Spotlighting the skills of social group work, this handbook offers practical guidance and theoretical knowledge, enabling the reader to facilitate groups of varying types with increased clarity, purpose, and confidence. The reader is helped to understand what skill to employ, when, and why. New or veteran group facilitators are reminded to empower group members to both employ their strengths and engage in mutual aid – the fundamental value and methodology that underlies social group work. Specific skills help group members to coalesce as a cohesive group and optimize their capacity to reach their goals whether exploring therapeutic answers or accomplishing work tasks. This book illustrates that there are “basics” to the method of human service work with groups that can help you to feel more at ease with and more effective at working with people in groups. The group work method is delineated for you, outlining: (1) skills of working with groups (ways of thinking or doing to make things happen), (2) practice principles (the moral reasoning that underlies what you choose to think and do in your practice), and (3) theoretical underpinnings for those choices (why your choices will achieve desirable ends). Anecdotal material and skills in action provide explicit examples of what skills look like in real time. Social work students and academics as well as students and professionals working in the fields of youth work, counseling, mental health/clinical social work, and related health subjects will find this book of interest.

Building on the successful outcomes of a five-year initiative undertaken in New York City, Alma Carten, Alan Siskind, and Mary Pender Greene bring together a national roster of leading practitioners, scholars, and advocates who draw upon extensive practice experiences and original research. Together, they offer a range of strategies with a high potential for creating the critical mass for change that is essential to transforming the nation's health and human services systems. Strategies for Deconstructing Racism in the Health and Human Services closes the gap in the literature examining the role of interpersonal bias, structural racism, and institutional racism that diminish service access and serve as the root cause for the persistence of disparate racial and ethnic outcomes observed in the nation's health and human services systems. The one-of-a-kind text is especially relevant today as population trends are dramatically changing the nation's demographic and cultural landscape, while funds for the health and human services diminish and demands for culturally relevant evidence-based interventions increase. The book is an invaluable resource for service providers and educational institutions that play a central role in the education and preparation of the health and human service workforce.

Encyclopedia of Human Services and Diversity is the first encyclopedia to reflect the changes in the mission of human services professionals as they face today’s increasingly diverse service population. Diversity encompasses a broad range of human differences, including differences in ability and disability, age, education level, ethnicity, gender, geographic origin, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class, and values. Understanding the needs and problems of Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, the deaf, the blind, the LGBT community, and many other groups demands an up-to-date and cutting-edge reference. This three-volume encyclopedia provides human services students, professors, librarians, and practitioners the reference information they need to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population. Features: 600 signed entries are organized A-to-Z across three volumes. Entries, authored by key figures in the field, conclude with cross references and further readings. A Reader’s Guide groups related articles within broad, thematic areas, such as aging, community mental health, family and child services, substance abuse, etc. A detailed index, the Reader’s Guide, and cross references combine for search-and-browse in the electronic version. A helpful Resource Guide guides students to classic books, journals, and web sites, and a glossary assists them with the terminology of the field. Available in both print and electronic formats, Encyclopedia of Human Services and Diversity is an ideal reference for students, practitioners, faculty and librarians.

This book provides students and practitioners with a theoretical and methodological foundation for implementing client- and family-centered `partnership' approaches in human services. Unlike other texts in the field, the author integrates the principles and practices of sociology with applied work in the helping professions and shows how key sociological concepts can be used to explain the nature of clients' perspectives and expand client opportunities.

This innovative book explores social work, therapy and counselling as a series of encounters - between clients and human services professionals, social workers, their colleagues and other professionals, and more widely between citizens and the state. Providing a variety of social constructionist perspectives on the idea of the 'client', it presents in-depth discussion of the roles, language and contexts of meetings between social workers and their clients. International contributors present discussion on categorization, analysing identities and reflexive practice. Drawing data from a variety of sources, including meetings, client files and transcribed dialogues with clients, the book employs methods such as conversation and discourse analysis to propose new insights into what it means to be a client of the human services agency. Bringing together a rich variety of data, this volume forms an important contribution to major debates on the nature of social work and counselling. As well as innovative approaches to theory and research, the implications for practice in social work and counselling are discussed. Challenging previously-held notions about clienthood, this book is a useful and thought-provoking resource for social workers, counsellors, policy makers, academics, researchers and students and trainers in social work and counselling.

This book consists of 27 chapters developed from papers originally delivered at a recent conference at the University of Toronto on anti-oppressive practice in social work. Dr. Shera has gathered expert contributors to discuss, define, and analyse theories of social work practice, pedagogical issues, fieldwork practice, models of education of social work practitioners, and current critical issues. These selected conference papers lay the groundwork for anti-oppressive practice in a way that will generate discussion and inspire researchers and practitioners.

