What are the prerequisites in terms of knowledge and skills in implementing a change-oriented intervention approach?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

When you implement a change-oriented intervention approach, you are ethically obligated to have the requisite knowledge, skills, training, and competence to use the approach to resolve a particular client problem (NASW, 1999, 1.04b). The complexities of clients' problems often necessitate having the knowledge and competence to blend strategies and techniques of multiple approaches. In many respects, techniques can transcend models. For example, let's assume that the intervention approach that you are using is the task-centered model. You might blend the strategic solution-focused miracle or scaling questions to clarify a goal. Posing the miracle question in the initial crisis stage would, however, be ill advised because a solution would have precedence over attending to the client's emotional state (James, 2008). Nor is it advisable to use the miracle question solely as an intervention strategy. Coady and Lehmann (2008 ) refer to this type of blending generalist practice as technical eclecticism. In sum, in deciding to blend tactics or techniques, an essential question is whether you have the requisite knowledge, skills, and level of competence to engage in eclectic practice.
In working with minors, you may find that blending tactics is advisable. Very young children, for example,

typically lack the cognitive capacity to think abstractly. Therefore, it can be useful if you are skilled in techniques such as play imagery or storytelling (Morgan, 2000; Nader & Mello, 2008). School-age minors, especially those in middle childhood, are influenced by self-evaluation, the evaluation of others, and their own sense of mastery (Hutchison, 2008). Hence, the use of tasks consistent with the task-centered or the solution-focused questions can be combined to support and reinforce their sense of self-efficacy.