CLIPS Word Template - SIelearning€¦ · Web viewYou will find that you will use the skills every day and with every client, colleague, professional and family or community member

Communicate effectively with clients and staff

ContentsOverview 2What is communication? 2A model of communication 4Attributes of an effective communicator 8Identify and use appropriate communication strategies 16Conduct interviews according to established procedures 21Give feedback and advice in a way which reflects current identified good practice 24Demonstrate respect for individual, cultural and social differences, needs and rights in communicating with clients and colleagues 27If communication breakdown occurs, respond appropriately and refer to other staff or specialist services if required to ensure duty of care responsibilities are met 31Respond to enquiries in a manner that promotes achievement of mutual outcomes 33Respect and consider differences in views in a way that values and encourages the contributions of others 34Ensure communication represents the organisation effectively where appropriate 36Summary 37

Certificate IV in Disabilities: CHCCOM403A: Reader LO 10126 1© NSW DET 2009

OverviewCommunicating effectively with clients and staff is the cornerstone of our work in the community services industry. If we can’t communicate well we can’t do our job well—it is as simple as that! In this topic and the ones to follow we will provide you with many learning opportunities in relation to your communication skills. Of course all of you will have some fantastic communication skills already and as you work through this unit of competency you will have moments of thinking ‘I know this’. The aim of this topic, and the others in this unit, is to help you think about how you communicate and then provide you with knowledge and skills so that you can strategically use those skills in a way that is most likely to be effective.

Good communication doesn’t just happen but rather is the result of using the right skills in the right way at the right time—which is much harder than it sounds! To be an effective communicator you need to be aware of how you interact with others and what your communication strengths and weaknesses are. To do this you will need to reflect (think about) your communication style and skills and what works and what doesn’t. This is not a very conformable process but I encourage you to stick with it. In this topic, and others, we will provide you with many opportunities to reflect on how well you communicate as well providing you with the theory to support you to make changes in how you communicate if you so choose.

We will start by defining communication and providing an overview of communication—communication models and the different types of communication. We will then focus on effective communication and the helping relationship and all that being an effective helper involves. We will discuss the different strategies that we can use to establish rapport with clients, the fact that any interview we conduct has to be done so in accordance with organisational policies and how to give appropriate feedback. The importance of respecting differences and valuing others will be a theme that runs through the entire unit as will the fact that we always need to remember to be professional and represent the organisation we work for in an acceptable way.

What is communication?The word communicate is often used in conversation; for example, ‘she is a great communicator’ or ‘we just can’t communicate’. When I hear this, I often wonder what people mean; after all, it’s impossible not to communicate and we all communicate all the time. Usually, when we talk about someone being a good communicator, we mean that they have good communication skills and use them effectively. When people say that they are not communicating, they usually mean that they are not communicating effectively or are not feeling comfortable about their interaction with someone.

2 Certificate IV in Disabilities: CHCCOM403A: Reader LO 10126 © NSW DET 2009

The word communication can be broadly defined as the sending or receiving of messages containing meaning. The message usually contains thoughts, ideas, opinions, feelings and information. Communication can be verbal (spoken), written or non-verbal (body language). Interpersonal refers to an interaction between two people or between people in a small group.

We can then join these two definitions together and define interpersonal communication as being verbal and/or non-verbal interaction between two people or in a small group, which involves sending and receiving messages with meaning.

Why is communication important?

We communicate to satisfy needs within us, such as physical, social and emotional needs. This is evident even in a young baby. Babies may not be able to say what they need but they are certainly still communicating with their parents or carers through crying, other sounds, gestures and facial expressions. The responses they get help in the formation of their identity.

We decide who we are, based on how others react to us and how we react to them. Human beings are basically social animals and communicating satisfies various social needs such as pleasure, affection and inclusion. Communicating also ensures that those needs that are essential to our survival (such as for food and drink) are met.

The fact that we begin communicating from the time we are born does not mean that we don’t need training in how to do it. Most of us manage to function at a reasonable level, but we do tend to operate below our potential. Work, family, personal interest groups, education and friends act to increase these skill levels, sometimes remarkably.

Good communication skills are a bit like physical exercise. Even the most unfit among us can improve our physical abilities with some learning and training. People with effective communication skills tend to do well in life, in both employment and in relationships. Good communication skills don’t just happen and effective communicators are aware of the skills they use and work at improving those skills. That is, they work at becoming fitter communicators.

The development of effective communication skills is crucial to our social survival. If we work in the Community Services Industry (CSI), effective communication skills also enable us to relate to our clients, colleagues and other community agencies in the best possible way. Clients with disabilities, especially, may have difficulty in communicating in the usual ways, and you need to be able to assist them.


This would be a good time to attempt Activity 1 before moving on with the remainder of this reading.

What is essential is that you use the opportunity of doing this module to stop and think about your interpersonal communication style and how this might affect others.

A model of communicationCommunication is not simply something we do to others; it is something we do with them. It does not take the skills of just one person but the skills of both to coordinate the process. The communication process is a two-way process.

We send and receive messages at the same time. It is hard to isolate one part that can be called the ‘communication’ from all the events that precede or follow it. An example of this is to say to your children who are busy enjoying themselves, ‘It’s time to turn that music off and get ready for bed’. Before all your words are out, your children have picked up on the tone in your voice and have some non-verbal reaction, like turning up the music and pretending that they can’t hear. You might then react with anger and say loudly, ‘You heard me; now turn down that music right now!’.

In a matter of seconds, a variety of messages have been sent, received and decoded according to the individuals’ needs, all at the same time. This is not even taking into account the loud music in the background, which is also sending a message.

To help us understand how communication works, a number of writers in the communication area have come up with a range of models to describe and illustrate the process. All of the models have similarities as well as differences and if you want to research the different models I would encourage you to look at some of the books mentioned in the reference section at the beginning of this module.

Most of the models of communication use the following terms

Communicator A communicator can initiate or send the message and aims the message at a receiver. They can also receive the message from another communicator. The communicator has (hopefully!) an idea, thought, opinion, information or feeling that they want to convey to the other person; that is, they have a goal they want to achieve through their interpersonal communication. For example, Tom wants to ask Mee Ling on a date.

Messages Messages are meaningful combinations of verbal and non-verbal signs and symbols that we use as a means to communicate. For


example, Tom smiles at Mee Ling, compliments her, flirts a little and then asks her if she would like to have lunch with him.

Channels We send and receive messages through various channels. These channels are our senses: vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell. For example, Tom sends his message verbally and visually. Mee Ling receives the message by seeing his smiles and hearing his words.

Noise In the context of interpersonal communication, noise is the distortion, interruption or loss of the intended meaning of a message. Noise can be physical but it can also be emotional, ideological or attitudinal. That is, our own thoughts, feelings, attitudes, values, beliefs and world view can affect how we listen to or hear the message being communicated. For example, Mee Ling hasn’t thought about Tom as a possible romantic partner and interprets his asking her out as providing them with an opportunity to talk about some work issues without being interrupted.

