Professional and paraprofessional role differentiation

This paper focuses on role relationships and role conflicts between professionals and paraprofessionals and their potential effect on the efficiency of future social services. Role conflicts can develop when roles are undefined and when there are competitive versus complementary role relationships. The most productive way to approach role definition is the systems approach--determine the overall purpose of the agency; define this purpose in terms of specific objectives needed; and identify the various methods, personnel, and facilities needed to meet these objectives. Agency activities can be subdivided into: (1) task functions (program design, work facilitation, and goal emphasis), and (2) maintenance functions (support, interaction facilitation, and communication facilitation). There are roles within each of these functions that can be taken by both professionals and paraprofessionals, but the greatest contribution the paraprofessional can make is in closing the cultural gap between professional and client group and in setting a role model for the community. (EB)