Social Casework Methodology: A Skills Handbook for the Caribbean Human Services Worker by Emmanuel Janagan Johnson & Camille L. Huggins

Author:Emmanuel Janagan Johnson & Camille L. Huggins
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030273194
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Client’s Communication Patterns

The Caribbean Perspective of Communication

A client communicates their problem in very different ways and it is important as human service workers to understand the nuances of communication. Human service workers must know how to communicate skillfully with a client in order for the type of relationship to develop in which open client communication can occur. However, clients experience an internal battle of doing the same they have been doing in the past to resolve their issue and resist the worker’s assistance although they are coming to the agency. Therefore, human communication is complex and multifaceted. In order for human service workers to help they must understand what the client is communicating. Communication equals information and information can be a new fact which can contrast existing assumptions about the client (Bateson 1979). Information affects how clients and their environment mutually affect each other through feedback. A single unit of communication is a message and an interaction is the exchange of a series of messages between two people (Greene 1996).

Clients have different ways of communicating. There are four axioms of communication (Watzlawick et al. 1967).The first is one cannot communicate. Even when a client is saying nothing, he or she may be communicating with the worker they are not interested in having a conversation at this time. One can reject, accept or disqualify another’s communication just by saying nothing at all. Communication must be clear for there to be a mutual understanding of rejection or acceptance and the Caribbean people are very expressive with non-verbal gestures. Emotions are often conveyed in facial expressions without saying a word.

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