There are several steps need to begin the assessment process. The assessment, planning and implementation are the most important. The strength based approach is used during this process.
The assessment phase helps the client and professional focus on the positive aspects, abilities, and experiences that the client has had using the strength based approach. The professional has the client recall how they handle certain situations and the success they have had with this. The first step to this is initial contact with the client. This can come in different ways such as a phone call or meeting in person. The professional should have all the needed documents pertaining to the client. This gives the professional a chance to review the case. During the initial contact the professional should be documenting everything that the client is stating. This allows for a record to be kept and gives the professional something to look back on at later times. When the initial contact happens this is when the process begins for the client. After information is gathered the planning process can begin.
In the planning stage it is vital to understand the strengths, abilities, and resources available to the client to form an effective plan. In this process it is important to remember that all environments have resources available to them. These environments can contain a number of things such as home, church, etc. the more resources that a client has the better chance for change. The biggest part of this process is client’s participation in their long and short term goals. Nothing can be accomplished without the client actively participating in any of the different stages. It is important to remember to always set these goals towards the client’s values and strengths. During this stage the client and professional relationship becomes stronger. This allows a more positive force in the helping process. The last stage is implementation.
In the implementation stage there are several approaches that implement the client’s strengths. The most important part of this process is that the client has chosen to implement these changes. The strongest part of this step is that the client has made a willing choice to begin making changes in this strength based approach. The professional will respect the client’s choices throughout this process. This will also help the relationship grow between client and professional.
Ethical considerations should be considered in every step of the process for it to be successful. Theses ethics represent the client’s rights to self-determination, to cause no harm, and to promote fairness and equal access to services. There are two challenges to the code of ethics. The first step is the professional code of ethics are only binding to members of the group. This means that someone who is not a member is not held to the same standards. The second is the fact that it is impossible to for the code to cover unseen things. It is impossible for these codes to cover every given situation.
References
McClam, T., & Woodside, M. (2011). The helping process: Assessment to termination. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.