Request and Contract

The idea of ‘request’ takes us to the contractual basis of therapeutic practice and service delivery. Therapeutic practice and service delivery are controlled practices delivered by the ‘institution of helping and the social assistance’ to the citizen.

What we are looking at here are particular flaws that appear in that contract for service delivery through the nature of the requests made of that service delivery process.

There are other flaws that contract, specifically related to the ethical basis of the requests made of that service delivery process. That is not what we are dealing with here.

Flaws in that contractual basis come through the requests made of that service delivery process, specifically when there are multiple requests, and those various requests contradict each other and cannot be delivered together in the same service delivery space or time frame or by that practitioner or agency.

Multiple Requests are generally not a problem unless the one request contradicts another request.

The critical distinction to be drawn here is in the unequal relationship between citizen and the institution.

There are five forms of contradiction to be addressed.

a. Individual citizen requests that contradict
Definition/Example

b. Individual institution requests that contradict
Definition/Example

c. Citizen – citizen requests that contradict
The most common contradiction is in couple and marital therapy when one partner wants one outcome and the other wants a different outcome; when one partner wants in and the other wants out. This is a simple contradiction where each request is of the same order of events. Two citizens making a request of the practitioner about the institution of marriage/committed couple relationship, as it is now defined in this society.

d. Institution – citizen requests that contradict
Definition/Example

e. Institution – institution requests that contradict
Definition/Example

Determine if requests are institutional or citizen requests. This is a crucial distinction.

Institutional RQ typically trump citizen requests.

Do these request match (i.e. congruent) or are they contradictory?

Are the requests ethical or reasonable?

Do these requests come from a green line, blue line or fractured line?