The team’s approach to the client/worker relationship is one in which they appear to successfully manage a balance between establishing and maintaining professional
boundaries and encouraging a relaxed, informal style of interaction. Pat sums it up well when she says:
"I think there is a professional distance but the
relationship is quite relaxed... I'm very friendly but I'm not a friend." (Pat)
There are clear boundaries marked out by the physical structure of the Garage. Harry pointed out that:
"The office is a very clear boundary. When people try and push that, they try to come in....that's very
difficult. We have to say to people, we care about you but this is our space". (Harry)
In fact, my observations confirmed that the office boundary was regularly infringed, particularly by long-standing clients and that this was, by and large, accepted. It was also interesting to note that where a client had given up her drug use, a decision had been made to allow her access through the ‘staff door into the office. This was an attempt to recognise the transition that the client in question had made but also served to distinguish the team’s relationship with drug-free clients from their relationship with current drug users.
The team used a number of strategies to encourage an informal style of
interaction with clients, including visits to their homes and meeting them on the ‘neutral territory’ of a city centre pub or cafe. This can be seen in Jackie’s description of her relationship with one of her clients:
“I '11 call in an see Helen and see how she's getting on and chat with her and drop her off in town if that's what she wants, or go for a cup of coffee with her, or whatever...." (Jackie)
Letters were also an important way of establishing and keeping relationships with clients. I found the tone of Jackie’s letter to Christine, the client in Newhall prison, indicative of the team’s approach to its relationship with clients. Jackie felt the need to apologise for typing the letter. A conversation with Harry later confirmed that it was policy to hand write letters where possible, as this was seen as being more personal. Jackie was writing to Christine to let her know that her and Dave would be ‘having a run out • to see her. (In the event it was Dave and I who visited). Jackie used1 the opportunity presented by the letter to try and keep Christine in touch with what was going on with one of her sons:
“The last time I saw him he looked fit and well and was chattering on about a hamster he had". (Jackie's letter to Christine)
Jackie acknowledged Christine’s concerns about her son’s welfare but tried to reassure her and gave practical information on who to speak to at Newhall.
There were other examples of the use of letter writing to keep in touch with clients where they had moved out of the area for one reason or another. The sending of a get-well card to a client undergoing a hospital detoxification programme was a further
example of the easy familiarity which characterised the team’s approach to its clients and which had the effect of breaking down rigid professional barriers.
A significant and recurrent theme in the team’s discussion of their role and relationships with clients was their view of themselves as the client’s advocate. In describing her role, Pat saw herself as;
...acting as an advocate in a lot of ways, liaising with services because they (clients) find it difficult to access them themselves... You might be liaising with their 6.P. because they get a raw deal when they go to their 6.P....they get second class service." (Pat)
The team’s role as client advocate in relation to child protection issues was apparent. It was felt important that the team had begun to be invited to case conferences where they could bring a more balanced view to the proceedings. Dave explained how members of the team had;
"...attended case conferences which social workers had convened because they'd found *“Sharps' boxes (for the disposal of used needles) in the house and -we were able to put our tuppeneth in and say, look, you've found a Sharps box with a sealed lid and it was in a cupboard.
...And in that instance the kids weren't put on the ('at risk') register.. .we've been able to put our views forward and generally it's resulted in the kids not being placed on the register, unless there has been some clear indication that it was irresponsible drug use". (Dave)
There were clear indications of the team’s willingness to contest decisions made by other agencies about client’s, or to encourage clients themselves to do so. The clearest example of this was Jackie’s suggestion that one of her clients might, with her support, challenge social services over their refusal to make monies available to pay residential drug rehabilitation fees:
"I suggested to her, because he's quite a strong young woman, that she could always take Social Services to
court...because it wasn't her problem that Social Services didn't have money... She'11 need good
solicitors. But what was really nice about it was that she turned round and said to me 'what about you?
wouldn't you get into trouble for doing that with me? ' .... And I said ' I probably wo n ' t get promoted Sharon but my role is to do what's best for you and your kids and if that means showing you the means of getting money (for drug rehabilitation) then that's within my role, it's my job". (Jackie)
In conclusion, it would seem that on the one hand there is a clear awareness of the need to construct and maintain professional boundaries. This might impede the sharing of experiences between worker and client, which is an important principle of feminist practice. On the other hand, the team strives to limit the power differentials between client and worker by adopting an informal approach to relationships. Its willingness to take the side of its clients to ensure appropriate treatment and access to
resources, reinforces the idea of a partnership rather than of a hierarchy and at the same time encourages client self-assertion and self-determination. In this respect the team’s relationship with its clients would seem to reflect the feminist principles of '‘equalising relationships ’ and ‘challenging the power o f the professional’. However, there is nothing to suggest that it is feminist politics which motivates the team’s approach to its relationship with clients and one has to conclude therefore that there is nothing
intrinsically feminist about these particular principles of practice. They are indicative of good, rather than specifically feminist practice, but at the same time provide the
necessary basis upon which feminist practice can build.