This book will help social workers and practitioners to find achievable solutions to support autistic people - including those with complex needs - to live fulfilling lives in their communities. Far too many autistic people are currently in inappropriate institutional placements, putting their basic human rights at risk and experiencing a poor quality of life. Good quality support for autistic people is achievable, even in a social care system under pressure. This book will help practitioners to develop high quality community support to facilitate discharges and prevent admissions, by providing them with effective, practical strategies to communicate with and more effectively support autistic people right across the spectrum. Common assumptions and beliefs are challenged, including the idea that 'behaviours' are an inevitable part of autism, and practical approaches are offered to promote autonomy, respect for human rights and empathy with autistic perspectives as a basis for preventing distressed behaviour. This will enable practitioners to support and empower all autistic people to achieve a good quality of life in their communities.

A step-by-step guide to the underpinning theoretical knowledge in social work helping your students to confidently apply theory in practice. - Exercises will help them get to grips with the essentials and reflect on learning. - Case studies from eight fictional social workers located in a busy local authority office will allow them to explore a range of different practice experience, theoretical perspectives and approaches to understanding situations and identifying possible courses of action. - The authors’ own experiences will show the importance of reflection, supervision and continual learning to help them prepare for the reality of practice.

A Practical Guide for Finding Interventions that Work for Autistic People: Diversity Affirming Evidence-Based Practice, second edition, provides a socially valid, culturally sensitive, and person-centered resource to aid practitioners in guiding the selection of effective interventions. By providing multiple illustrative examples, practitioners will learn to use their professional judgment to integrate the best available evidence with client values and context. The second edition includes new chapters on diversity affirmation and cultural adaptations of interventions, quality of life, self-determination, guided decision-making, and ethics as foundational skills for identifying effective, socially valid interventions that are delivered with compassion and assent/consent. - Presents a detailed description of the diversity-affirming evidence-based practice decision-making model - Offers a framework that helps practitioners integrate the best available evidence with client values and context - Demonstrates how to culturally adapt interventions and center decision-making on the client - Guides practitioners through the process of assessing intervention outcomes that fit with client values and contextual variables - Provides numerous concrete examples involving Autistic people holding many intersecting identities

An essential desk reference for all helping professionals Social Work in Mental Health: An Evidence-Based Approach is a comprehensive and contemporary guide to the delivery of evidence-based care. Covering a wide spectrum of mental health disorders, editors Thyer and Wodarski have brought together noted experts to provide the most current, empirically supported techniques in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of disorders as classified by the DSM-IV-TR. Coverage ranges from disorders seen in early infancy and childhood through the adolescent and adult years. Disorders covered include: * Autism * ADHD * Substance abuse * Schizophrenia * Mood disorders * Anxiety disorders * Eating disorders * Sexual disorders * Personality disorders * Mental Retardation Written and organized in an accessible style, Social Work in Mental Health: An Evidence-Based Approach provides helping professionals with an engaging and easy-to-follow guide to learning how to deliver the most up-to-date mental health care. Examples of evidence-based interventions guide the reader through the process and provide insight into the philosophy as well as the scientific basis underlying each technique and intervention presented. Chapters begin with learning objectives that alert you to the main ideas covered and conclude with provocative study questions that are designed to test your understanding while providing an opportunity for review and reinforcement of the key concepts covered. Ideal for all helping professionals--from those just starting out to the most seasoned clinician--this guide is a vital reference for anyone looking to stay abreast of contemporary techniques in the delivery of mental health services.

Autism, which includes Asperger syndrome, is a lifelong condition which affects the way in which people interact with the world around them. There are estimated to be 400,000 adults with autism in England, many of whom may require specialised support. Yet the NAO found that most NHS organisations and local authorities do not know how many people with autism there are in the areas they serve, and three quarters of local authorities do not have a specific commissioning strategy for adults with autism. GPs and social care staff have low awareness of autism and how to diagnose it, with 80 per cent of GPs surveyed reporting that they need additional guidance and training in order to identify and treat patients with autism more effectively. Around 200,000 adults with autism do not have a learning disability. This group often fails to secure appropriate support, as health and social care services are traditionally configured for people with a learning disability, a physical illness or disability, or a mental health problem (which autism is not). Three quarters of local authorities said adults with autism who do not meet eligibility criteria experience or report difficulties accessing the services they require. Almost two thirds felt that current services for adults with autism are limited. Providing specialised support could improve outcomes for this group of people and their carers, and potentially enhance value for money, as the costs of establishing such support could be outweighed over time by overall savings. There are few specialised employment support services for people with autism. A lack of understanding of autism is a significant barrier to gaining employment and more training is needed for those delivering employment support and those administering benefits.

