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The strengths perspective: proving "My Strengths" and "It Works".

Article Excerpt
I was in Tampa, Florida, recently conducting a day-long follow-up training session for care coordinators who a year prior had undergone basic training in strengths-based case management (SBCM). Since the initial training, they had been using a brief model of SBCM to assist newly diagnosed people who were HIV-positive obtain initial medical care. When I asked the group members about their experiences using the strengths-based approach over the past year, one woman spoke up softly, but pointedly saying, "It works!" The comment prompted widespread agreement and a discussion of how using the strengths perspective assisted people with HIV, and not trivially by any means, helped the care coordinators as well.

The Tampa discussion about the strengths perspective mirrored MacFarlane's description of personal and professional experiences with the perspective in "My Strength: A Look Outside the Box at the Strengths Perspective" (MacFarlane, 2006). She offered a powerful firsthand view of how her clients responded to the emphasis she placed on helping them identify their strengths and take charge of their own plans--both core principles of strengths-based practice. Experiences like those of MacFarlane and the care coordinators I trained in Florida are typical of social workers who practice from the strengths perspective.

Although practitioners...