Relationship-based social work : getting to the heart of practice / edited by Gillian Ruch, Danielle Turney and Adrian Ward.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Relationship-based practice is founded on the idea that human relationships are of paramount importance and should be at the heart of all good social work practice.This book provides a thorough guide to relationship-based practice in social work, communicating the theory using illustrative case studies and offering a model for practice. Case examples cover the different service user groups including children, families, older people, refugees, people with disabilities and people with mental health difficulties. The book explores the ranges of emotions that practitioners may encounter, and covers working in both short-term and long-term relationships. It also outlines key skills for the individual such as how to establish rapport with the client and using empathy to build a relationship, and explores systemic issues such as incorporating service user perspectives and building appropriate support systems for practice, management and leadership. This book will be an invaluable textbook for undergraduate and post-graduate social work students, practitioners on post-qualifying courses and all social work and allied professionals.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction (p. 7)
• Section I Setting Out the Terrain: Historical Trends, Conceptual Models and Frameworks
• 1 The Contemporary Context of Relationship-Based Practice (p. 13)
• 2 Theoretical Frameworks informing Relationship-Based Practice (p. 29)
• 3 The Use of Self in Relationship-Based Practice (p. 46)
• Section 2 Working With the Relationship in Practice
• 4 Only Connect...Building Relationships with Hard-to-Reach People: Establishing Rapport with Drug-Misusing Parents and their Children (p. 69)
• 5 Brief Encounters: Working in Complex, Short-Term Relationships (p. 85)
• 6 Sustaining Relationships: Working with Strong Feelings
• I Anger, Aggression and Hostility (p. 102)
• 7 Sustaining Relationships: Working with Strong Feelings (p. 118)
• II Hopelessness, Depression and Despair
• 8 Sustaining Relationships: Working with Strong Feelings (p. 133)
• III Love and Positive Feelings
• 9 Long-Term Complex Relationships (p. 148)
• 10 Working with Endings in Relationship-Based Practice (p. 164)
• Section 3 Sustaining, Supporting and Developing Relationship-Based Practice in A Reflective Context
• 11 The Learning Relationship: Learning and Development for Relationship-Based Practice (p. 183)
• 12 Service-User Perspectives on Relationships (p. 199)
• 13 Relating and Relationships in Supervision: Supportive and Companionable or Dominant and Submissive? (p. 214)
• 14 What Future? Organisational Forms, Relationship-Based Social Work Practice and the Changing World Order (p. 229)
• Conclusion (p. 244)
• Bibliography (p. 247)
• The contributors (p. 260)
• Subject Index (p. 263)
• Author Index (p. 269)

Author notes provided by Syndetics