Casework vs. Casework Management: A Critical Analysis Primitive social work first arose in London in the 1860’s through the Charity Organisation Movement, spreading across the United Kingdom and to the United States, it wasn’t until the 1890’s that the first development of social work was seen in Melbourne, Australia (Kennedy, 1973). Originally termed “friendly visiting” social work has continuously developed in the face of popular theories and ideology’s to become what we know today (Kennedy, 1973). Two type of practice dominate currently, casework and casework management. Casework is often described as the use of direct clinical practice, where the professional works with the client to elicit change (Toren, 1974), while casework management
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Last, each approach will be examined in terms of their use and application in contemporary human service delivery and conclusions will be drawn
Casework and Casework Management The helping process. Both casework and casework management differ in their approach and ideas surrounding the best way to help an individual. The casework approach is based around improving a clients functioning through the modification of perceptions, attitudes, behavior and abilities (Toren, 1974), and has been defined in literature to have the aim to restore, refashion or reinforce social functioning in individuals (Perlmann, 1965). Biestek (1957) claims the establishment of the client-worker relationship is an indispensable prerequisite to successful casework practice, placing emphasis on the efforts of the worker to achieve positive individual change. Focusing on the interaction between the clients attitudes, behavior and emotions to bring about individual change without placing strong focus on the external environment, viewing people as problems as well as people with …show more content…
One main difference between the two perspectives is their fundamental approach to the client-worker relationship. With casework the client is the center of focus (Biestek, 1957), with minimal outreach to other community organizations. While in casework management the practitioner plays more of a coordination role, linking the client to other formal and informal services, requiring a greater understanding of community practice skills with focused placed not only on the individual but also on the individuals environment, with interventions being at both the macro and micro levels (Rothman, 1991). Casework management is not focused on only helping individuals but also on service access, continuity of care, cost containment and coordination (Vourlekis & Greene, 1992), and has the ability to assist clients with multiple complex needs, where a single service such as that provided in casework would be inadequate (Gursansky, Kennedy & Camilleri, 2012). With its focus on cost efficiency, casework management is often staffed by individuals with lower qualifications, less specialization and less professionalism compared to casework (Capitan, Haskins & Bernstein, 1986). Due to the differences between the two approaches major challenges and issues arise, including those of an ethical
Last, each approach will be examined in terms of their use and application in contemporary human service delivery and conclusions will be drawn
Casework and Casework Management The helping process. Both casework and casework management differ in their approach and ideas surrounding the best way to help an individual. The casework approach is based around improving a clients functioning through the modification of perceptions, attitudes, behavior and abilities (Toren, 1974), and has been defined in literature to have the aim to restore, refashion or reinforce social functioning in individuals (Perlmann, 1965). Biestek (1957) claims the establishment of the client-worker relationship is an indispensable prerequisite to successful casework practice, placing emphasis on the efforts of the worker to achieve positive individual change. Focusing on the interaction between the clients attitudes, behavior and emotions to bring about individual change without placing strong focus on the external environment, viewing people as problems as well as people with …show more content…
One main difference between the two perspectives is their fundamental approach to the client-worker relationship. With casework the client is the center of focus (Biestek, 1957), with minimal outreach to other community organizations. While in casework management the practitioner plays more of a coordination role, linking the client to other formal and informal services, requiring a greater understanding of community practice skills with focused placed not only on the individual but also on the individuals environment, with interventions being at both the macro and micro levels (Rothman, 1991). Casework management is not focused on only helping individuals but also on service access, continuity of care, cost containment and coordination (Vourlekis & Greene, 1992), and has the ability to assist clients with multiple complex needs, where a single service such as that provided in casework would be inadequate (Gursansky, Kennedy & Camilleri, 2012). With its focus on cost efficiency, casework management is often staffed by individuals with lower qualifications, less specialization and less professionalism compared to casework (Capitan, Haskins & Bernstein, 1986). Due to the differences between the two approaches major challenges and issues arise, including those of an ethical