Methods in social work

A great deal of social work is based on silent knowledge, i.e. knowledge that individual social workers build up mainly through experience. It is therefore difficult to define a social worker's 'methods'. This report gives a theory-based estimate of what social work methods are: They are planned, they have a clearly defined purpose, they are systematic and they can be described in words.
Based on this concept of methods, and an analysis of four different types of social work, the authors conclude that a great deal of social work is not methodical. MST therapists are the only group of the practitioners interviewed to work strictly methodically. The strategies applied in the occupational therapy department, local outreach psychiatric work and leisure activities for the mentally retarded are more individual and based on personal experience.
The study was based on 58 qualitative interviews with practitioners and users from four different types of social work.