301:Engaging Clients from a Strength-Based, Solution-Focused Perspective

301:Engaging Clients from a Strength-Based, Solution-Focused Perspective

301:Engaging Clients from A Strength-Based, Solution-Focused PerspectiveThe Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center

2

Learning Objectives:• Identify the conditions for establishing

effective engagement with clients;• Connect the engagement process with the

appropriate application of protective authority to establish the collaborative/protective partnership;

• Identify the elements of the solution-focused intervention model that distinguish it from the more typical problem-focused approach;

• Identify seven key solution-focused strategies;

• Identify the appropriate use of solution-focused skills and questions; and

• Identify opportunities to implement the solution-focused interviewing and intervention approach with child welfare clients.


3

Agenda

• Brief Introductions and Workshop Overview• Engagement in the Context of Strength-Based Child Welfare Practice• Protective Authority• Introduction to the Solution-Focused Approach:

History, Values and the 7 Key Strategies• Introduction to the Solution-Focused Foundational

Skills and Questions• Demonstration of the Strength-Based, Solution-

Focused Strategies and Skills• Summary and Transfer of Learning• Evaluation and Closing

301:Engaging Clients from A Strength-Based, Solution-Focused PerspectiveThe Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center 4

Professionalism:Professional

Practice• Clear Mission• Shared Values• Practice Standards• Relevant

Knowledge and Skill

• Results-oriented• Self-assessment• Ongoing

Improvement

Professional Interview

• Give and get information

• Initiate/maintain client engagement

• Initiate/sustain movement toward solutions


5

Strengths

• What people have learned about themselves, others and their world

• Personal qualities, traits and virtues

• What people know about the world around them

• The talents people have• Cultural and personal stories

and lore• Pride• The community


6

Types of Strengths

• Mitigating Strengths: protect children from threats to safety• Risk-Reducing Strengths: reduce the likelihood of maltreatment in the future • Well-Being Related Strengths: serve to enhance or support the family’s overall quality of life • Neutral Strengths: positive qualities or conditions in the family that do not directly act to mitigate safety threats, reduce risk or enhance

well-being


7

Engagement

• Engage: to obtain or contract for; to obtain and hold the attention of; to pledge or promise; to interlock or cause to mesh

(The American Heritage Dictionary).


8

Engagement: Process & Outcome

• Engagement is both a process and an outcome.

• It requires the effective and balanced use of helping skills and protective authority

• It produces an ongoing worker/client relationship that results in the pursuit and accomplishment of agreed upon goals (ASFA + client goals)


Promoting Effective Engagement

• Tuning-in to Self and Others

• Focused Listening• Clarification of Role and

Purpose• Respect • Clear and Accurate

Response to Client Questions

• Honesty• Dependability• Identification and

Support of Client Strengths

• Seeking to Understand the Client’s Point of View

• Culturally Sensitive Practice

• Connecting Agency Goals with Client Goals

• Investment in Client Success

• Outcomes-Oriented Practice

• Regular Feedback• Confrontation• Demand for Work


10

Protective Authority

• Protective Authority is the application of helping and/or coercive strategies that result in client acceptance of CYS intervention and effective client engagement leading to the assurance of child safety, reduction of risk of maltreatment, promotion of well-being and timely permanence.

And/or


11

Protective Authority is a Continuum that Requires Balance and Flexibility

Clarifying/Helping

Clarifying/Helping

Confronting/Forced Choice

Confronting/Forced Choice

Police/ Courts:Removal/ TPR

Police/ Courts:Removal/ TPR

Low Moderate High

Balance/Flexibility = Engagement &

Protective Partnership


12

Avoiding Authority Extremes

“Nice”• Stance: submissive• Concern: conflict• Client potential:

ambivalent • Authority: minimizes • Goal for client:

cooperation• Style: inconsistent


13

Avoiding Authority Extremes

“Tough” • Stance: superior• Concern: loss of control• Client potential:

pessimistic • Authority: heavy • Goal for client:

compliance• Style: inflexible


14

Solution-Focused Core Principles

• If what you are doing doesn’t work, stop doing it and do something else.

• If what you are doing is working, do more of it.


15

Problem Model vs. Solution Model

The Problem-Focused Model• The practitioner is the expert.• Practitioner must figure out the type of client problem and the related solution.• The “Problem” is seen as real and

separate from the client as a whole person; the client is “labeled”.

• The job of the professional is to know about various problems, have assessment procedures and present interventions for client compliance.


16

Problem Model vs. Solution ModelThe Solution-Focused Model

• The client is the expert about his/her life.

• Practitioner must facilitate client solution building.

• Solutions emerge without connection to the specific related problem.

• The “problem” does not exist apart from the client as a whole person in context.

• The job of the professional is to understand the direction that the client wants to go, identify the supporting strengths and co-construct solutions that promote family and ASFA goals.


Contrasting Types of QuestionsProblem Questions• What is the worst this

problem has been?• What’s going on during

those bad times?• Can you think of

anything you are doing to set him off?

• Have you thought about getting treatment for this problem?

Solution Questions• Tell me about the times

when this problem is a little bit better?

• How did you make this happen?

• What are you doing differently during those times when things are a little bit better?

• What would your best friend (mother, child, etc.) tell you when things are going a little bit better for you?


18

7 Key Solution-Focused Strategies

1. Identifying strengths in a problem situation.

2. Exploring past successes.

3. Finding & using exceptions

to the problem.

