What Is a Social Worker Visitation?

(Source: https://work.chron.com/social-worker-visitation-21997.html)

Social workers who work in specific settings, such as child welfare agencies, are often called upon to perform home visits with their clients. A social worker visitation is a visit performed in a home or, occasionally, another suitable location for the purposes of supervising a meeting between two parties.

This can be a daunting task that requires appropriate professional boundaries and clinical skills needed to manage visitations. Understanding the importance of home visits in social work will help you better understand the work.

Function of the Job

There are varying levels of visitation, ranging from structured family visits to relaxed or intermittent supervision, in which a social worker is only present for part of a visitation. In most cases, social worker visitations are performed to provide supervision to families who have been separated due to abuse, neglect, abandonment or drug and alcohol abuse.

Social workers who work in child welfare settings are probably the most common providers of visitation services. Visitations most often occur when children are removed from their natural families and placed in alternative care settings, but they may also occur when children remain in their homes. Depending on the circumstances, children may be allowed to have supervised visits with their families, including parents and siblings.

Goals for Visits

A social worker usually tries to promote reunification of the family, if possible. This is not always feasible, and sometimes children are permanently removed from their families and placed in foster care. A social worker evaluates the circumstances and behaviors of involved parties during each visitation to determine the appropriate course of action, explains MyCaseHelper.com.

During a visitation, the social worker teaches specific parenting skills to parents and assists them with interacting with their child. She also helps children deal with fears of abandonment and the difficulties inherent to being separated from their parents.

Responsibilities of Social Workers

A social worker who performs visitations usually has several important responsibilities to her clients. It’s crucial for children to maintain strong attachments to their parents when they are removed from their homes.

A social worker’s main responsibility is to maintain the attachment of a child to his parents. She accomplishes this by arranging frequent, supervised contact, which may vary based on the age of the child.

A social worker may also prepare placement plans, develop written visitation plans that include frequency and timing of visits, notify parents if visitations need to be cancelled or rescheduled and perform administrative tasks, like filling out forms and other paperwork.

Other Factors to Consider

Visitations may take a social worker out of her comfort zone, especially in the beginning phases. Do social workers do home visits alone? Yes, and this can be dangerous. During the first visit, a social worker is entering unfamiliar territory and must take certain precautions to ensure her safety and the safety of her clients, explains Social Workers Toolbox.com.

She needs to assess safety conditions in the home and ensure that certain boundaries are respected. For example, a social worker must establish rules for parties involved in the visitation, such as using appropriate language and maintaining physical boundaries.

Social workers must also be aware of exits to the home and make sure that her supervisor knows the exact details of the visitation. She should know when to remove herself from volatile situations and when to bring law enforcement along on her visits.

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