1. A human service worker in the emergency room is talking to a man who was hit on the head before he was robbed. He seems to be having trouble getting the story out, but he wants to tell the worker everything that happened. The worker has been with the man a long time. She thinks that it is late and that the man ought to get to bed and rest now. The worker cuts off the discussion with, "Aren't you tired, Mr. Jones?" What open question would you have asked Mr. Jones to help him wrap up his story?
2. The human service worker is trying to learn what happened that resulted in Mrs. Peters being without housing. Mrs. Peters says she has been "on the street a while now." The worker asks, "Have you been on the street for 2 years, 3 years?" What open question would you have asked to learn more about what happened to Mrs. Peters to make her homeless?
3. The human service worker is on the phone with a woman, the victim of child abuse. The woman tells how she has felt recently, how she needed to call, and then sighs and says, "Oh, I don't know how to begin." The worker asks, "Did your father do this to you?" What open question would you have asked that would have helped the woman start telling the story in her own way?
4. A child is talking to a youth worker while he waits for his mother to get a place to stay. "We've lived in 16 places," he announces, "and I'm only 7." The worker says, "What school did you go to last?" What open question would you have asked to help the child talk about what all this moving has been like for him?
5. A man calls a hotline and tells the mental health worker he wants to die. The volunteer asks, "Does this have to do with being abused as a child?" The man is startled and says, "Why, uh, no. Not really." The worker asks, "Well, what's the problem?" What open question would you have asked to help the man talk about what was troubling him?