No other book has studied the phenomenon of burnout among child- and youth-care workers across so many cultures using a standard measure to pinpoint the dimensions of culture that increase or decrease burnout. This work examines the problem across 13 cultures, including England, Scotland, Germany, Austria, Israel, Canada, and the United States. Among the consistent themes that emerge are workload, work environment, social support, and coping skills. Recommendations for prevention, remediation, and recovery are offered based on research findings and a theoretical approach emphasizing positive psychology.

This volume will be of interest to scholars and researchers studying burnout in any population, as well as those focused on the more general topic of cross-cultural psychology. Human service professionals, especially those in the field of child- and youth-care work, will also find the book helpful. It will appeal also to professors and students in higher education programs training human service workers in the fields of psychology, social work, and counseling.

Radical social work is a tradition often identified exclusively with the movement which developed in the UK in the 1970s, yet as this much-needed new textbook demonstrates, the relevance of radical approaches to contemporary social work practice have never been stronger. Challenges to a neoliberal approach to social work have been gaining ground academically, and, to a lesser extent, in practice circles. This book provides a fresh understanding of the radical tradition and shows how it can be developed in contemporary social work. Using case studies and real life scenarios to illustrate the type of dilemmas faced by workers in their day-to-day practice, this book sets out the ways in which a radical social work approach can inform constructive responses.This book emphasises the need to understand the diverse lives of service users, encouraging readers to share experience and knowledge and to discuss past and present events, to build confidence in tackling injustice at individual and societal levels. As many social workers are becoming disillusioned and dissatisfied with the profession, this book promotes a practice that is rooted in a commitment to positive change and to social justice that will offer a breathe of fresh air to students and practitioners alike.

The compensating construct of resiliency, itself, has not been compared to the problem of loss of relevancy. Therefore, there is an open corridor for the enlightened therapist, career coach, or mentor to appropriately guide a troubled person with targeted challenges to transform themselves into a newly thriving being. This book explores the topic in detail with references to the literature where prior theory can be applied to advance this topic further. Anecdotal evidence supporting the authors' perspective is presented, including several brief case studies of individuals who have thrived following cessation of their prior careers.

Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2009

Relational Theory for Social Work Practice introduces social workers to the burgeoning feminist scholarship on relational theories and the practical application of these theories with diverse populations. It emphasizes the practical application of the basic relational concepts in a readable and comprehensive way, developing an approach to practice which is useful for both male and female social workers and clients.

Relational theory argues that the fundamental feature of healthy human development is the ability to form connections through relationships. Within this perspective, growth is seen as occurring within relationships rather than apart from them. Full case studies viewed through a feminist lens are integrated throughout the book. This work builds explicitly on the professional foundation of social work: mission, theory, practice skills, ethics, and values.

Helpful pedagogical features include a list of best practices for the social worker and a relational questionnaire. It will be of interest to students, researchers and professionals of social work.

Since its first issue in 1988, much interesting and inspiring material has been published in "Groupwork." Most of this still says much of use to today's groupworkers, and there is a steady stream of requests for reprints. We are therefore making back volumes of "Groupwork" available in volume form. Authors in this volume include leading academic figures in the field as well as practitioners working in the field. Any groupworker will find this material of enduring interest.

Challenging dominant discourses in neoliberal marketized societies about working with disconnected young people, this book argues that alternative, radical approaches to formal and informal education are necessary to challenge repressive practices, and to help build a more equal, socially-just society.

Furthering social justice and human rights is a fundamental principle underlying the social work profession. Engaging in social policy formulation processes is a major route through which social workers can realise this goal. This type of social work activity has been termed 'policy practice'. The aim of this book is to shed light on policy practice in social work discourse, education and practice in eight liberal democracies. This is the first effort to undertake a cross-national study of social worker engagement in social policy formulation processes. The book offers insights into questions such as 'what is the importance attributed to social worker involvement in policy change in the social work discourse and education in different countries?' and 'how do social workers influence social policy in various national settings?' These issues are relevant to social worker practitioners, students, educators and researchers, as well as to social policy scholars, who are interested in the role of professionals in social policy formulation.

