Strengths-Based Social Work Assessment Essay
“Who are the people that are especially important to you these days? Tell me about these relationships.”
[“To interviewer: What additional strengths, values, commitments, skills or assets do you know (from whatever source) that this person has?”]
While this is one of the first and laudable attempts at forming a comprehensive tool for strengths in the geriatric population, it is a qualitative tool and therefore cannot be used to measure or quantify strengths.
Another article published in the year 2001, titled ‘Strengths-Based Social Work Assessment: Transforming the Dominant Paradigm’ (100), discusses some of the differences and conflicts between the relatively recent strengths based approaches and the traditional problem-focused and deficits based assessments. The author also proposes useful methods of incorporation of client centered and strengths based practice which may be used by social workers rather than assessments based on the pathology and medical model.
The author goes on to propose a strengths-based assessment titled “ROPES”, which is an acronym for …show more content…
The author argues that traditional social work perspective views individuals and their outcomes as consequences of an interactional process between the individual’s personal and environmental influences. The social niche assessment instrument was developed in order to fulfill the need for an assessment to assess the human environment, the strengths and the risks/stressors therein. It is believed that such an instrument when administered to clients based on their experiences and in collaboration with a social worker shall provide a framework and a description of their experiences within that environment and their active role as a beginning of intervention, positive transformation and
[“To interviewer: What additional strengths, values, commitments, skills or assets do you know (from whatever source) that this person has?”]
While this is one of the first and laudable attempts at forming a comprehensive tool for strengths in the geriatric population, it is a qualitative tool and therefore cannot be used to measure or quantify strengths.
Another article published in the year 2001, titled ‘Strengths-Based Social Work Assessment: Transforming the Dominant Paradigm’ (100), discusses some of the differences and conflicts between the relatively recent strengths based approaches and the traditional problem-focused and deficits based assessments. The author also proposes useful methods of incorporation of client centered and strengths based practice which may be used by social workers rather than assessments based on the pathology and medical model.
The author goes on to propose a strengths-based assessment titled “ROPES”, which is an acronym for …show more content…
The author argues that traditional social work perspective views individuals and their outcomes as consequences of an interactional process between the individual’s personal and environmental influences. The social niche assessment instrument was developed in order to fulfill the need for an assessment to assess the human environment, the strengths and the risks/stressors therein. It is believed that such an instrument when administered to clients based on their experiences and in collaboration with a social worker shall provide a framework and a description of their experiences within that environment and their active role as a beginning of intervention, positive transformation and