This volume is the first book-length explication of hermeneutics in social work. It attempts to clarify and reconstruct the moral basis of social work. Against the mainstream current of doing social work with the technical-rational outlook, this book argues that value constitutes the very core of social work. It is with this solid foundation of moral concepts that social work techniques are reconstituted. This volume seamlessly combines theoretical discussions with empirical studies. It starts with a theoretical inquiry that combines hermeneutics and critical theory and examines the moral nature of social work. It then extends the theoretical analysis to empirical research on mental illness, cancer, community development and social work management. Redefining the relationship between theory and practice, the discussion on first-person value involvement and dialogical mode of understanding will inspire social workers to develop their professional practice in a new light. This volume will capture the attention of both social work scholars and frontline social work practitioners. The hermeneutic point of view will also be of interest to readers/students of social theory and social research.

One Hundred Years of Social Work is the first comprehensive history of social work as a profession in English Canada. Organized chronologically, it provides a critical and compelling look at the internal struggles and debates in the social work profession over the course of a century and investigates the responses of social workers to several important events. A central theme in the book is the long-standing struggle of the professional association (the Canadian Association of Social Workers) and individual social workers to reconcile advancement of professional status with the promotion social action. The book chronicles the early history of the secularization and professionalization of social work and examines social workers roles during both world wars, the Depression, and in the era of postwar reconstruction. It includes sections on civil defence, the Cold War, unionization, social work education, regulation of the profession, and other key developments up to the end of the twentieth century. Drawing on extensive archival research as well as personal interviews and secondary literature, the authors provide strong academic evidence of a profession that has endured many important changes and continues to advocate for a just society and a responsive social welfare state. One Hundred Years of Social Work will be of interest to social workers, social work students and educators, social historians, professional associations and anyone interested in understanding the complex nature of people and institutions.

The growing older people population and their increasing needs for care is now presenting significant difficulties to both national government and local authorities because of constriction of formal caregivers and family units. Inevitably a change of this magnitude within the complex system in which older people services operate everywhere attracts a range of responses from the very enthusiastic to the very dismissive and hostile response. Thus, family directed support care system would provide the possibilities to bridge the gaps within health and social care and the delivery of personalisation for later care for older people in their own home. Older people is no longer interested to be cared in an institutional settings but, wish their care to be provided by those they know well and who are familiar with their needs and standards they are used to.

"This book will explore practical and political ways in which social work practice has been updated and reconstructed both in its relational approach to the work with its clients and in contexts which differ greatly from those customary focus occupied by mainstream human service organisations and government agencies covering the welfare and other relevant areas of program delivery"--

This contributed volume offers a holistic understanding of social work practice in deprived communities through its thematization of understanding deprived communities globally, the development of competencies for social work practice in and with deprived communities, social work education as a community development tool, and the empowerment of social workers in deprived communities. Inequality as a globally recognized challenge is extensively elaborated within the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Global Agenda program for social work, making this a timely and important contribution to the literature. Deprived communities, used in this book to mean slums, ghettos, favelas, and low-income, remote, underserved, vulnerable, impoverished, underdeveloped, disadvantaged, or less-favoured communities, exist worldwide and are conceptualized under different terms and concepts. For that reason, social work, specifically in deprived areas, is not sufficiently recognized as a specific field of practice within community work. As a result, this volume features contributions that: provide a conceptual clarification of many different terms that are used for describing deprived communities and offer a systematic literature review on community processes and effects on well-being in underdeveloped communities; map different fields of social work involvement in deprived communities with concrete practice examples; and, stress why social work as a profession needs support and how it can be empowered to improve its capacities in deprived communities. With international authorship and perspectives on social work approaches for deprived communities from India, Sub-Saharan Africa, North and Central Europe, and North America, Practicing Social Work in Deprived Communities is an essential resource for social workers, social work educators, and community development practitioners. The text also should be of interest to students of social work, as well as other professionals and researchers working within community development and deprived communities.

The book offers unique access to theoretical approaches and practical examples of international social work in the context of war and conflicts. The reader gains knowledge about the competences and role of social work, which contributes to mitigating the effects of war and conflict. The book raises the question of how to connect international social work with local approaches and offers suggestions for a development of social work with respect to exchanging knowledge and experiences between the West and the East, the Global North and the Global South. It furthermore discusses the role of social work in reducing the problem of gender-based violence and in the methods of peacebuilding processes in post-war and post-conflict societies.

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.