Worker roles

1
Worker roles

• Principles
• Work within limitation of agency resources
• Work within agency mandate
• Be aware and own your own values
• Considerations
• Agencies are often under-resourced
• Key questions
• Could you work for Catholic Welfare if you
  believed in the right of women to have a choice
  about termination / keeping a child / adoption?
• What might be some of the dilemmas for the
  worker?

2
Professional competence

• Principles
• Know and own your own values
• Be qualified / competent in the job description
• Work within the standards of service
• Undertake supervision / be able to manage up
  issues
• Know your boundaries
• Professional development
• Considerations
• Know when to refer
• Key question
• What support / supervision might a new worker
  need so that he / she could be / become an
  effective worker?

3
Duty of care

• Key question
• Define duty of care
• How can you ensure that an agency operates
  according to duty of care?

4
Maintenance of records

• Principles
• Confidentiality / limits to confidentiality
  explained
• Record keeping / process explained to client
• Agency policy on record keeping / access to
  records / storage
• Considerations
• Who will access records (e.g. client, other
  workers in agency, interagency case discussions)
• How much information is kept
• Circumstances where confidentiality cannot be
  kept and what happens
• Notes to be done immediately
• Key question
• How would a client know who has access to
  information about him/herself?

5
Engaging a client

• Principles
• Welcoming
• Comfort
• Be at ease
• Seating / layout of room
• Privacy
• Considerations
• Any considerations?
• Key questions
• What are some things a worker can do to make
  clients feel welcome?
• How does a worker know if a client is feeling
  comfortable?

6
Client empowerment

• Principles
• Respect
• Self sufficiency
• Choice
• Considerations
• Dependency
• Client may not have coordination skills to manage
  case
• Multi problems / complex problems
• More than one member of family has problems ..
  Individual / family problems . Who is the
  client??
• Key questions
• What might be some indicators that a client is
  becoming dependent?
• What could a worker do to reduce the likelihood
  of a client becoming dependent?