SOCW6111 Wk3 Assgn 1 Assessments are an integral part of the planned change process. During this part of the process you will accumulate, organize, and rev

SOCW6111 Wk3 Assgn 1 Assessments are an integral part of the planned change process. During this part of the process you will accumulate, organize, and review the information you will need to begin the planning and intervention phases of treatment. Content and information are obtained from multiple sources (the child, family members, school personnel, etc.) and in various forms (interviews, records, and observation). It is essential to collect data in a comprehensive manner—understanding the presenting problem from an ecological model that seeks to gain insight into the concern on a micro, mezzo, and macro level. Focusing on a multilevel approach to a client’s concern and taking into account the environmental factors that contribute to the presenting problem distinguishes social work from other disciplines.

By Day 3

Post a description of the importance of using multiple evidence-based tools (including quantitative, open ended, and ecologically focused) to assess children. Explain how each complements the other in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the young client’s concerns and situation. Then, describe the use of an eco-map in assessment and explain the different systems you will account for in your assessment of a child.

Support your posts with specific references to this week’s resources. Be sure to provide full APA citations for your references. Chapter 1
Assessment of Children

Michael E. Woolley

Purpose: This chapter details and discusses the historical evolution and current
trends in social work in the systematic, ecological, and evidenced-informed
assessment of children. It includes the myriad struggles impacting children and
the broad range of settings in which social workers serve children and their
families.
Rationale: Whether in schools, child protective services, juvenile justice, fam-
ily or community centers, mental-health agencies, or hospitals, social workers
assume many roles in providing services for children. A critical part of providing
effective services is a comprehensive assessment informed by social work val-
ues, ethics, interfacing with our evolving professional orientation, knowledge,
skills, and tools.
How evidence-informed practice is presented: One current trend is the increas-
ing use of quantitative survey instruments in child assessment, and there is an
increasing number of such assessment tools being developed by social work
researchers. A second trend is the increasingly widespread need for the eval-
uation of the effects of interventions. In order to offer such evaluations, valid
and reliable assessment tools are needed that can show changes in the assessed
struggles and targeted outcomes of those interventions.
Overarching questions: Within specific social work practice settings serving
children, in order to complete an ecologically oriented and comprehensive
assessment of a child and family, what information would be needed, from
whom should that information be gathered, and by what means or methods
should that information be collected?

Social workers are vital members of teams delivering services to children
across a variety of settings, including, but not limited to, child welfare
agencies, family service organizations, schools, health-care providers, and
mental-health settings. The struggles and challenges faced by children
served by those social workers covers a broad spectrum from day-to-
day struggles to life-altering trauma. In all those settings and struggles,
beginning the social work intervention process with a systematic and
comprehensive effort to gather information about the child, the social
contexts of the child, and the presenting struggle or challenge is a critical
first step to providing professional, appropriate, and effective services to
children who have been impacted by issues ranging from sexual abuse or
mental illness to brain tumors or learning disabilities.

Social work has been increasingly called on, from both outside and
inside the profession, to demonstrate the effectiveness of its practices. This

1
Holosko, M. J., Dulmus, C. N., Sowers, K. M., & Sowers, K. M. (2013). Social work practice with individuals and families : Evidence-informed assessments and
interventions. ProQuest Ebook Central http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
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2 Social Work Practice With Individuals and Families

scrutiny provides the impetus to engage in research to develop evidence-
based practice (EBP) strategies and approaches (Gambrill, 1999). The
needs for quality assessment tools and strategies as a fundamental task
within that effort are twofold. First, all practice activities should start with
and be informed by an assessment process. Second, gathering evidence
as to the effectiveness of an intervention requires assessing the target of
that intervention before and after that intervention is delivered; therefore,
reliable and valid assessment measures are a fundamental tool in the
pursuit of evidence to support practice.

This chapter first defines what is involved in performing a systematic
and comprehensive social work child-assessment process. The accumu-
lated social work practice knowledge in the area of child assessment
emerging across the first 100 years of professional social work is discussed.
We then outline the current prevailing framework used to gather, organize,
and present assessment information about children. More recent develop-
ments in the assessment of children are then added to that framework—for
example, the necessity of gathering information from multiple informants
and using multiple information-gathering tools when assessing children.
Within that evolving assessment framework, a growing effort in social
work (and other helping professions) is to strive to utilize evidence-based
strategies and tools in practice. What is meant by evidence-based practice
and how that effort can inform the most effective and efficient assessment
of children is explored. The limitations to the evidence in support of our
current assessment strategies with children, as well as promising ways to
reduce those limitations, are detailed. Finally, current trends and devel-
opments in the assessment of children in social work practice settings,
including child protection, schools, and mental health, are presented.

