Changing the focus of social work supervision: effects on client satisfaction and generalized contentment

An experiment and three replications were conducted in which the focus of social work supervision was varied to compare client outcomes under two conditions. A social work supervisor gave two male and two female mental health center staff eight weeks of supervision with a mixed focus on administration, training, and clinical consultation. This was followed by eight weeks of client-focused supervision in which questions were asked about client problems and staff interventions in the context of client outcomes. The dependent variables were mean weekly caseload reports of generalized contentment and three dimensions of client satisfaction. Outcome data were plotted and examined with visual analysis for trend and aggregated for effect-size calculations. Adult outpatients reported significantly greater satisfaction under client-focused supervision. The findings suggest that social work supervision affects clients, and that client satisfaction improves if supervisors ask questions about client problems and staff interventions in the context of client outcomes.