SpringerBriefs in Rights-Based Approaches to Social Work – serie

Short-term study abroad experiences are on the rise across social work programs. This brief is of immediate relevance for undergraduate and graduate coursework in field education, international social work, human rights, global social work, and macro social work, as well as useful for any practitioner seeking CSWE accreditation.

A transformative model for community social work rooted in basic social and economic rights is the basis of this timely Brief. With specific chapters spotlighting the rights to health care, nutritious food, and adequate and affordable housing, the book describes in depth the role of community practice in securing rights for underserved and vulnerable groups and models key aspects of rights-based work such as empowerment, participation, and collaboration. Case examples relate local struggles to larger regional and statewide campaigns, illustrating ways the book's framework can inform policymakers and improve social structures in the larger community. This rights-based perspective contrasts sharply with the deficits-based approach commonly employed in community social work, and has the potential to inspire new strategies for addressing systemic social inequality.Features of Human Rights-Based Community Practice in the United States:A conceptual basis for a rights-based approach to community practice.Detailed analysis of legal and social barriers to health care, housing, and food.Examples of effective and emerging rights-based community interventions.Methods for assessing the state of human rights at the community level.Documents, discussion questions, resource lists, and other valuable tools.

This groundbreaking Brief brings a rights-based perspective to social work as opposed to the charity- and needs-based formats traditional to the field. Core principles for effective practice are discussed in the context of global human rights advocacy, from addressing individuals' immediate issues to challenging the structures that allow continued injustices to marginalized populations. Focusing specifically on interventions with survivors (and some perpetrators) of torture, human trafficking, and domestic violence, coverage explores and explodes myths about these issues--some of which survivors themselves may believe--and illustrates the immediate application and long-term benefits of rights-based therapy. Case examples, discussion questions, resource links, and a clinician self-care section reinforce the salience of this approach, modeling practice that is ethical in its outlook and empowering in its healing. Clinician skills emphasized in Human Rights-Based Approaches to Clinical Social Work: Reframing client needs as human rights.Cultural humility versus cultural competence.Building the therapeutic relationship and reconstructing safety.Developing trauma-informed practice and avoiding re-traumatization.Forensic and activist roles for social workers.Burnout prevention for practitioners.

This brief resource sets out a rights-based framework forpolicy analysis that allows social workers to enhance their long-term vision aswell as their current practice. It introduces the emerging P.A.N.E.(Participation, Accountability, Non-discrimination, Equity) model for evaluatingsocial policy, comparing it with the traditional needs-based charity model interms of not only effectiveness and efficiency but also inclusion and justice. Recognizedstandards for human rights are used to identify values crucial to informing policygoals. Exercises, key documents, and an extended example illustrate both the processesof creating empowering social policy and its best and most meaningful outcomes.Included in the coverage:Rights-basedand needs-based approaches to social policy analysis.Regionaland international human rights instruments.Groundingsocial policies in legal and institutional frameworks.Conceptualizingsocial issues from a human rights frame.Measuringprogress on the realization of human rights.Rights-basedanalysis of maternity, paternity, and parental leaves in the United States.For social workers and social work researchers, A Rights-Based Approach to Social Policy Analysisgives readers a modern platform for achieving the highest goals of thefield. It also makes a worthwhile class text for social work programs. ​

This brief introduces a human rights approach to social work research and evaluation, compares it to traditional research approaches, and explains how to apply it in real world social work research.