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- Title
Worker-Client Authority Relationships in Social Work.
- Authors
Studt, Elliot
- Abstract
The article presents information about worker-client authority relationships in social work. A framework for study of the social worker's authority toward the client was not necessary when the profession was saying that casework could not be "done" from an authority position. Nor was it pressing so long as authority was considered to be a factor in only one kind of service, that is, corrections, or in only a few special situations, the "authoritative settings." But recently the profession has been noting that all social workers use authority in some way or other. The public welfare worker acts with authority when he determines eligibility; the group worker uses authority in refusing to permit certain behavior in the clubroom; the child welfare worker is authoritative in selecting a foster home; the school social worker represents the authority of the state in insisting with child and family that be must attend school; the therapist in the clinic exercises authority in setting the conditions for treatment. While one recognizes that there is a commonness in all these actions, we are not sure it is in reality the same thing for a family worker to say to a voluntary client. This is the way in which one should work together as it is for a probation officer to say to an offender. There are certain things one cannot do.
- Subjects
SOCIAL services; CLIENTS; SOCIAL workers; PUBLIC spending; SOCIAL policy; CORRECTIONAL personnel; BEHAVIOR
- Publication
Social Work, 1959, Vol 4, Issue 1, p18
- ISSN
0037-8046
- Publication type
Article