Defining Assessment

Assessment is used to describe an assortment of activities and processes in
the social sciences and human services that involve gathering information
about a client(s) and the presenting circumstances leading to an evaluation,
determination, or plan of action focused on that client or client system.
In social work practice, some aspects of assessment are driven by the
practice setting, the population being served, and the practice model being
applied by the social worker. However, this chapter offers a framework for
social work assessment with children that, although embedded within the
evolution of the social work perspective and the current effort to situate
social work practice on an evidence base, can be applied by any direct
practitioner regardless of setting, population, practice level, or model. In
this chapter, a descriptive and evolving definition of assessment in the
context of providing social work services to children is offered. As a
starting framework, assessment in social work with children is defined as
including three key components: (1) collecting data, (2) being informed by
a contextual perspective, (3) leading to a prevention or intervention plan.

Holosko, M. J., Dulmus, C. N., Sowers, K. M., & Sowers, K. M. (2013). Social work practice with individuals and families : Evidence-informed assessments and
interventions. ProQuest Ebook Central http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
Created from waldenu on 2021-09-14 03:08:48.

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Assessment of Children 3

Data Collection

First, assessment of children is, in large part, defined by a range of
activities used to gather information about a child, a struggle or challenge
confronting that child, and relevant information about that child’s social
environments. Those activities can include but are not limited to (a) clinical
interviews, (b) structured interviews, (c) self-report instruments, (d) direct
observations, and (e) reviews of existing records. Those data-collection
activities may elicit information from multiple informants, including the
child, parents/guardians, other family members, key individuals in the
child’s life, and professionals who have direct experience with the child.

Contextual Perspective

The second component is illustrated by an enlightening distinction about
assessment in social work practice made by Clifford (1998). He referred to
‘‘social assessment,’’ as opposed to psychological or medical assessment,
in that social assessment ‘‘is centered on a social explanation—and will
draw on social research and social science concepts’’ in identifying the
service needs of an individual, small group, or community. Although social
workers clearly also draw on and are informed by psychological and med-
ical aspects of and explanations for client struggles, Clifford’s focus on the
social aspects of the client and his or her struggles distinguishes assessment
in social work from assessment in other disciplines. This focus on contex-
tual factors in social work can be seen in many assessment orientations
in social work, such as the person-in-environment perspective, psychoso-
cial models, the widespread use of ecological-systems thinking, and the
pervasive structuring of assessment information into a biopsychosocial
assessment document.

Prevention or Intervention Planning

Third, child assessment in social work is also defined as having as the
central goal in gathering that information to inform the development of
a social work prevention or intervention plan to help that child or group
of children. Although systematic information about a child and his or her
social environments may be gathered for other reasons—such as part of a
research endeavor or eligibility evaluation—unless the ultimate goal is a
formulation leading to the implementation of a social work service plan,
the gathering of that information does not constitute an assessment as it is
referred to in this chapter.

Thus, a social work assessment of a child includes (a) data collection,
defined as a systematic gathering of information about the child, a struggle
or challenge facing that child, and that child’s multiple social environments;
(b) data pursued from a contextual perspective oriented to how the child’s
social environments influence the child, the struggle or challenge, and
efforts to resolve that struggle or challenge; and (c) development of an

Holosko, M. J., Dulmus, C. N., Sowers, K. M., & Sowers, K. M. (2013). Social work practice with individuals and families : Evidence-informed assessments and
interventions. ProQuest Ebook Central http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
Created from waldenu on 2021-09-14 03:08:48.

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4 Social Work Practice With Individuals and Families

intervention plan to assist that child with that struggle or challenge as the
primary goal of that data-collection effort.

