Social workers need to work with fathers across many service systems, but lack guidance on how to do so, and most engagement, assessment, and intervention work for family-serving systems is mother- and child-focused. Father-inclusive readings and resources are also limited. Drawing on the expertise of well-regarded research and practice experts in the field, this comprehensive book provides guidance to social work practitioners and researchers on how to engage, assess, and serve fathers. Instructors can use the text to include fathers in courses on the human behavior and social environment, family systems, clinical practice, diversity, or service systems. Social service systems, unfortunately, have often struggled to positively engage men as parents. Recent demographic trends indicate that fathers are providing more direct care to children and single-father households are one of the most rapidly growing demographic groups in the United States. Barriers to their successful engagement include biases and assumptions about men and fathers, a lack of father-friendly policies and practices in the field, limited training on how to work with fathers, and relatively limited father-inclusive social work research until recently. This book addresses these barriers. It is a guide to social workers in their efforts to better serve men as parents, and does so from an ecological and systems perspective. Multiple case examples and practical tools are provided, as well as specific content on major social service systems. Topics explored include: Father Engagement Organizational "Father Friendly" Assessments Interventions with Fathers Setting the Course for Future Theory, Research, and Practice with Fathers Social Work Practice with Fathers: Engagement, Assessment, and Intervention is a book that could be folded into foundation courses in social work or used by practitioners in the field. It is an essential text for graduate students in social work, psychology, sociology, child development, allied health, and similar disciplines and professions, and a go-to resource for helping professionals/practitioners such as social workers, psychologists, and licensed professional counselors. Advanced undergraduate students in these disciplines and professions also will find the text useful in their studies and work.

This book, about involuntary commitment proceedings, focuses on interpretive practice at the nexus of legal, psychiatric, and practical reasoning. It describes the interactional dynamics through which legally and psychiatrically warranted decisions are publicly argued, negotiated, and justified.

This book on end of life examines how to include people with intellectual and developmental disability in the inevitability of dying and death. Comprising 17 chapters, it addresses challenging and under-researched topics including suicide, do-not-resuscitate, advance care planning, death doulas and accessible funerals. Topics reflect everyday community, palliative care, hospice and disability services. The book proposes that the rights of people with disabilities should be supported up to and after their death. Going beyond problem identification, the chapters offer positive, evidence-supported responses that translate research to practice, together with practice examples and resources grounded in lived experience. The book is applicable to readers from the disability field, and mainstream health professionals who assist people with disability in emergency care, palliative care or end-of-life planning

This book aims to present an alternative view of humanitarian action. It adds to current conversations and dilemmas within the humanitarian sphere by departing from traditional views that consider humanitarian interventions as a concrete human activity aimed at providing relief to disaster victims. Much differently, it invokes the idea that humanitarian action is also a cognitive process. In this process, both humanitarians and disaster survivors alike, unknowingly, apply historically, societally, and culturally defined symbolic constructions to make sense of post-disaster information and to make decisions. In the specific case of humanitarian workers, these symbolic constructions influence how they understand their post-disaster reality, including how they relate to those they consider to be in pain or distress. This way of looking at humanitarian action builds upon a robust theoretical framework called Institutional Logics, which helps us identify and interpret how individuals make sense of their reality. So it brings the complex world of the individual into a discussion that generally considers the organization as the unit of analysis. Studying humanitarian action through this alternative lens makes it easy to see that objective and verifiable post-disaster information is a necessary but not a sufficient condition to design humanitarian interventions, let alone assess their value and benefits. A Symbolic Approach to Humanitarian Action: It Takes One to Know One aims to bridge the gap between research and practice in humanitarian action by translating academic knowledge into an accessible format that can be used by practitioners to improve their work on the ground.

This unique textbook enables social work practitioners to gain a deeper understanding of how Islamic principles inform and influence the lives of Muslim populations. Designed to support work with families and faith communities, this completely revised and updated edition examines religious precepts, cosmologies, philosophies and daily practices, while acknowledging cultural variants and population heterogeneity. It includes a comprehensive update of the research literature, international case studies, and new sections on religious extremism and ageing and end-of-life. This is the only book specifically on social work with Muslim communities and provides an essential toolkit for culturally sensitive social work practice.

Social work is under unprecedented pressure as a result of funding cuts, political interventions, marketisation and welfare transformations which, combined, are dramatically reshaping the relationship between individuals and the welfare state. A wide range of distinguished academics provide a comprehensive analysis of the evolving challenges facing contemporary social work, reflecting on both the existential and ideological threats to the profession. As well as the chief practice areas of child protection, adult care and mental health, contributors also examine practice issues surrounding older people, neoliberalism, neo-eugenics and the refugee crisis. This book offers concrete policy proposals for the future of the profession alongside valuable solutions which students and practitioners can action on the ground.

