Professional Boundaries in Social Work and Social Care by Frank Cooper

Author:Frank Cooper [Cooper, Frank]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Social Work
ISBN: 9781849052153
Google: 2moSBQAAQBAJ
Amazon: B00A75LZE8
Barnesnoble: B00A75LZE8
Goodreads: 21162114
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Published: 2012-01-01T02:39:06+00:00

Endings

Almost all professional relationships will necessarily have a clear end point, unlike friendships or personal relationships. When a professional relationship ends it is important to ensure that there is a clear sense of ending, that the emotions involved are dealt with appropriately and that there is a sensible and well thought out move-on or follow-up process. A bad ending can be emotionally damaging to the client and cause problems for future professional relationships and may undo good work that has been done.

Many people have difficulty ending relationships appropriately or dealing with the emotions brought up by the ending. When a meaningful relationship ends, the individuals involved may go through a process of grieving and may experience all the emotions and processes involved in the grief process. Elizabeth Kübler-Ross describes five stages of the grief process: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. You or your client may experience any or all of the processes, although not necessarily in the order described.

It is also common for ending to bring up feelings of loss and abandonment. This is true for both workers and clients and is therefore twice as difficult to deal with. Don’t underestimate the impact that the ending of a relationship may have on either you or your clients.

If you have had a long or meaningful relationship with a client then you will have built up a bond and the client in particular may have a lot invested in the relationship. They may have come to rely not only on the service that they have received, but on you as an individual, or the general support that they receive from attending the sessions/service.

Many people do not like dealing with the interaction involved with ending a relationship and may avoid a final session so as not to deal with the process. Some people have very bad experiences of ending previous relationships and will bring their feelings or experience to ending other relationships. It is also very common for individuals to not want to end relationships and to hang on to a relationship longer than is necessary. As a worker it may be difficult for you to let go of the relationship with the client.

The end of a relationship is when any symptoms of over-dependence (see Chapter 9, ‘Understanding Negative Consequences’) may surface and it is important that they are dealt with appropriately.

Before the end of a relationship you should:

•Set up follow-on support/services. Many clients will need other services or ongoing support after they finish their time with you. Make sure that you have discussed this well in advance and have made suitable referrals with enough time so that the client is not left waiting too long without any support. Not all clients require follow-on support and they should be allowed to choose if they need or want any further support.

•Manage the transfer to other workers smoothly. If you are leaving the service and your client is going to work with another worker at the same service, you should give them plenty of warning, introduce them to the new worker and have a three-way handover meeting.

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