Bringing together international case studies, this book offers theoretical and empirical insights into the interaction between social work and social policy.Moving beyond existing studies on policy practice, the book employs the policy cycle as a core analytical frame and focuses on the influence of social work(ers) in the problem definition, agenda setting, policy formulation and implementation of social policy. Twenty-three contributors offer examples of policy making from seven ...

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.As populations age around the world, there is an urgent need to address the inadequate and unequal provision of care and support to older and disabled people.This book represents the first collective effort to use the concept of care poverty to analyse unmet needs and inequalities in care at an international level and from a social policy perspective. It presents pioneering empirical studies and novel theoretical and...

This ground-breaking text provides a comprehensive guide to the occupational therapy profession in Australia, from the profession’s role in the health care system to the broad scope and nature of its practice.The book is organised into three sections: the Australian context; professional issues and practice issues. Contributions from 80 Australian occupational therapists working in education, research, policy and practice bring together the most relevant and up-to-date information ...

Every day the newspapers lament the problems facing our children - broken homes, pressures to eat and drink, the stress of exams. The same issues are discussed in every pub and at every dinner party. But is life really more difficult for children than it was, and if so why? And how can we make it better?This book, which is a result of a two year investigation by the Children's Society and draws upon the work of the UK's leading experts in many fields, explores the main stresses and...

Today’s American families are more complex and diverse than ever before—and today’s child and family professionals must be fully prepared to meet their needs. Interventionists educators, health care professionals, therapists, and social workers will get the strong foundation they need with the NEW edition of this trusted textbook, a comprehensive guide to working effectively and respectfully with contemporary families.Highly respected experts Marci Hanson and Eleanor Lynch have...

This open access book provides a comprehensive perspective on the concept of ageism, its origins, the manifestation and consequences of ageism, as well as ways to respond to and research ageism. The book represents a collaborative effort of researchers from over 20 countries and a variety of disciplines, including, psychology, sociology, gerontology, geriatrics, pharmacology, law, geography, design, engineering, policy and media studies. The contributors have collaborated to produce a trul...

There is an increasing emphasis on post-qualifying training for social workers, especially in the complex and demanding area of working with children and families. This essential textbook is especially designed for practitioners studying at this level.Accessible and thorough, the text focuses on a mixture of conceptual and organisational topics, skills, law, policy and key practice issues. It includes chapters on:Social work values and ethicsRisk, ...

Successful social work practice is underpinned by knowledge, theories and research findings from a range of related disciplines, key among which is psychology. This timely book offers a grounded and engaging guide to psychology's vital role at the heart of contemporary social work practice.The book skilfully addresses some of the central theoretical developments in psychology from an applied perspective, and explains how these make essential contributions to the methods and theory ...

According to the United Nations, the number of older-age adults across the world has almost quintupled in the last 65 years and by 2050 1 in 6 people in the world will be over the age of 65, up from 1 in 11 in 2019. Among the main drivers of the exponential growth in the older population in developed countries have been increases in the quality of life and life expectancy accompanied by decreases in infant mortality and birth rates, advances in combatting chronic diseases of middle age and...

Advancing Occupational Therapy in Mental Health Practice looks at the contribution that occupational therapists make to the lives of clients living with mental illness. It examines current practice developments and the innovative research that is shaping occupational therapy within the mental health arena, nationally and internationally.The book employs a distinctive and engaging narrative approach, bringing to life key issues in practice and research. It introduces the re...

Sport is perceived to have the potential to alleviate a variety of social problems and generally to ‘improve’ both individuals and the communities in which they live. Sport is promoted as a relatively cost effective antidote to a range of social problems – often those stemming from social exclusion - including poor health, high crime levels, drug abuse and persistent youth offending, educational under-achievement, lack of social cohesion and community identity and economic decline. To this...

Why hope matters as a metric of economic and social well-beingIn a society marked by extreme inequality of income and opportunity, why should economists care about how people feel? The truth is that feelings of well-being are critical metrics that predict future life outcomes. In this timely and innovative account, economist Carol Graham argues for the importance of hope—little studied in economics at present—as an independent dimension of well-being. Given America...