You are here

  1. Home
  2. Social work methods

Social work methods

What's in a name? The implications of diagnosis for people with learning difficulties and their family carers

Diagnosis plays a significant role in the shaping of individual identities and the quality of life for people with learning difficulties and their family carers. Diagnostic labels are constitutive of peoples' lives, in that they bring forth pathology, create problemsaturated stories and construct careers as patients and cases. Disabled identities of people with learning difficulties remain largely ‘embodied’ and within the definitional control of professionals.

Thu, 07/20/2017 - 15:20

Across the divide

This article focuses on the urgent need to develop social work practice, specifically to systemise the learning which is available from professional interventions with service users and carers. It outlines the value of the task-centred model and method as described in 'The Task-Centred Book' which articulates the experiences of practitioners and service users in a systematic way.

Thu, 07/20/2017 - 15:17

The experience and practice of approved social workers in Northern Ireland

This article reports on the first extensive survey of Approved Social Worker (ASW) activity under the Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986. The integrated health and social services organizational structure, the adverse effects on individual mental health of the legacy of thirty years of civil conflict and the move from hospital to community care are significant features which have influenced the delivery of mental health social work services locally.

Thu, 07/20/2017 - 15:16

Crisis intervention: a practice model for people who have dementia and their carers

Crisis intervention represents a neglected intervention model in contemporary UK social work practice. It is often misunderstood and maligned as simply a reaction to inadequate resources. This paper explores the merits and power of crisis intervention for positive social work practice with people who have dementia and their carers.

Thu, 07/20/2017 - 15:15

Would palliative care patients benefit from social workers’ retaining the traditional ‘casework’ role rather than Working as care managers?: a prospective serial qualitative interview study

Social workers have made a significant contribution to the development and delivery of palliative care. Both palliative care and social work are rapidly evolving but, given their changing contexts and increasing workloads, can they sustain compatibility? Advances in treatment of life-threatening illness mean that people live longer in a period of palliative care.

Thu, 07/20/2017 - 15:15

A strengths perspective in working with people with Alzheimer’s disease

This article presents a case study contrasting the disease orientation and strengths perspective, and describing how strengths perspectives can be used to utilize the assets and strengths that each person with dementia retains in order to improve both the quality of care and the quality of life for the person with demetia and his or her family carers.

Thu, 07/20/2017 - 15:14

Matter of discourse

Caregiving within families is often complex and can be fraught with relationship difficulties. Paying attention to the way people speak about care, relationships and difficulties can shed light on how practitioners can fruitfully work with caregivers and care-receivers. Looks at how a sound understanding of language through discourse analysis can help social workers in their practice.

Thu, 07/20/2017 - 15:08