Feedback Feedback is provided by the receiver of the message and lets the sender know the reaction to the message; that is, through feedback we let the sender know whether or not we understood the message they were sending and what our reaction or response to the message is. Mee Ling accepts Tom’s offer to go out to lunch and asks him what files she should bring.


Below is a checklist of things that need to occur before a message can be received:

Is your receiver really there? Many people are distracted by their own thoughts or worries and are unable to hear your message.

Are your the facts correct and will they help you get your needs met? Is the information presented in an accurate way to get the response that you want?

Is your receiver willing and able to be a receiver? If the receiver has tuned out, it will make no difference how correct you are, or how much care and effort you have put into the message; it will not be received.

Have you received the ‘go ahead’? Has the receiver given you some indication that they are listening? (Often we start talking when we have not really checked to see if the other person is available to listen.)



Types of interpersonal communication

Communication can be divided into two broad types: verbal and non-verbal.

Verbal communication involves all the messages that are sent using words, while non-verbal communication refers to all those messages that are not expressed in words.

Non-verbal communication is sometimes called body language. Sign language is also an example of non-verbal communication.

Communicating verbally (with words) is important when we are trying to give someone information; for example, our address. We call the verbal part of a message the content. The content of a message usually relates to our thoughts and ideas about a particular issue, or it might refer to the information we provide to someone. Words, however, only convey part of the message and if we want to assess how someone feels about what they are saying, we look to the non-verbal cues such as tone of voice. It is often the ability to read non-verbal cues accurately and confidently that makes or breaks an interpersonal communication interaction.

Non-verbal communication

A woman and two men sitting alongside each other at a table with plates of food and cutlery



Effective and ineffective interpersonal communication

Congruence and interpersonal communication

We have identified that communication can be both verbal and non-verbal. Every time we talk, we communicate both verbally and non-verbally, and as listeners we tend to take more notice of how the other person is talking than what they are saying.

Many professionals have done research into the balance between the verbal and non-verbal components of a message and, while most of them don’t agree on the exact percentage of the non-verbal component, all agree that the non-verbal message is more powerful and dominant than the verbal one.

Some researchers go as far as saying that over 90 per cent of the impact of a message is non-verbal, which is pretty scary when you think about how easy it is to read the non-verbal cues incorrectly! A good way to think about this is to remember when you were a child and had done something really naughty like cut your sister’s hair. It is highly likely that your parents didn’t need to use words to say how angry they were—their tone of voice, glaring eyes, red face and speechless rage most probably gave you a very clear picture of how they were feeling. And you would have got the message before they had even opened their mouth!

In a later topic we will explore the fact that reading and interpreting non-verbal cues can be culturally defined—that is, different cultures have different expectations and rules about appropriate body language.

Reading and interpreting non-verbal cues can, however, be just as tricky when interacting with someone from the same culture. All too often, a listener assumes that they have interpreted all the non-verbal behaviour correctly and therefore make a whole lot of assumptions about what someone is saying or feeling without actually checking that they have got it right. For example, someone who has a flat tone of voice could be feeling depressed or tired or might have a hearing impairment. Someone listening to their conversation might get the wrong idea completely if they don’t check out (clarify) their impressions.

If we are to be good interpersonal communicators, it is essential that we say to someone, ‘You look/sound…’. That is, we need to let people know what we are thinking when trying to interpret their behaviour. If more people checked out their impressions or interpretations, I am sure there would be less fights and unhappy relationships.

When the non-verbal messages don’t match the content—for example when someone says that they had a great time using a flat tone of voice, without making eye contact and with a droopy posture, we would say that the message is incongruent.


Congruent messages, on the other hand, occur when the non-verbal and verbal messages match. An example of this is when someone says they had a great time in a bouncy energetic voice, while maintaining eye contact, smiling and generally looking happy.

Again, it’s important to let someone know that you are receiving an incongruent message. For example, you might say, ‘While you’re saying that you had a great time, you look more like you had a terrible time. I’m wondering what is really happening for you’. Clarifying what the correct message is, is a great way to let someone know that you are listening to them and are interested in how they are really feeling.

As community service workers, it is essential that we send congruent messages when interacting with clients and colleagues. We will not be able to develop a meaningful working relationship with a client or colleague if we say that we want to listen to them while physically distancing ourselves.

Attributes of an effective communicatorThere are a number of factors that can be called interpersonal communication assets. All effective communicators tend to have them and they include:

self-esteem

respect for others

a non-judgmental attitude

genuineness

empathy

a desire to really listen to what someone is saying to them.

These assets are also central to the characteristics of an effective helper. People working in the CSI are often referred to as belonging to the helping professions. This means that they carry out tasks and have roles where they give aid to another. This may be by:

interviewing or counselling

explaining and defining problems

acting to help to change thoughts and behaviour.

Obviously we would want to do this helping as effectively as possible. So how can we be more effective as helpers?


The helping relationship

Effective helping occurs in the context of a helping relationship. A helping relationship is a relationship that is established for one purpose only, and that is to help the client. As a result it is a one-sided relationship in which the client is invited to share what brings them to the agency and then, together the CSI worker, work together to resolve the issues. The helping relationship is therefore time-limited, client-focused and has clear boundaries. The boundaries are established by professional ethics, organisational codes of conducts, government legislation and policies and agency policies and procedures. These boundaries will be explored later in this topic.

Attributes of an effective helper

In this broad area of work, there are characteristics that are accepted as attributes of an effective helper. These are:

having a positive approach to your own life and an ability to care for your own needs

having a genuine concern for people in general and the client in particular

being able to communicate effectively, and this includes listening, observing and responding appropriately

being aware of age-based differences in attitudes and outlook

aiming to ‘help’ the client. If that is not possible, you should not harm the client by your actions

being well informed and committed to maintaining a professional knowledge base

understanding that helping or counselling is a cooperative effort between helper and client, with both sharing the responsibility for change

having an awareness of your own beliefs and values and how these may affect the client

being culturally empathetic and learning to become aware of differences and similarities in groups, without giving up your own identity

being sensitive to differences resulting from gender and sexual orientation.

Empathy

As noted above, an essential characteristic of an effective helper is empathy, or being able to understand another person’s thoughts and experience from their perspective. There are several aspects to empathy:


being attuned to another person and exploring their values and beliefs about an issue

being able to see the situation as the client sees it, from their frame of reference

trying to ‘put yourself in someone else’s shoes’ and walking beside them on their journey

letting clients know you are listening and trying to understand.

Cultural empathy

Culture is a collection of behaviour patterns, language, values, beliefs, dietary practices, actions, ritual attitudes and rules by which members of a group live. Culture is not innate (built in) but learned through socialisation.

