LMSW FREE LMSW Questions and Answers 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A social worker meets with a client who has been sober for six months but recently relapsed once. Using harm reduction principles, the MOST appropriate response is to:
- Discharge the client for violating the treatment agreement
- Acknowledge the relapse as part of recovery and collaboratively develop a safety plan (Correct answer)
- Require immediate inpatient detoxification before resuming outpatient services
- Increase session frequency and mandate AA attendance
Correct answer: Acknowledge the relapse as part of recovery and collaboratively develop a safety plan
Harm reduction treats relapse as a common part of the recovery process and focuses on minimizing risk while maintaining the therapeutic relationship.
Question 2: Which of the following BEST describes the 'identified patient' concept in family systems theory?
- The family member with the highest motivation for treatment
- The symptom-bearer who is actually expressing the family's systemic dysfunction (Correct answer)
- The client officially designated as the primary service recipient
- The family member who initiated contact with the social worker
Correct answer: The symptom-bearer who is actually expressing the family's systemic dysfunction
The identified patient is the family member labeled as 'the problem,' whose symptoms are understood as a manifestation of the entire family system's dysfunction.
Question 3: A social worker learns that a colleague is billing insurance for sessions that were never conducted. According to the NASW Code of Ethics, the worker should FIRST:
- Report the colleague to the state licensing board immediately
- Confront the colleague directly and encourage self-reporting
- Document the concern and report to the agency supervisor or ethics board (Correct answer)
- Ignore it because it is not directly affecting clients
Correct answer: Document the concern and report to the agency supervisor or ethics board
The NASW Code of Ethics requires social workers to address unethical conduct by colleagues, typically through internal reporting channels before external authorities.
Question 4: A social worker is conducting a mental status exam and notes the client is jumping between loosely related ideas with rapid topic changes. This thought process is called:
- Tangentiality
- Circumstantiality
- Flight of ideas (Correct answer)
- Perseveration
Correct answer: Flight of ideas
Flight of ideas is a rapid succession of thoughts with some associative connection but poor goal direction, commonly seen in manic episodes.
Question 5: Ecological systems theory, developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner, describes which environmental layer as the system of relationships between the microsystems surrounding a person?
- Macrosystem
- Exosystem
- Mesosystem (Correct answer)
- Chronosystem
Correct answer: Mesosystem
The mesosystem represents the interactions and relationships among the various microsystems (e.g., how family and school influence each other).
Question 6: A social worker using solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) asks: 'On a scale of 1–10, where 10 means the problem is fully solved, where would you rate things today?' This is an example of:
- The miracle question
- Scaling questions (Correct answer)
- Exception-finding
- Coping questions
Correct answer: Scaling questions
Scaling questions in SFBT help clients quantify progress, identify strengths, and set incremental goals toward change.
Question 7: Which of the following is the MOST accurate description of countertransference?
- The client's redirection of feelings from past relationships onto the therapist
- The therapist's emotional reactions to the client influenced by the therapist's own unresolved issues (Correct answer)
- A therapeutic technique used to mirror the client's emotional state
- The social worker's objective clinical assessment of the client's behavior
Correct answer: The therapist's emotional reactions to the client influenced by the therapist's own unresolved issues
Countertransference refers to the clinician's emotional reactions to a client, shaped by the clinician's own past experiences and unresolved conflicts.
LMSW FREE LMSW Questions and Answers 5
A social worker meets with a client who has been sober for six months but recently relapsed once.
Using harm reduction principles, the MOST appropriate response is to: