Critically Examining Two Contrasting Social Work Intervention Strategies that Apply to David’s Scenario

The social work interventions that apply to David’s case are crisis intervention and Task centered intervention. The interventions are appropriate because they revolve around shared values of accountability and transparency when working with clients. Accordingly, the interventions concentrate on defined actions and positive outcomes. Accordingly, the interventions focus on the client’s priorities and experiences from their perspective. Thus, the service worker will help David resolve his crisis based on defined actions and specified outcomes using the interventions.

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Crisis Intervention

A crisis disrupts a person’s stable or normal state. A crisis emerges when a person experiences obstacles in meeting important life goals. Crises can either be maturational or situational. Situational crises are defined by unexpected events that are beyond one’s control. They include job loss, natural disasters, a family member’s death, being diagnosed with a terminal illness, and an assault. In contrast, maturational crises are characterized by an individuals’ inability to cope with the development process (Teater, 2014). These crises are prevalent during transitions, including retiring from a job, reaching adolescence, or mid-life crisis. As per the case scenario, David’s crisis is situational. He has become bankrupt and cannot pay for the child’s maintenance. Loss of key clients has caused him to have lots of temper with his wife and children, and he has withdrawn from them. As a result, the wife separates from him, a move that worsens his condition. Some of the symptoms he presents because of the separation and financial crisis include low mood, poor sleep, poor appetite, low self-esteem, poor self-care, and suicidal thoughts. Thus, Crisis Intervention is the appropriate intervention for David’s case because the intervention goals are to:

•  Relieve David’s symptoms
• Restore him to his previous functioning level
• Identify factors that contributed to the crisis
• Identify and apply remedial measures
• Help David connect current stressors with previous life experiences
• Help David design adaptive coping approaches that apply to the current and future situation

Therefore, crisis intervention is effective because it focuses on goals relevant to the crisis. Additionally, the intervention offers a crucial support system to overcome the crisis. The intervention focuses on solving the problem that resulted in the crisis. The intervention provides social workers with steps to follow to address a crisis. According to Roberts (2005), social workers should follow the seven steps when addressing a crisis. They include assessing safety needs and lethality, establishing rapport and communication, identifying major precipitating events, major problems, and old ineffective coping methods and dealing with feelings, and providing support. Other steps include exploring possible alternatives by examining past reactions, identifying more adaptive coping behaviors, formulating an action plan and providing follow-up. Despite these strengths, the model has limitations. For instance, it is challenging to implement the model with clients who are unwilling to get involved with social workers (Teater, 2010). The intervention does not solve all underlying problems, and social workers may be forced to undermine client’s rights.

Task Centered Intervention

Task centered intervention adheres to a problem-solving model. Therefore, David should show a willingness to solve his problems. However, the problems need to be manageable for him and the social worker. The primary objective of the intervention is to resolve David’s target problem and work with him to set tasks/ strategies and goals to achieve the stated objectives. The model is appropriate for David’s case because it outlines stages that the social worker should follow when addressing David’s situation. The stages are as described:

 Stage 1: Exploring problems and prioritizing them. 

As in the case scenario, the major problem is bankruptcy. As a result of this problem, David became short-tempered, resulting in his separation from the wife. The separation has caused him to become depressed.  Therefore, the priority is to address David’s depressive symptoms and then solve the bankruptcy issue.

Step 2: Setting goals and Setting time limits

As per the case study, David’s goal is to become financially stable and be with his wife and children becau