The second edition is very welcome and represents and extremely usefuladdition to theory/models texts. Pam brings a very lively style of debate tothese issues and, extremely importantly, adds a critical edge which is whatstudents require within the realm of contemporary practice." Professor Jonathan Parker, Head of Department of Social Work, University of Hull. What skills do social workers need to become effective practitioners? How can these skills be perfected and made transferable across different service user and carer groups, contexts, and countries? How can these skills be used to enhance multi-agency co-operation and collaboration? Written by an experienced academic-practitioner, the new edition of this best-selling text is updated to include the current educational, policy and practice context of social work. It includes descriptions of over fifty social work skills, with case examples to illustrate their creative use in practice. Giving a name to these skills, and being able to identify and demonstrate their effective use in contemporary social work practice, highlights the importance of an evidence based and research led approach to practice. In particular, this edition contains new material on: Social work methods, practice approaches and perspectives The knowledge base of social work and the importance of the relationship between theory and practice How the termsskillandinterventionare defined and effectively applied in practice The starting point for this text is that social work is – and has to be - a highly skilled activity. It is important to stress this fact because social work practitioners work with some of the most complex, unpredictable and troubling areas of human experience. For this reason, social work practice is also an intellectual activity. This calls for practitioners to acquire a ‘toolbox’ of skills that can be used to enable people to move forward. Social Work Skillsis essential reading for all social work students and a valuable reference text for practising social workers and human service professionals.
The book is clearly grounded in the practice wisdom and knowledge base of the author, providing a strong reflective and analytical element, often missing in other more purely theoretical or practice based publications. The text looks at the creative and innovative use of basic groupwork skills and the ways that a knowledge of groupwork theory and practice can inform different areas of human service delivery, particularly in relation to health, education and welfare contexts. The book takes as its starting point the view that groupwork is a skilled activity. However, it is also an intellectual activity because to be an effective groupworker, practitioners need to have a sound knowledge base and to be able to translate that understanding in ways that underpin the skills and interventions that are applied in practice. This theoretical framework includes an analysis of the advantages and limitations of groupwork as a practice method. It also includes an account of the strengths and weaknesses of different groupwork approaches (e.g. cognitive-behavioural, psychodynamic, person-centred groupwork approaches), particularly when working with certain groups of people (e.g. with young people, women’s groups), specific dilemmas (e.g. bereavement groups), social problems (e.g. groups for ‘offenders’) or certain contexts (e.g. work with families and communities).
Written for social work students, this handbook describes more than 50 key social work skills. Using case studies and examples, the author demonstrates their creative application in evidence-based practice.
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