Being culturally empathetic is not just having an understanding of another’s culture but being attuned to and accepting of another’s values, beliefs and practices relating to their culture.

The use of self-disclosure

Through the use of empathy, we can build rapport and trust with the client. Often people feel that they will assist the client by telling them how they coped with a particular problem. In the AOD (alcohol and other drugs) field, it was once considered appropriate to discuss how the worker personally overcame their own drug problem and this would assist the client. This is no longer accepted practice.

Self-disclosure of your own problems or issues, even if they have been resolved, has limited value to the client. This is because we need to treat the client as unique. We need to support the client in developing their own solutions to their own problems, that are appropriate to their circumstances. Self-disclosure can turn the focus of the interaction onto us, when the focus should be on the client.

Respect for others and the need for a non-judgmental attitude

All too often, people seeking help from community services workers have been told by others that there is something wrong with them, that they are over-reacting or they should just get on with their life and not worry about their problems. Other people might be too ashamed to tell someone else their problems because they think that they might be judged or that the person they are telling might not respect them any longer. As a result, clients are often feeling vulnerable and ready to pick up any hint that a worker does not accept them or is judging them.


Effective community services workers are genuine in their desire to work with clients and must be able to accept and respect their clients’ stories and decisions, while conveying a non-judgmental attitude.

We demonstrate these attributes through our interpersonal communication skills. By being warm and welcoming, by reflecting feelings and content, and by asking open questions we show a client that we are interested in their plight and are genuine in our desire to work with them so that they can sort out what is troubling them.


Self-image and interpersonal relations

The last asset for effective interpersonal communication that we will explore is that of self-esteem. To look at self-esteem, we first need to consider what self-concept means, since the way we view ourselves has a huge impact on how we feel about ourselves.

Self-concept

How would you describe self-concept? This could be based on your role in life, such as student, father, mother, sister or friend. It could be based on your physical or mental characteristics, such as height, weight, skin colour, intelligence or memory. It could be based on your ability to connect with others—your charm, friendliness or social skills. It could be based on your beliefs and attitudes and your feelings.

We are not born with a self-concept. We develop our self-concept from the interactions we have with our environment, mainly from our contact with others and how they react to us.

The most important people in the development of our self-concept are our ‘significant others’. When you are a child, these people can be your family or caregivers. How you develop a self-concept depends on how they view you and what messages they give to you about yourself. Their judgments can be crucial in the development of your self-concept.

The child is also actively involved in developing their self-concept by making meaning of the world and their place in it. If our significant others, are very critical, we may not feel as lovable, valuable, or capable as someone who is encouraged and appreciated.


What is your self-concept?

As we grow up, the circle of people who can influence our self-concept widens. Children who attend childcare facilities can have their self-concept developed by the carers in this establishment as well as by the other children. Of course, going to school is another milestone in a person’s life. People’s ability to master new tasks, interact with their peers and get on with their teachers adds to their concept of self.

As workers in the CSI, we can also influence our clients’ self-concept. It is therefore important to be aware of this in our communications with them.


The image that we develop of ourselves through our interactions is very subjective. It may be at odds with other people’s perceptions. Take the example of a young teenage girl who thinks she is fat because she is comparing herself to thin models. Her family and friends may see her as a slim, attractive young woman. However, this young woman may have had critical judgments made about her in her past and she may have been very influenced by images of women in the media.

We are not only influenced by the people in our immediate life but also by the bigger picture in the media and the comparisons we make of ourselves with other people (eg movie stars), who we don’t even know.

As we move through life, we tend to attract people who will confirm our self-concept. It doesn’t matter whether we have a negative or positive self-concept. We will aim for verification of that self-concept through our interaction with others.

However, we can change (and most of us do) over time. Our self-concept is ever-evolving, depending on our inner drives and where they lead us. The people we come in contact with and what we do in our life can also shape our self-concept.


Self-esteem

Our self-confidence, self-respect and self-worth contribute to the formation of that aspect of our identity we call our self-esteem. People who do not like their identity or self-concept are considered to have low self-esteem. They often reject any signs that they are good at things or are a worthwhile


person, for example, when someone compliments them, they get embarrassed and think the person is ‘just being nice’.

Our level of self-esteem will affect our communication with others. When we have low self-esteem, we tend to build barriers or defences. This may come out as anger or blame. Some of us turn to alcohol and drugs to deal with the pain of self-rejection.

Awareness of self-concept and level of self-esteem

We don’t have time in this module to cover self-esteem in depth. However, as workers in this field, we need to be aware of how our self-esteem affects our interpersonal communications.

Improvements can be made in the use of interpersonal communication skills, but it is often difficult to develop new skills if we have a negative self-image of our ability in that particular area. So, it is right to have some understanding of our own self-concept and self-esteem before working in the field.

What we think of ourselves is always going to affect how we communicate with others. If we have an image of ourselves as poor communicators, we may avoid interacting with others as much as possible. For many of us, there are certain situations, or people, that we feel better about, or more capable of communicating with, than others.


Attitudes and beliefs

Our self-concept is also made up of our attitudes and beliefs. These attitudes are usually based on deeply-held beliefs and values developed over our life, and can greatly affect how we will communicate with others.

Values and beliefs often reflect society’s perceptions of right and wrong—lying, stealing and murder are all offences and punishable by law. The legal system most obviously reflects these social values. Social values are not fixed and can change over time, though many of them have been around a along time and are unlikely to change.



As workers in the community services industry, it is important that we subscribe to professional values such as:

Being non-judgmental: not blaming the client for causing their own problems).

Treating the client as an individual: recognising and understanding the person to be a unique individual). Once we do this, we are then more likely (and indeed should) treat the person as unique and help them in a way that is relevant to them and their needs, and not in a generalised way—listening to what the client wants rather than saying that all homeless people must go into a hostel).

Being accepting: working with the client as they are and not trying to change them into who we think they should be. Acceptance involves acknowledging the client’s strengths and weaknesses as well as their likeable and unlikeable qualities.

Allowing people to express their feelings, regardless of whether they are so-called positive or negative feelings. It seems that society says that some feelings such as love, happiness and contentment are good feelings, but feelings such as anger, disgust, betrayal and hate are bad. It is important that we help clients to share the whole range of emotions that they might be feeling so that they can move forward.

Facilitating client self-determination: recognising that the client has the right to make their own choices and decisions. As workers, we shouldn’t be telling clients what we think they should do but rather we should be helping clients to make their own decisions. After all, it is their life and they have to lead it!

Providing a confidential service: all clients have the right to have what they disclose kept private and confidential. In fact, workers have a duty of care to keep client information confidential except in certain circumstances. These include if a client discloses that they have committed a serious crime or if you are concerned they might harm themselves or someone else. There are also a whole range of child protection matters that can’t be kept confidential. (It is essential that all workers find out what the limitations to confidentiality are in their workplace before working with clients.) These limitations aside, it’s important to keep client confidentiality, since without it people will not feel safe enough to share what is troubling them.