What we think must inform what we do, argue the editors and authors of this cutting-edge social work textbook. In this innovative, expansive and wide-ranging collection, leading social work thinkers engage with social work traditions to bridge social work theory and practice and arrive at social work praxis: a uniting of critical thought and ethical action. Critical Social Work Praxis is organized into sixteen sections, each reflecting a critical social work tradition or approach. Each section has a theory chapter, which succinctly outlines the tradition’s main concepts or tenets, a praxis chapter, which shows how the theory informs social work practice, and a commentary chapter, which provides a critical analysis of the tensions and difficulties of the approach. The text helps students understand how to extend theory into praxis and gives instructors critical new tools and discussion ideas. This book is the result of decades of experience teaching social work theory and praxis and is a comprehensive teaching and learning tool for the critical social work classroom.

This new edition of Mental Health Social Work in Context continues to be an authoritative, evidence based introduction to an area of specialism chosen by many social work students. Grounded in the social models of mental health particularly relevant to qualifying social workers, but also familiarising students with social aspects of medical perspectives, this core text helps to prepare students for practice and to develop their knowledge around: promoting the social inclusion of people with mental health problems the changing context of multidisciplinary mental health services an integrated evidence base for practice working with people with mental health problems across the life course. In this new edition the author has reflected on the impact of the global recession and austerity policies, both on the mental health of the population but also the much sharper conditions and reduced services within which social workers are now operating. This fully updated 2nd edition is an essential textbook for all social work students taking undergraduate and postgraduate qualifying degrees, and will also be invaluable for practitioners undertaking post-qualifying awards in mental health social work.

This is the story of an anti-racist campaign staged by social workers and allied health professionals which encourages readers to consider their own possibilities for anti-racist action. The murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and subsequent expression of anger, frustration and grief at the continued existence of racism led to more sophisticated and honest conversations about racism and its impact. Social work also started to recognise its own problem with racist systems and its failure as a profession that strives for social justice to have addressed this in any meaningful way. The Anti-Racist Social Worker describe a successful campaign of anti-racist direct action that was staged by a small group of social workers and occupational therapists. The opening chapter tells the story of the campaign from the coming together of the campaign group to the concluding day of action. Subsequent chapters are written by campaign members at different stages of their career, from student social worker to Chief Social Worker for England. Each describes journeys to and stories of anti-racist activism. These stories are about either the writers’ experiences of racism and how this translated into action or their growing understanding of the impact of racism and subsequent decision to take personal action. Importantly, each chapter offers a personal case study and therefore a suggestion of individual anti-racist action that can be taken by social workers. The Anti-Racist Social Worker is a call for action told through individual stories. It shows how those in social care and allied health professions can contribute in a meaningful way to the creation of the change we need and encourages everyone to consider their own roles in dismantling racism.

Understanding sensory needs is fundamental for social work and care management practice. Social workers are trained to reflect on their own practice, make useful application of theory and promote anti-discriminatory practice at all times. This book will assist students in identifying people who have a sensory need and enable them to have the knowledge, skills and values to address this. Designed specifically to encourage students to build confidence and develop skills essential to best practice, this book is specifically structured to address all aspects of sensory need.

This research investigates the processes of the identification of Autistic adults, with the view of many seeking a diagnosis being unaware of what the process entails or potential effects so as to make more informed decisions. Additionally, individuals who have been through these processes often do not have a benchmark with which to measure their experiences. This ethical research uses emancipatory and participatory methods, the literature review is rigorous, for example obtaining rare historical documents by Hans Asperger and Leo Kanner, whilst the research is within the framework of autism as a concept and how these have very real consequences for individuals and families to which this pertains. Many participants voiced their feelings of the need for further research particularly in the areas of identity and perception, with recognition that where neurological differences are present there needs to be different approaches to mental health as well as the importance of post-identification support.