The home visit

I recently came back from a home visit and was reflecting on the experience.  It gave me rich and deep insights into that family, the roles various members played and the functioning of the whole family system.
It has been a surprise to me that some social workers avoid home visiting.  They seem to think that social work can be done without reference to the home environment in which their clients live.  
Please don't get me wrong.  I have worked with homeless people and with people living in a variety of precarious circumstances.  I am not referring to "home" as a stable, comfortable  bourgois space.  By "home", I refer to the place or places where a client sleeps and lives out their days.  One client with whom I worked, lived his days in a public park and spent his nights on a night bus as it wound its way through the streets of London.
Wherever possible and maintaining human dignity, it really is important for a social worker to visit clients in their homes.  In the case of my client on the night bus, this involved accompanying him on the bus and giving him dignity as he settled-in for the night.
Spending time visiting our clients in their homes allows us to do a number of things all at the same time.  For one it helps us to understand the person better as they function within their context.  This practice, when done skillfully, builds trust between the social worker and their client.  Home visits also allow social workers to engage in systems of change with the client and witthin the client's frame of reference.
Please understand that home visits are not easy or simple social work interventions.  When done in a brusque and judgemental manner, a home visit will cause much damage to the relationship between client and social worker.  Home visiting is a highly skilled form of intervention and takes practice to do well.

The organisation supporting a social worker doing home visits needs to have procedures and resources available to assist in making this intervention as useful as possible.  Such resources include time and space for reflection, health & safety procedures, supervision and transport.  Home visits should also have very clear objectives agreed before conducting them.  They need to be appropriate and focussed on specific outcomes.

In what ways do you think home visits help or hinder social work practice?