Strategies for Work with Involuntary Clients

by Ronald H. Rooney (Editor), Rebecca G. Mirick (Editor)

Overview

Often in their careers, social workers will encounter clients who are either legally required to attend treatment services or are otherwise coerced or pressured into those services. Practitioners in settings from prisons to emergency rooms to nursing homes to child protection agencies will find themselves with involuntary clients. In an update to this classic text, social workers Ronald H. Rooney and Rebecca G. Mirick explore the best ways to work with unwilling clients.


While work with involuntary clients is common, it can be challenging, frustrating, and unproductive unless practitioners are well trained for it. This book provides a theoretical framework for understanding the legal, ethical, and practical concerns when working with involuntary clients, offering theory, treatment models, and specific practice strategies influenced by the best available knowledge. Animated by case studies across diverse settings, these resources can be used by practitioners to facilitate collaborative, effective working relationships with involuntary clients.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231182676
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	05/01/2018
Edition description:	third edition
Pages:	640
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Ronald H. Rooney is professor emeritus at the School of Social Work, University of Minnesota, and coauthor of Direct Social Work Practice: Theory and Skills.


Rebecca G. Mirick is a licensed clinical social worker and assistant professor at Salem State University. Her research focuses on client engagement and resistance, suicide prevention, and work with parents involved with child protective services.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface
Part I: A Foundation for Work with Involuntary Clients
1. Introduction to Involuntary Practice, by Ronald Rooney
2. Legal and Ethical Foundations for Work with Involuntary Clients, by Ronald Rooney
3. Effectiveness with Involuntary Clients, by Ronald Rooney
4. Influencing Behaviors and Attitudes, by Ronald Rooney
5. Oppression and Involuntary Status, by Glenda Dewberry Rooney and Joan Blakey
6. Trauma Informed Care with Legally Mandated Involuntary Clients, by Joan Blakey
Part II: Practice Strategies for Work with Involuntary Clients
7. Assessing Initial Contacts in Involuntary Transactions, by Rebecca Mirick
8. Initial Phase Work with Individual Involuntary Clients, by Rebecca Mirick
9. Task-Centered Intervention with Involuntary Clients, by Ronald Rooney
10. Work with Involuntary Families, by Rebecca Mirick
11. Work with Involuntary Groups, by Michael Chovanec
Part III: Practice Applications with Involuntary Problems and Settings
12. Work with Men in Domestic Abuse Treatment, by Michael Chovanec
13. Integrated Health Care and Health Disparities, by Tamara Davis and Adriane Peck
14. Strengths-Based Strategies for Improving Quality of Life Among Dementia-Affected Older Adults, and Their Care Partners, by Justine McGovern
15. Substance Abuse Treatment: A Field in the Midst of Change, by Katherine van Wormer and Laura Parker
16. Work with Unmotivated Clients, by Per Revstedt
17. Bringing Up What They Don’t Want to Talk About: Use of Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) for Alcohol and Depression in a Community College Health Center, by Melinda Hohman, Christine Kleinpeter, and Tamara Strohauer
18. Involuntary Clients in Public Schools: Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Interventions, by Cynthia Franklin, Laura Hopson and Samantha Guz
19. Work with Involuntary Clients in Child Welfare Settings, by Rebecca Mirick, Julie Altman, and Debra Gohagan
20. Work with Involuntary Clients in Corrections, by Chris Trotter
21. Applying the Involuntary Perspective to Supervision, by Carol Jud and Tony Bibus
22. The Nonvoluntary Practitioner and the System, by Ronald Rooney
Appendix
About the Editors
Contributors
Index

What People are Saying About This

Brett A. Seabury

This text focuses on dimensions of practice often missing in practice texts. Many clients come to social work services reluctantly, and engaging them so they benefit from service is a difficult task for any practitioner. Not only does this text place these issues in the foreground, it considers the ethical, legal, and practical ramifications of working with involuntary clients.

— Brett A. Seabury, University of Michigan School of Social Work

Charles Garvin

Ronald H. Rooney brilliantly weaves together an understanding of the complex ethical, legal, and practice issues that face practitioners, and he adds a deep comprehension of organizational and contextual issues such as those that relate to the oppression of clients from diverse social backgrounds. His clinical detail is varied and rich, and he adds a number of chapters by experts that detail their experience and knowledge in a broad variety of fields, including substance abuse, child welfare, domestic violence, youth work, and corrections. Truly amazing!

— Charles Garvin, author of Contemporary Group Work and coauthor of Social Work in Contemporary Society and Interpersonal Practice in Social Work

Alex Gitterman

Hooray! The much-anticipated second edition of Ronald H. Rooney's Strategies for Work with Involuntary Clients builds on the superb first edition, adding depth and breadth to a uniquely useful presentation of practice strategies for working with individuals and families. Ronald H. Rooney provides insightful guidelines for legal and ethical issues and a new chapter on the 'involuntary' practitioner. An invaluable resource for both students and professionals.

— Alex Gitterman, University of Connecticut School of Social Work

Editorial Reviews

In this substantive and helpful collection of essays, the editors and the contributors manage to convey that we can be respectful of a client’s rights while not being too easily put off by understandable resistance. In the end, real change is always in the control of the clients, even those who didn’t have a choice in engaging in the service.

Lawrence Shulman

This comprehensive and accessible text will be plundered for its insightful observations coupled with practical suggestions across a range of service areas. It is timely, as emphasis is shifting from identifying problems/risks to looking at how work can be undertaken with different types of involuntary clients to effect the required change. Best read from cover to cover, this is a genuine candidate for the authoritative guide in this challenging area of work.

Martin C. Calder

This book helped me define who is involuntary and how to approach a client who is defined that way. It presents cases, data, research, and questions that will shift our way of thinking about clients and therapist that are ‘forced’ to be in treatment.

Elizabeth Misener

Hooray! The much-anticipated third edition of Strategies for Work with Involuntary Clients builds on the superb previous editions, adding depth and breadth to a uniquely useful presentation of practice strategies for working with individuals and families. Ronald H. Rooney and Rebecca Mirick provide insightful guidelines for legal and ethical issues and a new chapter on the ‘involuntary’ practitioner. An invaluable resource for both students and professionals.

Alex Gitterman