CLIENTELE AND AUDIENCES IN

SOCIAL WORK

PREPARED BY: GROUP UWU YEET HATDOGS

 2
Characteristics and Needs of Various Types of
Clientele

SOCIAL WORK- profession concerned with helping individuals,

families, groups, and communities to enhance their individual
and collective well-being.
*WORKING WITH INDIVIDUALS
*WORKING WITH GROUPS AND ORGANIZATIONS

De Guzman (1992) explains that the person’s inability to manage

stress which may have been a result of a distressful situation or
problem which caused him/her or those concerned with him/her
to seek professional help.
 Acquire basic knowledge of human behavior
 Stress and the human being’s response to it
 3
A person is a “BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL BEING” wherein the person is
built up of 3 parts or subsystems- the physical, the psychological,
and the social.
WORKING WITH INDIVIDUALS

CASEWORK PROCESS- the individual is the principal client and

efforts of helping are focused on him/her. To facilitate the
individual’s social adaptation, to restore, reshape, or reinforce
her/his functioning as a social being.

Social Casework- is more “client or person-centered” rather than

the problem focused in that it is the person’s mode of adaptation
that will determine whether the problem can be resolved or
Note: In casework, the worker needs to understand that the 4
person’s present behavior is a manifestation of his/her mode of
adaptation to his/her current condition that has caused him/her
stress.
MODE OF ADAPTATION
 Gains satisfaction
 Avoid or dissolve frustration
 Maintain his/her balance in movement
o Fight- means physical or verbal projection of angry feelings on
others especially when encountering difficult circumstances,
frustration, disappointment, or even anxiety.
o Flight- when the person physically moves away from the
problem like resorting to drugs, etc.
o Pairing- to enter into a relationship w/ people who are
perceived to be stronger who has the capacity to help you with
 5
For the caseworker, the assessment of a person's ego strengths
and defenses are essential in the helping process since it
provides insights on how the client can be helped to ensure an
effective and satisfying adaptation to a successful situation (De
Guzman, 1992, 46-47)

Below are some of the clients who may need the social worker or
the agency's help through casework. This may include the
following but not limited to:
(i) Children who are either abandoned, neglected, orphaned,
abused, or exploited;
(ii) Children in conflict with the law, street children, children
living with or affected by HIV;
(iii) Out-of-school youth;
 6
(v) Solo Parents;
(vi) Person with disabilities, physically, and mentally challenged
individuals;
(vii) Elderly;
(viii) Indigenous peoples;
(ix) Internally displaced persons;
(x) Survivors of natural calamities and disasters, or those
affected by armed conflicts;
 7
The Typology of clients: The voluntary clients, involuntary clients,
and those who are being assisted by another person or agency.

Voluntary clients (Walk-in-clients)- are those persons who

opted to voluntarily seek the assistance of the worker or the
services of the agency due to a problem or a difficulty. Examples
of which are the following: a solo parent seeking
material assistance, a displaced person asking for core shelter.
Involuntary clients (Reach-out clients)- are those certain
types of individuals in need who may not even consider asking
for help because they think that they are doing fine and will
survive somehow or they are unaware of the agencies
that can provide with them some assistance.
Examples street children, working children, some children/youth
 8
Other clients (Referred clients)- are being assisted by
another person (other family member, relative, friend or
neighbor), group/organizations, or community leaders/workers
who are concerned about the client's situation.
These may include the drug dependent, abandoned child,
unwed pregnant, an elderly without any family, etc.
 9
De Guzman (1992) also introduced factors (or relationship
components/
reactions as some authors would refer) that may affect or
influence the helping relationship between the Client and the
Worker.

These relationship components are transference. counter-

transference, and reality.
Transference- are the client's reactions and displacement the
worker of the particular feelings and attitudes s/he may
experience earlier in life in relationship with the members of his
family such as the father/mother or significant other. This is often
associated to some mechanism, such as projection and
identification.
 10
Counter-transference- are the worker's relationship reactions
that s/he may project on the client and usually it is the worker
transfers previously experienced feelings on the client. An
example of this is when a worker reacts to a male client (as the
worker reacted in the past with hostility and anger towards her
own father) who abandoned his wife and son only to set up
another
family with a common-law wife.

