The Social World of the Service User

Chapter Summary

This chapter has explored the social worlds of service users in terms of their differing social class and cultural backgrounds. The chapter introduced the concepts of resources, concerns, and priorities as components of clients’ opportunity structures and the definitions of the situation that result from them. In a Verstehen approach, service providers must work to understand the context of their clients’ lives, which includes both what they already have and what they think is lacking. The chapter showed how resources, concerns, and priorities may differ among various groups in American society and suggested some ways that human service professionals could work more effectively with members of these groups.