Helping Students Examine Organizational Issues Through a Clinical Lens

This paper which developed out of a seminar for graduating MSW students presents a conceptual framework for practice which can be utilized by the clinician in adapting and expanding the knowledge and skills of assessment and intervention to work within the service delivery system. Concepts such as: relationship, exploration, problem identification, assessment, goal setting and intervention are discussed and applied to the organizational context through case illustrations. Emphasis is placed on helping the students consolidate and extent their professional role in relation to agencies and institutions and to balance their identification as clinician with other crucial identifications indluding: identification with the agency, a broad social welfare perspective, the profession's social purpose, social values and professional autonomy.