Termination may occur when a service is completed, when the practitioner leaves the agency, when the client leaves the agency, and for a variety of other causes.
However, what ever the reason may be, it is crucial to plan for termination throughout the entire helping process. It is essential, as a competent social worker, to terminate the relationship between social worker and client in a timely and responsible manner. This would involve preparing clients for termination, helping clients cope with their reactions to termination, following agency guidelines, and completing all termination activities in an ethical manner of practice. Preparing for termination will not only provide an effective guideline for completing the task, but will also gradually prepare the client to experience termination in a positive and anxiety-free manner.
Termination should not only be conducted throughout the entire helping process, but it should also be completed with the needs of the client as the primary concern. Each termination plan is unique in that it is directed by the needs and capacity of the client. Thus, the methods and process of each termination are guided by the unique characteristics of the population that the practitioner is engaged in. Similar to termination from practice with children, terminating practice with mentally ill clients should pay particular attention to the difficulty of the client in conceptualizing the purpose, goal, and termination of the helping relationship. Variations in client functioning and mental capacity will guide each step of the termination phase. Thus, the planned phases of this termination will include the following: repeated discussions of termination related concerns; individual client discussions of reactions to termination; and involving clients .
throughout the termination process, regardless of their mental capacity to understand each procedure.
