SOCIAL WORK WITH A DEPRESSED CLIENT

Abstract

Mental health is a fragile area. One of the frequent psychical illnesses is depression which means decline, uneasiness, anxiety. Many people develop a psychical illness during their life, whereby the triggering mechanism can be different stressful situation. Thus, many people with psychical illness become clients of social services facilities. This way the client comes into contact with social workers, which should be ready for their work (or rather mission) professionally and personally. They should be familiar with a range of approaches, methods and techniques, which they can implement based on the client’s individual needs within social intervention, in order to improve the client’s quality of life. The aim of our research is to determine what approaches and methods are used in social work with depressed clients. As a research method we use the analysis of professional materials and case studies, which focused on the application of methods of social work with clients with depression. The article has theoretical and research parts. In the theoretical part we introduce the diagnostics and symptoms of depression. In the research part we analyze the approaches and methods, used in social work with a depressed client. Then we present case studies, which are focused on the application of methods of social work with clients with depression.