go out even further to encompass our parents and our sisters and brothers. Systems can also include our schools, our places of work, our communities, etc.

A 'closed' system is a system that has impassible boundaries. Open systems have boundaries that are flexible. Systems can be too closed or too open. For example, a couple with children who allows random strangers to sleep in their home has created a system that is so open it is dangerous. A less extreme example could be boundaries between children and parents that are so loose they act more as peers than parents and children. A family system that is too closed leads to isolation.

Organizational systems can also be open or closed. Personally, I've observed a support group that ignored new and inquiring members. This system (the support group) was supposed to be open, but the members maintained a closed group.

The book I am working from cites ecological levels of systems.

"Microsystem: situations in which the person has face to face contact with influential others.
Examples: family, school, workplace, church...
mesosystem: relationships between microsystems; the connections between situations.
Examples: home-school, home-workplace, home-church...
Exosystem: settings in which the person does not participate but in which significant decisions are made affecting the person or others who interact directly with the person.
Examples: ... school board, local government...
Macrosystem: 'blueprints' for defining and organizing the institutional life of the society
Examples: ideology, social policy, shared assumptions about human nature..." p. 66

In a nutshell, intervention using the systems theory would take into account outside forces on the person. Family needs, the neighborhood, factories leaving the state, and the state of the economy all impact a person's employment status. A student who is not fed at home is not going to excel in school despite any in-school interventions that may be made.

Adapted from:
Ambrosino, R., Herrfernan, J., Shuttlesworth, G., & Amrosino R. Social work and social welfare: An introduction. (4th ed.) Belmont: Brooks/Cole.

Erikson's Eight Developmental Stages

Erikson based this on Freud's theories of development. It has both psychological and social explanations for behavior. This theory is Eurocentric. The model is heavily influenced by Freud and there is no evidence he practiced outside of America/white society. Problems are defined as improper development and most likely due to external forces.

Infant (birth to 18 months)
Trust vs. Mistrust
learns to trust him/herself, others, and environment

Toddler (18 months to 3 years)
Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
learns to believe in him/herself

Preschool (3-5 years)
Initiative vs. Guilt
learns to take initiative in play rather than mimicking
'guilt' refers to Freud's Oedipal struggle

Latency State (6 to 12 years)
Industry vs. Inferiority
learns that he/she is capable and able to accomplish

Adolescence
Identity vs. Role Confusion
The teenager searches for themselves as an individual, separate from their environment

Young Adult
Intimacy vs. Isolation
The individual searches for meaningful relationships

Middle Adult
Generativity vs. Self absorption or Stagnation
search for meaning through intergenerational communication.

Late Adulthood
Integrity vs. Despair
Individual looks back with either feelings of accomplishment or dispair.

Adapted from:
Watson, S. (2005). Attachment Theory and Social Work. In M. Nash, R. Munford, and K. O'Donoghue, Social Work theories in action, 208-222. Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers