IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/socinc/v9y2021i3p265-275.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Engaging with Hard‐To‐Reach Clients: Towards the Last Resort Response by Welfare Workers

Author

Listed:
  • Sirpa Saario

    (Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Finland)

  • Christopher Hall

    (Social Work and Social Care, University of Sussex, UK)

  • Doris Lydahl

    (Department of Sociology and Work Science, University of Gothenburg, Sweden)

Abstract

Client non‐cooperation is a widely recognised problem in welfare services. Being ‘hard‐to‐reach’ is considered a risk especially for the most vulnerable clients, for example in terms of increased homelessness. Such clients pose challenges to social inclusion, and services make some allowances to achieve engagement. However, even a minimum level of cooperation is required from hard‐to‐reach clients. In the context of home visiting, we study welfare workers’ efforts to engage with clients who continuously avoid contact. We examine three services in Finland, England, and Sweden that provide floating support to clients in their own accommodation. Utilising Robert Emerson’s idea of ‘the last resort,’ we analyse how workers justify their decisions to continue or terminate the support with the hard‐to‐reach. The data consist of team meeting recordings and home visit observations. We aim to demonstrate that justifications deployed to make the decision to end the home visiting service or tighten control, draw on ‘last resort responses.’ We identify three types of justifications: retrospective summaries on past failures to reach the client, intensifying remedial actions to engage clients, and characterisations of clients as uncooperative. While such justifications can be seen to draw on shared ethics, they have different ethical implications.

Suggested Citation

  • Sirpa Saario & Christopher Hall & Doris Lydahl, 2021. "Engaging with Hard‐To‐Reach Clients: Towards the Last Resort Response by Welfare Workers," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(3), pages 265-275.
  • Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v:9:y:2021:i:3:p:265-275
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/4315
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nick Emmel & Kahryn Hughes & Joanne Greenhalgh & Adam Sales, 2007. "Accessing Socially Excluded People — Trust and the Gatekeeper in the Researcher-Participant Relationship," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 12(2), pages 43-55, March.
    2. Cecilia Hansen Löfstrand & Kirsi Juhila, 2021. "Transforming Worker–Client Identities: From Shelters to Housing First," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(3), pages 214-222.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Brown, Kelly & Toombs, Maree & Nasir, Bushra & Kisely, Steve & Ranmuthugala, Geetha & Brennan-Olsen, Sharon L. & Nicholson, Geoffrey C. & Gill, Neeraj S. & Hayman, Noel S. & Kondalsamy-Chennakesavan, , 2020. "How can mobile applications support suicide prevention gatekeepers in Australian Indigenous communities?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    2. Christopher Hall & Suvi Raitakari & Kirsi Juhila, 2021. "Deinstitutionalisation and ‘Home Turn’ Policies: Promoting or Hampering Social Inclusion?," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(3), pages 179-189.
    3. Anna Tarrant & Kahryn Hughes, 2020. "The Ethics of Technology Choice: Photovoice Methodology with Men Living in Low-Income Contexts," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 25(2), pages 289-306, June.
    4. Victoria E. Salmon & Lauren R. Rodgers & Peter Rouse & Oli Williams & Emma Cockcroft & Kate Boddy & Luana De Giorgio & Ciara Thomas & Charlie Foster & Rosie Davies & Kelly Morgan & Rachel Jarvie & Chr, 2021. "Moving through Motherhood: Involving the Public in Research to Inform Physical Activity Promotion throughout Pregnancy and Beyond," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-17, April.
    5. Nobari, Niloofar & Dehkordi, Ali Mobini, 2023. "Innovation intelligence in managing co-creation process between tech-enabled corporations and startups," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 186(PB).
    6. Abirami Srivarathan & Rikke Lund & Ulla Christensen & Maria Kristiansen, 2020. "Social Relations, Community Engagement and Potentials: A Qualitative Study Exploring Resident Engagement in a Community-Based Health Promotion Intervention in a Deprived Social Housing Area," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-18, March.
    7. Kirsi Juhila & Cecilia Hansen Löfstrand & Johanna Ranta, 2021. "Home‐ and Community‐Based Work at the Margins of Welfare: Balancing between Disciplinary, Participatory and Caring Approaches," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(3), pages 175-178.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v:9:y:2021:i:3:p:265-275. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.