PART TWO
CLIENTS AND HELPERS IN HUMAN SERVICES
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CHAPTER FIVE
THE CLIENT
CHAPTER GOALS
2. To explain six conceptual frameworks to explore human service problems
4. To explore the client’s perspective of helping
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
At the end of the chapter, students will be able
1.1 To define the term “the whole person”
2.1 To define “problem”
2.3 To apply Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to client problems
2.5 To identify the environmental influences on an individual
3.1 To define “client(s)”
3.3 To identify the barriers to getting help
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4.2 To list the factors linked to client satisfaction and dissatisfaction with human
services
READINGS
Introduction to Human Services – Chapter 5
Introduction to Human Services: Cases and Applications – Chapter 5
CHAPTER SUMMARY
The purpose of this chapter is to explore the client in the human service system.
Clients enter the system with multifaceted perspectives. Problems for clients are rarely
single-focused and are situations that cause trouble, discomfort, and difficulty. Resolving
A number of conceptual frameworks help us think about client problems. The
developmental perspective suggests that human development is a continuous process
during which individuals may experience difficulties. Problems that occur randomly and
unpredictably represent a situational perspective; a move, divorce, and a car accident are
examples. Maslow’s hierarchical perspective focuses on the human needs that are unmet
ways of defining clients are three individuals who share their accounts as victims of
random violence; a homeless teenager; and a teenage gang member. Reading about the
lives of women and children in war-affected countries illustrates “client” in an
international sense.
How do clients find help? Are they satisfied with the help they received? These
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. The whole person
A. Perceptions of client problems
1. Individuals are multifaceted
3. Working on all aspects of a client’s problem is referred to as working
with the “whole person”
B. Defining a problem
1. A situation causing trouble, discomfort, and difficulty
3. Sometimes difficult to predict what the client will experience as a
problem
C. Categories of problems
1. Developmental perspective
a. Individuals engage in certain tasks or activities at different
2. Situational perspective
a. Problems result from accidents, violent crimes, natural
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3. Meeting human needs
4. Focusing on wellness and strengths
5. Feminist perspective
a. Focuses on rights of women while challenging existing power
6. Environmental influences
a. Factors or individuals closest to the client have a stronger
impact (primary)
II. Clients as individuals, groups, and populations
A. The client as individual may be a gang member who has needs/problems that
he/she is unable to address
III. Getting help
A. Ways of getting help
1. Referral
2. Involuntary placement in the system
3. Inadvertent services
a. Clients are part of a population targeted for services
B. Barriers to seeking help
1. Barriers to professional help
a. Clients believe problem is too difficult or too embarrassing
2. Barriers to friends as helpers
a. Want people to think well of them
IV. The Client’s Perspective
A. Client Expectations
1. Clients come for resources or to solve problems
3. Clients want quick solutions and quick answers
B. Client Evaluations of Services
2. Satisfied clients cite positive concrete outcomes such as better living
conditions, food, or acquisition of skills
INTRODUCING THE CHAPTER
1. You are sitting in the reception area of an agency waiting for your first
appointment to see a helper. Write answers to the following questions:
a. Right now I feel ____________ because…
Share these answers with a partner. Did you have similar answers? How were
they different?
2. Divide students into groups to develop short vignettes of an individual who is
LEARNING ACTIVITIES
What is it like to be poor today?
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The following exercise will assist students in understanding what it means to live in
poverty by exploring the limited choices which result from poverty. There are several
steps to this activity and it will be helpful to divide the class into family size groups.
Although families may vary in size, it is recommended that a family of nine is the largest
manageable size group for this activity. Each group will complete the following
assignments:
1. Assign students responsibility for discovering how poverty is defined in their
country.
2. Estimate the income for a family living in poverty. Determine this family’s needs
3. One of the children becomes ill on Wednesday. What happens?
What is a handicap?
Objectives:
2. To obtain a realistic definition of the word “handicapped”. This exercise provides
the participants with an opportunity to express new insight towards handicapped
people as individuals. Participants learn that handicap is defined by the demands
of one’s environment.
Procedure:
1. Each group or sub-group is asked by group facilitators to define the word
“handicap”.
