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Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Contributors -- Preface -- Share Theoretical Perspectives for Direct Social Work Practice: A Generalist-Eclectic Approach, Third Edition -- Part I: The Generalist-Eclectic Approach -- Chapter 1: An Overview of and Rationale for a Generalist-Eclectic Approach to Direct Social Work Practice -- Elements of the Generalist Perspective that are Central to Our Generalist-Eclectic Approach -- Distinctive Aspects of Our Generalist-Eclectic Approach -- An Overview of Eclecticism -- Approaches to Eclecticism

Despite social work's historical emphasis on the importance of the worker–client relationship, in recent years more attention has been paid to theoretical and technical aspects of social work practice than to relationship factors. At the same time, recent research has led the fields of psychology and psychiatry to place a much greater emphasis on the importance of relationship factors for counseling outcomes. The author examines the waxing and waning of interest in relationship factors within the helping professions, reviews research on the concept of the "therapeutic alliance," and offers suggestions for a renewed emphasis on relationship factors in social work practice, research, and education.

The association between complex types of therapist interventions and psychotherapy outcome was investigated by comparing five individual therapy cases with good outcomes to four with poor outcomes. Therapist behaviors in the third session of 20 sessions of psychodynamic psychotherapy were analyzed by four different rating systems. These ratings were used individually and in combination to investigate group differences between good- and poor-outcome cases. Results demonstrated that therapists in the poor-outcome cases exhibited significantly more disaffiliative communications and significantly more disaffiliative interpretive communications that did not focus on the therapist-client relationship or client affect. Additionally, results indicated that interpretive communications and communications that focused on the therapist- client relationship were most prone to being used in a disaffiliative manner. Implications for social work practice and further research are discussed.

The associations between interpersonal process variables and psychotherapy outcome were investigated by comparing five individual psychotherapy cases with good outcomes and four with poor outcomes. The structured analysis of social behavior model was used to analyze therapist and client behaviors in Sessions 3, 5, and 15 of 20 sessions of psychotherapy. The results indicated the following: Therapists in the good-outcome group were significantly more "helping and protecting" in each of the three sessions; clients in the good-outcome group were significantly (a) more "trusting and relying" overall and in Session 3, (b) less "walling off and avoiding" in Session 3, (c) less "asserting and separating" overall and in Session 15, (d) more "disclosing and expressing" in Session 15, and (e) less "watching and managing" in Session 15. Additionally, therapists in both outcome groups were significantly less "helping and protecting" in Session 5, compared to the other two sessions. Implications for practice and further research are discussed.

ABSTRACTThis study involved in‐depth exploration of good helping relationships in child welfare. A select sample of six child welfare worker–client dyads was interviewed to determine worker attributes and actions that were key to the development of good working relationships. Innovative features of the research design, such as a multiple interview format with two individual and one joint interview for each worker and client (five interviews per dyad) and opportunities for the worker and client in each dyad to reflect on and respond to the other's interview transcripts, produced rich data and revealed high levels of congruency among workers, clients and researchers about worker relationship competencies. Two categories of themes that emerged from the qualitative analysis are discussed: (1) soft, mindful and judicious use of power; and (2) humanistic attitude and style that stretches traditional professional ways‐of‐being. Implications for the hiring, education and training, and supervision of child welfare workers are presented.

ABSTRACTFathers can make positive contributions to their children's well‐being. However, involving the literature and this research indicate that fathers are much less likely to be engaged with child welfare services than mothers. This paper reports the findings of life story research with 18 fathers involved with child welfare. It focuses on these men's perspectives of fatherhood and their relationships with their children. Also, reactions to these fatherhood stories from father and service provider focus groups are examined. The findings challenge common perceptions of these fathers and highlight similarities and differences in perspectives between fathers and service providers. Implications for engaging fathers in child welfare practice are discussed.

Faced with rapidly changing social and economic conditions, service professionals, policy developers, and researchers have raised significant concerns about the Canadian child welfare system. This book draws inspiration from experiences with three broad, international child welfare paradigms-child protection, family service, and community healing/caring (First Nations)-to look at how specific practices in other countries, as well as alternative experiments in Canada, might foster positive innovations in the Canadian child welfare approach. Foundational values and purposes, systems design a

Faced with rapidly changing social and economic conditions, service professionals, policy developers, and researchers have raised significant concerns about the Canadian child welfare system. This book draws inspiration from experiences with three broad, international child welfare paradigms - child protection, family service, and community healing/caring (First Nations) - to look at how specific practices in other countries, as well as alternative experiments in Canada, might foster positive innovations in the Canadian child welfare approach.; Foundational values and purposes, systems design and policy, and organisation and management are discussed, as are front-line service delivery, service provider work environments, and the realities of daily living for families. Informed by recent research, the contributors provide clear directions for policy, administration, and service-delivery reforms. Informing policy debates addressing child maltreatment and family welfare, this book will serve as a vital resource for managers, service providers, professionals, and students in the fields of social work, child and youth care, family studies, psychology, and special education.

ABSTRACTThe lack of engagement of fathers by child welfare services is well‐documented in the literature as a serious problem. Towards addressing this problem, this paper reports the findings of interviews with 18 fathers about their involvement with child welfare services in Ontario, Canada. Qualitative analysis of the interviews yielded themes about what men saw as the positive and negative aspects of their involvement with child welfare. Positive aspects of service involvement for fathers included understanding and supportive workers, useful assistance from workers, being connected to useful resources and being given a 'wake‐up call'. Negative aspects of service involvement included uncaring, unhelpful and unprofessional workers; prejudice against fathers; and experiencing the child welfare system as unresponsive, uncaring and rigid. Implications for practice are discussed with a view to improving the engagement of men in, and their experiences with, child welfare services.

This article expresses concern about the indiscriminate acceptance of the solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) model by some social workers and social agencies in spite of the dearth of empirical support for its claims to provide clients with more rapid and more enduring change than other treatment models. The article reviews the core assumptions and techniques of SFBT and outlines the strengths and limitations of the model in the context of the findings of psychotherapy process and outcome research and from the perspective of mainstream social work. The authors argue that social workers should avoid rigid adherence to narrow models of therapy and that social work students need to be exposed to multiple theories and techniques to be adequately prepared for practice. Agencies are encouraged to offer services based on a variety of treatment models in order to more adequately serve their clients and also to better position themselves to contribute to research that would further inform the profession about the combinations of model, client, and worker characteristics that lead to the most efficient and effective outcomes.