Routledge Child Welfare: Preparing Social Workers for Practice in the Field

Child Welfare: Preparing Social Workers for Practice in the Field is a comprehensive text for child welfare courses taught from a social work perspective. This textbook provides a single source for all material necessary for a contextual child welfare course. As well as combining history, theory, and practice, the authors integrate different practice perspectives to teach social workers how to engage children and families at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels. Covering both broad issues, such as child welfare, child maltreatment, and responses to child maltreatment, and current issues in social care, including mandated reporting and evidence-based policy prevention and preservation, the material is designed to meet the needs of social work students entering the child welfare workforce. Child Welfare provides students in social work courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels with a single source for all material necessary to successfully navigate their studies and careers. Review The authors have taken a vast range of relevant material and delivered an enlightening and provocative resource for students and others dealing with the complexities of child welfare today. Daniel Pollack, Professor, Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Yeshiva University. Child Welfare: Preparing Social Workers for Practice in the Field is a comprehensive and practical blending of theory, practice, and policy in this critical arena of social work. The authors use multiple case examples and describe pertinent court decisions to explain the evolution and challenges of child welfare services. The examples bring cases to life and worksheets and drawings illustrate the kinds of tasks with which social workers must deal. I was particularly impressed with the discussion about mandated reporting, assessment using the person-in-environment model, and the difficulties of youth aging out of foster care. I believe that the book represents a solid addition to the knowledge base of social work and that students will find it compelling reading. Grafton H. Hull Jr, Professor Emeritus at the University of Utah College of Social Work   About the Author Kathryn Krase, Associate Professor of Social Work in the Wurzweiler School of Social Work at Yeshiva University, is an expert in the Mandated Reporting of Suspected Child Maltreatment, with many significant publications and presentations on the topic. As a lawyer, Dr. Krase represented children in Family Court for the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Tobi DeLong Hamilton, Assistant Professor and MSW Program Director in the Department of Social Work at Brandman University, has worked in the social work field for 20 years and has experience in child welfare, adoptions, medical, and psychiatric social work. She worked in private practice as a psychotherapist specializing in family and childhood problems prior to moving into higher education full time. While in private practice, she maintained a connection to public child welfare by evaluating, writing reports, and testifying as an expert witness for children in foster care.