Contracting

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Contracting
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• The contracting process typically begins during
  or shortly after the assessment.
• Skills applicable to this phase of practice
  include the following
• Reflecting an issue
• Identifying an issue
• Clarifying issues for work
• Establishing goals
• Developing an action plan

• Identifying action steps
• Planning for evaluation
• Summarizing the contract.

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Reflecting an Issue

• By using this skill you demonstrate to clients
  that you understand their view of an identified
  topic of concern.
• An important form of active, empathic listening.
• Very important to communicate your understanding
  of the nature of the issues of concern as the
  clients themselves see them.

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Reflecting an Issue

• In effect, you show clients that you intend to
  help them address the issues they wish to
  address.
• By confirming that their view of the issues is
  legitimate, you communicate respect for them as
  persons and for their right to self-determination.
  
• Your reflection of an issue does not suggest
  moral approval or professional agreement to work
  toward its resolution.
• Regardless of the context, do not assume that the
  issues client first identify will necessarily
  remain the focus for work.

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Identifying an Issue

• Based on your exploration and assessment of the
  situation, you may decide to identify an issue
  that the client did not mention.
• Sometimes, you need to assume primary
  responsibility for issue identification and goal
  definition.
• Then the client decides whether or not to
  participate in the process.

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Identifying an Issue

• Based on the tentative assessment, you may
  suggest that additional issues be considered, or
  that an identified issue be defined differently.
• You may have professional knowledge or previous
  experience that leads you to point out an issue
  not previously discussed.

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Identifying an Issue

• You will naturally form opinions about what
  factors may be relevant to the clients present
  situation.
• You will share these ideas with clients as
  opinions or ideas to consider, not as
  indisputable facts.
• As part of this process, you routinely seek
  feedback from the client concerning these newly
  identified or redefined issues.

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Clarifying Issues for Work

• This constitutes the first definitive indication
  that you and the client have agreed to work
  together toward resolving certain issues.
• A fundamental component of the social work
  contract.
• The issues for work are derived from those the
  client has identified, those you have
  contributed, or some negotiated
  combination/compromise of the two.

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Clarifying Issues for Work

• The issues for work provide a context for all
  your subsequent professional activities.
• The issues for work should be stated in clear and
  descriptive terms.
• Specifying issues for work follows naturally from
  the processes of exploring and assessing the
  person-issue-situation.

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Clarifying Issues for Work

• When you clarify issues, you suggest that there
  is an agreement a contract that these areas
  will be the primary focus of the work that you
  and the client will undertake together.

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Establishing Goals

• Setting effective goals is the second critical
  step of the contracting process.
• Without clear goals, you and your clients are
  indeed likely to end up somewhere other than
  where you intend.
• Goals are essential
• Goals are the aims toward which you and the
  client direct cognitive, emotional, behavioral
  and situational actions.

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Establishing Goals

• In constructing goals with clients, use a SMART
  format
• Specific
• Measurable
• Action-oriented
• Realistic
• timely

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Establishing Goals

• Objectives that are defined in a SMART manner are
  usually easier to understand, undertake,
  accomplish, and assess.
• Effective goals are
• Stated as accomplishments
• Stated in clear and specific terms
• Stated in measurable or verifiable terms
• Realistic
• Adequate, if achieved, to improve the situation
• Congruent with clients value and cultural
  systems
• Time specific

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Establishing Goals

• Do not become so fanatical in your attempt to
  define goals in a precise manner that you lose
  touch with the clients reality.
• Whether stated in specific or general terms,
  goals should follow logically from and relate
  directly to the agreed-on issues for work.

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Establishing Goals

• Usually, you and your client identify at least
  one goal for each identified issue.
• However, accomplishing one goal sometimes
  resolves more than one issue, so it may not be
  necessary to have a separate goal for every
  issue.
• Be sure that accomplishing the array of goals
  would resolve all the identified issues.

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Establishing Goals

• Goals are jointly determined with clients and
  have their consent.
• When you and your client establish goals, you
  implicitly agree to a contract in which both
  parties commit to work toward accomplishing them.
• You can often encourage clearer goal descriptions
  by asking questions that require client to
  describe specifically how they will know when a
  particular issue is resolved.