Goal Setting and Intervention Planning

According to Hepworth (2017), goals are a strategy for the realization of outcomes that are essential for systematic process-oriented approaches when working with a client in social work practice. In addition to developing goals and creating a contract, working with individual clients also involves planning intervention strategies to help achieve the desired outcomes. Goal setting and intervention planning are important elements in working with individual clients in my social work field site. The field site recognizes the significance of establishing goals and engaging in intervention planning as a crucial factor in enhancing the effectiveness of social work practice and professionals. To this extent, goal setting is used as a process of specifying what is to be achieved. All social workers in my field site are required to establish goals when working with clients. These goals are established based on the specific issues facing the client and the desired outcomes. The established goals act as a road map that guides social work practice and interventions for the client.

Once goals are established, intervention planning is carried out. In this case, the social work professional collaborates with the client to identify intervention strategies that could help achieve the desired outcomes. Planning intervention strategies is a process that involves matching the strategies to the clients specific issue and the desired outcomes. Collaboration with the client during this process is considered central to the identification and use of effective strategies. Social work professionals at my field site are encouraged to work together with clients when planning intervention strategies. Through collaboration, social work professionals ensure that the intervention strategies reflect the clients...

Additionally, the collaboration provides a premise for the client to be actively involved in the entire process and enhances the likelihood of achieving the desired outcomes.

Challenging Elements of Goal Setting and Intervention Planning

Even though goal setting and intervention planning are deemed crucial in social work practice when working with individual clients, there are some challenging aspects of these processes at this stage of the learning process. One of the elements of goal setting that is challenging at this stage of the learning process is client participation. Hepworth (2017) notes that goals can either be contained in the legal mandate or expressed by the client. An important part of the goal setting process is client participation, which is the premise for the professional relationship between the social worker and the client. Client participation remains a challenging process at this stage since listening to a client is a time-consuming process. The process is relatively time-consuming because of the complexities involved in the clients story and experience. Due to these complexities, the development of a goal during the goal setting process remains challenging. Additionally, the involvement of the family in the goal setting process is also challenging because of the complex family dynamics that impact social work practice.

The other element that is challenging at this stage of the learning process is the identification of appropriate intervention strategies for clients. While working with clients in planning intervention strategies is relatively easy, the identification of a suitable intervention is quite challenging and complex. This is primarily because of a lack of adequate knowledge, skills, and experience to effectively match existing approaches to a clients needs and the desired…