Which of the following are sound principles of casework interviewing? Select all that apply.

Use open-ended questions to encourage the client to elaborate

Tolerate and use silence purposefully

Combine two questions in one to save time

Use open-ended questions to encourage the client to elaborate

Tolerate and use silence purposefully

Ask repeated "why" questions to establish the client's motives

Process recording, a detailed near-verbatim account of an interview with the worker's own feelings and analysis, is used mainly for:

Quick identification of clients

Assertion (A): Intake is the phase at which the worker and client decide whether the agency can help with the client's request. Reason (R): At intake the worker completes the evaluation of the outcomes of treatment. Choose the correct option.

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A

Which of the following are legitimate purposes of casework recording? Select all that apply.

Continuity of service when the worker changes

Accountability to the agency and, where needed, the courts

Continuity of service when the worker changes

Publishing identifiable client stories to raise funds

Accountability to the agency and, where needed, the courts

Which of the following is the best response in the termination phase of a planned casework relationship?

Reviewing progress with the client and helping them express feelings about ending

Beginning a detailed social history

Ending abruptly so the client does not become dependent

Deciding whether the agency is the right one to help

Social Work with Individuals and Groups II: The Process and Techniques of Social Casework, from Intake to Termination, Hollis's Typology and the Techniques of Intervention, the Principles of Interviewing, and Casework Recording

This chapter takes the third item of the unit, the process and techniques of social casework: the phases of casework intervention, the techniques of intervention (the syllabus writes "Tecniques"), the principles of interviewing and casework recording. It is the most practical part of the syllabus, and the examination tests it through applied questions: which technique a worker is using when she tells a mother that many parents feel angry with a disabled child, which phase a task belongs to, or what the "A" in a SOAP note stands for. Each technique is therefore given with an example of what it sounds like in an interview.

1. The phases of casework intervention

Casework proceeds through phases that overlap in practice but can be separated for study. Intake is the first contact: the client, or someone on their behalf, approaches the agency; the worker hears the request, establishes initial rapport, explains the agency's services and decides with the client whether the agency can help or whether a referral elsewhere is better. Study, also called social investigation or psychosocial study, gathers facts about the person, the problem and the situation from the client, family members, records and collateral contacts such as teachers, employers or doctors, often through home visits. Assessment, which Richmond called social diagnosis, is the professional opinion formed from the facts: what the problem is, what causes and maintains it, and what strengths and resources are available. The diagnostic school distinguished dynamic diagnosis (how the parts of the person's situation interact now), clinical diagnosis (classifying the person's functioning) and etiological diagnosis (the history of how the problem developed).

Intervention, or treatment, begins with planning: agreeing goals, deciding who will do what, and often making a written or verbal contract. Treatment may be direct, working with the client's feelings, attitudes and behaviour through the relationship, or indirect, modifying the environment by arranging services, involving family members, negotiating with a school or employer, or securing benefits. Evaluation judges whether goals are being met and whether the plan needs change; it is continuous rather than a single final step. Termination ends the relationship, ideally by plan when goals are met, sometimes because the client withdraws, moves or the agency's time limit is reached. The worker reviews progress with the client, consolidates gains, helps the client manage feelings about separation and plans for the future. Follow-up checks, after an interval, whether gains have lasted.

The casework process
Phase	Main tasks	Typical question in the worker's mind
Intake	First contact, rapport, explaining services, eligibility, referral	Can this agency help, and does the client want its help?
Study	Gathering facts from client, family, records and collaterals; home visits	What are the facts of this person's situation?
Assessment (social diagnosis)	Interpreting facts; causes, strengths, resources	What is the problem and what keeps it going?
Intervention	Planning, contract, direct and indirect treatment	What will we do, and who will do it?
Evaluation	Reviewing progress against goals	Is it working?
Termination and follow-up	Consolidating gains, handling separation, checking later	Can the client carry on alone, and have gains lasted?

2. Techniques of casework intervention

Florence Hollis classified casework procedures in Casework: A Psychosocial Therapy (1964). Sustainment expresses the worker's interest, sympathy and confidence in the client, through acceptance, reassurance and encouragement. Direct influence promotes a particular course of action, from underlining what the client already intends to, at most, advice. Exploration, description and ventilation draw out facts and allow the client to express feelings, which often brings relief. Person-situation reflection helps the client think about their current situation, their own and others' responses and the consequences of their actions. Pattern-dynamic reflection helps the client understand the patterns and tendencies in their own behaviour and the reasons for them. Developmental reflection examines how early life experiences shaped present patterns. The first four lean towards support and the last two towards insight; Hollis also described work on the environment, which she called environmental modification.

