Community and financial stability go together

People lead healthier lives when connected to others. NASW defines its mission as enhancing "the individual wellbeing in a social context." At the macro level social workers mobilize people to use the inherent power of community to better their lives. In group work we form a community for mutual aid. And, at the micro level we are often the beginning of community for clients, where skill training in interpersonal relationship is practiced.

This website is devoted to the concept of developing community with the poorest of the poor: clients with mental health issues who have a deficit in social skills and just plain "bad luck."

Quite often clients neglect their debts, and credit is scarce; scarcity becomes regarded as normal. At times, social workers feel the need to give their own funds to clients even though agency and ethical policies warn against it.

Social workers are cautious about giving cash to their clients. From private interviews over the last 25 years and in an ongoing review of the literature, it is clear that a majority of social workers have personally given cash to their clients in various amounts, from parking meter fare to rent money. Social workers have expressed the following concerns about giving money to their clients:

• "It is against agency policy, I will get in trouble and possibly lose my job or get written up if I give money to my clients." This is a valid consideration.

• "The client is in need, my empathy for their situation is overwhelming, the need is real." This is also a valid statement, we know our clients are in need. We see this need almost daily.

• "I don't want the client to become dependent on handouts."
  This is universal, as timeless as helping another human being. A corollary of the dependency theme is, "How will a person learn to be independent if we don't let them learn the hard way." This is the "bootstraps" method of achieving one's place in the world.

The fact is, when clients are distressed by debts' demands and their own lack of money, the stress becomes unrelenting and destructive to their psyche. They are in a state of panic. There can be no learning when a person is in a state of panic.

The purpose of CarefulGiving as a concept and an organization is to break this cycle of poverty and panic. Usually the amount of money needed is unbelievably small, usually less than one hundred dollars and often under fifty dollars.

Having recourse to therapeutic money emulates the origins of Social Work; it is congruent with correct behavioral techniques of response and reinforcement, and, importantly, shields the therapist from the taint of power abuse. The monies are in a trust, ear-marked for the relief of poverty and can be given to the cause at hand with minimum loss of dignity to the client.

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