| Course | MSW 542 Social Work Practice - Foundation 2 |
|---|---|
| Week | 3 |
| Paper type | Mandated client memo |
| Length | About 410 words, 4 pages |
| Format | Memo with APA 7 citations |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | Master of Social Work (MSW) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MSW 542 Week 3
Memorandum
To: T.
From: MSW student intern, outpatient counseling
Date: October 12, 2026
Re: What the court requires of you here, what I recommend, and what I report
Your End Date
Sixteen sessions, weekly. If you attend each week, you finish on January 25, 2027.
What Is Required
By the court order: 16 counseling sessions at an approved agency, completed by March 1, 2027. Attendance means arriving no more than 15 minutes late. Missing more than two sessions without rescheduling counts as noncompliance under the court order.
What I Recommend, Which Is Your Choice
A plan for after-shift drinking, which you raised in session 3. Talking to your doctor about medication that reduces cravings. A support group of your choosing. None of these is required, and saying no will not be reported.
If you want to try any of these, tell me, and we will plan it together. If you do not, our sessions still count toward the 16, and we can use them for whatever you bring.
The Two Jobs I Hold
I am your counselor, and I am also the person who reports to your probation officer. Those two jobs pull against each other, and you should know both (Rooney, 2009). In sessions, my job is to help you with what you choose to work on. In reports, my job is limited to what your release allows.
Exactly What I Report
Under the release you signed on September 21, I report to your probation officer: the dates you attended, the dates you missed and whether you complete the 16 sessions. I do not report what you say in sessions, your opinions about the court or anything about your family. Federal rules for substance use treatment records protect what you say here, and I can share only what the written consent allows (Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Patient Records, 2024).
Your Words, Kept
In our first session you said, "I'm here because I have to be, not because I want to." That is fine. It is in your file as you said it.
If Something Changes
If you want to share more with the court, for example to show progress, we can write a new release together. You can also cancel the current release in writing, though the court may then treat you as not complying.
Questions
Bring this memo to our next session and we will go through anything you want to change or ask.
References
Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Patient Records, 42 C.F.R. pt. 2 (2024).
Rooney, R. H. (Ed.). (2009). Strategies for work with involuntary clients (2nd ed.). Columbia University Press.
The Chamberlain MSW 542 Week 3 instructions
The mandated client memo is written to the client and puts the endpoint on the first page, since that is what a mandated client most wants to know. Separate what is required by the court or agency from what you recommend, and say clearly that recommendations can be refused without being reported. Explain the two jobs you hold, helper and reporter, and how they pull against each other. State exactly what you report and what you do not, in specifics. Keep the client's own words in the memo where they matter. Explain how a release can be changed or withdrawn and what that would mean. The memo need not take a position on whether the mandate is fair.
How this MSW 542 Week 3 example is built
The memo opens with 16 weekly sessions ending January 25 if T. attends each week. A required section lists the order, the completion deadline, the 15-minute lateness rule and the two-absence limit. A recommended section lists a plan for after-shift drinking, a medication conversation and a group, each refusable. The two jobs section cites Rooney (2009). The reporting section names the September 21 release, the dates attended and missed and completion, and what is never reported, under the federal Part 2 regulations on treatment records. The memo then quotes T.'s first-session words. The close explains writing a new release or canceling the current one, with its consequences.
MSW 542 Week 3 rubric: what full points look like
Faculty look first for the line between required and recommended, drawn clearly enough that a client could tell which is which. Credit goes to the endpoint on the first page, specifics about reporting and an honest account of the worker's two roles. Keeping the client's words, rather than reframing them, earns marks. Explaining release changes and their consequences shows respect for the client's choices. The memo should be written in plain language to the client, not to the court. Sources on involuntary clients and confidentiality should be accurate and cited in APA. A memo differs from a case paper by addressing its reader directly.
Common MSW 542 Week 3 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Memos most often lose points by blurring required and recommended, so the client cannot tell what is optional. Another frequent problem is vague reporting language, such as progress updates, which leaves the client guessing what the court hears. Some memos are written about the client rather than to the client. Others leave out the endpoint. If your vignette does not say which body sent the client, state your assumption and describe the reporting line for that body. A memo that serves your client will answer the questions a person asks on the first day: how long, what is required and who hears what. Read the memo aloud to a friend and ask which line they would want explained; that is the line to rewrite.
Get a MSW-542 Week 3 example written to your instructions
Send the Week 3 assignment and rubric from your classroom, plus the vignette if your section supplies one. We write a fresh mandated client memo to it, with the referring instrument named, the required and recommended items split, and the reporting arrangement written out. Back inside 24 to 48 hours, first one free.
More MSW 542 papers and MSW samples
- MSW 542 Week 1: Probation Officer Request Post
- MSW 542 Week 2: Child Alone Value Conflict
- MSW 542 Week 4: Dual Relationship Walkthrough
- MSW 542 Week 5: Confidentiality Limits Brief
- MSW 542 Week 6: Bias Interruption Paper
- MSW 542 Week 7: Supervision Consult Write-up
- MSW 542 Week 8: Self-awareness Audit
- MSW 543 Week 3: Opening Session Transcript
- MSW 541 Week 3: One Disclosure Use of Self Paper
- MSW 544 Week 3: Genogram Narrative
- MSW 535 Week 3: Tolerance and Withdrawal Write-Up
MSW 542 Week 3 questions, answered
Is a memo really different from a case paper?
In format, yes, and sections that ask for one are usually testing whether a writer can produce a document someone outside the profession will read. Blocks and labels replace paragraphs and transitions. Nothing is argued at length. The reasoning that would fill a paper appears here as one line under each decision, which is harder to do well and is what the rubric row on professional communication is looking at.
What if my vignette does not say which body sent the client?
Then the example says so, and states the consequence anyway. Many assignment briefs leave the referral source thin deliberately, to find out whether a writer notices the gap or invents a court order that was never mentioned. The finished memo carries a short line recording what is unknown and what would need confirming before the reporting arrangement can be described accurately.
Does the memo take a position on whether the mandate is fair?
Not in the document itself. A memo is a working record and an argument about the justice of the requirement belongs in the paper weeks, where the classroom grades it. What the example does carry is the client's objection, quoted and dated, which puts the disagreement on the file without the worker adopting it, and that distinction is commonly worth a rubric row on its own.
Where can I find a free MSW 542 Week 3 sample paper?
The MSW 542 Week 3 memo written to T., keeping what the court requires apart from what is recommended, appears in full below the facts table.
What does the worker report in the MSW 542 Week 3 sample?
The dates T. attended, the dates T. missed and whether T. completes the sixteen sessions, as the signed release allows, and nothing T. says in sessions.