Group Work: Assessment, Intervention, Evaluation, is a valuable resource for all social workers, social service workers, and others in the helping professions who are excited by the challenge of group work as a service delivery model. It has been designed to meet the needs of beginning group facilitators who want to go beyond the basics of offering an enjoyable program for their members and will serve as a practical guide to designing and facilitating effective client-focused groups. It assumes that facilitators already have some knowledge of group process and dynamics, have a sense of their own strengths and needs as group facilitators in the social services field and have begun to build a repertoire of basic facilitator skills. The text provides a natural progression for those who have already had an introductory group work course and/or some limited experience in the field and who wish to increase their technical expertise in the areas of needs assessments, goal-setting, member assessments, group interventions, program design and program evaluation.

Staff burnout and work-related stress in mental health professionals cost the National Health Service not only millions of pounds each year, but also impact upon the welfare of those being cared for. Staff Support Groups in the Helping Professions takes the lead from recent Department of Health initiatives, promoting the use of staff support groups to foster emotional resilience, deal with potential conflict and support reflective practice. In this book Hartley, Kennard and their contributors explore the influences that help and hinder the setting up and running of staff support groups, and attempt to counter the often negative reactions that the term 'staff support' can evoke. They demonstrate that such support groups can be a sophisticated and valuable intervention that needs careful preparation and skilful management to succeed, and will in turn not only benefit the individual, but also the department as a whole and those that they care for. Contributors share their experiences of facilitating support groups in a number of settings including: psychiatric wards therapeutic communities social services schools children's homes. Containing a wealth of case material, Staff Support Groups in the Helping Professions will provide much-needed guidance for those professionals attending, managing, or in the process of setting up a staff support group.

Social systems occur in many contexts of social work. This book provides an easy-to-read introduction to systems thinking for social workers who will encounter social problems in their professional practice or academic research. It offers new insights and fresh perspectives on this familiar topic and invites creative, critical, and empathetic thinking with a systems perspective. Through introducing systems theory as a problem-oriented approach for dealing with complex interpersonal relations and social systems, this book provides a framework for studying social relations. The authors present a strand of systems theory (inspired by sociologist Niklas Luhmann) that offers innovative, surprising, and practically relevant understandings of everyday social life, inclusion/exclusion, social problems, interventions, and society in general. Systems Theory for Social Work and the Helping Professions should be considered essential reading for all social work students taking modules on sociology and social policy as well as students of nursing, medicine, counselling, and occupational health and therapy.

This text presents an evidence-based approach to the theory and practice of group work. Renowned counselor, psychologist, and group work fellow Dr. Robert K. Conyne advances this unique and evolving service in a three-part, comprehensive overview of the skills necessary for trainees of counseling and other helping professionals to succeed in group settings. Section I covers the breadth and foundations of group work; best practice and ethical considerations; dynamics and processes in group work; and how groups tend to develop over time. Section II explores group work leadership styles, methods, techniques, and strategies, as well as both traditional and innovative group work theories. Section III examines the role of reflection in group practice, as well as selecting effective intervention strategies in various settings. Group Work Leadership: An Introduction for Helpers is part of the Counseling and Professional Identity series, which targets the development of specific competencies as identified by CACREP (Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs).

Written specifically for non-clinical undergraduate students, but also relevant to graduate studies in helping professions, Skills for Helping Professionals, by Anne M. Geroski focuses on helping students develop the skills they need to effectively initiate and maintain helping relationships. After exploring the literature identifying critical components of helping relationships and briefly reviewing developmental and helping theories, the text covers such topics as the helping process, self-awareness, and ethics in helping, and then focuses on specific helping skills such as listening and hearing, empathy, reflecting, paraphrasing, questioning, clarifying, exploring, and offering feedback, encouragement, and psycho-education. The final chapters focus on individuals in crisis and helping in groups.