Common casework techniques
Technique	What it does	What it sounds like
Acceptance and reassurance	Reduces anxiety, conveys worth	"You did the right thing in coming here."
Universalisation	Tells the client their feelings are shared by many, reducing isolation and guilt	"Many parents of a disabled child feel angry at times."
Ventilation	Allows pent-up feelings to be expressed	"Tell me how it felt when he left."
Partialisation	Breaks an overwhelming problem into manageable parts (Perlman)	"Let us deal with the rent first, then the school."
Clarification	Helps the client see their situation and feelings more clearly	"So what worries you most is losing your job?"
Confrontation	Points out discrepancies between words and actions, carefully	"You say you want to stop drinking, yet you went to the shop again."
Interpretation	Offers a meaning or connection the client has not seen	"Could your anger at your boss be linked to how your father treated you?"
Environmental modification	Changes the client's situation through resources and others	Arranging a scholarship or a disability certificate

⚠️ Universalisation is not minimising

Universalisation normalises a feeling ("many people feel this way"); it must not dismiss the client's distress ("everyone has problems, don't worry"). Used well it relieves guilt and opens discussion; used carelessly it tells the client that their situation is not taken seriously.

3. The principles of interviewing

The interview is the casework's main tool: a purposeful conversation between worker and client. Interviews may aim at gathering information (study), at assessment, or at help itself (therapeutic interviews), and most combine these. The principles are well established. An interview has a purpose known to both; it takes place in a setting that assures privacy and comfort; it begins by establishing rapport; it proceeds at the client's pace; the worker listens more than talks; questions are mostly open-ended ("How have things been at home?") rather than closed ("Are things fine at home?"); leading questions ("You must be angry, aren't you?"), double questions and repeated "why" questions, which sound accusatory, are avoided; silence is tolerated and used; the worker attends to non-verbal communication, their own as well as the client's; and the interview ends with a summary and an agreement about next steps.

The micro-skills of interviewing are attending, listening and responding. Gerard Egan (The Skilled Helper, 1975) summarised attending behaviour as SOLER: face the client Squarely, adopt an Open posture, Lean towards the client, maintain appropriate Eye contact and be Relaxed, adjusted for culture, since sustained eye contact is not appropriate in every setting. Active listening includes minimal encouragers ("mm", "go on"), paraphrasing the content of what was said, reflecting the feeling behind it ("You sound hurt that no one visited"), probing for detail, clarifying and summarising. Empathy, Egan's central skill, is communicating an accurate understanding of the client's feelings and experience from the client's point of view; it differs from sympathy, which is feeling sorry for the client from one's own point of view.

🧠 Paraphrase content, reflect feeling

"My husband lost his job and now the landlord wants us out." A paraphrase returns the facts: "Your husband is out of work and you may lose the house." A reflection of feeling returns the emotion: "You sound frightened about where the children will go." Questions that ask which skill a response shows usually turn on this pair.

4. Casework recording

Records serve several purposes: accountability to the agency, funders and courts; continuity of service when a worker changes; planning and evaluation of the work; supervision and training; research and policy; and, in statutory work such as child protection or juvenile justice, legal evidence. Good records are accurate, objective, concise, timely and confidential, and they separate facts (what was observed or said) from the worker's opinions and assessments. They are written respectfully, because clients increasingly have rights of access to their records and because records follow people into courts and institutions.

Types of casework record
Type of record	Form	Main use
Face sheet	Identifying data: name, age, address, family, referral source	Quick reference; statistics
Narrative record	Chronological account of contacts in the worker's words	Ordinary case files
Process record	Detailed, near-verbatim account of an interview, with the worker's feelings and analysis	Training and supervision, especially of students
Summary record	Periodic condensation of the work: study, assessment, plan, progress	Transfer, review and closing
Problem-oriented record (SOAP)	Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan for each problem	Health and multidisciplinary settings

The problem-oriented record adapts Lawrence Weed's problem-oriented medical record (1968) and is now common wherever social workers work alongside doctors and nurses. Each problem has its own note. S (subjective) records what the client reports; O (objective) records what the worker observes or verifies, such as test results, documents or the condition of the home; A (assessment) records the worker's professional interpretation; and P (plan) records what will be done next. Digital case-management systems now structure much recording, which improves retrieval and reporting but raises new questions about data protection, consent and who can see a client's history.

🎯 Why process recording survives in training

A process record is too long for ordinary files, yet schools of social work still require it in field work, because writing down what was said, what the student felt and why they responded as they did makes the student's skills and blind spots visible to the supervisor, which a summary hides.

Key takeaways

Phases: intake (can the agency help), study or social investigation (facts, home visits, collateral contacts), assessment or social diagnosis (dynamic, clinical, etiological), intervention (planning, contract, direct and indirect treatment), evaluation (continuous), termination and follow-up.
Hollis (1964): sustainment, direct influence, exploration-description-ventilation, person-situation reflection, pattern-dynamic reflection and developmental reflection, plus environmental modification; support leans on the first four, insight on the last two.
Techniques: acceptance and reassurance, universalisation, ventilation, partialisation (Perlman), clarification, confrontation, interpretation and environmental modification, each recognisable from what it sounds like in an interview.
Interviewing: known purpose, privacy, rapport, client's pace, open-ended questions, no leading, double or accusatory "why" questions, purposeful silence; Egan's SOLER (1975), paraphrasing versus reflecting feeling, empathy versus sympathy.
Recording: accountability, continuity, planning, supervision, research and evidence; face sheet, narrative, process (training), summary and problem-oriented SOAP records (Weed 1968: subjective, objective, assessment, plan); facts kept separate from opinion.

