STRENGTHS-BASED GENERAL PRACTICE: EXAMPLES FROM THE IMANI HOUSE REHABILITATION FACILITY
According to Saleebey (2004), the Strengths-Based General Practice consists of a set of guiding principles based on the fundamental premise that individuals will do better in the long run when they are helped to identify, recognize, and use the strengths and resources available in themselves and their environment. The foremost principles on which the model rests are:
(1) Provide clients support for asserting direct control over their search for resources, such as housing and employment, and
(2) Examining clients' own strengths and assets as the vehicle for resource acquisition.
The Strengths Model's core functions involve operationalizing this generalist approach into specific actions that generalist practice may take. These include interventions, processes for defining issues, engaging with systems, collecting and assessing data, identifying a focus for work, contracting within a planned change process, evaluating any interventions (e.g., counseling) and termination and follow-up.
The purpose of this paper is to delineate and discuss the core functions of the Strengths-Based Approach. To best illustrate the functions, the paper provides examples of each that I personally engaged in during my practicum at the Imani House Rehabilitation facility located in Kansas City, Missouri.
The Imani House is a facility of the Kansas City, Missouri's Swope Parkway Health Center (see: Gatson, 2005) specializing in treatment for substance abuse. Imani House offers residential programs (short-term for 30 days or long term for more than 30 days), intensive outpatient programs, group and individual counseling. It is geared toward homeless African-Americans and/or HIV and HIV/AIDS positive individuals; however, it also serves Hispanic and Vietnamese patients and offers special language services to these groups.
During my practicum at the...