SUPERVISION AND PRACTICE

Background

Tracy is a new case manager completing the probationary period at Care Alliance, a social service agency that provides food and housing assistance to indigent clients.

Tracy has a degree in biology and limited experience in social services.

Tracy is excited for the new job but has no practical experience working with diverse populations, nor experience working with clients to solve problems like accessing affordable housing, meeting daily needs like food and shelter, and navigating cultural and value differences.`

Concern

Shayla, the program supervisor, has never supervised case managers who have no practice experience or social work knowledge. All the staff she has supervised up to this point are BSW or MSW professionals. As such, Shayla is nervous about setting behavioral and learning expectations for Tracy, and she is concerned as to how she will guide and develop Tracy's knowledge and skills. Additionally, Shayla must ensure the well-being of clients who work with Tracy and mitigate potential risks that could ensue from Tracy's lack of social work practice experience.

Shayla schedules a meeting with Tracy to discuss program expectations of case managers and to give a general idea of what Tracy can expect in working with clients, with members of the case management team, and with the community. Issues regarding client confidentiality, home visits, documentation, and assessment of client needs will be addressed during this meeting. While Shayla has been confident in the past in working with and training new supervisors, she is not as confident when determining how best to help the new case manager learn the practice skills needed. Shayla feels the learning needs of Tracy are significantly greater than the needs of other new case managers and isn't certain Tracy will be successful in the role.

Using this case scenario, respond to the following prompts:

• Identify the issues of concern in this scenario.
  • Explain how these issues might impact service delivery.
• Explain the skills that would be useful for the supervisor to apply to address concerns in the scenario.
• Identify and discuss a supervisory model that would be particularly helpful when working with new employees who have no or limited experience in the job role for which they were hired.
  • How might the supervisor in this scenario apply the model to support the needs of the new employee while also addressing the concerns of the supervisor?
  • Cite at least one source to support the model you describe.
• Explain what your recommendations would be to the supervisor to address the issues of concern.
  • Cite at least one source to support your recommendations.