A Problem for Law and Social Work: Social Enquiry Reports on People Pleading Not Guilty

Summary This paper examines the background to pre-trial enquiries, theirpreparation and some of the problems involved, with particularreference to not guilty pleas. It is based on a dissertationpresented for the Diploma in Social and Administrative Studiesin 1972 and a more detailed version is available     

The Use of Autobiography in Social Work Education

Summary The article describes an experiment in writing autobiography,first with an extra mural group of trainee counsellors and thenwith social work students doing an elective in literature andsocial work. The value of such an exercise for developing self-awarenessis discussed and reference made to its use with clients.     

Social Work Assessment Processes in Work with Ethnic Minorities-the Doshi Family

Summary The authors describe a framework for assessment which they developedin a book on practice theory (Curnock and Hardiker, 1979). Thisframework was used by them to guide the practice described withthe Doshi family and to analyse the social work processes involved.This paper concludes with an evaluation of the practice.     

Letters from a Kangaroo: A Third Object Technique for Working with the Young Child

Summary The author looks at the use of letter writing as a third objecttechnique and considers its value in working with under fives.She also touches on early language development in the pre-schoolchild and the relevance of the theory for social workers.     

Literature Review: An Abuse of some Substance?

Summary The intention in this review is to examine a small selectionof the literature on substance abuse and to assess to what extentit is a new phenomenon and a problem calling for legislativeaction. This intention accounts for the slightly capriciouschoice of title for the contribution.     

The Social Environment--A Model for Exploring Service Interventions with Mentally Handicapped Adults

Summary Using a model derived from systems theory, the needs of mentallyhandicapped adults are examined. Interventions are generatedwhich have implications for social workers in implementing normalizationprinciples.     

Developmental Correlates of Family Size: A Report from the National Child Development Study

Summary This paper presents findings from tbe National Child DevelopmentStudy which examine the relationship between size of familyand school attainment, adjustment and height at the age of eleven.This relationship is shown to be a strong one, and alternativeexplanations for its existence are considered     

Agency Decentralization: Planning and Assessment

Summary Criteria are examined for the location of area offices in SocialServices Departments, drawing on the monitored experience ofdealing with voluntary callers to an area office in the ProbationService. Changes were observed in numbers of voluntary callersand the kinds of problems presented, together with developmentsin inter-agency relationships. The caller's subjective feelingsregarding the accessibility of the agency were found to be importantdeterminants of agency use. Implications are drawn out for planningdecisions in local authorities     

Opiate Dependent Women and Their Babies: A Study of the Multidisciplinary Work of a Hospital and a Local Authority

Correspondence to Patricia Kearney, 11 Wickham Gardens, London SE4 1LY. Summary The study examines a multi-disciplinary approach to the treatmentof opiate dependent pregnant women and their babies, with particularregard to statutory child protection responsibilities. It reviewsthirteen births with a follow up period of three years.     

Social Work and the Medical Profession--Arguments Against Unconditional Collaboration

Summary The history and major texts of medical social work emphasizethe need for collaboration with the medical profession. Howeverthere is a less visible history of conflict between medicineand social work. It is proposed that a critique of medicine’scontribution to health provides the foundation for a statementof principles for a social model of health for social work practice.Collaboration with medicine should be negotiated on the basisof such principles, rather than unconditional.     

The Place of Knowledge in Social Work Activity

Summary This study considers whether a small sample of social workerswas using theoretical knowledge as a basis for activities inpractice. The findings indicate that the use of this type ofknowledge was minimal. They also bring to light a number ofquestions related to the development of knowledge for use insocial work practice.     

Literature and the Therapeutic Imagination

Summary The therapeutic imagination is closely related to the literaryimagination and is concerned with similar issues of the relationshipof the self to society. The study of literature needs to bean integral part of social work education if workers are tobe helped to confront the dilemmas faced by the social worksensibility.     

Teaching Behaviour Therapy Skills to Social Work Students

Summary Twenty social work students who were in the final term of atwo year non-graduate CQSW course were divided into two groupswhich met weekly for four sessions. The purpose of these sessions was to teach the students, throughexperiential methods, the use of behaviour modification techniquesin the hope that they would transfer this competence to theirwork with clients individually or in groups. Each student selecteda target behaviour for change, and with group supervision, defined,monitored and set goals for the target behaviour and finallyimplemented therapeutic procedures.     

Abortion: With Particular Reference to the Developing Role of Counselling

Summary This paper suggests that counselling is a rapidly expandingfield in which professional and para-professional workers mightcombine to produce an effective service, given appropriate selectionand training procedures. Initially these are seen as being providedby professionally qualified social workers with relevant experience.The author has used her own social work experience in abortioncounselling to exemplify the article and to discuss some ofthe existing problems for workers and clients alike.     

The Clayhangers: Father and Son

Summary This paper was written to demonstrate the value of creativeliterature in giving body to the abstractions of psychology,thus promoting insight and empathy.     

Coping with Chronic Renal Failure

Summary This paper presents the findings of a small-scale study in whichtwenty renal patients on home dialysis were interviewed. Thedata are analysed in relation to coping strategies, coping stylesand illness roles. Some implications for theories of coping,illness roles and social work are examined.     

Social Workers Talking to Clients: A Study of Verbal Behaviour

Summary Twenty-four interviews between trained social workers and theirclients were recorded and compared with the findings of a studyof how doctors talk to their patients. The social workers' techniqueswere found to be much more elaborate and much less obvious thanthose used by the doctors.     

Institutional Reactions to Absconding

Summary This paper examines the phenomenon of absconding through theeyes of members of staff and children in a community home forgirls. It focusses attention on the staff's and girls' perceptionsof what made girls run away and on the meaning they attachedto the official procedure for dealing with absconders on theirreturn. An attempt is also made to assess the influence thishad on the girls' attitude to absconding.     

Entry into Residential Care

Summary This paper examines the interaction between the organizationalstructure of social services departments and procedures foradmission into residential care. By drawing on research experiencea 'placements table' is proposed which contains the key operationaldecisionstaken by the department when the client becomes a resident.It is argued that, in accordance with the structure of the department,it is possible to suggest appropriate staff to make each keydecision in order that departmental criteria for admissionsmay be met.     

A Defence Against the Public? Aspects of Intake in a Social Services Department

Summary This paper looks at certain aspects of a social services department'sduty and intake systems in the light of the theory of institutionaldefence. This theory, which has to do with the way that organisationsdeal with anxiety provoking events, is described, and a numberof ‘defences’ are identified and discussed.