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Biestek's Relationship Principles: Empowering Client Self-Determination through Examples

by radiantodyssey 2024. 1. 15.

Describe the seven principles of Biestek's relationship and give examples of the client's self-determination among these principles.

 

i. Introduction

II. the main body

1. Definition and Necessity of Relationships in Social Welfare Practice

2. the seven principles of BSTEC relations

1) principle of individualization
2) Principles of Intended Emotional Expression
3) principle of controlled emotional involvement
4) Principles of Client Acceptance
5) a nonjudicial attitude
6) The client's self-determination
7) a confidentiality guarantee

3. Examples of client self-determination


III. Conclusion

 

i. Introduction


  Social welfare has a practical nature of taking an approach to solving various problems that exist in society and members of society for the pursuit of good faith and utilitarianism. In this process, all clients who are subject to social welfare practice are 'people', so in the process of social welfare practice, social welfare personnel and clients form complex interactions and form relationships. In the social welfare field, it is very important to establish a relationship with the client. The formation of a relationship with the client plays an important role in solving the client's problem, and the relationship between the social worker and the client can be said to be a professional relationship.

  The client's self-determination is a basic need and right to have as a human being, and is a core value of social welfare practice. In addition, social workers have an obligation and responsibility to keep them normatively in the course of professional practice. However, a client's self-determination is not an absolute principle or right, and is a conditional norm whose scope and degree of implementation can be limited under certain conditions. When establishing a relationship with a client, a social worker must treat the client with a warm heart, and when the client feels it, a good rapport is possible. However, if excessive relationship formation occurs, it is very important to properly maintain the relationship between the social worker and the client because the client may depend on the social worker and may have an adverse effect on the relationship. Therefore, in the main body, we will learn about the seven principles of Biestek's relationship and explain the client's self-determination among the principles.


II. the main body


1. Definition and Necessity of Relationships in Social Welfare Practice

  The process of helping social welfare practice basically takes place in the relationship between social workers and clients. A relationship is a condition in which an emotional interaction occurs regularly or temporarily between two people with common interests. Relationships in social welfare practice refer to relationships that help appropriate mobilization and utilization of individual abilities and community resources to bring better adaptation between clients and their environments. For the successful outcome of social welfare practice, it is desirable that such an important relationship be made under the following principles.

2. the seven principles of BSTEC relations

1) principle of individualization

  Individualized humans are understood and treated as specific individuals with individual differences and unique qualities, not as unspecified general beings, and specialized principles and methods are applied differently to help each individual for better adaptation.

2) Principles of Intended Emotional Expression

  Recognize the need for clients to freely express their feelings. Counselors deliberately listen to these expressions of emotion without being discouraged or criticized. Clients should be given the opportunity to express their feelings, fears, hopes, and hostility. In the field of social welfare or psychology, all problems or requests for help have emotional elements, and the client needs and has the right to express them.

3) principle of controlled emotional involvement

  Your relationship with clients is primarily emotional, so you need to understand their emotions and watch their words and actions carefully. In addition, it is important to be careful when talking because the language, expression, and behavior of social workers have a great influence on the emotional changes of customers. In order to adhere to the principle of controlled emotional involvement, social workers should be able to observe their clients' emotions and listen to them.

4) Principles of Client Acceptance

  Acceptance means accepting individuals with multiple weaknesses as they are without prejudice. Accepting others without prejudice is not from personal friendship, but from the standpoint of the quality of human life, it provides warmth, acceptance, and understanding. Acceptance stems from human dignity, values, and love for humans, and a receptive attitude in social welfare practice is through courtesy, patience, and willingness to listen, and no matter how the client expresses himself, such as complaining and making unfair requests. In social welfare practice, a receptive attitude helps to establish and maintain a positive relationship between clients and social workers. Social workers can express their acceptance by paying respect and interest to the client's behavior regardless of their values or norms.

