Week 2: Assessment of Families

Understanding a client’s family history and background is one of the first steps in assessment. Having a thorough knowledge of the assessment tools and strategies available enhances a clinical social worker’s practice. Using theory to assess all levels of a situation enables the clinical social worker to develop the most effective and appropriate intervention, one that takes advantage of a social work principle that states that all clients have strengths. Identifying and creating a strategy that is strength-based is one of the cornerstones of good social work practice.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

Apply micro-, mezzo-, and macro-levels of strengths-based assessments to a family case study

Apply the Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems to a case study

Learning Resources

Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.

Required Readings

Holosko, M. J., Dulmus, C. N., & Sowers, K. M. (2013). Social work practice with individuals and families: Evidence-informed assessments and interventions. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Chapter 9, “Assessment of Families” (pp. 237–264)

Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen, S. (Eds.). (2013). Sessions case histories. Baltimore, MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing.

“The Cortez Family” (pp. 23–25)

Smokowski, P. R., Rose, R., & Bacallao, M. L. (2008). Acculturation and Latino family processes: How cultural involvement, biculturalism, and acculturation gaps influence family dynamics. Family Relations, 57(3), 295–308.

Olson, D. H. (2000). Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems. Journal of Family Therapy, 22(2), 144–167.