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Strengths Perspective in Social Work

🤝 Social Welfare By CampusDown Wiki Editorial Team Last updated
Quick answer: The strengths perspective sees clients not as bundles of problems but as people with talents, experience, relationships and community resources, and builds practice on those strengths.
Contents
  1. 1. Origins
  2. 2. Saleebey's principles
  3. 3. Versus the deficit model
  4. 4. Strengths assessment and the strengths model
  5. 5. Criticisms
  6. 6. References

Origins

In the late 1980s Weick, Rapp, Saleebey and colleagues at the University of Kansas argued that deficit-focused practice with people with serious mental illness reinforced stigma and helplessness. Saleebey's edited volume The Strengths Perspective in Social Work Practice (first edition 1992) became the key text.

Saleebey's principles

  • Every individual, group, family and community has strengths.
  • Trauma, abuse and illness may be injurious but can also be sources of challenge and opportunity.
  • Assume you do not know the upper limits of a person's capacity to grow; take aspirations seriously.
  • We best serve clients by collaborating with them.
  • Every environment is full of resources.
  • Caring, caretaking and context matter.

Versus the deficit model

The pathology model treats the person as a case and the professional as the expert. The strengths perspective starts from the client's own story and treats the client as the agent of change, sharing ground with the empowerment model.

Strengths assessment and the strengths model

Assessment asks about skills, interests, past successes and environmental resources, including survival questions such as "How have you managed so far?". Rapp and Goscha's strengths model applies this to case management, treating the community as an oasis of resources and organising plans around the client's goals.

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Criticisms

Critics warn it can understate real problems or recast structural oppression as individual resilience, and that "strengths" are hard to measure. It is usually combined with risk assessment.

References

  1. Saleebey, D. (Ed.). (2013). The Strengths Perspective in Social Work Practice (6th ed.). Pearson.
  2. Weick, A., Rapp, C., Sullivan, W. P., & Kisthardt, W. (1989). A strengths perspective for social work practice. Social Work, 34(4), 350-354.
  3. Rapp, C. A., & Goscha, R. J. (2012). The Strengths Model: A Recovery-Oriented Approach to Mental Health Services (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.

Reports and materials that use this theory (Korean)

There are no materials dedicated to this theory yet, but you can search related reports in the CampusDown library (Korean).

Find more reports · Search '강점관점' on CampusDown →
Empowerment Model in Social WorkThe empowerment model in social work: Solomon's concept, links to the strengths perspective, personal, interpersonal and political levels, Miley et al.'s dialogue-discovery-development phases, worker roles and limits.📄 OtherCase Management in Social WorkCase management in social work: origins in deinstitutionalisation and fragmented services, the process from intake and assessment to monitoring and closure, the roles of broker, advocate and coordinator, and Korea's integrated case management.🤝 Social WelfareBronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems TheoryBronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory explained: micro-, meso-, exo-, macro- and chronosystems, the bioecological (PPCT) model, ecomaps, criticisms, and report examples.🤝 Social WelfareAdhocracy (Social Welfare Administration Theory)Adhocracy explained: the flexible, temporary organisational form introduced by Bennis, popularised by Toffler and formalised by Mintzberg. Covers contrasts with bureaucracy, strengths and weaknesses, and use in social welfare task forces.🤝 Social Welfare

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This article was last updated on October 15, 2026. It is based on widely recognized original works and textbooks; when citing it in a paper, please check the original sources listed in the references.