ABSTRACT
The other major point is that social workers’ clients again experienced a greater number of skills than CPN clients. Furthermore the gap, in terms
of ratios, is wider with expert skills (2.3:1) than relationship qualities (1.5:1), leaving an overall ratio of 1.7:1. The pattern of skills is rather different for CPNs and social workers. Listening, care and commitment and advice stand out for CPNs, similar to the overall picture for brief intervention. However, while listening, empathy and understanding and care and commitment stand out as social worker relationship qualities, information, analytic processes and release of feelings as well as advice are noticeable as expert skills. There is, then, a wider range of expert skills found helpful by extended social work clients than clients receiving brief intervention. Of course, these comments are made in the light of frequently different purposes of brief compared with extended intervention, the former involved frequently with assessment, referral and short term support, the latter with longer term psychosocial help.
