Social Work Diagnosis In Contemporary Practice

Description:
The unifying theme of this broad-reaching volume is that responsible, ethical, and effective social work practice rests on the diagnostic skills of the practitioner. Social work diagnosis refers to the conscious formulation of an ongoing set of decisions about the client and his or her situation, which serve as the basis for intervention - decisions for which the practitioner must be prepared to take responsibility. Diagnostic skill development is an ongoing process principally enhanced by a continuous commitment to remain at the cutting edge of the profession's body of knowledge contained in some 200 important social work periodicals in circulation. Francis J. Turner, a preeminent clinical scholar brings together in one volume some of the best work published since 2000, each reflecting new insights into understanding psychosocial situations and innovative methods of applying knowledge and skills in an increasingly effective manner. Each of the 79 articles in this volume highlights some of the critical dimensions of contemporary social work practice, guiding clinicians to address four key aspects in order to craft an accurate diagnosis. The first section presents articles covering the developmental spectrum, each of which fully explains various ages and stages of development. The second section focuses on a range of specific situations, helping practitioners and students enrich their understanding of different types of problems they meet in contemporary practice, whether they are based in mental illness, psychosocial issues, or physical ailments. The third section addresses the crucial component of diversity, demonstrating the complexity and critical importance of truly understanding clients and their lives. The last section of the book discusses innovative approaches to practice, selected to offer practitioners easy access to the latest interventions for a host of contemporary challenges facing clients and their therapists.

Table of Contents:
Introduction; 1. Precursors of mental health problems for low birth weight children: the salience of family environment during the first year of life; 2. Resilient children: What they tell us about coping with maltreatment; 3. Five images of maturity in adolescence: What does 'grown up' mean?; 4. Parent-child synchrony and adolescent adjustment; 5. Parenting expectations and concerns of fathers and mothers of newborn infants; 6. Parenting stress and externalizing child behavior; 7. Parental divorce and young adult children's romantic relationships: Resolutions of the divorce experience; 8. Envisioning fatherhood: A social psychological perspective on young men without kids; 9. The function of fathers: What poor men say about fatherhood; 10. 'Undeserving' mothers? Practitioners' experiences working with young mothers in/from care; 11. Redifining motherhood; adaptation to role change for women with AIDS; 12. The long-term outcome of reunions between adult adopted people and their birth mothers; 13. Adoption as a family form; 14. The trouble with foster care: The impact of stressful 'events' on foster carers; 15. The importance of partners to lesbian intergenerational relationships; 16. The evolution of homoerotic behavior in humans; 17. Heterosexual males: A group forgotten by the profession of social work; 18. From grandparents to care giver: The stress and satisfaction of raising grandchilren; 19. Grandparents raising grandchildren: Families in transition; 20. Later-life transitions into widowhood; 21. Understanding the ageing process: A developmental perspective of the psychosocial and spiritual dimensions; 22. Values underlying end-of-life decisions: A qualitative approach; A. Problems with a Mental Illness Basis; 23. A new understanding of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: Alternate concepts and interventions; 24. When she was bad: Borderline personality disorder in a posttraumatic age; 25. Clinical features of survivors of sexual abuse with major depression; 26. Panic disorder and self states: clinical and research illustrations; 27. Obsessive-compulsive symptomatology: A goal-directed response to anticipated traumatization?; 28. Early-onset schizophrenia: A literature review of empirically-based interventions; B. Problems of a Psychosocial Nature; 29. Domestic violence in later life: An overview for health care providers; 30. Homeless persons with mental illness and their families: Emerging issues from clinical work; 31. Shyness and social phobia: A social work perspective on a problem in living; 32. Smoking cessation: Increasing practice understanding and time-limited intervention strategy; 33. Stalking: The constant threat of violence; 34. Social work with clients comteplating suicide: Complexity and ambiguity in the clinical, ethical, and legal considerations; 35. Posttraumatic stress symptoms following near-death experiences; 36. Lost boys: Why our sons turn violent and how we can save them; C. Problems with a Physical Basis; 37. A descriptive analysis of older adults with HIV/AIDS in California; 38. Coping strategies, life style changes, and pessimsm after open-heart surgery; 39. The experience of deafened adults: Implications for rehabilitation services; 40. Challenges of Type 2 diabetes and role of health care social work: A neglected area of practice; 42. Senile dimentia of the Alzheimer type; 43. The central executive system in people with Down's Syndrome and dementia; Part III What Elements of Diversity Need to be Addressed in Our Diagnosis?; 44. Africans and racisms in the New Millennium; 45. Cultural determinants in the treatment of Arab Americans: A primer for mainstream therapists; 46. A body-mind-spirit model in health: An Eastern approach; 47. Does social work oppress Evangelical Christians? A 'new class' of society and social work; 48. Depressive symptoms in farm women: Effects of health status and farming life style characteristics, behaviors and beliefs; 49. Social work with immigrants and refugees: Developing a participation-based framework for anti-oppressive practice; 50. Native Hawaiian traditional healing: Culturally based interventions for social work practice; 51. Cultural and linguistic considerations in psychodiagnosis with Hispanics: The need for an empirically informed process model; 52. Working with victims of persecution: Lessons from Holocaust survivors; 53. Migrants and their parents: Care giving from a distance; 54. Biracial sensitive practice: Expanding social services to an invisible population; 55. Constructing ethnicity: Culture and ethnic conflict in the New World Disorder; 56. Race and ethnicity, nativity and issues of health care; 57. Racism as a clinical syndrome; 58. Constructing a place for religion and spirituality in psychodynamic practice; 59. Mental health and social justice: Gender, race and psychological consequences of unfairness; 60. Impact of the threat of war on children in military families; Part IV What Does Our Diagnosis Lead Us to Do?; 62. Changing the rules: A board game lets homeless women tell their stories; 63. The use of crisis teams in response to violent or critical incidents in schools; 64. Nurturing life with dreams: Theraputic dream work with cancer patients; 65. Using eye movement desensitization to enhance treatment of couples; 66. Depression, existential family therapy, and Victor Frankl's dimensional ontology; 67. Food for thought: The use of food in group therapy with children and adolescents; 68. 'Less is best'-- a group-based treatment program for persons with personality disorders; 69. The harm reduction approach revisited: An international perspective; 70. Identifying human remains following an air disaster: The role of social work; 71. Long distance psychoanalysis; 72. Money as a tool for negotiating separateness and connectedness in the theraputic relationship; 73. A narrative perspective on 'doing' for multiproblem families; 74. The value of pets in geriatric practice: A program example; 75. Motivational enhancement counseling strategies in delivering a telephone-based brief HIV prevention intervention; 76. Resolving therapeutic impasses by using the supervisor's countertransference; 77. Parent training via CD-ROM: Using technology to dessiminate effective prevention practices; 78. On being a strength coach: Child welfare and the strengths model; 79. Evaluation of yoga and meditation with adolescent sex offenders