Techniques and Guidelines for Social Work Practice

by Bradford W. Sheafor

This text summarizes and recaps many of the techniques and procedures that social work students have learned in their coursework. Parts I and II of the text summarize the essential foundation elements of social work practice. Parts III and IV then set out 160 techniques and guidelines that can be used by students and new practitioners. Students often keep this text as a reference as they begin their professional practice; Chapter 2, "Merging Person with Profession," particularly addresses establishing oneself in a social work career and successfully managing both work and personal life. New to this edition are sections on working with managed care, battered women, gay, lesbian, or bisexual clients, clients with eating disorders, and clients experiencing grief or loss. Material has been added on cultural competence and macro practice. Also, new to this edition is a printed Instructor's Manual/Test Bank as well as a complete website that includes teaching suggestions.

Genres: Social Work, Textbooks, School

635 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.