5) a nonjudicial attitude

  In general, customers do not want to be blamed for their mistakes or misbehaviour. Based on the client's psychological state, social workers should not show judgmental behavior toward the client, and rather than scolding him for the wrong behavior, they should find ways and processes to prevent the wrong behavior from happening again.

6) The client's self-determination

  Recognize the client's right and need to have the freedom to make their own choices and decisions in the course of social welfare counseling. The counselor is not responsible for the client and does not persuade him or her in a controlled manner. We do not manipulate clients to make decisions based on their preferences. However, the client's right to self-determination may be limited by the client's decision-making ability, civil law, and the functions of the moral institution.

7) a confidentiality guarantee

  Confidentiality refers to guaranteeing confidentiality related to individual workers obtained from professional relationships. This is a fundamental demand of those seeking help, so professional personnel are responsible for responding. Confidentiality to clients is an ethical obligation and is essential for successful social welfare practice relationships.


3. Examples of client self-determination

  Social workers should help clients develop their own personality and discover and utilize available community resources to respect their rights, acknowledge their needs, and stimulate and practice their potential power. However, the principle of self-determination may nevertheless be limited by how positive and desirable the client's intellectual ability or capacity can be made. It is also restricted by social systems, laws, ethical norms, and functions of social welfare institutions.

  For example, one can think about the problem of the elderly living alone without a family entering a welfare facility for the elderly. At this time, the admission can be decided according to the elderly's own decision-making. It would be against the principle of self-determination of social welfare practice to encourage the elderly to enter the facility even though they do not want to enter the facility for the elderly themselves.

  However, considering the elderly's daily living ability and intellectual ability, the need for the elderly to enter the facility will be even more urgent if it is deemed necessary to manage experts and if there is a possibility of life-threatening events in an emergency if the elderly have to live alone. In this case, the social worker explains the necessity of admission to the facility in detail, provides various information to help the client make self-determination, and based on that information, but allows the client to make the final decision.
  For example, it is necessary to emphasize the convenience of elderly facilities and to present various options for the elderly to choose and decide on their own, such as allowing them to live with neighbors in cases other than nursing homes or information on group home life in Sogong-dong. In addition, social workers should also work to help clients implement their beliefs that they have the right and ability to determine their direction of life.

  On the one hand, it is also necessary to think about the following cases. An example is a counselor working at a mental health welfare center. He consulted a client who was seriously considering suicide, and his situation was worse than he thought. There was a debt that was hard to pay back and there were no family members or people around me to help. He found out that he had even prepared plans and tools for suicide. The counselor convinced Client to be hospitalized, but he says he'd rather die than be hospitalized. In the end, the counselor restricted the client's decision and proceeded with compulsory hospitalization because the client's difficult situation was understood on the one hand, but the value of respect for life came first.

  As a result, the counselor made the appropriate choice. The client's life was in danger, and the value of respect for life was prioritized according to the priority of value judgment, so inpatient treatment was decided. Inpatient treatment was an appropriate option because the right to life is prioritized over the client's decision.


III. Conclusion

  Our society is increasingly facing diverse and complex social problems. This will lead to more complex problems for social workers. It was more difficult than I thought to solve the problem by applying the seven principles of Biestek under the assumption of becoming a social worker. I think the most important thing for social workers is to understand the needs of clients well and to acknowledge and respect them as they are.It is not easy to explain and define the relationship between social welfare practices, and the exact explanation may sometimes not match the facts of the relationship. Relationships are pleasant and warm, but the language represents cool-headedness. Therefore, it will be more necessary for social workers to develop and utilize skills to establish and maintain good social welfare practices with clients than to define relationships.

  The skills to maintain a good relationship between clients and social workers can only be developed through repetitive true practice processes. And understanding the elements of relationships in social welfare practice can be the basis for acquiring the skills of building and maintaining a good relationship. Following the changing social phenomena in the future, social workers will encounter more complex problems. In order to solve these problems, it seems that efforts should be made to acquire more specialized skills or knowledge.