I have a client who is accepting rehabilitative treatment. She feels her life is out of her control. How can I help her?

No problem.

Thank you for the suggestions. I will consider their suitability and feasibility in my case carefully.

Many people with disabilities experience feel lack of control while in the treatment process. Social workers in health and rehabilitation settings must develop and demonstrate skills that will facilitate helping their clients to press for inclusion in the planning and decisions about their treatment. Social workers will also need to consider more emphasis on their practice role as educators to help clients become effective advocates and negotiators for their interests. This will require practitioners to modify conventional approaches to emphasize dealing with organizations and systems more.
Emphasis on such practice includes familiarity and skill with the advocacy and negotiation modalities that deal effectively with bureaucracies, administrative structures, and centers of power that make decisions and allocate resources. To accomplish this, social workers may need to interact more deliberately and purposefully with practitioners engaged in independent living and disability rights movements. This suggests that more inter-organizational dialogues and agency agreements are required to identify issues and concerns, formulate agendas, and develop mutual understandings.