This book provides a timely synthesis and discussion of recent developments in mindfulness research and practice within mental health and addiction domains. The book also discusses other Buddhist-derived interventions - such as loving-kindness meditation and compassion meditation - that are gaining momentum in clinical settings. It will be an essential text for researchers and mental health practitioners wishing to keep up-to-date with developments in mindfulness clinical research, as well as any professionals wishing to equip themselves with the necessary theoretical and practical tools to effectively utilize mindfulness in mental health and addiction settings.

This groundbreaking volume introduces the theoretical base and clinical methods of Neurocognitive Learning Therapy, an integrative framework for client-centered intervention. The model unifies psychology and neuroscience in revisiting the connections between brain and behavior, replacing the cognitive-versus-affective binary traditional to clinical thinking with a scenario of the cognitive and emotional learning processes that work together to shape adaptive and pathological behavior. This foundation in learning theory illuminates the therapeutic relationship, synching how therapists teach with how clients learn, with guidelines for educating to encourage change. The unique flexibility of the NCLT model allows practitioners across clinical orientations the freedom to apply eclectic intervention strategies that fit clients' learning styles and therapeutic needs. Included in the coverage: Neurocognitive Learning Therapy and Life Course Theory. Reward recognition in Neurocognitive Learning Therapy. Memory reconsolidation and Neurocognitive Learning Therapy. How to be an NCLT therapist. Neurocognitive Learning Therapy clinical procedures. Treating children with Neurocognitive Learning Therapy. Plus practice handouts and forms for therapists and patients. Neuropsychologists, child and school psychologists, and social workers will welcome Neurocognitive Learning Therapy not only as a source of theoretical insight into the brain and behavior, but also as an innovative system for enhancing their capacity for therapeutic teaching and their clients' capacity for learning.

A timely look at the epidemic of military suicide-and an assessment of what can be done to prevent it. Nearly every day an active-duty soldier in the United States military resorts to suicide, and nearly every hour a veteran does the same. In recent years the problem of military suicides has reached epidemic proportions, but it's all too easy for most of us to gloss over the headlines or tune out the details. In The Last and Greatest Battle-the first book devoted exclusively to the problem of military suicides-John Bateson brings this neglected crisis into the spotlight. Bateson, the former executive director of a nationally certified suicide prevention center, surveys the history of suicide in the United States military from the Civil War to the present day and outlines a plan to save lives-and ultimately end the tragedy of military suicides. He uses the stories of individual soldiers to illuminate the unique challenges faced by American troops today. Transitioning from the front lines to the home front is difficult for many service members, and many need help both during and after their deployments. But even though the military is spending millions of dollars on suicide prevention programs, record numbers of soldiers continue to take their lives. To that end, Bateson outlines a plan of action. If the military works to remove stigma, to make treatment more effective and more accessible, and to limit risk factors for suicide in the first place by taking measures like reducing the number and length of deployments and adjusting pre-deployment training to take into account the way that wars are waged today, an end to the problem of military suicide is as possible as it is essential.

Normally, our relationships with our brothers and sisters are the longest relationships in our lives, outlasting time with our parents, and most marriages today. The sibling relationship is emotionally powerful and critically important, giving us a sense of continuity throughout life. So what happens when a child loses contact not only with his or her parents, but with siblings too? That is what happens in thousands of cases each year inside the child welfare system. Children are surrendered by parents - or taken by the government - and placed in the foster care system. There, they are often separated and sent to different foster families, or adopted by different couples. In this work, a team of top experts details for us how this added separation futher traumatizes children. This stellar team of internationally known researchers - some of whom are themselves adoptees - shares with us hard, poignant, and personal insights, as well as ways we might act to solve this widespread problem.

Contributors address not only the importance of nurturing sibling bonds and mental health strategies to support those relationships, but also the legal rights of siblings to be together, as well as issues in international adoptions. Emerging and standing programs to encourage and facilitate adoptions that keep siblings together are featured, as are programs that at least enable them to stay in contact.

