Aesthetic media in social diagnostics

Clients of social work are repeatedly asked by social work professionals to describe their life situation - their status quo. Clients often find themselves in similar situations in which they repeatedly draw (or have drawn) genograms, fill out (or have filled out) network maps, or are asked to rate their circumstances on a scale during conversations. It is not uncommon for relevant information to be lost in the course of these repetitions, as the social diagnostic tools used do not allow enough space to generate a comprehensive picture of the status quo. This paper aims to motivate and encourage social work professionals to expand or supplement social diagnostic tools with design-based educational elements in order to enable clients to have new, 'pattern-breaking' and activating experiences in professional contact and to raise social work professionals' awareness of possible special features of individual cases.