Discussion
Review the information in Chapter 2 in your course text, The Helping Process: Assessment to Termination. Focus on the section titled “Structured and Unstructured Interviews.”
Review the information in Chapter 4 in your course text, The Helping Process: Assessment to Termination. Focus on the section titled “Closed and Open Inquiries.”
Read the information in Chapter 6 in your course text, The Helping Process: Assessment to Termination. Focus on the section titled “Gathering Additional Information,” particularly the subsection titled “Interviewing.”
Read the article, “The Unstructured Clinical Interview.”
Reflect on the challenges of completing a successful unstructured interview. How would you determine what questions to ask? How would you control the topics covered?
Consider the following scenario:
You are a human services professional who works for an organization that offers parenting classes. A woman has been referred to the program because she has lost custody of her baby and must take the classes in order to regain custody. You are asked to interview her to determine her eligibility for the program and the type of parenting classes that would be the most helpful. She starts out answering your questions, but soon veers into a tirade against the food at the hospital where she gave birth and how badly the nurses treated her.
With these thoughts in mind:
By Day 4
Post by Day 4 a description of two strategies you might use to elicit the information you need from the woman in the scenario while still maintaining focus. Justify the strategies you selected using the Learning Resources.