Practising Social Work in a Complex World

by Robert Adams (Editor), Lena Dominelli (Editor), Malcolm Payne (Editor)

Overview

Become a confident and effective practitioner with Practising Social Work in a Complex World. It provides the clearest and most authoritative introduction available to working in situations characterised not only by risk and change but also by high pressure to deliver successful outcomes.

The book is uniquely geared to the needs of students in the final stages of their qualifying course, professionals returning to study, or those simply wishing to deepen their professional understanding. It is distinguished by:
- Its coherent and thoughtful coverage of practice situations involving complexity, tension and uncertainty
- Its focus on how social work can contribute by integrating the perspectives of service users, carers, other professionals and the wider agency context
- Its discussion of a range of management skills, which are presented as versatile tools for all practitioners
- Its extended exploration of social work research, as an important but widely debated professional resource.

This is one of three interrelated books edited by the internationally renowned and widely published team, Robert Adams, Lena Dominelli and Malcolm Payne. It was formerly published as Social Work Futures. The companion books are Social Work: Themes, Issues and Critical Debates (third edition) and Critical Practice in Social Work (second edition). Each book can be used alone or in combination with the other two as a uniquely flexible and comprehensive programme of study.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137137722
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	04/16/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	852 KB

About the Author

ROBERT ADAMS is Visiting Professor of Social Work in the School of Health and Social Care at the University of Teesside, UK.

LENA DOMINELLI is Professor of Applied Social Sciences and Head of Social and Community and Youth Work at the University of Durham, UK.

MALCOLM PAYNE is Adviser (Policy and Development) at St Christopher's Hospice, London, UK.

There are also a number of prestigious contributors to this book, bringing experience of teaching and practice from a variety of backgrounds
 

Malcolm Payne is a writer, academic and consultant on social work, social care management and multiprofessional teamwork. Currently Policy and Development Adviser at St Christopher's Hospice, London, he was previously Director of Psychosocial and Spiritual Care at the Hospice. He has held academic posts at the University of Bristol, UK, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK and Opole University, Poland. He has honorary appointments at the Department of Social Policy, Helsinki University, Finland and the School of Social Care Sciences, Kingston University, UK.

Table of Contents

Introduction
What Do We Mean by Integrative Social Work?

PART 1: UNCERTAINTY AND COMPLEXITY IN PRACTICE
What do we mean by Integrative Social Work? (TBC)
Encountering Complexity and Uncertainty
Persistent Oppressions: The Example of Domestic Violence
Risk and Protection: Working With Children and Families
Troubled and in Trouble: Young People, Truancy and Offending
Sexuality
Frailty and Dignity in Old Age
Risk, Rights and Anti-discrimination Work in Mental Health
Social Work with Asylum-seekers
Legal and Illicit Drug Use

PART 2: MANAGEMENT, LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE
Management and Managerialism
Managing the Workload
Partnership Working
Strategic Leadership and Planning
Supervision and Being Supervised
Managing Risk and Decision-making
Managing Finances
Quality Assurance
Change and Continuity in Social Work

PART 3: RESEARCHING SOCIAL WORK
Research Methods for Ethical Practice
Getting Started With a Piece of Research/Evaluation in Social Work
Doing Literature Searches and Reviews
Experiencing Research as a Practitioner
Evaluating Practice
Emancipatory Social Work Research
Developing Social Work Research
Concluding Comment