The application of systemic and comprehensive assessment strate-
gies has become more important given profession-wide efforts to build an
evidence-based approach to social work services (Gambrill, 1999). Because
service-delivery activities start with and are built on the assessment pro-
cess, reliable and valid assessment strategies and tools are fundamental
to identifying, developing, evaluating, and providing evidence-based inter-
ventions. For example, reliable and valid assessments provide a vehicle
to evaluate interventions, thereby establishing evidence as to when and
with whom such interventions can be effective. Further, the applica-
tion of interventions with already established bodies of evidence as to
their effectiveness should only be utilized after the application of system-
atic, comprehensive, reliable, and valid assessment strategies and tools to
inform the selection of interventions appropriate for a specific child in a spe-
cific situation. Additionally, the results of a systematic assessment should
influence the provision of the interventions chosen, thereby following
long-established social work practice principles, such as starting where the
client is, treating each client as an individual, and providing individualized
services (Hepworth, Rooney, & Larsen, 2002; Pilsecker, 1994).

The wide variety of settings in which social workers serve children,
the larger array of struggles and challenges faced by those children, and
the wide range of what and who social workers are actually assessing—for
example, the child, a potential home placement, the risk of a caregiver
to abuse or neglect, the appropriateness of a classroom setting—all make
a truly comprehensive discussion of assessment of children in social
work seem daunting. Therefore, one goal of this chapter is to set the
current state of assessment of children in social work in a historical
context that encompasses our collective professional knowledge inform-
ing the assessment of children as a framework on which to add recent
advancements.

Historical Background

Mary Richmond, in her seminal book Social Diagnosis (1917), presents
the first comprehensive treatise on the assessment process in social work.
Although she uses the term diagnosis, which, for most social workers today
means something quite different than assessment, what she is referring to
as a social diagnosis 90 years ago meets the three criteria for social work
assessment offered here. In fact, for those who have not read all or even
parts of her book, it is truly worth the time, and you may find it contains
surprisingly still-relevant insights on assessment, social casework, and
prescient glimpses of things to come. For example, Richmond describes her
preparation to write Social Diagnosis as including systematically reviewing
social work case records and recording interviews with caseworkers across
five different sites over the course of a year ‘‘to bring to light the best

Holosko, M. J., Dulmus, C. N., Sowers, K. M., & Sowers, K. M. (2013). Social work practice with individuals and families : Evidence-informed assessments and
interventions. ProQuest Ebook Central http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
Created from waldenu on 2021-09-14 03:08:48.

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Assessment of Children 5

social work practice that could be found’’ (p. 7). Is that not an effort to
build a body of evidence about what works? Richmond further says of
her efforts in the preparation of the book, ‘‘the most difficult of all my
problems has been to make a presentation on the handling of evidence’’
(p. 9) in the assessment process. Richmond’s book culminates in a series
of structured interview protocols for the assessment of various clients and
situations.

Assessment Informing Best and Evidence-Based Practices

The pursuit of providing clients with the best possible social work services
available at a given point in time, basing assessment on gathering the best
evidence possible, and collecting that evidence in a systematic manner are
distinctly not new endeavors in the social work profession. In fact, social
work has a rich history of professional knowledge development in the area
of assessment.

Central to that accumulation of knowledge in the assessment of
children has been the conceptual perspective of a child as embedded
in a set of social contexts. Mary Richmond articulated that fundamental
perspective 90 years ago. That perspective also guided Jane Addams and
the Hull House staff. For example, in the area of juvenile delinquency,
Hull House rejected dominant theories based on heredity and instead
asserted that the most important factors leading to juvenile delinquency
were environmental (Hart, 1990). With respect to assessment, that clearly
means the gathering of information about, and analysis of, the social
environment that a child inhabits in an effort to understand that child’s
development, struggles, and behavior.

The history of that perspective can be traced to today by examining
social work textbooks over the decades detailing the state of the art
and science of casework practices. For example, Hamilton (1951) states
that assessment is an attempt to understand the client, the problem,
and the situation; and such authors as Perlman (1957), Hollis (1964),
and Pincus and Minahan (1973) iterate that triad of assessment. Hollis
states this perspective succinctly when she points out that, in assessment,
‘‘strengths as well as weaknesses in both the person and the situation are
important considerations’’ (p. 261). Hepworth et al. (2002) offer a similar
triad. Assessment, they suggest, is a process ‘‘to gather information and
formulation of that information into a coherent picture of the client and
his or her circumstances,’’ leading to ‘‘our inferences about the nature and
causes of the client’s difficulties’’ (p. 187). They do, however, describe a
meaningful shift in one aspect of that triad in that they stress the assessment
of the needs and the strengths of the client as much as the difficulties of the
client. This strengths perspective continues to guide the development of
structured assessment instruments for practice, such as a strength-based
and culturally informed reliable and valid assessment tool for practice with
Native American youth, their families, and communities (Gilgun, 2004).
This sort of melding of the long-evolving social work ecological strengths