Practice questions (10)

Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.

A caseworker helps a client think about how her own responses and her mother-in-law's are affecting the current conflict at home. In Hollis's typology this is:
1. Developmental reflection
2. Direct influence
3. Sustainment
4. Person-situation reflection
Show answer
Answer: D — Person-situation reflection
Reflecting on the current situation, one's own and others' responses and their consequences is person-situation reflection. Developmental reflection examines early life, sustainment conveys support and confidence, and direct influence promotes a course of action.
In a SOAP note used in problem-oriented recording, "A" stands for:
1. Agency
2. Advice
3. Assessment
4. Action
Show answer
Answer: C — Assessment
SOAP stands for Subjective, Objective, Assessment and Plan, adapted from Lawrence Weed's problem-oriented medical record. Action, agency and advice are plausible-sounding but wrong; what is to be done appears under P, the plan.
Which of the following are sound principles of casework interviewing? Select all that apply.
1. Combine two questions in one to save time
2. Use open-ended questions to encourage the client to elaborate
3. Tolerate and use silence purposefully
4. Ask repeated "why" questions to establish the client's motives
Show answer
Answer: B — Use open-ended questions to encourage the client to elaborate; C — Tolerate and use silence purposefully
Open-ended questions and purposeful silence are standard principles. Repeated "why" questions sound accusatory and put clients on the defensive, and double questions confuse the client and leave one part unanswered.
A worker tells a guilt-ridden mother, "Many parents of a child with a disability feel angry with the child at times." The technique being used is:
1. Interpretation
2. Confrontation
3. Universalisation
4. Partialisation
Show answer
Answer: C — Universalisation
Telling the client that her feelings are shared by many is universalisation, which reduces guilt and isolation. Confrontation points out discrepancies, interpretation offers an unseen connection, and partialisation breaks a problem into parts.
Process recording, a detailed near-verbatim account of an interview with the worker's own feelings and analysis, is used mainly for:
1. Agency statistics
2. Quick identification of clients
3. Court evidence in every case
4. Training and supervision
Show answer
Answer: D — Training and supervision
Process records are too long for routine files but make a student's skills visible to a supervisor, so they are a training tool. Statistics and identification come from face sheets, and court evidence normally relies on factual narrative and summary records.
Assertion (A): Intake is the phase at which the worker and client decide whether the agency can help with the client's request. Reason (R): At intake the worker completes the evaluation of the outcomes of treatment. Choose the correct option.
1. Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
2. Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
3. A is true, but R is false
4. A is false, but R is true
Show answer
Answer: C — A is true, but R is false
The assertion is true: intake establishes contact, explains services and decides on agency fit or referral. The reason is false: outcomes cannot be evaluated before treatment; evaluation is continuous during intervention and is completed near termination.
Egan's acronym SOLER describes attending behaviour in interviewing. How many distinct behaviours does it name? Type the number.
Numerical answer — type the value.
Show answer
Answer: 5
Five: face the client Squarely, Open posture, Lean towards the client, Eye contact and Relaxed. Each should be adjusted for culture, since sustained eye contact, for example, is not appropriate everywhere.
Breaking an overwhelming problem into smaller, manageable parts so the client can deal with one at a time is called:
1. Environmental modification
2. Partialisation
3. Sustainment
4. Ventilation
Show answer
Answer: B — Partialisation
Partialisation, a term associated with Perlman's problem-solving model, makes a problem workable. Ventilation releases feelings, sustainment conveys support, and environmental modification changes the client's situation through resources.
Which of the following are legitimate purposes of casework recording? Select all that apply.
1. Continuity of service when the worker changes
2. Publishing identifiable client stories to raise funds
3. Supervision and training
4. Accountability to the agency and, where needed, the courts
Show answer
Answer: A — Continuity of service when the worker changes; C — Supervision and training; D — Accountability to the agency and, where needed, the courts
Continuity, accountability and supervision are standard purposes of recording. Publishing identifiable client stories breaches confidentiality and needs informed consent; it is not a purpose of the case record.
Which of the following is the best response in the termination phase of a planned casework relationship?
1. Reviewing progress with the client and helping them express feelings about ending
2. Beginning a detailed social history
3. Ending abruptly so the client does not become dependent
4. Deciding whether the agency is the right one to help
Show answer
Answer: A — Reviewing progress with the client and helping them express feelings about ending
Planned termination reviews gains, consolidates them and addresses feelings about separation. An abrupt ending can undo the work; a social history belongs to the study phase; and deciding on agency fit belongs to intake.