Social Work Program Resources: Background Info

The Comprehensive Handbook of Social Work and Social Welfare presents a comprehensive and up-to-date review of this constantly evolving field, featuring contributions from renowned national and international experts. Organized by major foundational areas within the social work curriculum, each volume includes cutting-edge information related to all aspects of the profession to guide practice and policy decision-making across the field. Social work researchers, educators, practitioners, and students will gain important insight as well as practical resources related to this dynamic profession.

A new, completely updated, revised and expanded 20th edition of this essential work coming February 2008 -- Order now and take advantage of our special prepublication price! Oxford University Press and The National Association of Social Workers are proud to announce that a new, completely updated, revised and expanded 20th edition of this essential work will publish in February 2008. The 400 articles this 4-volume set cover all aspects of social work from practice andinterventions, social environments, social conditions and challenges, to social policy and history. This new edition of the Encylcopedia includes coverage of areas that have come to the fore since the 1995 publication of the 19th edition, including demographic changes from immigration, technology, the implications of managed care, faith-based assistance, evidence-based practice, gerontology, andtrauma and disaster. Each thoughtful article is written and signed by a top academic or social work practitioner and includes a bibliography for further reading. For even further ease of use, all volumes are fully cross-referenced and includes a complete Index. This convenient and authoritative core reference work is an essential tool for fact-finding, studying for licensing exams, supplementing course work, initiating literature searches, and supporting practice decisions. The Encyclopedia presents an in-depth look at the ever-changing field of socialwork. The foundation of any social work collection, the Encyclopedia will be a treasured addition to the library of practitioner, scholar, and student alike.

One of the key challenges of all types of practice and research is finding a way to measure the problem. This seminal 2-volume book contains hundreds of the most useful measurement tools for use in clinical practice and in research. All measures are critiqued by the editors, who provide guidance on how to select and score them and the actual measures are wholly reproduced. This first volume, focusing on measures for use with couples, families, and children, includes an introduction to the basic priniciples of measurement, an overview of different types of measures, and an overview of the Rapid Assessment Inventories included herein. Volume I also contains descriptions and reviews of each instrument, as well as information on how they were selected and how to administer and score them. This book is designed as the definitive reference volume on assessment measures for both practice and research in clinical mental health. This fifth edition of Corcoran and Fischer's Measures for Clinical Practice and Research is updated with a new preface, new scales, and updated information for existing instruments, expanding and cementing its utility for members of all the helping professions, including psychology, social work, psychiatry, counseling, nursing, and medicine. Alone or as a set, these classic compendiums are powerful tools that clinicians and researchers alike will find an invaluable addition to - or update of - their libraries.

Qualitative methods are central to research conducted in Education, Nursing, Sociology, Anthropology, and other disciplines in the humanities, social sciences and health sciences. The range of methods available to researchers is very broad (e.g., interviews, focus groups, observation) and projects are informed by various approaches (e.g., phenomenology, grounded theory, discourse analysis). Students, scholars and professionals who are new to qualitative research typically need guidance in defining the boundaries of this type of research, such as selecting specific methods, knowing what types of data are appropriate for qualitative research, identifying theoretical frameworks for particular projects, etc. It is important that both novice and established scholars understand the language, culture, and paradigmatic approaches used in qualitative research, especially as interdisciplinary projects increasingly link researchers across varied fields of study. Researchers and practitioners at all levels and across disciplines need a ready-reference tool that defines and explains core concepts, describes the techniques involved in the implementation of qualitative methods, and presents an overview of this approach to research. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods (two volumes) presents state-of-the-art information and ready-to-use techniques, facts, and examples from the field of qualitative methods in a non-intimidating and accessible style. The encyclopedia is specifically written to appeal to beginning, intermediate, and advanced students, practitioners, researchers, consultants, and consumers of information across the social sciences, humanities, and health sciences. While there are ′how-to′ guides and reference texts on qualitative methods, none provide as comprehensive a resource in as focused and approachable a manner as the proposed encyclopedia. From A to Z, the entries cover every major facet of qualitative methods, from gaining access to research participants, to data coding and collection, to research ethics, to the detailed aspects of specific qualitative methods, and much more #65533; all without overwhelming the informed reader.

This book helps readers achieve the core competencies essential for social work practice.Evidence-based practice comes alive through illustrations of actual social work research. This forth edition is updated with new examples, the latest research, and expanded material on technology and qualitative methods. 

This book provides accessible, how-to instruction for carrying out rigorous qualitative research.  Readers will appreciate the book's ease of use, friendly writing style, and helpful cases/examples that combine attention to methodological rigour with pragmatic concerns for real-world relevance. 

Using the Examined Practice Model, authors Elizabeth G. DePoy and Stephen F. Gilson present research as the identification of a problem and then proceed to evaluate the efficacy of social work practice in its resolution. Diverse theories, actions, and sets of evidence from a range of professional and disciplinary perspectives are included to underscore the importance of integrating evaluation and practice in research.