bswi 411 group 5

PRESENTATION ON MEASURING TOOLS

 1. INTRODUCTION

Measuring tools or instruments are essential in social work to evaluate the progress and
effectiveness of interventions implemented by professionals in the field. Measuring
instruments help social workers in the identification, assessment, and treatment of
issues that need to be addressed to improve the wellbeing of individuals and
communities.

These tools can also help to identify the effectiveness of social work programs and to
make necessary modifications to meet the needs of people being served. These tools
evaluate a person's social, emotional, and psychological functioning, along with
providing feedback for practitioners and clients to enhance their work in partnership.

Various types of measurement instruments are used in social work, and they will be
mentioned later. The selection of the appropriate tool depends on the purpose of the
evaluation and the population involved. For instance, the use of questionnaires can help
in assessing the level of satisfaction among clients receiving social work services.
Meanwhile, standardized assessments can help professionals determine the severity of
psychological or emotional issues among clients.

Social work professionals need to be knowledgeable about the different measuring tools
available to them. Having a full understanding of what instruments to use in different
situations can help professionals better understand the needs of the people they are
serving, ensure effectiveness of interventions and interventions, and improve the quality
of life of those in need.

2. TWO TYPES OF MEASURING TOOLS

STANDARDIZED

STANDARDISED ASSESSMENTS ARE CONTROLLED ASSESSMENTS THAT ARE

USED TO EVALUATE SERVICES THAT WERE RENDERED TO THE FAMILY.
THROUGH THIS EVALUATION THE SOCIAL WORKER IS ABLE TO FIND OUT
WHETHER THE INTERVENTION METHODS THAT WERE USED WERE EFFECTIVE
OR NOT AND THE SOCIAL CAN GO ON TO IMPROVE THEIR SERVICES.
NON-STANDARDADIZED

Non-standardized assessment is an informal assessment that the therapist might

conduct to see where the client’s strength and abilities are, also highlights the difficulties
to pay attention to during therapy.
non-standardized assessments can be very specific to a skill, teacher/therapist taken
data, observations, and interviews. Although it is the assessment that is informal,
information gained during this assessment is very important because it determines if
there is change or not. When aligning this assessment with the family context, we look
at tools like observation and direct verbal feedback or other types of feedback that
indicate change. Even though the non-standardized assessment is informal, it must be
used with a lot of experience, for example, when using this assessment, the therapist
cannot use one approach.

FOR EXAMPLE

Observation can be done during the first session of family therapy to assess family
therapy retention; it focuses on solving problems that prevent a family from healthy
functioning. Observations can be done in a way that a therapist observe therapeutic
alliance between him and the family and communication patterns, and after time has
passed by the therapist will do same observations to check if there is improvement or
not. Same applies with Feedback, feedback can be used to optimize the therapeutic
alliance and improve client treatment outcomes. During family therapy, a therapist can
allow members to provide feedback to the therapist about their experiences, thoughts,
and feelings, there will be certain result, negative ones. And after time has passed by
the therapist will give them the permission to do so again, if there is no improvement,
they will give negative feedback again
 3. EXAMPLES OF BOTH SIDES

STANDARDIZED NON-STANDARDIZED
• Standardized measures are such • Non-standardized tools may
as scientifically developed scales, include observation & direct verbal
questionnaires etc. that provide feedback from the family /
information, which can be seen as members, or other forms of
FEEDBACK on the effects of the feedback on change that is taking
inputs / strategies / intervention place.
employed.

4. COMMON MAPPING TOOLS

 Ecomap-
Pictorial view of family contacts with others outside the family, including
agencies and involvement with others.

 Genogram-
Picture of a family constellation. This includes multiple generations in the
family and affords an overview of the family’s internal and external structure
as well as its context, boundaries, and composition.
  Social network map-
Presents a view of the family’s environment and the people, organisations
and groups that support the family.

 Timelines- Can be used to map critical events and conditions in the life cycle
of the family or its members.
 Sequences of events are chronologically organised and graphically
represented through these timelines.
 Allows for tracking events over time and viewing the order in which such
events happened.
 Family scales- Standardised measures to assess family functioning.
 Provide information about family functioning in comparison to other
families with similar problems.
 Measures used are scales, questionnaires, and unstructured interviews.
 Often used before and after intervention and, in some cases, during
follow-up
 Observational techniques- Task family completes while the practitioner
observes.
 Family roles, power, interaction, and decision-making are usually the key
areas for observation.

5. CONCLUSION

Standardized assessments and diagnostic tools are incredibly important in social work.
They allow social workers to determine which problems their clients are suffering from
and which stages of these problems the clients are going through. The difference
between diagnosis and assessment is that diagnosis Focuses on the general problem
or sickness affecting a client. The assessment Focuses on how a client is dealing
with that problem.