Religion was a vital part of women's experience in Victorian Britain. This book is the first real study of the social history and cultural significance of the sisterhoods which sprang up within Britain in the second half of the nineteenth century, where women abandoned the domestic sphere to become the prototype of the modern social worker as well as pushing back the boundaries of what women could do within the structures of the Anglican church. The sisterhood movement began with the establishment of the first convent in 1845 and grew rapidly. By 1900 more than 10,000 women had joined the only Anglican organization which offered full-time work for women of all social classes. Even more impressive than the sisterhood's rapid growth was the degree of fascination that 'protestant nunneries' had for the general public -- the movement was the focus of a vigorous and heated public debate that lasted beyond the end of the century. Based upon years of research into the archives of twenty-eight religious communities, the book offers a unique breadth of coverage which allows for the formation of a more comprehensive and accurate picture of the movement than has been possible previously. Above all, the book shows that these sisterhoods were not refuges for women who failed to find husbands; rather, they attracted women who were interested in moulding careers. So successful were they in recruiting women that by the 1860s they threatened to undermine the hegemony of the ideal of domestic life as the proper sphere for women.

Social services are under pressure from Government and the public to demonstrate the effectiveness of what they do. If the search for useable and relevant measures of effectiveness is to succeed, practitioners, managers, and policymakers must have an understanding of the underlying social science concepts such as Evidence-based practice (EBP). This concept is now promoted as a 'scientific' approach to policy and practice. However, the concept was developed in the field of medicine, and many would ask whether we can safely apply it to the messy process of social problem solving? The promotion of evidence-based practice also has implications for the content and focus of social work education and training, and for the selection and recruitment of staff and students. Evidence-based Practice and Social Work provides a comprehensive overview of developments in this field and highlight many important debates and dilemmas. Writers give clear pointers to the need for a new partnership between research, policy and practice, able to promote effective services. They suggest a more inclusive version of EBP that is better able to respond to the uncertainties of social work practice in the real world. Contents include: An empirical study of the obstacles to evidence-based practice Brian Sheldon, Professor of Applied Social Research/Director, Rupatharshini Chilvers, Annemarie Ellis, Alice Moseley, and Stephen Tierney, CEBSS, Peninsula Medical School, Exeter.The limits of positivism revisited David Smith, Professor of Social Work, Dept of Applied Social Science, University of Lancaster.A problematic relationship? Evidence and practice in the workplace Nick Frost, Senior Lecturer in Continuing Education, University of Leeds.Promoting evidence based practice in a child care charity: The Barnardo's experience Tony Newman, Principal Officer, Research and Development, and Di McNeish, Head of Research, Barnardo's, Cardiff.The Social Care Institute for Excellence: The role of a national institute in developing knowledge and practice in social care Mike Fisher Professor and Director of Research and Reviews, Social Care Institute for Excellence, London.Evidence based social work practice: A reachable goal? Frank Ainsworth, Research Scholar and Lecturer (Adjunct), School of International, Cultural and Community Studies, Edith Cowan University and Patricia Hansen, Head, Department of Social Work, Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick.Reframing an evidence-based approach to practice Stephanie Tierney, Research Assistant, CEBSS, Peninsula Medical School, Exeter.What works about what works? Fashion, fad and EBP Carolyn Taylor, Lecturer in Social Work, and Susan White, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, Department of Applied Social Science, University of Manchester

Millions of people and their families are affected by mental illness; it causes untold pain and severely impairs their ability to function in the world. In recent years, we have begun to understand and develop a range of effective treatments for mental illness. Even with this shift from moralistic views to those emphasizing the biological and genetic origins of mental illness, punitive treatment and outright rejection remain strong. Public attitudes toward mental illness are still more negative than they were half a century ago, and the majority of those afflicted either do not receive or cannot afford adequate care. As a result of all of these troubling facts, applying the term "stigma" to mental illness is particularly appropriate because stigma conveys the mark of shame borne by those in any highly devalued group.
Mental illness tops the list of stigmatized conditions in current society, generating the kinds of stereotypes, fear, and rejection that are reminiscent of longstanding attitudes toward leprosy. Mental disorders threaten stability and order, and media coverage exacerbates this situation by equating mental illness with violence. As a result, stigma is rampant, spurring family silence, discriminatory laws, and social isolation. The pain of mental illness is searing enough, but adding the layer of stigma affects personal well being, economic productivity, and public health, fueling a vicious cycle of lowered expectations, deep shame, and hopelessness.
In this groundbreaking book, Stephen Hinshaw examines the longstanding tendency to stigmatize those with mental illness. He also provides practical strategies for overcoming this serious problem, including enlightenedsocial policies that encourage, rather than discourage, contact with those afflicted, media coverage emphasizing their underlying humanity, family education, and responsive treatment.
Stigma is a deeply inspiring and passionate work that is realistic and filled with hope. It combines personal accounts with information from social and evolutionary psychology, sociology, and public policy to provide messages that are essential for anyone afflicted or familiar with mental illness.

