Academics and practitioners discuss what managed care, cost containment, corporatization, and pre-payment portend for the field of social work, in papers from a January 1995 conference. Papers are arranged in sections on health policy and social work, social work practice issues in health, developments in health social work research, and social work administration in changing health care organizations, with section introductions. Topics include HIV programs for adolescents, the role of research in health and mental health social work, and hospital social work and community care. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
This is the first comprehensive book that provides accessible, international knowledge for practitioners, students and academics about social work in health emergencies and spans fields of practice across world regions with particular reference to the COVID-19 pandemic. Divided into three sections: • Regional, Historical and Social Work Perspectives takes a journey through world regions during the first six months of the pandemic as it unfolded, explores the lessons found in the history of pandemics and situates public health social work practice in the values of the profession. Situating the diversity of challenges and opportunities in context, in turn, influences current and future social work practice. • Social Work Practice, Issues and Responses explores social work practice innovations and responses across eleven key practice fields. International authors feature social work responses during the COVID-19 health emergency from different regions of the world. • Preparing for the Future analyses broader concepts, innovations and the implications for future practices as social work enters a new era of service delivery. The 20 chapters explore the convergence of pandemic, politics and planet which is critiqued within a framework of the profession’s ethics and values of human dignity, human rights and social justice. Social work’s place in public health is firmly situated and built on the premise that the value social work brings to the table deserves recognition and should be documented to inform the development of the profession and future practice and how social work must carry lessons forward to prepare for the next pandemic. The book is relevant to a wide range of audiences, including practitioners, educators and students in social work, human services, international development and public health, as well as policy makers and researchers.
In the new health care environment, social workers are being called upon to act as case managers, coordinators, evaluators, therapists, and researchers. International Perspectives on Social Work in Health Care brings together academics and practitioners to discuss what managed care, cost containment, corporatization, and pre-payment portend for social work’s survival. Its explanatory pages will help you understand the need for skills in networking, mediation, and advocacy, how to link communities and institutions, and how to conceptualize, quantify, and measure the outcomes of social work interventions. In an effort to transcend traditional organizational and intellectual boundaries, International Perspectives on Social Work in Health Care explores conflicts inherent to social work, the need for new theoretical and practice models, social work administration in changing health care organizations, and developments in health social work research. Seeking to unite policy and practice, this guidebook addresses key issues, trends, and innovations in social work, including: services that enhance community health the transformation of health care in the U.S. into a market commodity a broader approach to health and health care to correct gender biases lifestyle changes and health promotion helping clients overcome patterns of denial, fear, and anger individual casework vs. group/community practice patterns of social work service provision in a rehabilitation hospital environment the effects of heterosexism on health and mental health services to lesbian and gay clients International Perspectives on Social Work in Health Care acts as a forum for contributing authors and readers to exchange and gain information and learn from each others’experiences and expertise. This is the book to help social work academics, educators, and practitioners work together to meet the demands and challenges of the increasingly complex health care environment.
This book is a follow up to Social Capital and Health (2008), edited by Kawachi, Subramanian & Kim. Global Perspectives on Social Capital and Health provides a timely update on emerging topics in a fast-growing field, and features contributions from an outstanding international team of scholars, selected from a diverse range of disciplinary backgrounds including: social epidemiology, medical geography, social psychology, social welfare and gerontology, pediatrics, political science, economics, and medical sociology. The book is organized in three parts: Part 1. Emerging directions in social capital research. This section highlights novel directions in social capital research. These include: a) novel settings for conducting research on social capital (workplaces, schools), b) new approaches for causal inference in social capital (instrumental variable analysis, twin fixed effects designs); c) cutting-edge directions for social capital research, including studies of the origins of community social capital, the use of social network analysis to investigate social capital, and novel methods for investigating the link between social capital and crime. Part 2. Social capital and health policy. The three chapters in this section highlight implications of social capital for interventions and health policy. Part 3. Social capital and health in global perspective The four chapters in this section look at research on social capital and health from a global perspective. The authors summarize the empirical studies on social capital and health conducted in each country/region, or each population group; discuss how the concept of social capital “translates” across different cultures; and identify challenges and future directions for research.
International Social Work: Issues, Strategies, and Programs, Second Edition draws together the practice wisdom emerging within the broad scope of international social work practice and its role in contributing to the international community's efforts in combating the major global social problems of poverty, conflict and postconflict reconstruction, the development of countries and disadvantaged populations, migration and displacement, and the needs of specific populations such as child soldiers and AIDS orphans. Utilizing an integrated perspectives approach incorporating global, human rights, ecological and social development perspectives, the International Social Work, 2e is designed to prepare social workers, human services professionals, development practitioners who desire to play significant roles in responding to modern global challenges that are critical to the well-being of people, communities, nations and ultimately of us all.
Social Workers Affecting Social Policy is the first book to undertake a cross-national study of social worker engagement in social-policy formulation processes. At its core, it asks how social workers influence social policy in various national settings. It offers insights into social worker involvement in policy change, the social work discourse, and education in different countries. It will be of interest to social work practitioners, students, educators, and researchers, as well as to social-policy scholars.
Health Care Social Work aims to directly empower health care social workers around the world by providing valuable new information about the breadth and depth of the profession's health care contributions, legislative and policy influences upon practice, and implications for future practice and growth in different nations. Written by scholars and practitioners of health care social work from around the world, chapters encourage comparative analysis of distant health care social work practice as a means of supporting meaningful change on a local level and contributing to public health in a way that transcends boundaries and makes a difference globally. Readers will gain an opportunity to examine their assumptions about health care social work practice and reflect meaningfully upon less familiar techniques and approaches as a way of prompting problem-solving with an expanded frame of reference.
Health care support workers (HSWs) play a fundamental role in international health care systems, and yet they remain largely invisible. Despite this, the number of HSWs is growing fast as governments strive to combat illness and address social care issues in a world of finite resources. This original collection analyses the global experience of HSWs in the UK, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Portugal, Sweden and The Netherlands. Leading academics examine issues including the interface of HSWs with the health professions, regulatory practice risks, employment challenges and the dilemmas of an ageing population. Crucial future policy recommendations are also made for a world becoming increasingly dependent on HSWs.
Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction: defining the area -- 1: Educating for the social professions - an international perspective -- 2: The international social work scene -- 3: The state, welfare and social work -- 4: International perspectives on 'the family' -- 5: Poverty - a global problem -- 6: Migration and refugees -- 7: Disasters in international perspective -- 8: Some conclusions and indications for the future -- References -- General index -- Index of authors cited
The United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world, but it is far from the healthiest. Although life expectancy and survival rates in the United States have improved dramatically over the past century, Americans live shorter lives and experience more injuries and illnesses than people in other high-income countries. The U.S. health disadvantage cannot be attributed solely to the adverse health status of racial or ethnic minorities or poor people: even highly advantaged Americans are in worse health than their counterparts in other, "peer" countries. In light of the new and growing evidence about the U.S. health disadvantage, the National Institutes of Health asked the National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to convene a panel of experts to study the issue. The Panel on Understanding Cross-National Health Differences Among High-Income Countries examined whether the U.S. health disadvantage exists across the life span, considered potential explanations, and assessed the larger implications of the findings. U.S. Health in International Perspective presents detailed evidence on the issue, explores the possible explanations for the shorter and less healthy lives of Americans than those of people in comparable countries, and recommends actions by both government and nongovernment agencies and organizations to address the U.S. health disadvantage.