Ending intervention

Learning Objectives

After considering this resource, you should understand a model for ending intervention and recognise how it can be used to enhance personal growth for both the service user and social worker.

Exit sign

Social work is not an indefinite process and at some point, it is likely you will have to end an intervention. In itself, this can be a significant event for both the service user and you, as a social worker, but as Orme and Coulshed (2006, p.287) suggest, if the ending is anticipated and handled effectively, it can offer '...growth promoting opportunities.'

This quick guide offers you one model for creating a successful ending to intervention.

Download: Quick guide

Reflective Questions

  1. Consider a time when you had to end a significant relationship - resigning from a job or moving schools for example. How did it make you feel?
  2. What reasons might there be for ending intervention? How might these different reasons affect what you do as a social work student on placement differently?
  3. How can ending intervention empower a service user?
  4. In what ways do your professional boundaries as a social work student influence the ending of an intervention?

Reference:
J Orme and V Coulshed (2006) Social Work Practice, 4e. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Quick guides