Being client-focused: remembering that it is the client who we are working with and therefore not talking about ourselves and our problems and experiences. Be friendly and welcoming but remember that we are there to help the person we are working with and not there to get the person to help us.

These are just some of the professional values that community service workers should adhere to. I encourage you to look at the codes of ethics belonging to your professional associations or the organisations for which you work. What is essential is that we stick


to the professional values and not impose our personal ones on the people we are working with.

Individual values reflect broad social values, which are those accepted as important for the wellbeing of society as a whole. However, differences exist within these broad values. For example, it is accepted that is wrong to take the life of another human being and those who do should be punished. However, there are very different opinions about how they should be punished and this reflects a variety of views: revenge and punishment versus the belief that the taking of human life in any circumstance is wrong.

It is important to remember that we let others know what our values, beliefs etc are through how we interact and communicate with them—that is, how we communicate with others both verbally and non-verbally. If we say that we respect someone and are non-judgemental we have to make sure that we are congruent in how we send this message!

Communication in the community services industry

Well-developed interpersonal skills are an essential criterion for anyone working in the community services industry, and perhaps those working with people with disabilities above all. Unlike workers in other industries, we can’t rely on machines to do our jobs. To make sure that we understand the needs of the people, groups and communities we work with, we need to be able to listen effectively to people, make sure that we understand what they are saying and then (with them) begin to plan what is the best way to help. Sometimes this can require significant effort and planning with people with disabilities, and sometimes the communication must be primarily with their significant others.

Good interpersonal skills are the cornerstone of all our interactions with others and an effective community services worker comes into contact with lots of people in the course of their work. The different types of people that community services workers have to communicate with include:

clients

other workers (both within and outside their employing agency)

parents, carers, advocates and family members

managers or coordinators

management committee members

members of the community

specialists and other professionals.

When it comes to communicating with these people, it can be done:

face to face or over the phone


individually or within a group setting

at a meeting or conference

by writing (e-mails, letters, memos, reports etc).

As you can see from these lists, community service workers have to be able to communicate with a wide range of people in a number of different ways or forums - no wonder lots of workers like some peace and quiet when they get home! Having an understanding of how we communicate is a good way to start improving those interpersonal skills that we all need.

Identify and use appropriate communication strategiesAs we mentioned earlier, effective communication doesn’t just happen, but rather involves the worker deliberately using a range of communication skills and strategies to achieve a particular purpose. Such as establishing rapport, exchanging information, facilitating the resolution of certain issues or defusing potentially difficult situations.

Establishing rapport

When we establish rapport with someone we connect with them and show them that we are interested in them, who they are and what they have to say. In the community services industry the worker is the person in the helping relationship who has to take the lead in the rapport building process. We do this by being friendly and creating an environment that is safe and welcoming.


Establishing rapport with clients

The goal of establishing rapport is to open up an interview or helping relationship in a way that makes the client comfortable, that enables them to feel trusting of the relationship with you, and that assists them to state their concerns in a clear and safe way. Community service workers should be aware of some of the realities in establishing rapport with clients. These include acknowledging that:

it’s often hard to ask for help

it’s difficult to trust strangers


asking for help may mean making changes and it’s often hard to change

asking for help may be seen as a way of not coping and therefore the client may have lowered self-esteem and feel unwillingly dependent

it’s often difficult for the client to have clarity about the issue that is worrying them

culturally, it may be contrary to an client’s beliefs to ask for help

‘problems’ often seem very overwhelming and very personal, which make them even harder to share.

Establishing rapport will always be dependent on each individual concerned. Some people, for example, will want to embark immediately on discussing the issue that has brought them to see you, and wish to make decisions quickly, while others will want to know all about you and the organisation and want to examine every detail of their ‘concern’ methodically before even thinking about what they might do about it. Workers need to tune in to each individual’s needs and let the client take the lead in how much and how quickly they share.

If you find that the client does not initiate the discussion about what has brought them to see you, some useful opening questions might include:

‘How can I help you today?’

‘What’s brought you here today?’

‘What is it that you’d like to talk about?’

‘Is there something in particular I can help you with?’

‘I’m interested in hearing what’s on your mind.’

‘What did you wish to discuss with me?’

‘Can you tell me why you’ve come to our service today?’

‘Is there something in particular you’d like to share with me today?’

Take note that these opening questions are deliberately broad and don’t mention the word ‘problem’ or ‘issue’ or ‘concern’. This is to enable the client to interpret your question in whatever way they like and not to imply that there is something wrong—there may not be!

It is also important to realise that in some situations establishing rapport will be very quick, while in others it may take a long time for the client to want to share with you. Reluctant clients, such as those who’ve been ‘forced’ to see you (clients of juvenile justice workers or those ‘sent’ to you by the Drug Court, or an employee who thinks they may have done something wrong) will undoubtedly take longer to feel comfortable in your presence than those who’ve come along willingly. Finding out how willing the client is will obviously help you know how easy or difficult it will be to establish rapport and what you may need to do.


Exchanging information

We often need to exchange information with clients and other workers. The types of information we share (or exchange) include: information about:

your service

another service

rights and responsibilities

roles—who is going to do what, when and how

government policies and how they might impact upon a client

your organisation’s policies and procedures.

When exchanging information with a client or other worker it is important to do so as clearly and concisely as possible. Being prepared also makes the process much easier. Some strategies to consider when verbally exchanging information include:

being clear about what information you want to give and receive

researching information if you need to (for example, about a particular service)

collecting or preparing written material to supplement the verbal information

planning what you are going to say before you actually start exchanging the information

providing the information in a clear and congruent way ensuring that you follow the principles of effective communication

checking to make sure that the receiver of the information has understood what you are sharing with them

clarifying anything the client or worker is not sure about.


Facilitating the resolution of issues

Community service workers are often asked to help people to resolve issues that they are facing. In the topic Use specific communication techniques to maintain constructive interaction we will explore in detail the skills and strategies used to help clients resolve issues. Here we will provide an introductory over view of the process that worker soften use to resolve issues.


The word facilitate means to make something easier for someone so when we use it in the resolution of issues we just mean helping someone to fix whatever it is that they are concerned about. To do this the community service worker uses their communication skills and knowledge of people, groups and communities as well as their understanding of legislation, policies and organisations to help the client. The help that community service workers provides depends upon the role that they are employed to perform but can include:

providing information

providing practical support

helping people to make changes in their behaviour

providing emotional and social support

providing counselling

referring to other community service organisations

applying pressure to governments, government departments or others through advocacy and lobbying

setting up new services

acting as a case manager.

There are of course many other services provided by community service workers but these are just a few. The communication skills that workers use regardless of the role they are performing or the services they are providing are always the same.

Communication skills used to facilitate the resolution of issues

The skills used by community services workers, and many other helping professionals are:

engaging and building rapport

attending behaviour

minimal encouragers

giving information

setting boundaries

paraphrasing

reflection of feelings

asking questions

summarising

ending an interview.

You will find that you will use the skills every day and with every client, colleague, professional and family or community member that you work


with or come into contact with. To these basic skills you will, as you learn more and as you work longer in the industry, add different approaches and understandings of how the world works. No matter what theoretical perspective you end up working from, you will always use these skills.

We don’t use these skills in isolation and it is a good time to reinforce that it is how we use the skills that matter. Effective communication skills are used by all sorts of people and in many different ways. A con artist or conman will use the same skills as we do but for very different reasons—for their own gain. To be truly effective a community service worker has to incorporate the core industry values that we discussed earlier in this topic. That is, as community service workers we need to use both our communication skills and industry values to successfully help a client resolve their issues in a way that meets their needs.

Defusing potentially difficult situations

There are times when we as community services workers have to respond to and diffuse (calm down) conflict or other difficult moments. Examples of situations that we might have to respond to include:

someone presenting with challenging behaviours

someone becoming agitated or angry

people having a fight

someone having a psychotic episode

someone presenting under the influence of alcohol or other drugs

someone acting out, for example a teenager engaging in extreme behaviour to get attention.

Strategies for preventing and defusing conflict

When we are confronted with a potential or actual difficult situation we react physically as well as emotionally. Unless we are very aware of ourselves we can send signals to a violent or distressed client that may aggravate the situation. It is important that you send appropriate non-verbal signals that indicate that you are not hostile to their needs.

Here are some things you can do:

Keep an open posture—arms uncrossed.

Don’t invade the other person’s physical space.

Use a calm and quiet voice.

Avoid using threatening behaviour of any kind.

Avoid becoming emotionally engaged in the situation.

Try to avoid becoming frustrated or irritated.


Listen—make sure you take the time to hear what the client is trying to tell you, listen especially for underlying feelings.

Don’t interrupt—an aggressive or distressed person needs to tell their whole story.

Watch for signs of changes in behaviour that might indicate that they are becoming less stressed. For example, changes in facial colour and more regular breathing.

Resist arguing—it is very tempting to respond but this only leads to more conflicts.

Be yourself—do not hide behind your job title or status as this is unlikely to help diffuse the situation. Make sure the other person knows your name and that you know theirs.

Treat them with respect. Make sure that you treat their complaints or opinions seriously and do not disregard their distress.

Most organisations have policies and procedures in place to deal with violent or angry clients. These policies give instructions about what should be done and who should be contacted, for example the Police, in the event of an incident. If you work at an agency, you should obtain a copy of this policy and read it carefully. If your organisation does not have such a policy in place then you might suggest that they develop one.

Many organisations also provide regular training in how to deal with conflict situations. These give workers an opportunity to develop and practice their skills in a non-threatening environment.


Conduct interviews according to established proceduresOnce you start working as a community service worker you will find that you will conduct many interviews with a range of people, including clients, colleagues, carers and community members. Most organisations will have rules/guidelines known as policies and procedures which provide workers with information on how they should conduct interviews. Before we explore the procedures that relate to interviewing in might be helpful if we define some key terms and set the scene first.


What is interviewing?

Interviewing, in the context of the community services industry, is a helping skill that workers use on a daily basis. It is a method of gathering information, helping people make decisions and sorting through issues that may be creating problems in a person’s day-to-day life.

It involves creating a relationship between the worker (interviewer) and the interviewee, where the interviewer’s role is principally to assist the interviewee to explore anything that may be creating difficulties for them. The general object of interviews is to assist the interviewee to move on from the state of uncertainty or indecision in which they may find themselves.

When do we use interviewing skills in the community services industry?

Interviews are an integral part of work in the community services industry, since we are working and talking with people on a daily basis. Interviews can be conducted with clients, co-workers and colleagues in other agencies. They can be of various types, including:

assessment interviews to determine a client’s needs—this type of interview may involve the completion of a form.

referral interviews, where a client needs to be referred to a more appropriate agency or professional. referral is always made after obtaining the client’s permission.

supervisory interviews, where a worker discusses their professional development with a supervisor.

counselling interviews, where a client needs assistance with personal, financial, vocational, social or lifestyle issues.

debriefing interviews between a worker and their colleague after an incident at work.

clinical interviews between a worker and another professional, such as a specialist or therapist

progress interviews between a worker, such as a case manager, and their client to determine progress towards set goals.

conflict management interviews, where a worker may have to deal with grievances from clients or dissatisfaction on the part of other workers.

Differences between interviewing and counselling

While these different types of interview may have different objectives, they all require similar skills. Most of the interviews you conduct will require basic counselling skills. In both interviewing and counselling, the relationship between the helper and the client is vital, and the helper uses a


range of skills to support and assist the interviewee to explore concerns or matters they may wish to discuss. Often interviews turn into counselling sessions, and effective interviewers will nearly always use counselling skills.

However, while interviewing and counselling often overlap, there are differences between the two.

Interviewing and counselling

Interviewing Counselling

Deals principally with gathering information and is usually of a short-term nature.

Generally places more reliance on questioning and gathering data than counselling does.

Often a more intense process and deals with issues people may be ‘stuck’ on, the counsellor assisting the person to set goals and move through the issues they are stuck on so they can achieve those goals.

Sometimes the ‘power’ is in the hands of the person doing the interviewing (eg, where a worker may be assessing a client’s needs, and has the power to determine the services that will be provided to that client). The worker, however, should still attempt to empower the client wherever possible and should always be transparent regarding the process.

The client is empowered to solve issues in their own life.

Note: It is important that you recognise that the course you are studying will not qualify you to be a counsellor, but will supply you with the necessary counselling and interviewing skills to be an effective community services worker. If you find that you are particularly interested in counselling, there are many additional courses of training available to you through TAFE, private providers and universities. Your TAFE counsellor will be able to assist you in exploring these options more. Even those counsellors who have done extensive study in this area continually update their skills through extra training.

In the topic, Use specific communication techniques to maintain constructive interaction, we will explore the basic counselling (communication) skills that you will need to be an effective interviewer.

Established procedures

As we mentioned earlier, many organisations will have established policies and procedures that serve as a guide to workers when conducting interviews. These policies and procedures will reflect government legislation and policies, international conventions relating to the rights of individuals, service standards, duty of care issues and ethical practice.


It is important when working in our industry to always follow the organisations policies and procedures when conducting interviews. Failure to do so could have a negative impact upon a client and your ability to meet their needs, may endanger your life or cause you to lose your job.

The best ways to find out what the correct procedures are when interviewing are to:

ask your supervisor

look up the policies and procedures – they will either be on an intranet site, in common drive (a site on the computer network that everyone can access or in a manual depending on the size of the organisation

ask a colleague.

