Social Interaction Among Clients As a Treatment Problem

A distinction can be drawn in soc work practice between situations in which clients have no sustained contact with each other & those where there is frequent interaction between them, as in a residential treatment (Tr) situation. Some of the consequences for Tr which result from such interaction between the clients are examined, esp problems involved in treating juvenile delinquents in a residential Tr situation. In such situations the inmate culture & an informal soc system compete with the official system for the allegiance of the inmates. The Tr methods in the correctional field have drawn on methods developed in psychiatric clinics & mental hosp's & are therefore highly individualized as depending on the relationship between client & therapists. Since such a relationship is seen as the central Tr tool, it requires a setting which protects this interaction & which will result in bringing about adherence to conventional values. The essential characteristics of any Tr situation which attempts to bring about change in values are seen as (1) the client must be free to declare publicly his belief that he will benefit from the change in values, (2) he must be granted freedom by his peers to do or say whatever is necessary to achieve the changes in values, & (3) he must have the sanction & support of his peers in legitimizing the role of the worker & in granting him the authority necessary to maintain Tr interaction. The closed soc systems of correctional institutions exert individual control over a person's responses to soc interactions. Inmates develop an informal system of relationships & values which provides opportunity to achieve compensatory status & privileged roles. Tr methods must take account of the degree to which they are compatible with the nature of SR's in the inmate system. The system, however, defines & imposes an ideal behavioral model which projects for its members a pattern of soc insulation which is in conflict with the model implicit in clinical Tr. Other barriers to Tr are seen in the objectives of the inmate system, which attempt to block the effective operation of official control mechanisms & to force accommodations from the offical system. The inmate system tries to control the amount & nature of communication between inmates & staff. Relationships with staff members which are not approved by the system become suspect, esp when the inmate becomes genuinely involved in Tr. The conflicting pressures from the official & inmate systems