The Social Worker's Guide to Child and Adolescent Mental Health

CONTENTS: Acknowledgements. Foreword. Stephen Briggs, Tavistock Clinic, UK. Introduction. Part 1. Social work assessment and intervention. 1. The role of social work in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. 2. Child development and attachment. 3. Mental health problems. Part 2. Applying the skills of social work. 4. Social work skills and methods. 5. Multi-disciplinary and interprofessional working. 6. Family and community support. Part 3. The context of social work with children and young people. 7. The organisational and legal framework. 8. Culture, ethnicity and diversity. 9. Understanding spirituality and religion. Conclusions and recommendations. Bibliography. Index.

At a time when the criticism is that social workers hold too many eggs in their basket, the title of Steven Walker's The Social Worker's Guide to Child and Adolescent Mental Health (Jessica Kingsley Publishers) speaks for itself. There are no shortage of books on mental health generally or young people in particular but Walker's is very unusual in focussing on the needs of this professional group. It looks at the role of social work with mentally ill young people, while also examining key ideas like attachment, emotional development and common and complex mental health problems. Its value really is in showing how social work skills and methods can apply rather than borrowing from other professions.