4. Facilitating a positive vision of the future.

5. Developing Action Steps.

6. Scaling questions.

7. Encouraging commitment.


Types of Useful Questions: Exceptions

• Exceptions are those occasions in clients’ lives when their problems could have occurred but did not – or at least were less severe.

• Exception questions focus on who, what, when and where (the conditions that helped the exception to occur) - NOT WHY; exceptions should be related to client goals.


Types of Useful Questions: Coping

• Coping questions are related in a way to exploring for exceptions. They attempt to help the client shift his/her focus away from the problem elements and toward what the client is doing to survive the painful or stressful circumstances.


Types of Useful Questions: Indirect or Relationship

• Indirect/Relationship questions invite the client to consider how others might feel or respond to some aspect of the client’s life, behavior or future changes.

• Indirect questions can be useful in asking the client to reflect on narrow or faulty perceptions without the worker directly challenging those perceptions or behaviors.


22

Types of Useful Questions: Scaling

• Scaling questions invite the clients to put their observations, impressions, and predictions on a scale from 0 to 10, with “0” being no chance, and “10” being every chance.

• Questions need to be specific, citing specific times and circumstances.


Types of Useful Questions: Miracle

• The “Miracle Question” is the opening piece of the process of developing well-formed goals.

• It gives clients permission to think about an unlimited range of possibilities for change.

• It begins to move the focus away from their current and past problems and toward a more satisfying life.


24

Posing the Miracle Question

“Now, I want to ask you a different kind of question. I want you to imagine a time in the future when the problem which brought you to the attention of CYS is solved. All the present barriers are gone. So, when this miracle happens what will be different that will tell you that this positive future has happened and the problem is solved?”

(adapted from de Shazer, 1988)


Follow-up Questions to the Miracle Question

Through follow-up questions, the interviewer further extends and amplifies the impact of the miracle by a series of questions designed to guide the client in exploring the implications of the miracle in the client’s life.

• “What might others notice about you that would tell them that the miracle has happened, that things are different or better?”

• “Have there been times when you have seen pieces of this miracle/positive future happen?”


Dialogue I: Review High Authority

• 2 Asking about change, difference or exceptions 3,5

• 2 Asking for client feedback 10,11 • 3 Asking for information about a problem 6,8,13 • 2 Clarification of purpose or role 2,14• 0 Demonstrating understanding of the client’s words

and feelings • 1 Reinforcing client strengths and accomplishments 4

• 0 Scaling and scaling follow-up questions • 4 Confrontation 7,9,12,12 • 3 Explaining actual or possible consequences of client behavior,12,14,15• 2 Demand for work 15,16• 0 Summarizing • 1 Planning next steps 17

• 2 Asking about change, difference or exceptions 3,5

• 2 Asking for client feedback 10,11 • 3 Asking for information about a problem 6,8,13 • 2 Clarification of purpose or role 2,14• 0 Demonstrating understanding of the client’s words

and feelings • 1 Reinforcing client strengths and accomplishments 4

• 0 Scaling and scaling follow-up questions • 4 Confrontation 7,9,12,12 • 3 Explaining actual or possible consequences of client behavior,12,14,15• 2 Demand for work 15,16• 0 Summarizing • 1 Planning next steps 17


27

Comparison of Interview Styles

Question/Statement Type One Two

Asking for information about change, difference or exceptions 2 8

Asking for client feedback 2 8

Asking for information about a problem 3 7

Clarification of purpose or role 2 4

Understanding client’s words and feelings 0 3

Reinforcing client strengths and accomplishments 1 5

Scaling and scaling follow-up questions 0 4

Confrontation 4 2

Explaining actual or possible consequences 3 0

Demand for work 2 4

Summarizing 0 1

Planning next steps 1 1


Problem Wagon

Problem

Wagon

ASFA GOALS:• Safety

• Permanence

• Well-being

• Timeliness


29

Strength/Problem Wagon

Strengths/Problem

Wagon


• Permanence

• Well-being

• Timeliness


30

Solution Wagon

Solution

Wagon


• Permanence

• Well-being

• Timeliness


Summary of Key Concepts• Prepare to be Strength-Based and Solution-Focused. • Clarify your role and the purpose of your meeting or

interview.• Listen and seek to understand the client’s

perceptions. • Look for client/family strengths. • Negotiate an agreement to do the work. • Use the least intrusive effective level of protective

authority. • Identify and develop clear goals. • Use scaling questions to assess and build client

confidence and commitment. • Work on developing small steps toward goals. • Support progress and work to overcome barriers. • Celebrate accomplishments. • Check: Was the interview a professional interview?.

• Prepare to be Strength-Based and Solution-Focused. • Clarify your role and the purpose of your meeting or

interview.• Listen and seek to understand the client’s

perceptions. • Look for client/family strengths. • Negotiate an agreement to do the work. • Use the least intrusive effective level of protective

authority. • Identify and develop clear goals. • Use scaling questions to assess and build client

confidence and commitment. • Work on developing small steps toward goals. • Support progress and work to overcome barriers. • Celebrate accomplishments. • Check: Was the interview a professional interview?.


32

WHAT SBSFA CAN & CAN’T DO

No model can give you more time to do your job. However, the SBSFA can help to focus your time and energy in the direction of behaviors and tasks that are sharply focused on the mission of child welfare, on unit performance and the most critical elements of your role.

• *BE CURIOUS• *BE PATIENT• *GROW YOUR

COMPETENCIES• *TRY OUT NEW

KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS

Documents

301:Engaging Clients from a Strength-Based, Solution-Focused Perspective