Family Systems Application to Social Work Training and Clinical Practice

Originally published in 1991, this title is a valuable social work text which demonstrated how to apply family system concepts to clinical situations encountered in work with inner-city populations at the time. Unlike traditional theories in clinical social work which were oriented toward the individual, this fascinating book offers a paradigm for social work that encompasses the client, his or her immediate and extended family, the community, the government, and the social worker. The family systems concepts in this refreshing volume are illustrated by case examples addressing the specific issues of AIDS and drug abuse, homelessness, foster care, wife abuse, care of those with intellectual disabilities, and adoption issues. Social workers and social work students can still gain perspective from these insightful chapters and will discover that it is not pathological people that make difficult populations, but difficult life situations that breed pathology.

Karen Gail Lewis Introduction Part 1: Training 1. D. Ray Bardill Family Systems Thinking and the Social Work Dean 2. Harry J. Aponte Training on the Person of the Therapist for Work with the Poor and Minorities 3. Roberta Tonti Teaching Family Systems Therapy to Social Work Students 4. Mildred Flashman Training Social Workers in Public Welfare: Some Useful Family Concepts Part 2: Clinical 5. Gillian Walker and Sippio Small AIDS, Crack, Poverty, and Race in the African-American Community: The Need for an Ecosystemic Approach 6. Elizabeth M. Tracy and James R. McDonell Home Based Work with Families: The Environmental Context of Family Intervention 7. Insoo Kim Berg and Larry Hopwood Doing with Very Little: Treatment of Homeless Substance Abusers 8. Barbara Lou Fenby The Community Residence as a Family: In the Name of the Father 9. Karen Gail Lewis A Three Step Plan for African-American Families Involved with Foster Care: Sibling Therapy, Mothers’ Group Therapy, Family Therapy 10. Ann Hartman Every Clinical Social Worker is in Post-Adoption Practice 11. Dennis Balcom Shame and Violence: Considerations in Couples’ Treatment 12. Myrtle Parnell and Jo VanderKloot Mental Health Services – 2001: Serving a New America. Index

Lewis, Karen Gail