Often you will be told about these policies (and others) when you start at a job and often your employer will ask you to read all of the policies relating to your job and sign that you have done so. Some organisations will have a well developed orientation/induction program and will spend time with you talking through each policy and procedure that you are expected to follow.

Give feedback and advice in a way which reflects current identified good practiceGiving and receiving feedback is not always easy especially as most people become defensive when told what they could do differently. Giving and receiving advice could be even more fraught with danger!

Giving feedback

Usually we would only give feedback to a client or co-worker when we have permission to do so. For example, we might ask the person if it is OK if we can give them some feedback about their behaviour and the impact this could be having on others. At other times the permission is implied for example, if a client is behaving in an unacceptable way we might have to give them some feedback about the impact of their behaviour.

When you choose to give a client feedback about their behaviour it is often helpful to work through the issue in a collaborative way, rather than being openly confrontational. This type of feedback can produce good results, depending on the client and the circumstances. The feedback process works best if you:

have a genuine concern for the client.


give immediate feedback (it is not helpful to tell someone a week later that their behaviour was inappropriate).

use ‘I’ statements.

describe the behaviour, not the person—your role is not to label the person as bad or good, but to make it clear that their behaviour is undesirable.

be specific rather than vague about what the problem is.

provide clear directions about what sort of behaviour is expected.

Here is an example of giving feedback:

Tom, when you stand this close to me I feel uncomfortable and want to keep moving away from you. When you want to talk to me and other people can you please make sure that you stand about 60 cms away. (If I was actually talking to Tom I would physically show him what that looked liked in physical distance).

Keep in mind that this approach will probably only be effective with people who can make rational choices about their behaviour. People with a mental illness or psychosis may not respond as readily to this type of discussion. People with an intellectual disability may find it difficult to alter their behaviour unassisted. In these circumstances you would need to establish a support plan in which the person would be taught to behave in more socially acceptable ways.


Giving advice

Giving advice is something that we should try to avoid in our role as community services workers and we would never say to a client ‘what I would do is….’ Advice is something we give family and friends – people who can tell us that they don’t need our advice! In a helping relationship there is an unequal power balance with the worker having the power. Telling someone what to do with their lives is an abuse of this power.

What is preferable is to provide clients with information about a range of possible options they can take and then helping them to explore the risks and benefits of each option. The decision about which option to choose is the client’s to make. We call this client self-determination and it is a core value of our industry. At all times we should be fostering and promoting client self-determination with our clients. The aim of our industry is to empower clients and one of the ways that we empower is by helping people develop skills in finding out information and then developing a model of


informed decision making. The idea is that they don’t come back to us every time they have a problem but rather try and sort it out themselves.

Clients don’t always like the notion of client self-determination and would love you to make the decision about what they should do. The important thing is not to fall into this trap but help them to make the decision instead. I often say to clients when they ask me what I think they should do ‘I’m sorry I really can’t tell you what you should do as what I think isn’t what is important here. This is all about what you want to do and what is right for you. I am really happy to talk with you about all the things you could do and then help you to make the decision but I don’t have the right to make that decision for you.’

In a crisis situation, however, we are often more directive as the client might not have time or be in the right head space to explore options. When a crisis occurs immediate action is important. In that case you would give clear information about what can be done and ask them what they would like you to do. For example, if a woman turns up at your centre saying that her husband has just threatened to kill her and the children you would talk to her about how to keep her safe. This might include getting her and the children to a refuge so that she has somewhere to sleep, has some food to eat and is safe. Staff at the refuge would then work with her to help her make decisions about the rest of her life once she is safe and can have some time to think.

The rule of thumb therefore is don’t give advice but rather help clients to make their own decisions—that is, provide them with the information, support, time and encouragement they need to make their own decisions. If the person is in a crisis give them immediate support and suggestions about what they could do right now to deal with the crisis and then once the immediate crisis is over ensure that they make their own decisions about what to do next.

Demonstrate respect for individual, cultural and social differences, needs and rights in communicating with clients and colleagues

Respect and communication

No matter whether we are working with clients or co-workers it is important that we respect who they are and where they come from. The wonderful thing about working in our industry is that we are privileged to meet and work with some many different people from many different backgrounds.


No two people are ever the same and everyone has the right to have their individuality acknowledged, recognised and respected.

Whenever we are communicating with someone else we need to respect that they are different to us. Everyone is a unique individual with their own personal style, culture and social situation and they have their own needs when coming to see a community services worker.

When working with clients and colleagues we need to take the time to get to know them and to make sure that we don’t judge them but rather accept them for who they are. We should treat everyone equally and work to communicate effectively with them. We need to take into account their needs when communicating, for example, perhaps use an interpreter, choose our words carefully and change out style according to who they are—we wouldn’t talk to a teenager the same way that we would talk to an eighty year old. We would, however, give them both the same amount of respect and show equal interest in them both.

Diversity and interpersonal communication

We all learn how (and how not) to communicate, from our families. Families can be very good at making sure that we learn the rules of appropriate communication in our society. As we grow from childhood to adulthood, we notice that different families and groups of people seem to have learnt different rules about communicating. One of the reasons why some families have different rules is because they come from different cultures or sub-cultures. Each culture has its own general beliefs and attitudes about communication and so people who belong to these cultures tend to communicate in ways that uphold these beliefs and attitudes.

What is culture?

There are many different definitions for culture and you might like to look at your dictionary to see how it is defined there. Basically, however, culture is defined as those sets of values, beliefs, attitudes, behaviour patterns, traditions, customs and rules that certain groups of people live by. Culture is learned and has evolved over many generations. Our culture reflects how we do things—our way of life. Cultural beliefs and attitudes change over time as people from different cultures mix, marry and form new families of their own.

Australia is considered to be multicultural, as a great many people from different cultures live here. This can sometimes make communicating tricky, as people from different cultures tend to have different expectations and rules about how people should communicate at an inter-personal level.

To complicate matters further, within each culture we can also have subcultures. A subculture can be defined as a group of people who, while


belonging to a larger cultural group, have some values, beliefs, attitudes and so on that are unique to their group. Teenagers, for example, could be seen as belonging to their own subculture— they have their own jargon, ways of behaving, traditions and customs that people who are younger or older may not understand or wish to belong to. Other subcultures can centre around work (e.g. the police force), socio-economic status (e.g. working class, middle class) and disability (e.g. people with a disability).


Rules about communication often centre around:

Eye contact: In some cultures, eye contact is seen as a way of showing that you are listening and are honest and trustworthy. Other cultures view eye contact is seen as a sign of disrespect.

Who talks to whom and when: ‘Children should be seen and not heard’ was a commonly heard phrase when I was growing up. Each culture has powerful rules about who should talk to whom and when. For example, women in some cultures are not permitted to talk with men outside of their family group, or younger people are not encouraged to talk when an older and ‘wiser’ person is talking.

