Techniques and Guidelines for Social Work Practice

by Bradford W. Sheafor

An all-in-one, easy-reference resource, this book summarizes the key principles, practice frameworks, techniques, and procedures that guide social workers in their daily practice. It discusses professional development, issues professionals face in the field today, and skills common to all social work. And it presents a step-by-step summary of the process involved in serving as an agent of planned change. Parts I and II summarize the essential foundation elements of social work practice; Parts III and IV then set out 160 techniques and guidelines for practitioners. This edition adds new techniques for dealing with managed care and new sections on working with battered women; gay, lesbian, or bisexual clients; clients with eating disorders; and clients experiencing grief or loss. There is also material on using critical thinking and decision making to facilitate change, assessing and responding to a suicide risk or a child's need for protection, cultural competence, workload and caseload management, budgeting, marketing and fund-raising, dealing with the media, and balancing a professional career with a rewarding personal life. For social workers entering the field or changing career directions, or anyone looking for an up-to-date summary of the field.

Genres: Social Work, Textbooks, Nonfiction, School

628 pages, Hardcover

First published December 18, 2007

Reviews

[Lindsay Allyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a textbook, this one really wasn't that bad. The early chapters were a great refresher of skills, concepts, and theories that I'd already learned in other classes. The later chapters gave a great foundation for several different techniques in working with clients. It also gave information on different client groups.

Only suggestion would be to break up some of these chapters because they get to be quite long and it's difficult to get through them. Plus the grouping of information in certain chapters is awkward and it would better if the information was presented in multiple chapters.

[Daniel Seifert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this is a textbook, it makes for a creative review of the transforming field of social work while challenging personal learning edges with recent contributions by science, culture, and community organizations that have taken risks worth taking.

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Covers a lot of material. Unfortunately, I felt it only scratched the surface. For more detail on most topics, will have to refer to another source.