Describe the assessment process as related to individuals and families.

Describe the assessment process as related to individuals and families.

Assessment is the second step in a planned change process and is utilized across all client systems. At the individual and family level, the assessment looks like recognizing the problem, identifying contributing factors in the environment, and working on solutions to reduce or eliminate problems (Kirst- Ashman & Hull, 2017). Social workers are tasked with gathering a lot of essential information from the client during this step, including self-assessments from the client about current relationships, employment, or financial information. When working with families, it may also be important to gather information about the relationships within the family, how the family communicates, and how the family confronts conflict (Kirst-Ashman & Hull, 2017).

Working with macro-level groups, a key difference is that as a social worker, you may be dealing with a spectrum of problems across many diverse types of individuals whereas, with a micro group, you may only be working with a single problem. However, the information that is important to gather is like micro-level work – performing interviews, gathering self-assessments, and from the client’s environment (Kirst-Ashman & Hull, 2017). At the macro level, I would utilize group activities to observe clients’ responses and how they respond with the group, pass out and have group members fill out self-assessment forms, and explore the environment around where the group meets to gain a deeper understanding of how they may be interacting with it.

Often as social workers, we deal with sensitive issues involving individuals and families. Naturally, we may come across resistance to the assessment process. In the Child Welfare (2021) video, Sarah demonstrates resistance when she says that her boyfriend Paul has taken discipline of her son ‘too far’ more than once.

“…But he can’t always help it, you know? He’s done so much for us already. And it’s really not his fault. Anthony, he can be a handful sometimes.”

As the social worker in this scenario, it’s important to establish the son’s safety in this situation by working with Sarah to come up with a plan with this goal in mind.

References

Kirst-Ashman, K. K., & Hull, G. J. H. (2017). Empowerment Series: Understanding Generalist Practice (8th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Walden University. (2018, 2021). Child welfare [Video]. https://class.waldenu.edu

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Describe the assessment process as related to individuals and families.

Briefly identify the types of information it is important to gather.

Compare how assessment at the macro level is similar and dissimilar to at the micro level.

Explain how you would gather the needed information at the macro level.

Identify a situation where a client system (micro or macro) may be reluctant to engage in the assessment process.