Social Work In The Age Of Disconnection

This edited text brings together the stories of nine clinical social workers working during COVID-19, exploring the disconnections caused by a forced use of technology as well as the disconnections apparent in a time of social injustice. Employing narrative strategies to capture this transformative moment of our history, these chapters explore the effects of technology and social media on psychotherapy, the delivery of services for the chronically mentally ill and elderly, as well as the consequences of recent cultural shifts on our conceptions of gender, sexuality, race, the immigrant experience, and political activism. While traditional research methodologies tend to address social problems as if they were divorced from the lives and experiences of human beings, these chapters employ phenomenological description of how the existing system functions, to identify theory-to-practice gaps and to recover the experiences of the person within the various institutional structures. Divided into three parts, each chapter begins with pre-reading and close reading questions and ends with writing prompts, allowing for practitioners and students to examine their own thoughts, and put what they have learnt into practice. Suitable for students of clinical social work and practicing mental health professionals, this book is essential for those wanting to make sense of social work practice in our constantly evolving times.

Social media use is pervasive, and so is it’s perceived harmful effects, dubbed 'techlash'. Disconnection practices—restricting, detoxing, deleting—often reinforce rather than confront the ways social media organize attention, everyday life, and society. This book addresses the ambivalence, commodification, and complicity involved in attempts to separate from social media.

This text is the definitive resource for practicing palliative social work clinicians. It is designed to meet the needs of professionals who seek to provide culturally sensitive biopsychosocial-spiritual care for patients and families living with life-threatening illness.

Global social transformation calls for global social action. 2010 saw the launch of The Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development, which detailed how social workers can strive to bring about increased social justice. The time is right to start to address and demonstrate the actions that might be required to develop and accomplish the Agenda - with regard to methods in practice and research, in social policy and social work education, and in a broader discourse of global commitment and cooperation. This informative and incisively written edited collection brings together experts from around the world to discuss issues which the social work and social welfare sectors face every day and to ensure a closer link between evidence-based practice, policy objectives and social development goals. Furthermore, this book reveals how these may affect the conditions of people and demonstrate how the social work and social development community can contribute to sustainable development.

If social work students are to flourish in their careers, and go beyond a basic sense of ‘competence’ in practice, it is essential to develop a sense of Professional Self. This book will help students develop critical understanding of their own social work practice, and the tools and skills required to become a professional social worker. It includes: Chapters on practising Reflexivity and the importance of Relationships in social work Contributions from leading social work academics A focus on building a professional identity through learning and practice The emphasis is on developing your professionalism, and how that journey translates into everyday practice. To help this growth there are further chapters on getting the best from continuing professional development, challenging poor practice and professionalism and ethics. Professor Jonathan Parker is Deputy Dean for Research and Enterprise and Director of the Centre for Social Work and Social Policy at Bournemouth University. He is currently conducting cross cultural research on learning and practice with colleagues in Southeast Asia. Professor Mark Doel is Professort Emeritus in the Centre for Health and Social Care Research at Sheffiled Hallam University, and a registered social worker. Mark's research experience is in the fields of practice education, social work practice methods, and service user involvement.

Contents: (1) Introduction; (2) Background; (3) Overview of Research on Disconnected Youth: Methodology and Number of Disconnected Youth; Other Characteristics; Reasons Associated with Disconnection; (4) Analysis of Disconnected Youth: (a) Overview; Limitations; (b) Findings: Reasons Reported for Youth Not Being in School or Working; Characteristics of Disconnected Youth; Characteristics of Parents Living with Disconnected Youth; Trends Over Time; (5) Discussion: Overview; Poverty, Family Living Arrangements, and Parental Characteristics; Implications for Policy. Charts and tables.

This gateway text lays the foundations for a thorough knowledge of the theory and methods that social workers need. Pulling together the work of a team of experts, this book uses the innovative “theorizing practice” approach, rather than the traditional “applying theory to practice” approach, thereby providing a much more satisfactory basis for understanding the relationship between theory and practice and making it easier for practitioners to employ theory in practice. Part I sets the scene by examining the relationship between theory and practice, how research can be used to inform practice and the important role of policy and organizational factors. Part II provides 14 chapters, each exploring a different theoretical approach. All in all, this book provides the ideal introduction to using social work theory and methods in practice.