3. The workshop leader then asks participants to stand in the middle of the room and
says, “It’s nice to see such a large group of non–handicapped normal people.”
4. The workshop leader reads the following list and pauses after each statement to
allow participants time to move to the appropriate location. “Now I would like
everyone wearing eye glasses over at #1.”
“Everyone who is left-handed at #2.”
Follow-up discussion questions may include the following:
1. Do you still want to keep the definition of handicap you wrote?
2. How many of you “normal” people were found to be handicapped? How many
have multiple handicaps?
3. The leader may wish to distinguish the term “handicap” from “disability”.
A workshop manual to increase awareness of handicapped people. Reston, VA:
The Council for Exceptional Children.
READING AND STUDY GUIDE: READ, REVIEW, APPLY
These questions may help the student’s identify important concepts as they read the
chapter.
2. In what ways can “client” can be defined.
4. Why is it difficult to predict what clients will experience as problems?
5. What are the factors that make clients reluctant to seek help?
6. What happens if an individual does not develop in a particular stage?
9. How do situational problems contribute to both short term and long-term
difficulties?
10. Explain how Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs” is helpful to the human service
professional.
12. List aspects of the “Indivisible Self.”
13. What role do environmental influences play in client problems?
15. Explain the different ways to define client.
17. How does gang behavior contribute to the increase in violence and crime?
18. Name two types of referrals.
19. What is the job of the referring professional?
20. What types of clients are involuntarily placed in the human service system?
22. What are the psychological costs of seeking help?
23. Describe the reluctant client.
24. What do clients expect from human services?
25. What do clients perceive as positive outcomes of human service delivery?
26. What determines client satisfaction?
27. What factors are linked to client dissatisfaction?
The following questions will help students in their review of the chapter.
1. Think about the ways of categorizing problems. What are the strengths and
limitations of each categorization?
3. There are several ways that clients may receive help from the human service
delivery system. What problems are involved in each type of entry into the
system? In your opinion, what is the preferred way of entering the human service
system? Why?
4. Clients experience many barriers to receiving services. List these barriers. How
would a human service professional counter each barrier?
5. Many clients are reluctant to enter or participate in the helping process. What are
the possible sources of this reluctance?
The following exercises allow students to apply what they have learned from the
chapter.
1. Make your own list of 20 problems that human beings experience. Which of
these problems are considered developmental, situational, human needs, social
change? Defend each of your choices.
2. Write a short story about these individuals:
a. the recipient of a referral
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Describe the first day of service delivery for each of these clients.
3. If you were to receive services, list what you would expect from the helper and
the system. How would you evaluate the success of the services provided?
TEST ITEMS
Multiple Choice
1. The term client refers all but ONE of the following:
2. The human service professional in charge of housing services serves the whole
person by
3. Two components of a problem are
4. It is difficult to predict
5. How clients view their situations and what they perceive to be problems are
important factors in
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6. Mary, who was hit by an automobile, illustrates
7. Central to understanding who a client is and what problems are encountered is the
idea that
8. Which perspective is useful in determining client needs?
9. Developmental stages can be characterized by each of the following EXCEPT:
10. A wellness model to understand a client is the
11. The developmental tasks of an individual in the identity stage and an individual in
the generativity stage are illustrated by which relationship?
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12. A job change, natural disasters, and an accident may result in
13. Violent crime is considered a situational crisis because
14. Which is not true of situational problems?
15. Within the hierarchy of needs, security needs are represented by
16. According to Maslow’s theory, since needs exist in a hierarchy,
17. Many of the homeless are currently
18. A perspective that challenges power is
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d. gang-related theory.
19. To understand individuals as client, (e.g. a homeless person) the human service
worker needs to ask
20. To understand gangs as a larger client group we might think about all EXCEPT:
21. Involuntary referral is illustrated by all EXCEPT:
22. Barriers to seeking help include all but ONE of the following:
23. Client satisfaction is related to
Discussion
1. Identify and explain each developmental stage in Erikson’s Eight Stages of Man.
3. Who was Abraham Maslow? Describe his major contribution to the field of
4. Identify and explain two types of client referrals.
5. Why would an individual’s perception of a human service professional act as a
barrier to obtaining help?