Relationship building during the initial phase of social work intervention with child clients in a rural area

Abstract

Relationship-based social work is not new to social work practice and there is a call for social workers to return to interventions based on effective engagement with clients within a therapeutic relationship (Ruch, 2010:22). Social workers typically work with families and children during extremely stressful times in their lives (Seden, 2011:60; Spray & Jowett, 2012: 49) and are expected to offer support, promote change, help with problem-solving, empower people and improve wellbeing while assessing the situation (Aldgate, 2011:134; Glicken, 2011:12; Maritz & Coughlan, 2004:32-33; Monnickendam, Katz & Monnickendam, 2010:918; Schenck, 2004:166; Spray & Jowett, 2012:21,56). Social workers often need to work directly with children as children from rural settings are typically exposed to alcoholism, domestic violence, marital problems and poor parenting practices (Schenck, 2004:164). Children in such families need specialised intervention to help them deal with their life difficulties and improve their wellbeing. However, service provision in rural areas is hampered by lack of resources (Schenck, 2004:163,165; Strydom & Thlojane, 2008:34). In addition to challenges in terms of accessibility and limited resources, Schenck (2004:166) states that social workers in rural areas are expected to do everything and to be "a jack of all trades", resulting in social workers being overwhelmed with the spectrum of services they need to deliver. Social workers might not feel skilled enough to engage children in need of individual therapeutic interventions and might prefer to refer these cases to other professionals (Spray & Jowett, 2012:114). However, referral options are limited in rural areas and social workers in such communities are expected to deliver specialised direct intervention to children (Alpaslan & Schenck, 2012:413; Schenck, 2004:166). Because of their workload and lack of specific skills in direct intervention with children, such specialised therapeutic intervention seldom gets attended to (Alpaslan & Schenck, 2012:409,413).