What words are used when talking: Swearing in front of women, children or adults is considered to be inappropriate in many cultures. Using complicated words or jargon around people who don’t understand it is also often considered to be rude.

How feelings are communicated: How feelings are communicated and who you talk to about feelings can be very culturally determined. Some cultures will send the message that feelings should not be shared or discussed outside of the family group or that they should not be shared at all but kept private and hidden. Other cultures encourage people to ‘let it all out’ when it comes to feelings and so people from these cultures tend to be more vocal and expressive about how they are feeling. The labour ward of a hospital can be a great place to see the different messages received about expressing emotion put into practice! Those brought up in an Anglo culture tend to be quieter about their pain or apologise for expressing their feelings, while someone brought up in a Mediterranean culture might to express their feelings about the pain much more verbally.

There is no right or wrong when it comes to which culture someone belongs to or what rules they have learnt along the way. Sometimes we might think that someone is communicating in an inappropriate way because it is different from our way of communicating, and, because we have been taught our way only, we think that it is the right way.

When working with people from a culture different from our own, it is essential that we stop thinking about right and wrong and take time to learn


and understand their culture and the rules they have learnt about interpersonal communication. We need to do this so that we don’t discriminate against clients.

Cultural differences

Sitting on a couch in a waiting room a young man with legs spread out and finger touching the leg of a veiled woman

Discrimination

Discrimination means treating someone unfairly or differently because they come from a particular culture or subgroup of society. People who have been traditionally discriminated against include Aboriginal Australians, women, people from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds (migrants), people with a disability, people who are gay or lesbian and young people.

We usually discriminate against people when we hold negative stereotypes and have prejudices. Stereotyping occurs when we pigeonhole someone according to certain characteristics and then seeing in them what we want to see rather that what is really there (eg seeing someone who is homeless and believing that the bag they have with them is full of bottles of sherry). When we have stereotypes (either positive or negative) we tend to look for evidence to support our picture and ignore all the other characteristics of the person.

Prejudice follows from stereotyping in that we can be intolerant of or even not like people belonging to certain groups because of our preconceived notions about them.

We all stereotype and have prejudices and at times are not even aware that we hold them. To be effective community services workers, it is essential that we start thinking about the stereotypes and prejudices that we have.


Once we are aware of them we can work at understanding why we hold these particular beliefs about certain groups and start addressing them.


As workers in the community services industry, we have a duty to empower our clients and should be doing everything possible to communicate in such a way to help them feel safe, accepted for who they are, and not judged and discriminated against. Having an understanding of the cultural norms of the people we are working with helps us to understand and empower our clients- and provide a high quality service (which is their right).

Resources that can be used when finding out about different cultures

There are a number of places where workers can find out about different cultures and rules that apply to interpersonal communication. What resources are available, is, of course, often determined by the area in which you live or work.

Some good places to start include:

your local neighbourhood centre; these services often employ workers who speak the language and/or belong to the dominant cultures of their particular area

the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA) on 13 18 81; they also have an internet site: www.immi.gov.au

the translation and interpreting service that supplies a service to your area or place of work (look in the phone book to find out which service you might be able to access)

your local TAFE college, especially one that runs ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages) classes

a cultural centre or community welfare centre that works with people from particular cultures (eg the Greek Welfare Centre, Co As It (for people from Italian backgrounds) and the Deaf Society of NSW).


http://www.immi.gov.au/

If communication breakdown occurs, respond appropriately and refer to other staff or specialist services if required to ensure duty of care responsibilities are met All of us, no matter how skilled we are when it comes to interpersonal communication, have times when we make mistakes, don’t know what to do or feel overwhelmed when interacting with someone. What is important, however, is that we know what to do when we find ourselves in these sticky situations.

Dealing with those difficult situations should be done in four steps:

1. Acknowledge to yourself that you are not sure what to do. Depending on the situation, you might tell your client that you are not sure what to do or you might stall for time by telling them that you will need to get back to them. Obviously, you have to do this sensitively and in a way that doesn’t put them down or cause them to feel judged or useless.

2. Seek out someone you trust, such as a supervisor or colleague who has a good understanding of you and the setting in which you work. Talk to them about the situation you have found yourself in and explore with them why you might be having problems. This process will take time and you will find that you will need to use all your interpersonal communication skills to get the story right. Once you have worked out where and why the problem has occurred, discuss with this person what you should do and how. Spend time clarifying with your supervisor or colleague exactly how you should approach your client and what you should do.

3. Go back to the client and implement the plan that you and your supervisor or colleague discussed.

4. Reflect and evaluate how effective the process was and look for ways to prevent it happening in the future.

Sometimes you might find that you continue to be unable to deal with certain situations. This could be because you lack training and information or it could relate to your personal beliefs and values. If this is the case, it is important (and professional) to seek opportunities for training in specialist areas. You might also need to work with your supervisor on how to keep your personal values separate from your professional role—important but not always easy!


Duty of care

We all have a responsibility to make sure that no-one is harmed as a result of our actions or inactions. The responsibility applies to both our personal and professional lives.

An example of duty of care in our personal lives is when we are driving. We all have a responsibility to obey the road rules and drive safely so that no one is hurt as a result of our driving. Professionally we have to make sure that clients aren’t harmed because of something we do or don’t do. For example, if we believe that a child is at risk of being abused by their parent we have to make sure that we do something to stop the abuse happening. In NSW that means we have to contact the Department of Community Services (DoCS) and tell (notify) them of our concerns. This notification is required by legislation. They will then take responsibility for stopping the abuse. They have the legal right and responsibility to do so while we don’t. If we knew about the abuse and did nothing and the child continued to be hurt we would have breached our duty of care.

As community services workers we therefore have a duty of care to every client with whom we work. If we are unable to work with a particular client and they are at risk of being harmed if they don’t receive a service we need to refer them to another worker or another service. When referring the client to another worker it is preferable to discuss the referral with them and see who they would like to see. You don’t want to send them to a worker who they have also had problems with!

Respond to enquiries in a manner that promotes achievement of mutual outcomesThere are many roles that community services workers perform and sometimes we have to respond to enquires from a range of people. Clients and community members will often drop into a community service organisation to ask questions or to get information. How we respond to people will affect how they view our organisation and how they feel about accepting a service. Clearly we want people to feel positive about us and our organisation and also to feel good about themselves.


If the person making an enquiry is treated with respect, feels heard and understood and has their enquiry answered promptly and politely they will be more likely to have a positive view of your organisation and the services


you provide. Hopefully they will then pass this information onto their friends and thus your organisation’s reputation will grow and more people will use the services you provide, which is of course why were are there in the first place. This then creates a win/win situation—your clients are happy and you keep your job!

Having an understanding of communication and how to be an effective communicator certainly makes responding to enquires easier. The skills you use here are just the same as you would use in any other situation in our industry. The most important thing is to reflect on how you respond to people making an enquiry and think about what changes you made need to make to how you approach the task.

