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© 2019 Cengage. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, 90
CHAPTER 8
THE CLIENT
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, students will be able to:
8-1 Define “the whole person.”
8-2 Apply the various ways to view a client to Mary’s case.
8-3 State how a “problems in living” approach expands an understanding of the client.
8-4 Differentiate among the perspectives of client problems.
8-5 Illustrate lifespan problems.
8-6 Identify the origins of situational problems.
8-7 Draw the hierarchy of human needs.
8-8 List the components of a wellness model.
8-9 Support how a strengths model influences the development of client wellness.
8-10 Summarize environmental influences on client problems.
8-11 Articulate the feminist perspective on client problems.
8-12 Define “client(s).”
8-13 Illustrate individuals, groups, and populations as clients.
8-14 List the ways people get help.
8-15 Identify the barriers to seeking help.
8-16 Summarize the influence of client expectations on the helping process.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
© 2019 Cengage. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, 91
1. Individual clients have multifaceted perspectives, which encompass life
experiences and are integrated to form the “whole person.”
2. Clients rarely have a single problem.
3. Helpers should use a whole person perspective to address all aspects of
a client’s problems (as in the case of Mary).
1. Problems are a normal part of life.
2. Problems in living approach central to human service model.
1. Problems in living can have two components:
a. description of the situation that is troublesome for the client
2. Difficult to predict what clients view as problems
3. Problems may be addressed and solved, or managed long-term
4. Clients often lack resources and/or skills to solve problems
II. Understanding client problems
1. Human development is a continuous process.
2. Individuals experience certain and universal stages during the lifespan.
3. Each stage brings changes that are predictable, multidimensional, and
multicontextual.
4. Culture and lifespan development are intertwined.
1. Problems result from accidents, violent crimes, natural disasters, and
major changes in life.
2. Differ from developmental problems:
a. Individual is in the “wrong place at the wrong time.”
3. May cause emotional suffering
1. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs argues that basic needs must be met before
addressing higher-order needs.
2. Meeting basic needs is of prime concern in cases of child abuse and
neglect or in cases of natural disasters.
1. Used in positive psychology and counseling to plan interventions
2. Helpers can use the indivisible self-model to try to understand clients.
a. Based on a holistic and strengths approach
b. Includes the creative self, the coping self, the social self, the
1. Include the positive characteristics, abilities, and experiences of the
client
2. Identifying strengths asks clients to take a new perspective on their
problems
1. Include rapid societal change, client location, friends and family, groups
2. Consider a client’s environment in layers:
a. Factors closest to the client have primary impact (family).
b. Secondary influences include neighborhoods, social
1. Focuses on rights of women while challenging existing power and
hierarchy
2. Helpers must understand client’s experiences with power and control.
1. Helpers use the whole person concept to assess the needs and problems
of individual clients.
2. Clients can be groups, such as a couple, a family, or several people who
3. Neighborhoods, cities, problem populations, and geographic regions are
examples of larger client groups.
1. Referral
a. Includes self-referrals and referrals by other professionals
2. Involuntary placement in the system
a. Clients do not choose to receive services.
3. Inadvertent services
a. Clients are part of a population targeted for services.
b. May seem useless to the client
1. Barriers to professional help:
a. How the client views the problem (e.g., too difficult to solve)
b. Embarrassment
2. Barriers to friends as helpers:
a. Loss of friendship or respect
3. The reluctant client
a. Reluctance often self-protection
b. Helping process requires inner strengths not present at first.
1. Helper will be unbiased and experienced with their specific problem.
2. Helper will listen, help them decide what to do, and help
3. Helpers will provide quick solutions.
B. Client Evaluations of Services
1. Evaluation is often consistent with prior expectations.
2. Satisfied clients perceive the helper positively, participate in the helping
process, have their problems solved in the “right” amount of time, and
experience a supportive environment.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Chapter Eight explores the client, the recipient of the human service process.
Problems in living are a normal part of human life. When clients have troubling
experiences, helpers are encouraged to use a “whole person” perspective to address all
hierarchical perspective focuses on unmet physical and psychological human needs. A
wellness perspective uses a strengths-based approach and the feminist perspective
focuses on the client’s experiences with power, control, and hierarchy. Finally,
considering environmental influences on a client’s life allows the helper to better
understand their impact on current problems and on potential interventions.
