Social Worker–Client Relationships: Social Worker Perspectives

ABSTRACT

Social worker–client relationship practice has always been and remains central to contemporary social work purpose and identity. The professional “helping relationship” can and does enable change and alleviate distress. Nevertheless, what happens in social worker–client relationships remains unclear warranting research attention. This article reports on a qualitative study that explored the lived experience of social worker–client relationships with 16 social workers employed in child and family welfare services in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. Findings confirmed the centrality of social worker–client relationships for achieving client outcomes and revealed a distinctive practice approach where the social worker–client relationship is seen as the workspace for the intervention, and the social worker acts as relationship-building agent. Overall this constitutes a distinctive practice approach perhaps usefully described as social work relationship praxis (SWRP). The findings are discussed with reference to the literature and implications for research, practice, and education are outlined.

IMPLICATIONS

• This study valorises the centrality of the social worker–client relationship for achieving client outcomes.

• A relational paradigm needs to be elevated in social work education to prepare students for practicing relationally.

• Development of social work practice theory needs to embrace relational views of “the self”.

就当代社会工作的目标和认同而言，社会工作者与客户的关系始终处在中心位置。专业的“帮助关系”可以改变并减缓痛苦。社会工作者与客户的关系究竟如何尚不清楚，需要研究关注。本文是对社会工作者与客户关系的定性研究，对象包括新南威尔士及澳大利亚首都领地的儿童及家庭服务机构雇佣的16名社会工作者。我们的研究肯定了社会工作者与客户关系对于达到客户要求的结果至关重要，并提出了一种将这种关系作为干预平台、社会工作者作为关系建设者的实践方法。这种独特的实践方式，或可称为社会工作关系实践。笔者结合文献讨论了研究发现，并简述了其对研究、实践及教育的意义。

KEYWORDS:

• Social Worker–Client Relationship
• Relational
• Social Work
• Practice
• Praxis

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.