Bridging Disciplinary Boundaries (January 11 - 14, 2007)

Purpose: The five-year plan for reducing homelessness developed by New York City's Department of Homeless Services (DHS, 2003) has created increasing, albeit unintentional, stress on New York City shelter caseworkers. As the plan calls for increasing numbers of housing placements per month, the pressure for them to find appropriate independent living for clients also increases. This difficulty is exacerbated for those caseworkers who work with hard-to-place shelter populations (Matarese, 2005). Moreover, conflict may also result from resistance to a shift in the shelter culture that stems from philosophical differences between 1) casework goals established in professional development and social work literature (Garvin & Seabury, 1997; Haus, 1988; Kadushin, 1990; Mercier & Racine, 1995) and 2) those described in the five-year plan (DHS, 2003).

These multiple difficulties intersect in the context of caseworker-client interactions regarding service plan development and maintenance, in which the caseworker struggles to be counselor, educator and gatekeeper. Very little is known about how shelter caseworkers deal with these tensions as they naturally arise in caseworker-client dialogue (Hall, Sarangi & Slembrouck, 1997a, 1997b, 1999; Sarangi & Slembrouck, 1996). Even less is understood about how caseworkers interact with clients (Epstein, 1985; Kadushin, 1990) and how those interactions influence movement through the shelter system over time.

As a result, this study poses the following questions: 1) how do caseworker-client interactions function; 2) how do those interactions over time facilitate or inhibit a client's movement toward housing; and 3) how do caseworkers deal with multiple pressures from both policy and clients in the midst of these interactions?

Methods: To address these questions, this study uses linguistics and anthropology as a foundation for exploring the interactions between 6 caseworkers and 30 hard-to-place homeless clients (5 per caseworker) in the largest men's shelter in New York City. Using Nexus Analysis (Scollon & Scollon, 2004), which is a qualitative methodology combining ethnography with critical discourse analysis, this study analyzes data gathered through the observation and audio-recording of approximately 300 caseworker-client service plan interactions over the course of five months. To triangulate and validate the data analysis, pre, post, and intermediate interviews that assess both client and caseworkers' perspectives regarding the success of the interactions were analyzed in conjunction with the other data.

Results: Findings suggest that linguistic and discursive patterns arise across caseworkers and clients, particularly with regard to pragmatics, turn-taking, and interaction order. Variation among caseworker interaction is primarily based on rapport with clients and daily anxiety, although interaction also seems to vary based on the existence of philosophical conflict between how caseworkers view their job and how the new shelter policy constrains it.

Implications for Practice: This study contributes to social work literature on interaction, casework, and homelessness. It additionally reveals the importance of assessing individual institutional ramifications of large policy shifts. Finally, it provides empirically driven recommendations for caseworker professional development as well as policy recommendations for New York City's Department of Homeless Services.