Social Work Ethics on the Line discusses social work ethics in-depth and the process of making ethical judgements in social work practice. This much-needed book guides social workers through ethical dilemmas and assists them in their exercise of professional discretion without exclusive reliance on the codes of professional ethics to which they are committed. The author proposes a method to lead social workers through making ethical decisions which enables them to evaluate decisions in actual practice and in the adjudication of grievances and complaints of unethical conduct. This method is fully demonstrated in twenty-four vignettes representing situations commonly encountered by social workers in a variety of professional and educational situations. Raising the ethical consciousness of social work practitioners, trainees, and students, this book helps them develop the awareness and skills necessary for choosing ethical actions in their work. Social Work Ethics on the Line is an invaluable guide for social work practitioners, supervisors, administrators, and community organization workers. It is also helpful for in-service training in social agencies and undergraduate and graduate schools of social work.

On Vulnerability maps out an array of perspectives for critically examining the nature of vulnerability, its unequal patterning across different social groups, alongside the everyday social processes that render us vulnerable - interactions, identity and group dynamics. Each chapter equips the reader with a particular sensitising framework for navigating and questioning what it means to be vulnerable or how people cope amid vulnerability. From deviance, stigma and the spoiling or fracturing of identity, to perspectives such as intersectionality, risk, emotions and the vulnerable body, the book traces the theoretical roots of these different analytical lenses, before applying these through illuminating examples and case studies. Drawing on scholarship across more interpretative, analytic and critical traditions, the chapters combine into a multi-dimensional toolkit which will enable the study of the cultural meanings of vulnerability, the political-economic factors that shape its patterning, with a critical sensibility for 'unlearning' many assumptions, therefore challenging our sense of who is, or who can be, vulnerable. This book is designed to equip undergraduate and post-graduate students and researchers across the social, health and human sciences, aiding them as they study and question the experiences and structures of vulnerability in our social world.

This much-needed book presents an introduction and overview of multicultural AIDS issues in social work practice. In a culturally diverse nation, it is essential that professionals look at AIDS within a cultural context in order to find the most effective treatment and prevention strategies for everyone. Emphasizing this need for a culturally sensitive approach, Multicultural Human Services for AIDS Treatment and Prevention increases social workers'often limited knowledge and experience with various social and ethnic groups. It provides specific suggestions and recommendations for program development and acts as a foundation upon which to build new strategies for policy, research, and practice. Multicultural Human Services for AIDS Treatment and Prevention emphasizes the importance of encouraging and sharing research that addresses AIDS and minority populations and assessing prevention, education, and behavioral change strategies from culturally specific and relevant perspectives. It includes chapters focusing on African Americans, Native American Indians, Hawaiians, Puerto Ricans, and Mexican prostitutes--groups that often suffer disproportionately from poverty and its myriad effects. Some topics discussed in the book are: helping clients reduce cultural dissonance how to enhance behavior change child welfare and permanency planning empowerment of clients and health care models knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors regarding HIV/AIDS cultural contradictions and ambivalence in response to AIDSMulticultural Human Services for AIDS Treatment and Prevention is an extremely useful and informative book for all professionals in social work and human services who want to be better prepared to help all groups of people. The book is also an ideal text for upper-level social work students studying topics such as multicultural issues in social work practice, AIDS in a cultural context, and health policy and health care systems.

This book considers the responses of states to migrant girls who are separated from family and enter state care systems as unaccompanied or trafficked young people. The book draws on research with girls and social work practitioners in the UK to explore what can happen when separated girls encounter professionals at borders and within care systems. It considers how separated girls adapt to different ideas of what it means to be a girl in destination countries, and how this is affected by their other intersecting identities. The book identifies how girls can feel welcomed, but also how young migrants can be seen in excluding ways. It argues that narratives of the fragile 'refugee child' are unhelpful ways to understand individual girls. Using theories and clear language relevant to both academics and practitioners, the author fills a gap in the research on migrant and trafficked young women who frequently represent the minority in care systems globally.

