Social Work Practice with Adults

Sally is lecturer and Programme Lead for social work at Bournemouth University. She is also undertaking research on a variety of projects including mental capacity, adult safeguarding and sexual well-being. She completed her doctoral research in 2016 exploring social work practice, physical disability and sexual well-being. This work continues and she is currently developing learning materials (including a short film) around sexual well-being for social care and health practitioners. Sally brings to her academic role extensive social work practice experience built up during more than 25 years of working in diverse practice settings and services. Her research interests focus on often marginalised populations including investigating the experience of financial abuse and the detriment to individuals and society beyond financial loss. Louise is a qualified social worker and has predominantly worked within children’s social care.  Louise is currently a lecturer in social work at Bournemouth University.  Louise completed her PhD in 2019 and her key interests are child-to-parent violence and abuse, working with disabled children and learning from the lived experience. Louise embraces biographical research methods as it illuminates the lived experiences and helps develop an understanding of social work across the life course.

The book offers an innovative approach to exploring social work practice with adults, by amplifying the voice of lived experience throughout. Inclusion of a chapter on decision-making as a key theme in adult social work was very welcome, as a was a chapter on disabled adults, often overlooked. Nevertheless, a weakness of the text is its neglect of sensory impairment mentioned only once in the entire text. This is a group often marginalised in social work literature.

• PART I: KEY CONCEPTS AND IDEASChapter 1 Key themes in social work practice with adultsChapter 2 Assessment in social work practice with adultsChapter 3: Trauma informed practice in social work with adultsChapter 4: Decision making in social work practice with adultsPART II: WORKING WITH ADULTS IN PRACTICEChapter 5: Working with mental health issuesChapter 6: Working with the Mental Capacity Act 2005Chapter 7: Working with substance useChapter 8: Working with marginalized adultsChapter 9: Working with domestic abuse and supporting adults with care and support needsChapter 10: Working with children (under the age of 18 years) who are abusive towards their parentsChapter 11: Working with disabled adultsChapter 12. Working with adults with learning disabilitiesChapter 13: Working with older adultsChapter 14: Working with adults with dementiaChapter 15: Working with adults at the end of lifeChapter 16: Working with unpaid carersConclusion