Information and Communication Technologies in the Welfare Services

Introduction: Information and communications technologies in the welfare Services: Wired Wonderland or Hypertext Hell? Part 1. Social Work and Social Care. 1. The Caring Professions and Information Technology: In search of a theory. 2. Using the Internet for Evidence Based Practice. 3. Real Records, Virtual Clients. 4. Technology and systems of referral taking in Social Services: From Narrative to Code. 5. Internet Child Abuse. Part 2. Health and Welfare. 6. Information Technology and the Organisation of patient care. 7. Health, collaborative learning and the collapse of professionalism? The Information Brothel. 8. From Self-Service Welfare to Virtual Self-Help. 9. Consumers, the Internet and Reconfiguration of expertise. Conclusion: Technologies of Care References. Index.

Some of the chapters are written in a lucid and accessible style, so the book ought to appeal to a wide cross-section of readers. The introduction, for example, gives a highly readable overview of the history of the development of technologies across a range of welfare services.