Table Of ContentPRACTICAL
SOCIAL WORK
Series Editor: Jo Campling
(BASW)
Editorial Advisory Board:
Terry Bamford, Malcolm Payne, Patrick Phelan,
Peter Riches, Daphne Statham, Jane Tunstill,
Sue Walrond-Skinner and Margaret Yelloly
Social work is at an important stage in its development. All
professions must be responsive to changing social and eco
nomic conditions if they are to meet the needs of those they
serve. This series focuses on sound practice and the specific
contribution which social workers can make to the well
being of our society.
The British Association of Social Workers has always been
conscious of its role in setting guidelines for practice and in
seeking to raise professional standards. The conception of
the Practical Social Work series arose from a survey of
BASW members to discover where they, the practitioners in
social work, felt there was the most need for new literature.
The response was overwhelming and enthusiastic, and the
result is a carefully planned, coherent series of books. The
emphasis is firmly on practice, set in a theoretical
framework. The books will inform, stimulate and promote
discussion, thus adding to the further developments of skills
and high professional standards. All the authors are practi
tioners and teachers of social work representing a wide
variety of experience.
JO CAMPLING
PRACTICAL SOCIAL WORK
Series Editor: Jo Campling
(BASW)
PUBLISHED Youth Work
Tony Jeffs and Mark Smith (eds)
Self-Help, Social Work and Empowerment
Robert Adams Problems of Childhood and Adolescence
Michael Kerfoot and Alan Butler
Social Work and Mental Handicap
David Anderson Social Work with Old People
Mary Marshall
Social Workers at Risk
Robert Brown, Stanley Bute and Peter Applied Psychology for Social Workers
Ford Paula Nicolson and Rowan Bayne
Social Work and Mental Illness Crisis Intervention in Social Services
Alan Butler and Colin Pritchard Kieran O'Hagan
Residential Work Social Work with Disabled People
Roger Clough Michael Oliver
Social Work and Child Abuse Separation, Divorce and Families
David M. Cooper and David Ball Lisa Parkinson
Social Work Practice: An Introduction Social Care in the Community
Veronica Coulshed Malcolm Payne
Social Work and Local Politics Working in Teams
Paul Daniel and John Wheeler Malcolm Payne
Sociology in Social Work Practice Working with Young Offenders
Peter R. Day John Pitts
Anti-Racist Social Work: A Challenge for Effective Groupwork
White Practitioners and Educators Michael Preston-Shoot
Lena Dominelli
Adoption and Fostering: Why and How
Working with Abused Children Carole R. Smith
Celia Doyle
Social Work with the Dying and Bereaved
Welfare Rights Work in Social Services Carole R. Smith
Geoff Fimister
Child Care and the Courts
Student Supervision Carole R.Smith, Mary T. Lane and Terry
Kathy Ford and Alan Jones Walsh
Family Work with Elderly People Community Work
Alison Froggatt Alan Twelvetrees
Child Sexual Abuse Working with Offenders
Danya Glaser and Stephen Frosh Hilary Walker and BiBlle aumont (eds)
Computers in Social Work
FORTHCOMING
Bryan Glastonbury
Social Work and Housing
Working with Families
Gill Stewart with John Stewart
Gill Gorell Barnes
Women and Social Work: Towards a
Woman-centred Practice
Jalna Hanmer and Daphne Statham
Self-Help, Social Work
and Empowerment
Robert Adams
M
MACMILLAN
©British Association of Social Workers 1990
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission
of this publication may be made without written permission.
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or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance
with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
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copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
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Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to
this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and
civil claims for damages.
First published 1990
Published by
MACMILLAN EDUCATION LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
Filmset by Wearside Tradespools,
Fulwell, Sunderland
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Adams, Robert, 1958-
Self-help, social work and empowerment.
1. Self-help. Development. Role of welfare workers
I. Title
361.7
ISBN 978-0-333-46985-9 ISBN 978-1-349-20670-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-20670-4
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To Winifred Adams
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Contents
Preface XI
List of Abbreviations xiii
1 Self-Help: A Case of Unfair Dismissal 1
Introduction 1
What is self-help? 2
What do self-helpers do? 13
How do we view the process of self-help? 14
What values underlie self-help activity? 17
The popularity of self-help 19
How much self-help is there? 23
Summary 25
2 How Social Workers Relate to Self-Help 26
Social work and self-help: a problematic relationship 26
Social work and self-help: a proposed framework 34
The structure of Chapters 3-9 35
Summary 35
3 How Social Workers may Develop Integral Self-Help 37
Nature of integral self-help 37
Criteria influencing the decision to develop integral self-help 37
Two forms of integral self-help 39
Practice issues 47
Summary 50
vii
viii Contents
4 How to Facilitate Self-Help 51
Nature of facilitated self-help 51
Criteria affecting appropriateness of facilitated self-help 51
Forms of facilitated self-help 52
Practice issues 65
Summary 66
5 Social Workers and Autonomous Self-Help 67
Nature of autonomous self-help 67
Criteria determining the relevance of autonomous
self-help to social work 68
Forms of autonomous self-help 69
How social workers may relate to autonomous self-help 72
Practice issues 74
Summary 75
6 Initiating and Maintaining a Self-Help Group 76
How does self-help start? 76
How are self-help activities maintained? 84
Summary 93
7 How to Appraise Self-Help 94
Clarifying the task 94
Preparing for the appraisal 98
Carrying out the appraisal 106
Producing and using the appraisal 107
Summary 110
8 Self-Helpers and Social Workers 112
Cautions 112
Effective relations between self-helpers and social workers 122
Summary 128
Contents ix
9 Furthering Self-Help 129
Why self-help? 129
Values 130
Policies 133
Resources 136
Summary 139
Bibliography 140
Index 147