Holosko, M. J., Dulmus, C. N., Sowers, K. M., & Sowers, K. M. (2013). Social work practice with individuals and families : Evidence-informed assessments and
interventions. ProQuest Ebook Central http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
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6 Social Work Practice With Individuals and Families

and culturally informed orientation to helping clients with more recent
and rigorous assessment methodology seems like a promising trajectory in
social work assessment with children.

The focus on strengths has grown in part from the long-standing
fundamental humanistic perspective in social work that all clients are
doing their best and have resources and that, when clients struggle,
it is because of a deficit in those available resources. Such resources
can be both internal and environmental, and clients can call on those
resources—social workers can likewise call on those resources in the
assessment process—to help meet challenges and struggles clients face
(McQuaide & Ehrenreich, 1997). Such a strengths perspective grows out
of social work’s values and ethical orientation to clients (a) as persons
of worth, (b) as persons who have a fundamental right to choose their
goals in the helping process and how they go about working on those
goals, and (c) as persons who are capable of solving their own problems
with appropriate support (Loewenberger & Dolgoff, 1985). The strengths
perspective also stands in contrast to the still-pervasive medical model
of diagnosing and labeling limitations, which is particularly prevalent in
mental-health practice (Cox, 2006). The strengths perspective and the
focus on the social environments of a client are reflected in the ubiquitous
development of an ecological-systems orientation in social work practice.

Evolving Ecological-Systems Perspective

A seminal application of the ecological perspective in social work is the
introduction of the life model of practice by Germain and Gitterman
in 1980. As they put it, ‘‘the social purpose [of social work] calls for a
practice method that is designed to engage people’s strengths and the forces
pushing them toward growth, and to influence organizational structures,
other social systems, and physical settings so they will be more responsive
to people’s needs’’ (p. 2). In the 1980s, the ecological perspective was
increasingly used to articulate the social work approach to assessment and
service delivery. Further, some authors started adding concepts from the
general systems theory to that ecological perspective to create what was
termed the ecosystems perspective (Greif & Lynch, 1983).

The adaptation of systems theory to practice endeavors introduced
several helpful theoretical concepts into social work thinking. Those con-
cepts are especially helpful in assessment, as they offer insights into
how social systems—the interactions between a client and his or her
environment—work. For example, equilibrium is a concept that states that
human systems (read families) tend toward establishing a balance that can
be maintained, whether that balance is good or not so good for the mem-
bers of the system. Boundaries, such as between members of the family or
between the family and other systems, such as the school or neighborhood,
are critical in the flow of information, resources, and support within and
among systems. Social work has long asserted that assessing and attending

Holosko, M. J., Dulmus, C. N., Sowers, K. M., & Sowers, K. M. (2013). Social work practice with individuals and families : Evidence-informed assessments and
interventions. ProQuest Ebook Central http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
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Assessment of Children 7

to these dynamic processes are critical to effective assessment of a child
and his or her social systems (Germain & Gitterman, 1980).

Another notable step in the evolution of the contextual orientation
to assessment in social work is the person-in-environment (PIE) system,
introduced by Karls and Wandrei (1992). The PIE system offers a common
language and structure for social workers to use in formulating assessments
from the unique orientation of social work. One goal in the development
of the PIE system was to design an assessment structure that focuses on
the ‘‘social well-being’’ of a client, which is identified as ‘‘different than
physical or mental well-being’’ (p. 81), that assertion being supported by
research about those three domains. The PIE assessment approach is sys-
tematic and comprehensive and includes information about the client, the
problem, and the client’s social environment, therefore possessing many
of the characteristics described earlier for an effective assessment. It also
introduces a coding system for client problems, with codes for duration,
severity, and coping, as a way to quantify assessment information. The
basic structure of the PIE system includes four factors: Factor 1–social role
problems, Factor 2–environmental problems, Factor 3–mental disorders,
and Factor 4–physical disorders. This system shares some structural char-
acteristics with and foreshadows the multiaxial format of the Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Asso-
ciation, 2000) diagnostic format, and, although not widely used today,
the PIE system represents an important development in social work’s
quest to build a professionally unique and uniform structure to assess-
ment. Additionally, the PIE perspective continues to evolve; for example,
the person-environment practice approach, as described by Kemp, Whit-
taker, and Tracy (1997), offers an ecological competence-oriented practice
model that stresses the importance of ongoing assessment, social support,
empowerment, and collective action.