Respect and consider differences in views in a way that values and encourages the contributions of othersAs we have mentioned earlier an effective communicator is a person who is aware of their own attitudes and beliefs and, in our industry, doesn’t impose those beliefs etc onto others. Our job is to respect the way others live their lives so that they feel valued and thus confident to contribute to the helping relationship in a way that improves their quality of life.

Values, attitudes and beliefs

The first thing you need to be aware of before assisting a client to identify their own needs and rights is to ensure you are not influencing the client. Our beliefs, attitudes and values can affect a lot of what we say and do. It is important to identify any of your own beliefs, attitudes and values that may influence any decisions you make in supporting your client.

Beliefs, attitudes and values are formed from a range of life experiences and backgrounds. We can be strongly influenced by certain people in our lives. Most people we have contact with will have different beliefs, attitudes and values. This does not mean any one person is correct. A belief, attitude or value is just a person’s opinion or perspective, it is not a fact.

What is a value?

A ‘value’ is commonly formed by a particular belief that is related to the worth of an idea or type of behaviour. Some people may see great value in saving the world’s rainforests. However, a person who relies on the logging of a forest for their job may not place the same value on the forest as someone who is not so reliant.


Values can influence many of the judgments we make as well as have an impact on the support we give clients. It is important that we do not influence client’s decisions based on our values. We should always work from the basis of supporting the client’s values.

What is an attitude?

The word ‘attitude’ can refer to a lasting group of feelings, beliefs and behaviour tendencies directed towards specific people, groups, ideas or objects. Attitudes will always have a positive and negative element and when you hold an attitude you will have a tendency to behave in a certain way toward that person or object.

What is a belief?

Beliefs come from real experiences but often we forget that the original experience is not the same as what is happening in life now. Our values and beliefs affect the quality of our work and all our relationships because what you believe is what you experience. We tend to think that our beliefs are based on reality; however, it is our beliefs that govern our experiences.

A belief is something we know to be true and the beliefs that we hold are an important part of our identity. They may be religious, cultural or moral. Beliefs are precious because they reflect who we are and how we live our lives.

Respecting the beliefs, attitudes and values of others

Everyone is entitled to their own values, attitudes and beliefs. It is important to accept and respect that other people may well have different attitudes, values and beliefs than you. We do not have the right to expect that others change their values, attitudes and beliefs just because they are different to ours.

It is quite possible that you may face situations at work that either challenge or compromise your own values, attitudes or beliefs when working to support people with a disability.

It is not always easy to avoid communicating your beliefs and values to clients, but it is something you need to be very aware of. It can be very easy to influence clients in subtle ways. Simple things like body language, gestures, the way you say something, or even actions, can give a client the impression you agree or disagree with their values or beliefs.

A disability support worker, Sally, was assisting Harry, a client, to decide what movie he was going to see on the weekend. Harry loved horror films. Sally hated them. During the conversation Sally shook her head every time Harry pointed to a horror film in the paper. In the end Harry decided to go and see a comedy. Even though Sally did not directly say


that she disapproved of Harry’s movie choice, when she shook her head she indicated that she did not approve of Harry’s choice.

The support you give to clients should be, as much as possible, in line with their values, attitudes and beliefs, while also in line with your community services organisation and the law.

Ethics

You need to be aware of ethics when supporting a client to identify and uphold their rights. Ethics can be described as a system of morals that often come from our values and beliefs, in which actions can be judged as good or bad. As a community service worker you need to check if your actions or the actions of the client would be seen as unethical, or not seen by the average person as fair or normal conduct.

Often community service organisations have guidelines to ensure they and their staff behave in an ethical way. These guidelines can be found in a Code of Conduct document or within policies and procedures. If our organisation doesn’t have such guidelines a worker would be expected to comply with the code of ethics of the Australian Institute of Welfare and Community Workers. This code of ethics can be found at www.aiwcw.org.au

Difference

We are all different and choose to live our lives in different ways. What I consider normal you might think strange and visa versa. Once we are aware of how our values, beliefs and attitudes influence how we view the world and others we are much less likely to judge others as being strange or abnormal. Many people tend to see difference as a bad thing and often you will hear them saying ‘that person is strange or weird’ in a negative way. The challenge for community services workers is to be able to say ‘that person does things differently from what I am familiar with, but that is okay’. Once we can start to say and think that way we are much more likely to respect and accept differences rather than judging them.

Learning to see difference as a good thing and not expecting others to have the same values, beliefs, traditions, customs and general ways of doing things is not as easy as it sounds. If it was easy we wouldn’t have so many wars! It takes practice and awareness that by accepting others you aren’t giving up what you believe but rather respecting others to live their lives in a way that suits them while you do what is right for you.



http://www.aiwcw.org.au/

Ensure communication represents the organisation effectively where appropriateFinally (yes we are almost at the end of this topic!) we need to remember that every time we communicate with a client, community member, family member, professional or worker we are representing our organisation. Everything we do as a worker reflects not just on ourselves but also on the organisation and every other community service worker. This means that we have to behave and communicate in a way that is seen as acceptable by our organisation and profession.


We are representing our organisation every time we are in public. This means that even when we are not at work we have to be aware that how we behave can impact upon our work and the organisation we work for. Obviously what we do in the privacy of our homes (as long as it is legal) is our own business but once we are out in public there is an expectation that we uphold industry values.

If, for example, we are at the pub and are concerned that the publican is not adhering to responsible service of alcohol principles we can’t go up to him or her and say that ‘I am a drug and alcohol worker at such and such agency and think that you shouldn’t be serving those people’. This is not our job and I don’t think that your employer would appreciate you saying that!

The same goes if we are asked our opinion about something by the media. We can’t give our opinion as a worker from that agency unless it is our job to do so. You can give your personal opinion but need to be very clear that it your personal opinion and that you aren’t representing the agency. The vast majority of community service organisations have policies and procedures about who can talk to whom and when. This is to ensure that organisations are represented in the way that is acceptable to management.

SummaryThis has been a large topic in which we have explored many of the factors that influence how we communicate effectively with clients and staff. We started by providing an overview of communication, communication models and the different types of communication. We then focused on effective communication and the helping relationship and all that being an effective helper involves. After this overview we then discussed different the different strategies that we can use to establish rapport with clients, the fact


that any interview we conduct has to be done so in accordance with organisational policies and how to give appropriate feedback. The importance of respecting differences and valuing others was a theme that ran through the entire topic as was the fact that we always need to remember to be professional and represent the organisation in an acceptable way.

In following topics we will focus much more on the communication skills we need to do our jobs properly. In a way this topic looked much more at what has to happen when we are communicating with clients and staff while other topics will look at how to do this.


Documents

CLIPS Word Template - SIelearning€¦ · Web viewYou will find that you will use the skills every day and with every client, colleague, professional and family or community member