Social Assessment Theory and Practice by Derek Clifford

Author:Derek Clifford [Clifford, Derek]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138343009
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2020-02-12T00:00:00+00:00

Psychiatry and life history assessment

An early paper by the psychiatrist Sula Wolff expresses her belief in the importance of the life history that social workers construct in the process of ‘multi-disciplinary’ assessment of children: ‘In eliciting and interpreting the case history to their colleagues, whether as long-term members of a clinical team or in relation to a single shared case, social workers fulfil a major educational role’ (Wolff, 1978).

The traditional psycho-dynamic and/or medical orientation of psychiatry placed emphasis on the importance of knowledge about the early childhood experiences of parents and children, sometimes assuming a naive concept of retrieving social and historical information - the lower-status worker merely recording the facts for the psychiatrist to consider. However, in making her observation, Wolff had taken the trouble to draw on neo-Wittgensteinian philosophy of the social sciences (Toulmin, 1970) and a phenomenological account of the life history (Watson, 1976). She argues that there should be a ‘common clinical and social history’ for social work, child psychiatry and paediatrics (Wolff, 1978, p.106), and that this will facilitate inter-professional work, providing a shared framework, and allowing workers to: ‘predict the effect of interventions’ (Wolff, 1978, p. 102). She cites evidence that narrative accounts by parents provide a more reliable guide for work with children than other methods, such as questionnaires. She contends that these methods can take into account the cultural issues of interpretation, and stresses the importance of a systematic approach to coverage of the life history. She is still using a limited, medical, diagnostic framework, however, as becomes evident in her assertion that the life history ‘should not be read by children and their relatives, nor by adoptive and foster parents, nor indeed by anyone without professional knowledge and skills’ (Wolff, 1978, p.105).

The recommendations made by this psychiatrist may have had some effect, but they did not become central to childcare assessment, partly for reasons she anticipates. Both the support for genericism in reorganised social services departments and rapid promotion to management undermined the development of social workers as specialists in childcare, leaving basic-grade workers vulnerable to the childcare tragedies of the late 1970s and 1980s.

An official report on social work assessment and decision-making in the mid-1980s concluded that: ‘Social workers quite often misinterpret natural parents’ behaviour at the time of admission because the psycho-social study of the family is not sufficiently thorough’ (DHSS, 1985, p.8). Part of the problem was that not only were new social workers unable to develop expertise and unsupported in doing thorough life histories of children and families, they often had little time in which to write up a ‘comprehensive’ family study, and no adequate guidance on how to select the most significant aspects to study, and on which to base intervention.

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