Social Work Practice: A Critical Thinker's Guide

By Eileen Gambrill

Book Overview

Social Work Practice offers step-by-step guidelines and useful examples for each phase of practice, including assessment, intervention, and evaluation. It emphasizes the importance of critical thinking in arriving at sound decisions in all phases of social work, and encourages students to consider the context in which problems are defined and solutions are sought. Literature concerning problem solving and decision making is integrated throughout. Gambrill also offers a contextual framework in which both clients and their problems are viewed in relation to their environments. This text is organized around the decisions social workers make in their daily work with clients, including decisions about the nature of the problems clients confront, what information to gather, how to combine different sources of information, what criteria to rely on to select intervention methods, and how to evaluate practice. Content is illustrated and summarized throughout by case examples, study questions, and check lists. Controversial issues are highlighted and students are encouraged to consider how broader economic, social, and political issues contribute to personal problems. Ideal for students in social work, this text integrates theory, empirical data, and practice. It offers clear, accessible guidelines for developing practice skills and putting this knowledge to use in everyday practice.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195113322
• ISBN13: 9780195113327
• Release Date: February 1997
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 688 Pages
• Weight: 3.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.7" x 1.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Highly Recommended to Close the Gap between Research and Practice

As someone who is teaching Social Work Practice this Fall, I will be using this book as the main textbook for my class. I highly recommend that this book be carefully read by every social work practitioner. Both students and highly experienced, seasoned professionals will find much of value in this book. There has been much discussion of the gap that exists between research and social work (and other mental health) practice and how to bridge it. Until now, in spite of all the discussion about evidence-based practice, little has been written in practical terms, on how a social worker or other mental health professional would go about actually conducting evidence-based practice. This book gives very practical, detailed ways in which to engage in evidence-based practice and encourages social workers to think critically about what they do in practice, rather than just passively accept notions and interventions handed down by authorities. This book helps social workers to question, think deeply, identify their own philosophical positions, and evaluate the evidence (or lack thereof) that supports what they do. Although the book is centered around social work practice, other mental health professionals could also greatly benefit from reading it. For anyone who has ever wondered how evidence-base practice is done, this is the book for you.