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Social Work vocabulary · Practice Approaches

Intervention

Meaning in social work, with examples

/ˌɪntəˈvenʃn/nounCore term

In social work, intervention means: Any planned action taken by a social worker or service to improve a person's or family's situation, from counselling to practical support.

In Turkish: müdahale, destek çalışması

How it is used

A neutral professional word in English that does not suggest force. You plan, deliver, evaluate or step up an intervention. Phrases such as early intervention and crisis intervention are very common.

Example sentences

  1. The intervention focused on routines, school attendance and support for the mother.

  2. Short, practical interventions often work better than long programmes for this group.

Common collocations

  • crisis intervention
  • plan an intervention
  • evidence-based intervention
  • family intervention
  • early interventionGiving support as soon as problems appear, often in early childhood, so that they do not grow into more serious difficulties later.
  • care planA written plan setting out a person's needs, the goals to work towards, the services to be provided, who is responsible and when progress will be reviewed.
  • assessmentThe process of gathering and analysing information about a person's situation, needs, strengths and risks in order to decide what help is needed.
  • strengths-based approachA way of working that starts from what people can do, their skills, relationships and resources, rather than only from their problems.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Practice Approaches

Practise with graded reading

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