ABSTRACT
The idea of ‘the client’, however, remains fraught with ambiguities, and Pincus and Minahan performed an important service by pointing out that a distinction has to be drawn between the client system and the target system. Smale and Tuson's exchange model of community care assessment means that the professional and the service users share information: the professional explains all the service options and the department's procedures; the service users explain the situation and their perceptions of the problems and suggest possible solutions. The best summary of contracts is provided by Reid and Epstein; The major function of the contract is to the ensure that the practitioner and client have a shared understanding of the purposes and content of treatment. The client is the object of the social worker's attentions, the social worker the subject of the client's hopes or fears.