Through change and development, human service organizations can promote the well-being of their clients more effectively. This important book describes and analyzes recent research on organizational change and development in the social and human services. It is particularly relevant in light of the significant changes in these organizations during the last decade and the lack of literature in the area. Organizational Change and Development in Human Service Organizations brings together the work of scholars who deal with social welfare administration and change in human services, combining research studies with theoretical approaches to change and development. It helps readers better understand the process of change and the role of the environment in creating change. Insightful chapters encourage practitioners, scholars, and students to plan change in organizations, utilize models of change and organizational development in real life, and evaluate change and its results and impacts.This much-needed book addresses a variety of topics, including: the uses of force field analysis in assessing prospects for organizational change planned change in voluntary and government social service agencies interorganizational coordination of services to children in state custody early stages in the creation of self-help organizations organization and community transformation organizational development in public social services strategic and structural change in human service organizations a developmental approach to program evaluation Many readers will find the information in Organizational Change and Development in Human Service Organizations to be extremely beneficial in their daily work. Covering the important issues, it gives readers a deeper insight into the processes of change and development so they can provide better services to their clients. This book is a vital resource for social workers, professionals in public administration, individuals involved in MSW programs, and students in the social sciences, including sociology and political science.

This newly updated and streamlined edition of Group Psychotherapy with Addicted Populations provides proven strategies for combating alcohol and drug addiction through group psychotherapy. The interventions discussed in the book build on a foundation of addiction as an attachment disorder rooted in the understanding of addiction as a family disease. An appreciation of group and organizational dynamics is used to address the complex experience of developmental trauma that underlies addiction. Having identified the essential theoretical underpinnings of supporting recovery from addiction, the second half of the book gives a thorough nuts and bolts description of constructing a psychotherapy group and engaging productively in the successive phases of its development from initiation of treatment to termination. The book concludes with specific recommendations for group psychotherapists to increase their competence with groups, deepen their appreciation of group and organizational dynamics and develop a community of support for their own well-being. These methods are important for psychotherapists working with addicted populations who are inexperienced with group psychotherapy as well as seasoned group psychotherapists wishing to enhance their work.

Multigenerational Family Therapy is a book about honoring and helping families. Rich with personal reflections and anecdotes from the author's many years as a family therapist, this volume's major strength lies in its precise definition of the process and content of the therapy itself. As the family is the major resource system available to an individual, this important book provides therapists with the keys for helping family members help each other and provides a framework for understanding how the family, as a multigenerational system, moves through various stages of the therapeutic process. By emphasizing the importance of family members utilizing the past as a positive force for change and featuring complete transcripts of family therapy sessions, this sensitive book clearly illustrates how therapists can use the positive forces of family for dealing with today's uncertainties and dilemmas. The step-by-step approach details how family therapists can work with families in a positive, healing manner. Several chapters illustrate the transition from the beginning to middle phases of family therapy to the terminating phase and provide a framework for how therapy evolves over time. Other chapters discuss the special skills required to work with various family constellations, such as couples, parents with children, siblings, adult children with aged parents, and individuals as well as extended family members. Helpful advice on how to deal with special issues and dilemmas of family therapy such as secret-keeping, affairs, co-therapy, crises and emergencies is also included in this comprehensive book. Beginning and advanced family therapy practitioners, students of family theory and therapy, faculty of social work practice, clinical psychology, nursing, family life education, and counseling psychology will find many positive ideas for working with families in this detailed book.

All settings where disturbed children spend time, such as camps or residential schools, are periodically faced with crisis situations. Methods for dealing with these crises and for counseling the children involved are continually needed. Crisis Intervention in Residential Treatment is both a demonstration of how essential Fritz Redl's treatment concepts remain today and a tribute to his genius. The authors bring order and reason to the quest for better ways to understand and respond to confrontation and aggression in residential treatment settings. They provide practical and successful strategies to cope with these situations and prevent them from occurring. By exploring and expanding some of Redl's most important theories and practices, the authors encourage a new generation of child care workers to find the same stimulation and satisfaction in his work as his original followers found. The contributors, each deeply affected and influenced in his or her own way by Redl, provide not only a moving tribute to a great child care worker and innovator, but also a rejuvenation of some of the most valued ideas in the field.Sharing Redl's concern for daily practice with very difficult youngsters, this understanding book focuses on the action setting and the development of theory from practice, not the application of theory to practice. By concentrating on such topics as the use of life space interviewing, aggression and counter-aggression in staff, and the contrast of interpersonal and ecological perspectives with current "get tough" approaches, Crisis Intervention in Residential Treatment is an eminently useful guide for everyone dealing with children in group settings. Psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, teachers, and residential personnel will all learn effective ways of coping with and preventing crisis situations.

