Sometimes clients want to talk about issues in their lives that are not directly relevant to risk reduction. At this point, you should consider whether you’ll need to work with other case managers to help the client or make referrals to needed services that would support your risk reduction counseling.

Discussions about issues that are not risk issues but related to risk in some way will help you understand more about your clients, their priority concerns, and the factors that influence risk behavior. These discussions, and your work with case managers or making referrals to support the client, will also help build your relationship with your clients.
 

Lessons from the field

There is often a fine line between issues that are not related to risk on the surface but in fact contribute to risk in some way, and issues that are of concern to your client but do not contribute to risk. It’s the CRCS prevention counselor’s job to help clients understand which issues are related to risk and which are not. If discussion about apparently non-risk related issues tends to dominate a session with your client, it’s important to figure out, with your client, how these issues are related to risk. Non-risk related topics can also be explored if referrals may be needed.

Additionally, as your relationships with your clients grow, they often disclose risk behaviors that weren’t initially acknowledged or that have been recently added to their lives.

Go to section 2 part 4C