A conceptual and practical presentation of the strengths perspective in social work. Part of the Advancing Core Competencies Series, a unique series that helps students taking advanced social work courses apply CSWE's core competencies and practice behaviours examples to specialised fields of practice. The Strengths Perspective in Social Work Practice, 6th edition, presents both conceptual and practical elements of the strengths perspective - from learning about and practicing the strengths perspective to using the strengths perspective with older adults, the chronically ill, and substance abusers. Many of the chapters address recent events -from the tragic shooting in Tucson to the uprisings in the Middle East. Each chapter begins with a section from an expert in the field. A better teaching and learning experience This program will provide a better teaching and learning experience--for you and your students. Here's how: Improve Critical Thinking - Each chapter contains four critical thinking questions and two short essay questions that require the reader to apply key concepts. Engage Students - Extensive case examples keep students interested and help them see a connection between theory and practice. Explore Current Issues - Three new chapters have been added to reflect the most current knowledge in the field. Apply CSWE Core Competencies - The text integrates the 2008 CSWE EPAS, with critical thinking questions and practice tests to assess student understanding and development of competencies and practice behaviours.

First published in 1982, Professional Power and Social Welfare examines the nature, extent and significance of professional power in the broad area of social welfare. Paul Wilding fills a major gap in the literature of the welfare professions. He looks at the power of the professions in policymaking, in resource allocation, their power over people, their power to define needs and problems, and their limited accountability. He analyses the basis of this power, and reviews criticism of the claims, achievements, knowledge and ideals of the professions. His conclusion is that the only satisfactory relationship between professions, clients and society must be one of partnership: a balance of professional, political, bureaucratic and consumer power. This book will be of interest to students of sociology and political science.

Critical Social Welfare Issues is a collection of lectures by noted social welfare experts that addresses paramount issues facing society and suggests recommendations for positive change. It is a useful handbook for social workers, psychologists, educators, health professionals, and human service administrators and a valuable text for students studying social welfare policy and social work in health care. The result of the Distinguished Lecturers Series instituted at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Critical Social Welfare Issues brings nationally recognized and outstanding social work and allied health care scholars and practitioners together for their views on topics such as: welfare reform and homelessness in the U.S. crisis in child welfare and women as victims the changing structure of African-American families the growing Hispanic population and the unique challenges they face mandatory vs. voluntary HIV testing for newborns the infrastructure of the social work profession the for-profit market system for social work and health care the future for health care professionals de-professionalization in health care professionals and the political process As the Editors explain, Critical Social Welfare Issues addresses “the rapidly changing context in the various fields of practice of professional social work and other health care areas. The crises that are identified are newly emerging and part of a long historical process which has been exacerbated by current political and economic changes and events. . . . The threat currently seems to be coming not only from governmental political forces focused to tax reductions and right wing ideologies but for the first time from the non-government sector, the for-profit market system which is projecting huge profits from health care, education, and corrections among other social welfare arenas.”

When the state punishes criminals or removes children at risk, its power is immediately apparent. However, power is also at stake when the state seeks to educate, advise, or empower citizens, and this book encourages reflection on the exercise of professional power in these less coercive encounters.

What is Professional Social Work? is a now classic analysis of social work as a discourse between three aspects of practice: social order, therapeutic and transformational perspectives. It enables social workers to analyse and value the role of social work in present-day multiprofessional social care. This completely re-written second edition explores social work's struggle to meet its claim to achieve social progress through interpersonal practice. Important features of this new edition include: § practical ways of analysing personal professional identity § understanding how social workers embody their profession in their practice with other professionals § detailed analysis of current and historical documents defining social work and social care analysis of values, agencies and global social work. This new edition will stimulate social workers, students and policy-makers in social care to think again about the valuable role social work plays in society.

First published in 1982, Professional Power and Social Welfare examines the nature, extent and significance of professional power in the broad area of social welfare. Paul Wilding fills a major gap in the literature of the welfare professions. He looks at the power of the professions in policymaking, in resource allocation, their power over people, their power to define needs and problems, and their limited accountability. He analyses the basis of this power, and reviews criticism of the claims, achievements, knowledge and ideals of the professions. His conclusion is that the only satisfactory relationship between professions, clients and society must be one of partnership: a balance of professional, political, bureaucratic and consumer power. This book will be of interest to students of sociology and political science.

The Black Power movement has often been portrayed in history and popular culture as the quintessential "bad boy" of modern black movement-making in America. Yet this impression misses the full extent of Black Power's contributions to U.S. society, especially in regard to black professionals in social work. Relying on extensive archival research and oral history interviews, Joyce M. Bell follows two groups of black social workers in the 1960s and 1970s as they mobilized Black Power ideas, strategies, and tactics to change their national professional associations. Comparing black dissenters within the National Federation of Settlements (NFS), who fought for concessions from within their organization, and those within the National Conference on Social Welfare (NCSW), who ultimately adopted a separatist strategy, she shows how the Black Power influence was central to the creation and rise of black professional associations. She also provides a nuanced approach to studying race-based movements and offers a framework for understanding the role of social movements in shaping the non-state organizations of civil society.