This seminal book in the literature of child protective services stimulates critical thinking and informed discussion for those professionals and educators concerned with the quality of children's protective services. The first book of its kind to present scholarly reports on false allegations, Assessing Child Maltreatment Reports tackles the age-old problem of deciding which reports, verbal or written, represent truth and which represent falsehood. When one deals with accusations in the area of child maltreatment, special problems are posed. This vital resource brings home the complexity and seriousness of confronting the need to separate true reports from false reports. Given the serious consequences of reports of maltreatment, determining the accuracy or inaccuracy of such reports is of major critical importance to all concerned and the parents, children, and professionals directly involved. This book deals effectively and practically with the everyday work of assessing the validity and reliability of maltreatment reports and guides professionals through rough waters of finding truth with helpful research.This courageous book provides hope for establishing a deeper understanding of the broad system of child protection and consequently, enables professionals to better handle individual crises and cases. Containing a range of chapters--authored by leading academic researchers and practitioners in child welfare services in the United States--which examine the policy and practice issues related to false allegations of child abuse and neglect, this volume provides guideposts for further research and discussion. College and university students in child welfare and related programs, human service practitioners working in child protective and welfare services, and the larger public--both parents and professionals working with children--who have an interest in this important issue, will find Assessing Child Maltreatment Reports a compassionate approach to a sensitive issue.

This book provides a concise-yet-comprehensive overview of the broad-ranging topics in the field of violence and aggression. It uses a functional approach that acknowledges the evolutionary, cultural, and operant nature of violence and aggression. The book defines the nature of different forms of violence and aggression; examines epidemiology and risk factors; describes biological, cultural and individual causes; and discusses individual and societal prevention and treatment. Key areas of coverage include: Epidemiology of violence and aggression. Biological and social causes of violence and aggression. Cultural interventions, psychotherapies, and individual biological interventions. The effects of violence and aggression in special populations. Violence and Aggression: Integrating Theory, Research, and Practice is a must-have resource for researchers, academics, and upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in forensic psychology, public health, criminology/criminal justice, developmental psychology, psychotherapy/counseling, psychiatry, social work, educational policy and politics, health psychology, nursing, and behavioral therapy/rehabilitation.

This book demonstrates the central role of ethical character in effective social work practice. Showcasing select biographies of social workers, it reveals how skilled practitioners have developed such core virtues as compassion, love, commitment, prudence, respect for human dignity and a critical sense of social justice through the course of their working lives, and how they apply these virtues in a wide variety of settings and situations to enhance the well-being of the people and communities they work with. As such, the book offers a powerful and inspiring resource to help educators, students and practitioners understand the unbreakable link between what social workers and other social welfare and social development professionals do and who they are, and thereby cultivate core qualities that should be promoted. "Pawar, Hugman, Alexandra and Anscombe have found a novel and creative way to explore virtues in social work by examining the career contributions of a group of social work practitioners engaged in 'virtuous action'. Their stories are inspiring and they provide much-needed role models for students and practitioners embarking on empowering practice" - Dr. Mel Gray, Professor of Social Work, The University of Newcastle. New South Wales, Australia. "In an age where the virtues of truth, cooperation and "doing the right thing" are increasingly being eroded in public life, this book serves as both an inspiration and invaluable resource to all social work practitioners seeking to reflect on, and improve their practice" - Dr. Martin Ryan, Social Worker, Counsellor/Community Educator, Jesuit Social Services, Melbourne. "The editors are to be commended for examining the virtuous characters of these ten professional social workers. The use of detailed biographies is an innovative and important approach which helps us to appreciate just what a tremendous impact the virtues can have." - Dr. Christian B. Miller, A. C. Reid Professor of Philosophy, Director, The Character Project, Wake Forest University, USA.

