Open University Press Social Work Skills: A Practice Handbook

This text provides a detailed description of over 50 social work skills, with case examples of their creative use in evidence-based practice. The book takes as its starting point the view that social work is a skilled activity but one that is uniquely located in "no-win" situations, caught in a tension between conflicting and sometimes incompatible needs and expectations. These tensions call for critical thinking and balanced and judicious decision-making across a range of fundamental issues such as the rights of parents and the needs of the child; acknowledging the needs of carers alongside those of their "dependents"; weighing individual freedom against the risk to society. In order to address often severe and enduring problems and complex situations social workers need to have at their fingertips a "toolbox" of practice skills in order to help people to move their lives forward. Giving a name to these skills and being able to identify and demonstrate their effective use in evidence-based practice is a central theme of this text and one which provides an important and timely contribution to the literature on social work theory and practice. About the Author Dr Pamela Trevithick is Visiting Professor in Social Work at Buckinghamshire New University, UK and the Chair of GAPS, a membership organisation promoting relationship-based approaches, and psychodynamic and systemic thinking in social work. She lectures widely in the UK and abroad on a range of issues relating to effective social work practice.