This handbook describes evidence-based methods of assessing psychological, educational, behavioral, and developmental problems in children and adolescents. It provides state-of-the-art analyses of leading assessment tools and methods. Chapters provide an overview of childhood assessment issues, diagnostic classification systems, interviewing and report writing, traditional assessment tools and methods, such as Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA). In addition, chapters address daily living, academic, and social skills, commonly encountered psychological conditions, and developmental disorders, reviewing definitions and etiology, history of assessment and diagnosis, possible comorbid conditions, and current measures and procedures. The handbook also covers specific childhood disorders that often present assessment challenges in children, such as posttraumatic stress disorder, mood disorders, pain, and feeding and eating disorders. Topics featured in this handbook include: Adaptive and developmental behavior scales. Diagnostic classification systems and how to apply them to childhood problems and disorders. Intelligence testing and its use in childhood psychological assessment. Assessment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in persons with developmental disabilities. Self-Injurious behavior in children. Prevalence and assessment of common sleep problems in children. The Handbook of Childhood Psychopathology and Developmental Disabilities Assessment is an essential resource for researchers, graduate students, clinicians, and related therapists and professionals in clinical child and school psychology, pediatrics, social work, developmental psychology, behavioral therapy/rehabilitation, child and adolescent psychiatry, and special education.

As domestic violence continues to be a focus of social and psychological concern, two basic contradictory viewpoints endure: one rooted in male power dynamics, the other maintaining that both genders use and are victimized by violence. Although both sides have their merits, neither has adequately answered the crucial question: What causes conflict to escalate into violence?

"Partner Violence: A New Paradigm for Understanding Conflict Escalation"adds a third, escalation-focused paradigm to the debate, addressing the limitations of the two dominant perspectives in a comprehensive scholarly approach. This concise yet comprehensive volume examines key gender- and non-gender-related violence issues and sets out a compelling behavioral argument that using violence to control others is a rational choice. Its theoretical and empirical foundations support an in-depth study of escalating aggression in violent relationships, both throughout periods of chronic conflict and in single violent episodes. This analysis promotes a broader and deeper understanding of partner violence, suitable to developing more finely targeted, effective, and lasting interventions.

Among the key topics featured are: Gender differences in aggressive tendencies. Dominance, control, and violence. Partner violence as planned behavior. The process leading to partner violence. Partner conflict dynamics throughout relationship periods and within conflicts. Gender differences in escalatory intentions.

"Partner Violence" is an important volume for researchers, graduate students, and clinicians/professionals across various disciplines, including personality and social psychology, criminology, public health, clinical psychology, sociology, and social work. "

Since its first issue in 1988, much interesting and inspiring material has been published in "Groupwork." Most of this still says much of use to today's groupworkers, and there is a steady stream of requests for reprints. We are therefore making back volumes of "Groupwork" available in volume form. Authors in this volume include leading academic figures in the field as well as practitioners working in the field. Any groupworker will find this material of enduring interest.

Women come to Magdalene House in Nashville when they are ready to leave the streets. They live together, unsupervised and free of charge, for two years. During that time, the women are given time, space, and the resources they need to heal from what have often been lifelong experiences with suffering. (Of the twenty-two women now in residence, 80 percent have a diagnosed mental illness other than addiction, 40 percent are receiving treatment for hepatitis C, and one-third are HIV positive.) However, the story of the Magdalene community is not about these statistics, but about the stories the women tell. They say they thrive in the community because it is a place where they are free to be themselves, safe to give and receive love, and free to speak their truth, even to complain sometimes about how their storytelling is exploited ""for the good of the community."" A Place about Mercy is a participant-observation account of the history of this remarkable community founded in 1997, its structure, its Thistle Farms beauty products operation, and Reverend Becca Stevens's communal and spiritual vision. The book is finally about what it means to walk the path of healing with a group of unlikely women as guide. Magdalene House was the subject of a multiple-part documentary on National Public Radio.

