Running head: EVALUATION OF PRACTICE

Evaluation of Practice
Anika Davis
Wayne State University
March 9, 2015

EVALUATION OF PRACTICE

I was placed at Detroit East Health Services which is a mental health agency located on
the Detroit East side. I have been at this location since August, 2014. During my placement I
have worked with both the youth and adult populations. My duties include a wide range of case
management services, including conducting case management assessments, attending planning
meetings, assisting clients with completing applications for Social Security benefits, jobs,
Department of Human Service benefits, and more. My role within the agency also includes
follow-up interviews and finding resources to help clients meet their goals.
Evaluating my Practice with Clients
Assisting clients with meeting their goals is important in my daily interactions. I may not
be able to assist them with meeting long term goals but I help on a daily basis with short term
goals. There are many ways that some of these goals are achieved. One client came into the
office as a walk-in and gave me a notice she received from the City of Detroit regarding her noncompliance with jury duty. The letter stated that she needed to show-cause why she did not show
up for jury duty. After having the client sign a release of information from, I was able to type her
a letter explaining that she was a mental health patient in our agency and was not fit for jury
duty. The client was happy with the documentation. She had a need to get proof to the court
that she was unable to perform jury duty and I was able to help her achieve that by drafting a
letter providing her proof.
On another occasion a client entered the office upset that her son did not have a winter
coat and that she did not have food for her and her family. I assessed the family situation and
determined that she already received food stamp payments but had used them. Upon my request,
a winter coat was given to her son from my agency. She also was given a referral to Capuchin

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food pantry to get food for her family. This clients needs and the needs of her family were met
by providing her son with a coat and her resources to obtain food.
I have been successful in learning to assess a clients needs both expressed and
unexpressed and locating the resources to aid them in meeting those needs. In order to properly
assess a client my interview and listening skills had to be adequate. In my opinion, my greatest
strengths are empathy and willingness to help consumers. Ive learned to mediate between
different systems for clients and advocate for them, as well as diffuse an irate consumer. In most
instances, my clients leave the agency pleased with the services they have received.
My Impact on Clients
It is not always easy to determine if the work you do with a client is effective. Sometimes
the client is not aware of the impact your assistance might have on their lives. When I see a client
whom I assisted as the on-call case manager return to the office and request me by name it is an
indication for me that I made a positive impact on them. With the mental health population, more
often than not the social worker has to determine for himself if his work with a client is effective.
Some of my interventions do not have a large impact on my clients but overall the work I have
done along with others in my agency has had a positive effect on our consumers. I have worked
diligently within my agency to learn many different aspects and social work skills to ensure that I
am offering the best and most proven interventions to my clients.
Skills required for Work within my Agency
There are many skills needed to be employed in my current field placement. I first needed
to have a basic knowledge of the major theories, models and perspectives used in social work.
Some of these theories include systems, psychodynamic and social learning theories. For
example, understanding psychodynamic theory might help a social worker understand why an

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otherwise honest, hard-working person, who has not eaten in a week, might be caught stealing a
sandwich from the store. His need to overcome his hunger took precedence over his moral
beliefs. It is important to have knowledge of all the major social work perspectives but the most
used in my agency is the strengths perspective. My agency usually attempts to develop
interventions based on a clients strengths so it is imperative to have a strong understanding of
how to achieve this and why. The solution focused practice model is also used most frequently in
during the person-centered planning process. This process focuses on the solution sought by the
client and the social worker helps the client work on steps to achieve the desired solution. A good
understanding of the task-centered model is also helpful. I also have to understand the effects of
the environment on human behavior. Some interventions may be more prone to failure if certain
environmental factors are not considered.
In order to assess a client to work toward a solution or intervention strong interviewing
skills are required. This includes the ability to listen effectively, probe and question, show
empathy, clarify, paraphrase, and assess. This list is not all inclusive but gives a general idea of
the skills required to conduct a successful interview.
Do we Fit?
While I am a great intern and eager to learn all I can about the social work profession and
how to effectively help my clients, I would prefer to focus my career on working with children.
In my agency I work with adults and children and this is not ideal for me. I welcome the
challenge of working with severely and persistently mentally ill patients during my training. I
believe this work has given my invaluable experience in dealing with a diverse population
because all the consumers suffer from a mental illness but they are all unique in symptoms. I do
not think the agency and its population are a good fit for me because I do not have a particular

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desire to work with mentally ill adults. I am more passionate about the impact I believe I can
have on children. In my agency, I feel the goal is to make the clients more comfortable living
with their disability than to overcome them.
Improving Practice with Clients
As stated previously, my current agency is not a perfect fit for me but it is a definite
stepping stone to improving my social work skills. In order to become a better worker to my
clients I can work to better understand client systems. I can develop a stronger knowledge of
how micro, mezzo, and macro systems come together. One thing I have been consistently
working on in my agency is my interviewing skills. I prefer to interview my clients using a
conversational style interview instead of questions and answers. Working with groups would
benefit me as a social worker to get to see group dynamics more. This can also help me to
understand the impact of the environment on human behavior. I can also develop more resources
and collaborate on the mezzo and macro level to help clients. In all, I think I have been doing a
good job in my internship with trying to experience some of every aspect of my agency without
operating outside the scope of my education.
Ethics
Although I would love to conduct groups and learn more about the clinician side of social
work it is important that I remain within my area of education. It would be unethical for me to
practice outside of the BSW realm. Dealing with my agency population has helped me to remain
conscious of ethical guidelines within practice. Clients often make requests that are unethical or
would pose an ethical dilemma. Many clients do not have boundaries or inhibitions so they often
do and say inappropriate things and I have to remain aware of their condition and continue to
treat them with dignity and respect.

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Benefits of Field Placement

Remaining professional and treating clients with dignity and respect is part of the social
work principles. My agency population force me on a daily basis to remain cognizant of social
values. Even when a client fails to treat me with respect, as a social worker I still must work to
help that client. Because of the limited mental capacity of some clients they do not have very
good personal hygiene but I would never treat a person in a way to make them feel
uncomfortable. I make sure that I shake the hand of every client I meet with and thank them for
their patience and allowing me to help them. I have learned it is very important to my population
for them to feel in control of their treatment. Every client I see leaves feeling like I truly enjoyed
helping them.
My agency has a very high case load and they do not turn away any consumer that
qualifies for service. In the beginning I was saddened by this and felt it was a disservice to the
clients. Since being in my agency for seven months, I understand that my agency cares for the
community. They do not turn away clients out of compassion, not greed. They believe that some
level of care for this population is better than no level of care. If that is not social service then I
am not sure what is. This agency has taught me to think critically about situations put before me
and see the big picture. The ability to do that has given me a greater respect for the social code of
ethics and the values attached to them.