Clients can be individuals, groups (family or a couple), or larger populations
© 2019 Cengage. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, 95
CHAPTER GOALS
1. To define problems and explain the need for using a “whole person” perspective to
address all aspects of client problems.
2. To describe the conceptual frameworks for exploring human service problems.
3. To define “client(s)” and describe the various types of client populations.
4. To identify ways of getting help and the barriers that must be surmounted before
4. To explore the client’s perspective of helping.
SUGGESTIONS FOR ACTIVITIES
1. Ask students to assume that they are sitting in the reception area of an agency waiting
for their first appointment to see a helper. Then, have them answer the following
questions:
a. Right now I feel ____________ because…
b. I wanted to come here because…
c. I almost canceled my appointment because…
d. I am afraid…
e. I hope the helper will…
Pair students and have them share answers. Were your answers similar? How were they
different?
2. Divide students into groups to develop short vignettes of an individual who is
receiving help with a family problem, but is a reluctant client. Use the first-person
3. Assist students in understanding what it means to live in poverty by exploring the
limited choices that result from poverty. Divide the class into family-size groups. A
family of nine is the largest manageable size group for this activity. Have each group
complete the following assignments:
4. Help students deal with general stereotypes associated with the word “handicapped”
and obtain a realistic definition of the word. This exercise provides the participants with
an opportunity to express new insight toward handicapped people as individuals.
Participants learn that handicap is defined by the demands of one’s environment.
(1) Ask each group to define the word “handicap.”
(2) Write the definitions on a chart.
(3) Ask participants to stand in the middle of the room. Say, “It’s nice to see such
(4) Read the following list and pause 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 does not know how to play a musical instrument go to
#6.”
“Everyone who doesn’t know a foreign language go to #7.”
“Everyone who can’t type more than 60 WPM go to #8.”
(5) Follow-up with these discussion questions:
a. Do you still want to keep the definition of handicap you wrote?
b. How many of you “normal” people were found to be handicapped?
How many have multiple handicaps?
c. How do you distinguish the term “handicap” from “disability”?
*This exercise is good for the conclusion of a workshop.
A workshop manual to increase awareness of handicapped people. Reston, VA:
1. How do “problems in living” expand a helper’s understanding of the client?
2. Explain characteristics of a situational perspective to problem solving.
3. Who was Abraham Maslow? Describe his major contribution to the field of
psychology.
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?
MINDTAP VIDEO IN-CLASS DISCUSSION
she describes some of the barriers her clients have encountered during human service
1. How do you think human service professionals themselves can become the problem
for the client?
2. List the barriers Lee Ann discusses.
3. How do these barriers affect service delivery?
4. What does Lee Ann think the most significant barrier is?
KEY TERMS
© 2019 Cengage. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, 99
Societal change: A state when individuals experience problems as a result of the
1. Define “the whole person.”
2. What are “problems in living”?
3. List the different perspectives on client problems.
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 at a particular stage?
7. How is the developmental model helpful to the human service professional?
8. How are “problems” defined from a situational perspective?
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
11. Describe the problems experienced by the homeless.
12. List aspects of the “Indivisible Self.”
13. What role do environmental influences play in client problems?
14. Apply three of the conceptual frameworks to the problem of unemployment.
© 2019 Cengage. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, 100
15. Explain the different ways to define client.
16. Using the homeless or a gang as an example, illustrate the different definitions of
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?
21. Identify the barriers to seeking help.
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?
2. Explain the problems of homelessness based upon the lifespan, situational,
strengths-based, and human needs perspectives.
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?
© 2019 Cengage. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, 101
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?
6. In your opinion, what are the most critical expectations that clients have of human
services? Defend your answer.
The following exercises allow students to apply what they have learned from the
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
b. one who is involuntarily placed in the system
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?
© 2019 Cengage. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, 102
LO/STANDARD CORRELATION TABLE
The Whole Person
8-1
8-2
15
12, 13, 15
2
Defining Problems
8-3
4, 15
12, 13, 15
2
Understanding Client Problems
8-4
1, 15, 16
12, 13, 15
2
A Lifespan Perspective
8-5
11, 15
12, 13, 15
2, 5, 9