'Another important contribution to the growing literature on critical social work. It is on the cutting edge of thinking about social work and its goal of social change.' - Kate van Heugten, Social Work Review Critical Social Work starts from the premise that a central goal of social work practice is social change to redress social inequality. Taking a critical theoretical approach, the authors explore the links between personal and social change. They confront the challenges for critical social work in the context of pressures to separate the personal from the political and in responding to the impact of changes in the socio-political, statutory and global contexts of practice. Critical Social Work has been thoroughly revised to take into account recent social, economic and political developments. Coverage of theoretical frameworks has been substantially expanded and reflects current concerns such as evidence based practice and human rights. The causes of people's marginalisation and oppression are examined in relation to class, race, ethnicity, gender and other forms of social inequality.Case study chapters in the earlier edition on working with immigrants, Indigenous people, women, men, families, people with psychiatric disabilities and those experiencing loss and grief have been updated and revised. The second edition includes new case study chapters on disability, older people, children, rurality, and violence and abuse. Critical Social Work is an essential resource to inform progressive social work practice.

This comprehensive text thoroughly reviews the theories and history of racism, the sociology of and the psychology of racism, intergroup relations and intergroup conflict, and how racism is manifested institutionally, between groups, and between people, providing a unique view of the connections between these multiple perspectives. Readers can then apply this knowledge to their work as helping professionals. Students learn to explore their own biases and how they influence their view of themselves and others, which strengthens their work with future clients. Fulfilling NASW and CSWE cultural competency requirements, this book teaches socially just practices to helping professionals from any discipline. Many people want to dismantle racism but they do not know how. This book gets us closer to that goal. Using critical race theory as a conceptual framework, the text analyzes all levels of racism: personal, professional, institutional, and cultural. Integrating theory, research, and practice, racism is linked to other forms of oppression with an emphasis on how helping professionals can respond. Tips on how to facilitate racial dialogues are provided. Early chapters map out the contours of racism and later chapters emphasize how to dismantle it. Readers appreciate the book's sensitive approach to this difficult topic. Examples and exercises encourage insight into understanding racism, and insightful analyses offer strategies, solutions, and hope. Readers learn to respond to racism in all contexts including working with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. NEW TO THE SECOND EDITION: Reflects recent sociopolitical changes including "Islamophobia" the Obama presidency, the murders of young men of color by police, the racialization of the criminal justice system, and current immigration issues. More cases and experiential exercises help readers explore how racism is manifested and how to incorporate the lessons learned into future working environments. More emphasis on the intersectionality of racism and other social oppressions including class, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship, immigration experiences, and disability to give readers a better understanding of the relationship between these issues. PowerPoints and Instructor's resources with sample syllabi, teaching tips, and suggested videos and related websites. An ideal text for advanced courses on racism, oppression, diversity, prejudice and discrimination, or racism and professional practice, this book also appeals to helping professionals (social workers, psychologists, counselors, and nurses) who need to understand racism to better serve their clients.

Learning Critical Reflection documents the actual learning experiences of social work students and practitioners. It explores how a more in-depth understanding of the process of learning, combined with an analysis of how to critically reflect, will help improve the learning process. The contributors are all professionals who have learnt, in a formalised way, how to critically reflect on their practice. They speak in depth, and with feeling, about their experiences, how downsides and upsides worked together to transform the way they understood themselves, their professional identity, and their practice. Existing literature about critical reflection is reviewed, identifying the details of learning, and pulling no punches in recognising the difficulty and complexity of becoming transformed through this learning process. The editors of this book also contribute their own reflections on learning how to teach critical reflection and include the findings of a research study conducted on students’ learning. Edited by two experienced educators, this book showcases the process of learning, from the perspective of the learners, in order that educators and students, managers, supervisors, and frontline practitioners alike, may make the most of opportunities to critically reflect in both educational and workplace settings. It should be considered essential reading for social work students, practitioners, and educators.

Workers in human service organisations often find work with clients relatively manageable, but struggle to work effectively with their employing agency, particularly when translating professional values and a client-centred approach to practice. Working with Human Service Organisations provides students and human service workers with a range of tools to assist them to reflect and act critically and creatively within organisations. In Part One, the current context for workers and organisations is examined in relation to organisational theory and practice theory. In Part Two, a model for integrated practice is proposed to enable students to make connections between their professional training and the aims and structures of the organisation.