Reality- is the realistic and objective perception of existing

condition or situation. It is the state of what is actual, what is,
and what is true.
 11
Ethical Considerations that govern the client worker relationship
are put together by Biestek (1957) as cited in De Guzman
(1992):
Acceptance - the worker's recognition of the individual's worth
as human being imbued with inherent worth and dignity.
Non-judgemental attitude - no labeling, no stereotyping and
non condemnatory act that refrains from assigning blame,
guilt, or failure to client.
Individualization - every individual is unique and possesses
certain traits or attributes specific only to her/ himself.
Purposeful expression of feelings - worker's allowing and
facilitating the client's purposeful expression of feelings.
Controlled emotional involvement - worker's way of
responding to the client's purposeful expression of feelings. Must
 12
Confidentiality - preservation of secret information concerning
the client which is disclosed in the professional relationship.
Self determination - derivative of the belief in the inherent
worth and dignity of a person - that s/he is endowed with a
reason and free will and is capable of making his/her own choices
 13
WORKING WITH GROUPS OR ORGANIZATIONS
Social groupwork as a process and method is rooted on the
sociological concept that a person is a social being who has a
inclination and need to associate with other human beings.
Another concept of social group work is that a group can be
utilized as a target for change, as a medium for change, and as
agent for change.

As a target for change, members in a groups are clients of an

agency with common problems, need, and concerns that
matches the agency`s or workers group service orientation. As a
medium of change, the group is used to facilitate the growth and
development needs of some members of the group as the need
for self-expression, communication, relationship, developing self
 14

and values. As an agent of change, the group is used to effect the

desire change needed outside the group.
In social group work process, one should remember the philosophy
of social group work as formulated by Trecker (1965) as cited in
Miclat (1995) which stated that:

The need of the group experience is basic and universal. That

group of individuals can help and grow and change in personality,
attitudes, and values through group experiences… that persons not
only develop in groups but also through groups. And that groups
are dynamic, ever changing and must be accepted by the social
worker at its level of development.
 THE PURPOSE OF SOCIAL GROUP INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING: 15

I. To enhance the social adjustment of the individual and

developing the social consciousness.
II. To provide opportunities for planned group experiences
that are needed by all people;
III. To provide experiences that are relaxing and that gives
individuals a chance to create, to share, and express themselves,
and to take responsibility for
IV. To help individuals in groups
their own behavior, relate with others and how to become
participating members of the society.
 16
Trecker (1965) also presented the statement of principles as a
result of his long years of study and experience in teaching social
group work. These are the following:
(i) The principle of planned group formation- requires the group
in social group work to possess conscious design and plan and
must contain the potential for social growth of its member.
(ii) The principle of specific objectives- recognizes that specific
objectives for individual and group development must be
consciously formulated by the social group worker in order to
effectively meet the group’s needs and concerns.
(iii) The principle of purposeful worker-group relationship- is
premised on the assumption that there has been an established
acceptance between the group members and the worker.
 17
(iv) The principle of continuous individualization- entails the
worker to consciously understand and accept that subgroups and
individuals within the group develop and change in varying levels
and must therefore know how to use the group work process in
meeting the varying levels of needs of the members.
(v) The principle of guided group interaction- considered to be
the heart of direction, and conscious utilization of the natural
process of social interaction in the group.
(vi) The principle of democratic self determination- anchored on
the belief that groups have the right to make choices and that
they are endowed with the capacity to make decisions.
(vii) The principle of flexible functional organization- underscores
the need to have flexibility in formal organizations so that it can
be adaptive to any change that may arise.
 18
(viii) The principle of progressive program experiences-
emphasizes the need for the group to engage in program
experiences at the level of member’s interest, need, experience,
and capacity. Also, it should evolve in relation to the developing
of the group’s competence.
 19
Miclal (1995) shared different typologies of groups have their
own specific goals and objectives, to wit;
(i) Growth group- the dominant goal is the personal growth of the
participants in group at all levels in their emotional,
interpersonal, intellectual and spiritual phase of their life.
(ii) Treatment group-the goal is to help solve the individual's
problems in social adjustments, uncover
deep-seated conflicts, hostilities and depression,
modify/sublimate antisocial/aberrant behaviors/attitudes and
positive and negative social and cultural values.
(iii) Social group-the goal is to provide opportunities for social
relationships to the lonely, the friendless, and those who have
problems in relating with other persons.
 20
TENKYU PAGPALAIN KAYO NG PANGINOON YEET