The past decade brought forth a wave of excitement and promise for researchers and practitioners interested in community practice as an approach based on social justice principles and an embrace of community participatory actions. But, effective community practice is predicated on the availability and use of assessment methods that not only capture and report on conditions, but also simultaneously set the stage for social change efforts. This research, therefore, serves the dual purpose of generating knowledge and also being an integral part of social intervention. Research done in this way, however, requires new tools. Photovoice is one such tool - a form of visual ethnography that invites participants to represent their community or point of view through photographs, accompanied by narratives, to be shared with each other and with a broader community. Urban Youth and Photovoice focuses on the use of this method within urban settings and among adolescents and young adults - a group that is almost naturally drawn to the use of photography (especially digital and particularly in today's era of texting, facebook, and instagram) to showcase photovoice as an important qualitative research method for social workers and others in the social sciences, and providing readers with detailed theoretical and practical account of how to plan, implement, and evaluate the results of a photovoice project focused on urban youth.

Does social work theory and practice give adequate attention to the specific needs of children? Fatout contends that it does not. All too often social work focuses on the family as a whole, the individual family members, or marital pairs. Relatively little attention is given to the child and, in a world of more and more single-parent families, latchkey children, and violent methods of problem-solving among children, this shortcoming needs to be addressed. Fatout does so by providing a detailed review of the specific content, methods, and skills needed to apply group approaches to the problems of children.

Does social work theory and practice give adequate attention to the specific needs of children? Professor Fatout contends that it does not. All too often social work focuses on the family as a whole, the individual family members, or marital pairs. Relatively little attention is given to the child and, in a world of more and more single-parent families, latchkey children, and violent methods of problem-solving among children, this shortcomming needs to be addressed.

Fatout seeks to fill a void in the current literature regarding the use of specific content, methods, and skills in working with children in groups. Groups are a viable method for working with children, but little attention has been paid to this approach. There are many theories about working with groups, but practitioners must determine the priority to be given to specific aspects of the theories to make them as workable as possible with this age group. There are special content and focus issues which must be understood and applied successfully; this book provides the background and needed analysis to accomplish this. As such, it will be a valuable tool for social work students, researchers, and practitioners working with children and family issues.

Policy, Politics, and Ethics challenges readers to consider the complex social and political factors that influence policy development. Social workers and other professionals in the helping fields must critically engage with policy on both the large and small scale in order to achieve social change. While analyzing policy, professionals must always be aware of the political, organizational, and personal interests that underpin the development and implementation of any social policy. In this book, Thomas Meenaghan, Keith Kilty, Dennis Long, and John McNutt examine both the rational and the political aspects of social policy using scientific inquiry. The book focuses on the interaction between applied research methods and various social, scientific, and technological components behind policy processes. The new edition of this text will be a valuable tool to teach your students to think critically about policy. Ethical and political forces are identified as they may relate to populations and groups at risk as well as to the steps taken to address problems. The book presents a variety of methodological approaches including program evaluation, needs assessment, and cost-benefit analysis. The authors have updated the text to address CSWE competencies, and have introduced thought boxes that will guide discussion about issues and ideas.

Statistics for Social Work with SPSS provides readers with a user-friendly, evidence-based, and practical resource to help them make sense of, organize, analyze, and interpret data in contemporary contexts. It incorporates one of the most well-known statistics software applications, the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS), within each chapter to help readers integrate their knowledge either manually or with the assistance of technology. The book begins with a brief introduction to statistics and research, followed by chapters that address variables, frequency distributions, measures of central tendency, and measures of variability. Additional chapters cover probability and hypothesis testing; normal distribution and Z score; correlation; simple linear regression; one-way ANOVA; and more. Each chapter features concise, simple explanations of key terms, formulas, and calculations; study questions and answers; specific SPSS instructions on computerized computations; and evidence-based, practical examples to support the learning experience. Presenting students with highly accessible and universally understandable statistical concepts, Statistics for Social Work with SPSS is an ideal textbook for undergraduate and graduate-level courses in social work statistics, as well as research-based courses within the social and behavioral sciences.