Other developments in social assessment have also yielded systematic
formats to gather and organize information. For example, there are two
diagrammatic assessment tools that have seen widespread use in social
work practice with children and families: the eco-map and the genogram
(Hartman, 1995). Both tools grew out of the ecological-systems perspective
and gained popularity in social work practice in the 1980s. Either or both
can be drawn by a social worker in concert with a child and family
during the assessment process and used as tools to elicit and synthesize
information from the child and family as they help complete each diagram.
Either can then be used to analyze family dynamics, gain a comprehensive
picture of the family circumstances related to the struggle or challenge, or
used to search for strengths, possible resources, and the ongoing collection
of assessment information.

Hartman (1995), a social worker, first developed the eco-map for use
in child welfare practice. An eco-map has, at its center, the child and family
drawn as a circle (Figure 1.1). Then, surrounding the family and child is a
system of circles representing other important people, resources, or activi-
ties, such as extended family; friends of the child and parents/guardians;

Holosko, M. J., Dulmus, C. N., Sowers, K. M., & Sowers, K. M. (2013). Social work practice with individuals and families : Evidence-informed assessments and
interventions. ProQuest Ebook Central http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
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8 Social Work Practice With Individuals and Families

Figure 1.1
Example of an eco-map
for Eddie, a 10-year-old
boy with behavior
problems

Church youth
group leader

Father—
Edward

Chris

Basketball
coach

Teacher
School

principal

Neighborhood
peers

Grandpa—
Henry

School
peers

JessEddie

Sarah

activities, such as recreation, sports, or hobbies; organizations, such as
schools, churches, neighborhood groups, or workplaces; or other agencies,
such as health-care providers, mental-health providers, or juvenile court.
Care should be taken to include not just circles related to the presenting
challenge or struggle but also those that represent strengths and resources
to the child and family and other struggles or possible barriers to solving
the presenting issue. Once all the needed circles have been drawn, various
types of lines are drawn between the circles to represent the nature of
the connection between the child and family and each particular circle.
For example, a solid line depicts a strong relationship, and a dashed line
represents a tenuous connection, whereas a line with hash marks across it
suggests a stressful connection. Arrows are drawn along the connections
to indicate the direction of flow of support, resources, and energy.

Murray Bowen (1978), a psychiatrist who was a pioneer in the field
of family therapy, developed the genogram as an assessment tool. Carter
and McGoldrick (1980), social workers who have been at the forefront of
the evolution of family therapy over the past 25 years, particularly with
respect to gender and ethnicity issues, introduced the use of genograms in
social work. In drawing a genogram, three or even four generations of the
family are depicted (Figure 1.2). Males are drawn as squares and females
as circles, and a system of lines is utilized to connect family members
and indicate the nature of their kinship. A genogram has levels for each
generation, such that family members in the same generation are on the
same level across the page. Once all the multigenerational members of

Holosko, M. J., Dulmus, C. N., Sowers, K. M., & Sowers, K. M. (2013). Social work practice with individuals and families : Evidence-informed assessments and
interventions. ProQuest Ebook Central http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
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Assessment of Children 9

Edward Sr.—
Died 20 years ago
at age 42
Typesetter

Eleanor—
Loving but can be mean
Homemaker

Henry—
Alcohol problems
Bad temper
Carpenter

Edith—
Quiet
Teacher

Sarah—
Nervous at times
Had affair that lead
to the divorce
Teacher

Edward Jr.—
Abusive
Dropped out
Truckdriver
M—1973, D—1985

Jessica—
Can be hyper
Good student

Eddie—
Gets in fights at school
Is oppositional with teachers
Has trouble sleeping
Has periods of withdrawal

Chris—
Ran away once
Older boyfriend

Sheila—
M—1986

62

22

3 1 13

42 35

7

10

70 67

Figure 1.2
Example of a
genogram for …