Reduce Social Worker Stress Blog

Effective Communication When Prioritizing and Managing a Response to High Risk Cases

This week I was asked by a manager to give my oppinion and suggest appropriate intervention on a problematic service area which she is managing. The manager was feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of the problems and required help to think through how she responded to competing demands, inexperienced workers who needed guidance and a very busy referral rate to her service. Many Social Work managers will recognise this scenario and here are some suggestions about how to develop  safe practices in your managerial resourse kit in order to deal with such cases.

When workers come to you wanting to discuss issues urgently they can go from one topic to another due to anxiety or inexperience. The skill of a manager is to manager the threads of conversation, picking up on the salient points and the ones which need prioritizing and action. For example subjectivity and opinion can get mixed into a staff members request for guidance on a case which on the face of it is high risk. Remaining focused on the central themes of the case is essential in order to make sure that you have received the correct information that will then allow you to make the best decision.

How do you do this when you are presented with these types of hurried conversations usually in the corridor?

- The worker in this situation will be greatly guided by you if you ask them some simple questions once they have run through the case.

The first question might be: What is the problem or the presenting issues?

- Then consider with the worker the criteria which makes the case eligible for your service input and what has changed since work began. From this you as a manager can have an understanding of how far away from the brief the case has moved to.

- Do a quick risk assessment based on the needs of the case and your companies/ organisations required input: A risk assessment will help you to see if there are hazards to the case or to your agency and why, look at possible precautions and a reviewing plan.

- Consider how the case can be brought back on track: By evaluating the presenting issues and considering what recommendations as well as good practice outcomes and your own experience you should be formulating options of what to do.

- Finally are there any other perspectives on the case which need to be incorporated in your managerial decision making?

Steps which you can do right now to develop your decision making processes in a crisis:

Practice listening for salient points in conversions and consider:

- Presenting issues

- Eligibility criteria

- Risks

- Perspectives

- Immediate/ short term/Long term action

- The consequence of no action

Try writing out these points and putting them on the wall above your desk and let us know how you get on

http://www.ReduceSocialWorkerStress.com/blog