Engagement Strategy Essay

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Engagement Strategy
It is crucial to recognize how important it is for a social worker to apply the proper engagement strategy. Every person is different, so not every engagement strategy works for everyone. In order to engage effectively, a social worker would have to consider the client’s strengths, challenges, and countertransference from the social worker toward the client. The case that will be examined is an 87-year-old Iranian Muslim male who is being treated for end -stage liver cancer and does not speak English. It would be important to engage with the client and his family in a compassionate and effective manner as well as with the respect for their culture, religion, and spiritual beliefs.
Major Obstacles in Engaging a Muslim Client …show more content…

Sympathetic responding means achieving emotional and rational harmony by supporting the client’s feelings (Hepworth et al., 2013). Although, while trying to engage with a Muslim client, a social worker needs to be aware that the difference in beliefs can affect the engagement process and needs to be prepare for it. According to Draguns, a culture shock happens when the professional providing the services is immersed in a foreign culture in which familiar interventions are no useful anymore and the professional must create new ways of relating to the client (as cited in Diller, 2007). Although, if the social worker is not familiar with a Muslim client’s beliefs, could be an opportunity for the client to educate the social worker and build rapport. Diller (2007) stated that the client might take on the position of cultural expert, teaching the practitioner, who is ignorant of the client 's culture. The author goes on saying that this strategy could help clients become more comfortable in this new role and empowered by learning new behaviors in relation to it. Muslims clients have very specific ways of dealing with illness. Abdullah (2015) stated that in Islam, personal development is view as the transformation of the self-based on compliance with God and in adverse circumstances can delay personal change, requiring a return to this state for personal growth to happen. In order to be able to engage a Muslim client, it would be important to be empathic and respectful of his or her

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