The Social Work Skills Workbook

THE SOCIAL WORK SKILLS WORKBOOK successfully merges a textbook and a workbook in a clear and engaging format, helping students effectively learn to use 74 essential social work skills from a perspective of professionalism.

Each of the social work skills supports one or more of the 43 knowledge and value statements (KVs) and the 31 practice behaviors (PBs) that elaborate the nine core competencies presented in the most recent (2015) Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). The skills also support much of the knowledge and many of the skills and abilities addressed in the nationally standardized licensing exams sponsored by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB).

Before learning about and practicing the social work skills, students develop proficiency in 10 dimensions of professionalism: integrity; self-understanding and self-control; knowledge, expertise, and self-efficacy; social support and well-being; critical thinking and scientific inquiry; lifelong learning; diversity and difference; human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice; policy-practice; and social work values and ethics.

Each chapter begins with learning goals and specifies the core EPAS competencies to be addressed. Chapters in Part II include a description of each social work skill, along with one or more examples and exercises that allow students to rehearse and practice the skill. Illustrative cases are drawn from a variety of service settings and circumstances and reflect diversity of age, gender, sexual orientation, and racial, ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic status. Each chapter concludes with a two-part self-appraisal of learning.