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The borough social survey of 1967 revealed
a pattern of considerable mobility change and
crisis amongst our population Such changes
and crises puts those with poor social
functioning resources at considerable risk
Critical times of outer change ( i e changes
in status such as starting school starting
work a new job marriage parenthood
promotion in work retirement moving house
and accidents of all kinds) also of inner
developmental change (i e adolescence mating
pregnancy change of life old age the effects
of illness) put such people at serious risk,
when they will need to make heavy demands
on various sectors of the helping services
Prevention needs to be planned to meet just
such crises
Increasingly in the last two years experiments
have been tried to see how far social
functioning concepts could be shared with
clients on a self-help basis It is found that
people of average and below average
intelligence can grasp the basic concepts
and the new and more helpful way these offer
in looking at human problems People who
have felt overwhelmed by their difficulties
now see that they can do something to
increase their own satisfactions The experiment
has been tried in the last year with
approved school boys and quite recently
in the borough s youth service with the
Hell s Angels' group who all completed
scales and found the questions meaningful
Ways of channelling destructive impulses
caused by more frustration than the
individual could handle are being discussed
and now suggest to workers new ways of
dealing with such problems
In marital cases which are notoriously
difficult to handle workers report that the
scale in addition to getting faster to the
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heart of the problem clarifies the problem(s)
in such a way that both partners and the
social worker can examine the difficult
situation in a cool and objective way thus
opening up communication where it has
broken down A further use of the scale is
now being tried by one local vicar in
preparing engaged couples for marriage and
he has little doubt that a number of serious
difficulties have been identified and dealt
with before they could disrupt relationships
All social workers who have learned to
use the scale report that it gives them a
quick and clear picture of their clients
problems that where 9-11 hours interviewing
time would have been needed to get an
accurate profile the scale now gives this
in under one hour (This finding is confirmed
from USA) The scale has also been found
to provide a common language between social
workers trained in its use and one sheet of
paper can now convey a complete client
profile (Such profiles have been exchanged
experimentally between Canada USA and
Hounslow in teaching interpretation and
Prof Griswold of Washington University has
set up a validation project in the Family
Court Sector of Seattle) Further it has been
pointed out that in departmental situations
of considerable staff turnover common in
social work departments working with the
scale facilitates smoother transfer of clients
from worker to worker since therapy is
geared to the scale findings and is therefore
less dependent on the individual worker
Perhaps one of the most significant uses
of the scale has been found to lie in the field
of teaching and development of social work
skills Here the clarity of the diagnostic
system leaves no room for vagueness and
offers a magnificent tool in training the worker
where to focus his help
During the past year weekly experimental
seminars in the use of the scale have been
available to social workers from the various
borough departments and all those who took
part found their understanding of social work
principles and practice broadened and clarified
On the practical level of learning and applying
new methods one of the difficulties that
became immediately apparent was that most