Introduction

Welcome to the world of theory and social work practice. We designed this book to help you discover and be able to use the links between theory and practice. These links will help to guide your social work practice. This book is not a human behavior book, nor is it a microskills book. We intend for it to be a book that illustrates the link between the theories in social work and the helping process that extends from engagement through termination. It is an exciting time to be in the practice of social work because human needs continue to grow and we as social work practitioners are typically on the front lines, providing what is necessary to meet those needs. Every part of the human existence is likely open for social work practice, and the types of needs change as time and technology change. For example, sex addiction via the Internet was not as prevalent 10 to 15 years ago as it is now. The economic demands on the provision of social work have also escalated. There is increasing pressure to provide measurable evidence that our practice interventions have made a difference in people's lives-and those changes sometimes have to happen fairly quickly to receive compensation to fund a program. We chose this profession because we want to help people. We can help people in many ways and at various levels of practice. The purpose of this book is to provide a foundation of the primary theories that inform social work practice, creating a knowledge base that will be critical as you ready yourself for your practice experience.

In this book, a variety of practice theories that are most commonly used in generalist practice are described, along with case examples that illustrate how theory informs what we think and what we do as social work practitioners. These theories are different from those typically found in most human behavior books; rather than describing the process of human development, practice theories focus on theoretical explanations regarding the causes of social problems and the corresponding interventions that can help foster the growth and change process. Because some instructors will prefer to discuss these theories as they developed historically and others might prefer to move from modern to postmodern perspectives, these chapters stand alone, meaning they can be read in varied orders to fit diverse ways of organizing the material. From the many theories available to us, we have carefully selected those that we think will be most useful to you as you enter practice.

Generalist Practice

This book aims to provide a link between theory and social work practice. It develops a theoretical foundation from which you can draw to serve your clients. Different lenses, or theories, are presented and coupled with practice situations, from assessment through evaluation, that are designed to assist you in increasing your understanding of the importance of linking theory to practice. In the beginning level of practice situations, you are called upon to be generalists; this means you should be able to respond to human need through micro practice, mezzo practice, or macro practice methods and should be able to respond to needs expressed by systems of all sizes, including individuals, families and groups, organizations, and communities. This is a pretty tall order. The Bachelor of Social Work curriculum ensures that you receive knowledge and skills, and understand the related social work values, across the spectrum of systems from conception to death. Inherent in the curriculum is an integrated understanding of general systems theory and the ecological perspective. Each system is within a particular context. Content areas include human behavior and the social environment, social welfare policy, diversity, economic and social justice, practice methods, ethics and values, research, and field experience. To ensure that you receive the knowledge, skills, and values and can use them in practice, the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) develops academic standards by which programs measure their relative effectiveness in reaching student learning outcomes.

CSWE Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards

The 2008 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards developed by CSWE through the Commission on Accreditation moved from a focus in earlier standards of ensuring that each accreditation standard was linked to program objectives, or input, to evaluating the student learning outcomes that are linked to the accreditation standards, or output. The core competencies measure student learning outcomes, and each competency is accompanied by the practice behaviors that each program defines, identifies, and measures. Examples of practice behaviors are provided by CSWE. These competencies will be updated in 2015, and draft forms of them are provided in Table I.1. Because CSWE expects these competencies to have been achieved upon graduation, it is essential that programs are intentional about which competencies are covered in various courses within their curriculum. To assist with this planning, each chapter in this book starts with a summary of the core competencies that are addressed in that particular chapter.

Table I.1 2015 CSWE Core Competencies

Source: www.cswe.org

Evidence-Based Practice

One of the current movements in social work education that links theory to practice is that of evidence-based practice (EBP), which is explained in detail in Chapter 1. There are both supporters of EBP and skeptics about EBP. Supporters generally believe that using the critical thinking methods embedded within EBP teaches students how to frame research and practice-pertinent questions, how to seek evidence, how to evaluate that evidence, and how to apply that evidence to a specific client. Supporters also indicate that linking the knowledge gained from the practice evaluation of others gives practitioners insight into the practice methods that are particularly helpful with a given set of client needs. Those who are less accepting of EBP agree with the basic tenets of asking pertinent questions and seeking evidence. Where the skepticism emerges is in the area of applying knowledge of a particular intervention to a given client population. Skeptics suggest that this decision making could lead a practitioner who is not skilled in that intervention to attempt its use, based on the result of the evidence search, and possibly miss the needs or preferences of the client. Furthermore, skeptics suggest that EBP turns the practice of social work into a recipe or a cookie cutter approach. EBP can eliminate the uniqueness of the client because its practice lumps all clients with similar needs into the same category. Another criticism of EBP is the time that it takes to carry out each step of the process. In reality, the practitioner may have a limited period in which to choose a model and act. This may be the result of shrinking third-party payments (managed care), necessitating a shorter period of involvement with clients. A final criticism of EBP is that, taken to its extreme, the approach means social work educational settings should instruct students only in methods that have been studied long enough to produce a body of work suggesting their superior applicability to a client population. An example of this is cognitive-behavioral therapy. What this means is that a body of theories, such as strengths, narrative, and role theories, which are particularly fitting for bachelor-level social work students, are omitted from the curriculum because of a lack of evidence for their use. At its furthest extreme, no one would study those theories and their interventions because they would not be taught or used.

Our position on EBP is that the critical thinking and research involved create a culture of lifelong education of which we are supportive. We emphasize that if the results of the research indicate a method of intervention with which practitioners are not familiar, they should consider other ways of serving clients. Those choices might include a referral. We want our...