This book examines the reasons for which children join terrorist movements and how they eventually become peace activists fighting the very crimes that they once committed. The transformation of child terrorists into peace activists has received scant attention from academics and practitioners alike. Particular focus is placed on child jihadism, child terrorism in Africa and Latin America, child separatist terrorism, and White child supremacism. These five groups of child terrorists represent about 80% of the problem across the world. The text serves as a primer for anti-terrorism and peace activism for global social change. It includes original, applied research and features personal accounts from former child terrorists who became peace activists themselves. One of the nine chapters provides an in-depth thematic analysis of the lives of 24 subjects (from all five aforementioned groups). The analysis produced four main themes that encapsulate the time and effort that it takes to become a peace activist today: metamorphosis, terrorist behavior, disillusionment, and anti-terrorist behavior. The book ends with multiple solutions from the perspective of social work, including the reintegration of former child terrorists into society. From Child Terrorism to Peace Activism is a resource of deep and broad appeal. The text is essential reading for upper-level undergraduate and Master's students in political science, military studies, international relations, international law, and peace and conflict studies. It can be pertinent reading for students and instructors in international social work contemplating social work-related solutions to rehabilitate former child terrorists and child soldiers into society through peace activism, anti-terrorist endeavors, and other socio-psychological methods that will produce social change. The text also would appeal to faculty and students in childhood studies with an interest in child terrorism, child development, and child trauma and resilience. Given the essentials, depth, and possibilities that the book offers, it is a useful resource for audiences within counterterrorism institutes, national security agencies, and academic think-tanks. Information on motives, strategies, radicalization processes, and recruitment methods used by terrorist organizations as well as their effects on various audiences will draw readers from law enforcement agencies and institutions.

This volume explores methods for studying child maltreatment in the context of neighborhoods and communities, given their importance in the lives of families. It discusses the ways in which neighborhoods have changed over time and how this that has impacted parenting in the modern context. It also highlights the ways in which policies have contributed to persistent poverty and inequality, which indirectly impacts child maltreatment. An important focus of this volume is to examine the multitude of ways in which the neighborhood context affects families, including structural factors like poverty, segregation, residential instability, and process factors like social cohesion. The volume takes a critical look at the ways in which culture and context affect maltreatment through a community-based approach, and uses this approach to understand child maltreatment in rural areas. The editors and contributors explore innovative prevention approaches and reflect on the future of this field in terms of what remains unknown, how the information should be used to guide policy in the future, and how practitioners can best support parents while being mindful of the importance of context. Addressing an important topic, this volume is of relevance and interest to a wide readership of scholars and students in the social and behavioral sciences, as well as to practitioners and policy makers working with neighborhoods and communities.

Focusing on a program ("Homebuilders") that has attracted national attention, this book develops implications for family-centered curricula in such areas as social policy, direct practice, program design/management, practice research, theory and prevention.

This book offers an antidote to the "medicalization" of health care and observes the special needs of socioeconomically disadvantaged persons with respect to health. It is useful for practitioners in the fields of mental health, family and child welfare, gerontology, and industrial practice.

Intimate partner violence is a complex, ugly, fear-inducing reality for large numbers of women around the world. When violence exists in a relationship, safety is compromised, shame abounds, and peace evaporates. Violence is learned behavior and it flourishes most when it is ignored, minimized, or misunderstood. When it strikes the homes of deeply religious women, they are: more vulnerable; more likely to believe that their abusive partners can, and will, change; less likely to leave a violent home, temporarily or forever; often reluctant to seek outside sources of assistance; and frequently disappointed by the response of the religious leader to their call for help. These women often believe they are called by God to endure the suffering, to forgive (and to keep on forgiving) their abuser, and to fulfill their marital vows until death do us part. Concurrently, many batterers employ explicitly religious language to justify the violence towards their partners, and sometime they manipulate spiritual leaders who try to offer them help. Religion and Intimate Partner Violence seeks to navigate the relatively unchartered waters of intimate partner violence in families of deep faith. The program of research on which it is based spans over twenty-five years, and includes a wide variety of specific studies involving religious leaders, congregations, battered women, men in batterer intervention programs, and the army of workers who assist families impacted by abuse, including criminal justice workers, therapeutic staff, advocacy workers, and religious leaders. The authors provide a rich and colorful portrayal of the intersection of intimate partner violence and religious beliefs and practices that inform and interweave throughout daily life. Such a focus on lived religion enables readers to isolate, examine, and evaluate ways in which religion both augments and thwarts the journey towards justice, accountability, healing and wholeness for women and men caught in the web of intimate partner violence.

"If a child falls victim to a crime, or becomes witness to it, they may well be questioned by the police. Perhaps even tasked with selecting a suspect from a line-up. But how reliable can a child be under such strenuous circumstances? In this book, Dr. Ben Cotterill explores practices and influences that can increase or decrease the accuracy of children's testimonies. Memory mechanisms and general developmental factors behind the capability of child witnesses are outlined, demonstrating their ability to describe or identify. Factors that affect jurors' perception of said children are also looked into in detail.There have been many instances in which poor interviewing practices with children led to false imprisonments. Said occurrences demonstrate how both situational factors and individual differences can potentially compromise children's eyewitness performance. Based upon what we now understand, can recommendations be made, so that, in a court of law, innocence is the key to achieving justice?