A family seeks counseling help after the accidental death of one of their two children. The social worker's genuine concern and "over involvement" with the family is noticed by the social worker's supervisor. The supervisor should

Question

A. commend the social worker for being so dedicated to his work.
B. arrange for an immediate transfer of social work services for this family to a more experienced social worker.
C. involve the social worker in assessing the effect his subjective reactions may have on the quality of his work and on his clients.
D. thoroughly explore the social worker's inner conflicts regarding the nature of this tragedy and suggest the necessity for an immediate resolution.

Answer 1

C. involve the social worker in assessing the effect his subjective reactions may have on the quality of his work and on his clients.

The social worker has genuine concern for the family and this is an important and useful factor in treatment. Rather than remove a concerned worker from a case, the supervisor is using this opportunity to augment the worker's skills by including the worker in the process of learning. The supervisor's technique is one which utilizes the worker's ego strengths. Answer A ignores the problem, answer B is an overreactions and answer D seems to shift the supervisory relationship into the clinical sphere.