Social Work Diagnosis in Contemporary Practice

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, but one of the challenges for today's practitioner is keeping abreast of the rapidly expanding 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 78 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. Broad in scope and tightly focused on the goal of providing the most up-to-date information necessary for accuracy in the diagnostic process, this volume represents some of the best research available to today's social workers.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1: Sandra J. Weiss and Mary St. John Seed: Precursors of mental health problems for low birth weight children: the salience of family environment during the first year of life 2: Darla L. Henry: Resilient children: What they tell us about coping with maltreatment 3: Lauree C. Tilton-Weaver, Erin T. Vitunski and Nancy L. Galambos: Five images of maturity in adolescence: What does "grown up" mean? 4: James G. Barber, Floyd Bolitho and Lorne Bertrand: Parent-child synchrony and adolescent adjustment 5: Greer Litton Fox, Carol Bruce and Terri Combs-Orme: Parenting expectations and concerns of fathers and mothers of newborn infants 6: J. Morgan, D. Robinson and J. Aldridge: Parenting stress and externalizing child behavior 7: Shmuel Shulman, Miri Scharf, Daniel Lumer, and Offer Maurer: Parental divorce and young adult children's romantic relationships: Resolutions of the divorce experience 8: William Marsiglio, Sally Hutchinson and Mark Cohen: Envisioning fatherhood: A social psychological perspective on young men without kids 9: Kathleen A. Kost: The function of fathers: What poor men say about fatherhood 10: Deborah Rutman, Susan Strega, Marilyn Callahan and Lena Dominelli: 'Undeserving' mothers? Practitioners' experiences working with young mothers in/from care 11: Ruth Anne Van Loon: Redifining motherhood; adaptation to role change for women with AIDS 12: David Howe and Julia Feast: The long-term outcome of reunions between adult adopted people and their birth mothers 13: Karen March and Charlen Miall: Adoption as a family form 14: Kate Wilson, Ian Sinclair and Ian Gibbs: The trouble with foster care: The impact of stressful 'events' on foster carers 15: Michael C. LaSala: The importance of partners to lesbian intergenerational relationships 16: Frank Muscarella: The evolution of homoerotic behavior in humans 17: Peter S. Theodore and Susan A. Basow: Heterosexual males: A group forgotten by the profession of social work 18: Deborah P. Waldorp and Joseph A. Weber: From grandparents to care giver: The stress and satisfaction of raising grandchilren 19: Joseph A. Weber and Deborah P. Waldorp: Grandparents raising grandchildren: Families in transition 20: Cheryl D. Lee and Louanne Bakk: Later-life transitions into widowhood 21: Elizabeth MacKinlay: Understanding the ageing process: A developmental perspective of the psychosocial and spiritual dimensions 22: Ronit D. Leichtentritt: Values underlying end-of-life decisions: A qualitative approach Part II: Problem as a Component of Diagnosis: A: Problems with a Mental Illness Basis 23: Natalie J. Yeschin: A new understanding of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: Alternate concepts and interventions 24: Dana Becker: When she was bad: Borderline personality disorder in a posttraumatic age 25: Caron Zlotnick, Jill Mattia and Mark Zimmerman: Clinical features of survivors of sexual abuse with major depression 26: Donna M. Mahoney: Panic disorder and self states: clinical and research illustrations 27: Dianne W. Trumbull: Obsessive-compulsive symptomatology: A goal-directed response to anticipated traumatization? 28: Catherine N. Dulmus and Nancy J. Smyth: Early-onset schizophrenia: A literature review of empirically-based interventions B: Problems of a Psychosocial Nature 29: Bonnie Brandl and Deborah L. Horan: Domestic violence in later life: An overview for health care providers 30: Deborah Fisk, Michael Rowe, Dori Laub, Lisa Calvocoressi and Kathleen DeMino: Homeless persons with mental illness and their families: Emerging issues from clinical work 31: Joseph Walsh: Shyness and social phobia: A social work perspective on a problem in living 32: Sophia F. Dziegielewski and Jamie A. Eater: Smoking cessation: Increasing practice understanding and time-limited intervention strategy 33: Shari A. Sinwelski and Linda Vinton: Stalking: The constant threat of violence 34: Faye Mishna, Beverly J. Antle and Cheryl Regehr: Social work with clients comteplating suicide: Complexity and ambiguity in the clinical, ethical, and legal considerations 35: Bruce Greyson: Posttraumatic stress symptoms following near-death experiences 36: James Garbarino: Lost boys: Why our sons turn violent and how we can save them C: Problems with a Physical Basis 37: Charles A. Emlet and Kathleen J. Farkas: A descriptive analysis of older adults with HIV/AIDS in California 38: Hasida Ben-Zur, Batya Rappaport, Ronny Ammar and Gideon Uretzky: Coping strategies, life style changes, and pessimsm after open-heart surgery 39: Miguel O. Aguayo and Nick F. Coady: The experience of deafened adults: Implications for rehabilitation services 40: Vaughn A. DeCoster: Challenges of Type 2 diabetes and role of health care social work: A neglected area of practice 41: Judith Dobrof, Arlene Dolinko, Elena Lichtiger, Jaime Uribarri and Irwin Epstein: 42: Dorothea Marie Epple: Senile dimentia of the Alzheimer type Part III: Elements of Diversity to be Addressed in Our Diagnosis 43: Femi Ojo-Ade: Africans and racisms in the New Millennium 44: Anna Y. Nobles and Daniel T. Sciarra: Cultural determinants in the treatment of Arab Americans: A primer for mainstream therapists 45: Cecilia Chan, Petula Sik Ying Ho and Esther Chow: A body-mind-spirit model in health: An Eastern approach 46: David R. Hodge: Does social work oppress Evangelical Christians? A "new class" of society and social work 47: Anne K. Carruth and Cynthia A. Logan: Depressive symptoms in farm women: Effects of health status and farming life style characteristics, behaviors and beliefs 48: Kathleen Valtonen: Social work with immigrants and refugees: Developing a participation-based framework for anti-oppressive practice 49: Donna E. Hurdle: Native Hawaiian traditional healing: Culturally based interventions for social work practice 50: Robert G. Malgady and Luis H. Zayas: Cultural and linguistic considerations in psychodiagnosis with Hispanics: The need for an empirically informed process model 51: Joanne Levine: Working with victims of persecution: Lessons from Holocaust survivors 52: Cora Vellekoop Baldock: Migrants and their parents: Care giving from a distance 53: Ronald E. Hall: Biracial sensitive practice: Expanding social services to an invisible population 54: Kevin Avruch: Constructing ethnicity: Culture and ethnic conflict in the New World Disorder 55: S. Sudha and Elizabeth J. Mutran: Race and ethnicity, nativity and issues of health care 56: James E. Dobbins and Judith H. Skillings: Racism as a clinical syndrome 57: Terry B. Northcut: Constructing a place for religion and spirituality in psychodynamic practice 58: Michael Sheppard: Mental health and social justice: Gender, race and psychological consequences of unfairness 59: Nancy A. Ryan-Wenger: Impact of the threat of war on children in military families 60: Andrew I. Batavia and Richard L. Beaulaurier: Part IV: What Does Our Diagnosis Lead Us to Do? 61: Guylaine Racine and Odile Sevigny: Changing the rules: A board game lets homeless women tell their stories 62: Verba Fanolis: The use of crisis teams in response to violent or critical incidents in schools 63: Ann Goelitz: Nurturing life with dreams: Therapeutic dream work with cancer patients 64: Howard Protinsky, Jennifer Sparks and Kimberly Flemke: Using eye movement desensitization to enhance treatment of couples 65: Jim Lantz: Depression, existential family therapy, and Victor Frankl's dimensional ontology 66: Faye Mishna, Barbara Muskat, and Gerald Schamess: Food for thought: The use of food in group therapy with children and adolescents 67: Donna Hurdle: "Less is best"-- a group-based treatment program for persons with personality disorders 68: Ming-sum Tsui: The harm reduction approach revisited: An international perspective 69: Christina E. Newhill and Edward W. Sites: Identifying human remains following an air disaster: The role of social work 70: Leah Lipton: Long distance psychoanalysis 71: F. Diane Barth: Money as a tool for negotiating separateness and connectedness in the therapeutic relationship 72: Cigal Knei-Paz and David S. Ribner: A narrative perspective on "doing" for multiproblem families 73: Helen Ebenstein and Jennifer Wortham: The value of pets in geriatric practice: A program example 74: Scott E. Rutledge, Roger A. Roffman, Christine Mahoney, Joseph F. Picciana, James P. Berghuis, and Seth C. Kalichman: Motivational enhancement counseling strategies in delivering a telephone-based brief HIV prevention intervention 75: Herbert S. Stream: Resolving therapeutic impasses by using the supervisor's countertransference 76: Donald A. Gordon: Parent training via CD-ROM: Using technology to dessiminate effective prevention practices 77: Donald N. Noble, Kathleen Perkins and Marian Fatout: On being a strength coach: Child welfare and the strengths model 78: David Derezotes: Evaluation of yoga and meditation with adolescent sex offenders

Review :
"This volume can be useful to novice and experienced clinicians alike to quickly refresh their memories...easily accessible and is an important reference for any clinician."--Social Work Today "This excellent contribution will be sure to enhance our understanding of diagnosis."-Florence Vigilante, Hunter College School of Social Work and Senior Editor, Journal of Teaching in Social Work "An extraordinary achievement and the author has my congratulations and gratitude for producing what will prove to be the essential guidebook for social work practitioners." --Barbara Thomlison, Florida International University "A resource that honors the profession."-Gerald Schamess, Smith College "This reference of 782 narrative pages extends over a breadth of diverse topics relevant to social work diagnosis and hence practice...a significant addition to any social worker's professional library."--Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare "This volume can be useful to novice and experienced clinicians alike to quickly refresh their memories...easily accessible and is an important reference for any clinician."--Social Work Today "A must have and a must read for every social work educator, student, and practitioner."-G. Brent Angell, University of Windsor "This volume continues Dr. Turner's work to encourage excellence in clinical social work and to guide professionals and students in understanding the importance of diagnosis."-Kathleen J. Farkas, Case Western Reserve University "These essays offer important guidelines for today's social workers. Taken together they present diagnosis not as an intellectual conclusion but as a relationship-based process." -Eric Sainsbury, University of Sheffield "A rich and impressive collection."-John R. Graham, University of Calgary "An extraordinary achievement and the author has my congratulations and gratitude for producing what will prove to be the essential guidebook for social work practitioners."-Barbara Thomlison, Florida International University "This excellent contribution will be sure to enhance our understanding of diagnosis."-Florence Vigilante, Hunter College School of Social Work and Senior Editor, Journal of Teaching in Social Work "A resource that honors the profession." -Gerald Schamess, Smith College "This reference of 782 narrative pages extends over a breadth of diverse topics relevant to social work diagnosis and hence practice...a significant addition to any social worker's professional library."--Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare