The COVID-19 pandemic has shed fresh light on the ways that social media and digital technologies can be effectively harnessed to support relationship-based social work practice. However, it has also highlighted the complex risks, ethics and practical challenges that such technologies pose. This book helps practitioners and students navigate this complex terrain and explore and build upon its multiple opportunities. It uses real-life examples to examine how practitioners can assess the impact of new technologies on their professional conduct and use them in a way that enhance public confidence and relationship-based practice. The authors explore how digital technologies can support multiple areas of service including social work with children, families and adults, mental health social work, youth justice and working with online communities. They also consider regulatory questions and provide a roadmap for good practice.
This book will help students develop their understanding of how the internet is impacting on social work education and practice in 21st century. Essential reading for students interested in the influence of digital technology and social media, including the impact of digital divides, this book looks at how the value-base of social work can have a positive effect on service users and carers who engage with digital services.
How are we to understand how the dominance of visual images and representations in late modernity affects Social Work practice, research and education? Social workers are increasingly using still and moving images to illustrate their work, to create new knowledge, and to further specific groups’ interests. As a profession in which communication is central, visual practices are becoming ever more significant as they seek to carry out their work with, and for, the marginalised and disenfranchised. It is time for the profession to gain more critical, analytical, and practical knowledge of visual culture and communication, in order to use and create images in accordance with its central principle of social justice. That requires an understanding of them beyond representation. As important as this is, it is also where the profession’s scholarly work in this area has remained and halted, and thus understanding of the work of images in our practices is limited. In order to more fully understand images and their effects – both ideologically and experientially – social workers need to bring to bear other areas of study such as reception studies, visual phenomenology, and the gaze. These other analytical frames enable a consideration not only of images per se, but also of their effect on the viewer, the human spectators, and the subjects at the heart of Social Work. By bringing understandings and experiences in Film, Media, and Communications, Visual Communication for Social Work Practice provides the reader with a wide range of critically analytical frames for practitioners, activists, educators, and researchers as they use and create images. This invites a deeper knowledge and familiarity with the power dimensions of the image, thus aligning with the social justice dimension of Social Work. Examples are provided from cinema, popular media, but more importantly from Social Work practitioners themselves to demonstrate what has already been made possible as they create and use images to further the interpersonal, communal, and justice dimensions of their work. This book will be of interest to scholars, students, and social workers, particularly those with an interest in critical and creative methodologies.
The criminal justice system, with its complex policies and procedures and its focus on deterrence, punishment, and rehabilitation, can be a difficult system to understand. Social Work Practice in the Criminal Justice System presents an overview of the criminal justice system, exploring the network of systems which comprise it. Integrating social work values and a commitment to social justice, this textbook explores how social workers can practice to address social problems within the criminal justice system and promotes the development of knowledge, skills and critical reflection in this increasingly important area of practice. In addition to covering the four key areas for social work practice – law enforcement, courts, corrections, and legislation – it covers: Alternative programs and services Special populations – such as juveniles, women and sex offenders Special topics – such as reoffending, wrongful conviction and racial disparities The application of evidence-based practice principles in criminal justice. Looking at the challenges and opportunities of social work practice in the criminal justice system, this is the ideal text for social work instructors, students and practitioners working with or within the criminal justice system. Each chapter includes a summary of social work practice implications, key terms, and suggested further reading.
This book was written to help social work educators make pedagogically sound, rational, practical, and ethical decisions about integrating technology into their social work programs and across the curriculum. It covers a range of essential topics, from understanding digital literacy skills to ethical implications for technology in social work practice; from technology in the traditional classroom to fully online teaching environments. Case studies, real-world examples, and technology tips are part of each chapter, and checklists show how technology is integrated with the Council on Social Work Education's EPAS competencies, the NASW's Code of Ethics, and other social work practice standards and guidelines. Appendices provide a wealth of practical materials.
Social workers represent the largest body of addiction and mental health service providers, and there is a consistent need for up-to-date information. Social Work Practice in the Addictions is a comprehensive evidence-based volume. Contributing authors of this volume have been carefully selected to ensure representation of the leading social work addiction researchers. Additionally, researchers from other allied fields, including psychiatry, psychology, and public health, will also be involved to ensure a strong interdisciplinary perspective. Unlike other texts on addiction, this book incorporates ideas of social justice, practice with diverse communities, and ethics to represent the entire knowledge base of social work.
There has been a recent growth in the use of social media tools in social work education. This edited text presents a series of chapters which discuss social media activities and how they can contribute to student learning, and social work practice. The contributors, all innovators in the use of social media, introduce the landscape and discuss how social media activities have begun to impact on both social work education and on practice. The professional codes of practice and the values and ethics questions such activities can raise are introduced and explored across the chapters. Packed with practical examples and exercises, this innovative textbooks is a useful tool for students, practitioners and academics new to using social media in their teaching.
Creating Change in Social Work Practice: Four Essential Tools is strategically designed to help readers hone their ability to understand and create change within their social work practice. The text employs the Knowledge, Ability, and Skill model to assist readers in conceptualizing, envisioning, and creating change. Readers learn to identify the various stages in the process of creating change, as well as how to handle the challenges of change and plan appropriate treatment for change. Each chapter explores the history and efficacy of a featured tool, underscores its unique components and characteristics, provides readers with activities to develop their ability to use the tool, and offers assessments to ensure they know how to effectively exercise all of the pieces of the tool. The specific tools introduced throughout the text include: the conceptualization of change using the Transtheoretical Model to understand behavioral change; creating change using the Solution-Focused Approach; combating challenges to change through Motivational Interviewing; and finally, treatment planning for change. The closing chapter consists of advanced case studies and activities designed to build upon the ability gained from each chapter and foster mastery of the tools. Creating Change in Social Work Practice is an ideal supplementary text for undergraduate and graduate-level courses in the discipline. Practitioners in the field can also utilize this text to enhance and strengthen their personal practice. Philip Mongan is an associate professor of social work and the graduate coordinator of the Master of Social Work Program at Radford University.
Should you respond to friend requests from service users? How can you be sure that your own online profile is secure? Do service users understand the global and permanent nature of social media posts? Mapped against UK regulatory bodies’ standards this book responds to new complex issues raised by social media. Joanne Westwood draws on evidence and contemporary examples from practice to contextualise developments in social media and outline how this has shaped social work practice in recent years. She unpicks the potential pitfalls and opportunities social media presents for individual practice, organisations and service users. After using the case study questions, quizzes and reflective activities you will be able to confidently apply your knowledge of the 4 key issues: · privacy · confidentiality · regulation · professional ethics and values
