The vast inland areas of rural Australia have been under significant pressure for decades from ongoing and profound change such as climate change, bushfires, drought and depopulation. Innovative Human Services Practice focuses on the impact on the people and communities most affected, the way human services in these vast areas have responded to date, and seeks to give direction as to how they might respond in the future. It re-focuses attention on reshaping viable and creative human services and human service practice models that deliver real and positive benefits to people living in rural and remote areas.

Innovation is an oft-heard buzzword in both public and private sectors concerned with the organisation and delivery of services to vulnerable individuals. This thoughtful volume explores what innovation might actually involve in the context of contemporary human services. Highlighting both the importance and utility of innovation but also promoting a more reflective approach, the book distinguishes between innovation and improvement and discusses the relevant differences between private sector, public sector and non-profit organisations. It looks at how innovation is often as much a result of the power relations between the involved actors, and the structural context, as a result of popularly identified ‘drivers’ and ‘barriers’. Including numerous case studies, the book illustrates and explains innovations in welfare services at different levels, looking at the macro level (innovations in social policy), the meso level (innovation at organisational level) and the micro-level (user-driven innovations). Arguing the innovation is nothing new in human services, the authors emphasise the importance of innovation being developed and supported by those working within those organisations. New and creative solutions to problems encountered in everyday work by front-line workers can be taken up to improve services provided and make a difference for the users, rather than change being externally imposed upon them by those without insider knowledge. Innovation in Social Welfare and Human Services is an important read for researchers and practitioners interested in the administration, leadership and organisation of social services.

This book offers an overview of service design practices for healthcare and hospital management. It explores how these practices can help to generate innovations in healthcare and contribute to the improvement of patient-centered care. Respected experts, including scholars from various disciplines and practitioners from healthcare institutions, share essential insights into established research areas, fields of work and work structures, and discuss successful approaches, methods and tools. By illustrating innovative services, products, processes, systems, and technologies, as well as their application in practice, the authors highlight the role of participating stakeholders in service design projects and the added value that comes from sharing, communicating, networking and collaborating. This book is a must-read for scholars and practitioners in the hospital and healthcare sector. It will also appeal to anyone interested in organizational development, service business model innovation, customer involvement and perceptions, and service experience.

Social construction addresses the cultural factors and social dynamics that give rise to and maintain values and beliefs. Drawing on postmodern philosophies and critical, social, and literary theories, social construction has become an important and influential framework for practice and research within social work and related fields. Embracing inclusivity and multiplicity, social construction provides a framework for knowledge and practice that is particularly congruent with social work values and aims. In this accessible collection, Stanley L Witkin showcases the innovative ways in which social construction may be understood and expressed in practice. He calls on experienced practitioner-scholars to share their personal accounts of interpreting and applying social constructionist ideas in different settings (such as child welfare agencies, schools, and the courts) and with diverse clientele (such as "resistant" adolescents, disadvantaged families, indigenous populations, teachers, children in protective custody, refugee youth, and adult perpetrators of sexual crimes against children). Eschewing the prescriptive stance of most theoretical frameworks, social construction can seem challenging for students and practitioners. This book responds with rich, illustrative descriptions of how social constructionist thinking has inspired practice approaches, illuminating the diversity and creative potential of practices that draw on social constructionist ideas. Writing in a direct, accessible style, contributors translate complex concepts into the language of daily encounter and care, and through a committed transnational focus they demonstrate the global reach and utility of their work. Chapters are provocative and thoughtful, reveal great suffering and courage, share inspiring stories of strength and renewal, and acknowledge the challenges of an approach that complicates evidence-based evaluations and requirements.

This is a value pack comprising Chenoweth's The Road to Social Work and Human Service Practice, 5e print book + Search Me! Social Work, 2-term Instant Access. The Road to Social Work and Human Service Practice provides a comprehensive introduction to all aspects of practice in the professions of social work and the human services. It lays out the journey and expertly signposts the key areas of knowledge, skills, values, ethics, practice contexts and contemporary debates. Client and practitioner perspectives offer reflections on real-life social work and human services interventions, while new case studies show how theory can be applied to practice. Fully updated and revised, this text is an invaluable tool for students as they start their careers in the social work and human services sector. Search Me! is an online research library customised to your subject, that puts the information you need right at your fingertips. Content is updated daily from hundreds of scholarly and popular journals, eBooks and newspapers. Plus, 24-hour access means you won't be limited by library opening times!

-- Lawerence S. Root, professor at the School of Social Work and director of the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations at the University of Michigan.

Innovation is an oft-heard buzzword in both public and private sectors concerned with the organisation and delivery of services to vulnerable individuals. This thoughtful volume explores what innovation might actually involve in the context of contemporary human services. Highlighting both the importance and utility of innovation but also promoting a more reflective approach, the book distinguishes between innovation and improvement and discusses the relevant differences between private sector, public sector and non-profit organisations. It looks at how innovation is often as much a result of the power relations between the involved actors, and the structural context, as a result of popularly identified ‘drivers’ and ‘barriers’. Including numerous case studies, the book illustrates and explains innovations in welfare services at different levels, looking at the macro level (innovations in social policy), the meso level (innovation at organisational level) and the micro-level (user-driven innovations). Arguing the innovation is nothing new in human services, the authors emphasise the importance of innovation being developed and supported by those working within those organisations. New and creative solutions to problems encountered in everyday work by front-line workers can be taken up to improve services provided and make a difference for the users, rather than change being externally imposed upon them by those without insider knowledge. Innovation in Social Welfare and Human Services is an important read for researchers and practitioners interested in the administration, leadership and organisation of social services.

Ce document propose des informations sur la distribution des services en sciences humaines. A partir d'un postulat assurant la qualité des services et la correspondance aux besoins des usagers de services, les auteurs décrivent certains standards de services pour différentes populations. Ces standards relèvent de la recherche, du développement, de l'éducation, des ressources résidentiels et de l'emploi. Fait intéressant, la troisième partie du document offre une perspective et des commentaires sur la distribution des services standardisés.

Innovations in Delivering Culturally Sensitive Social Work Services: Challenges for Practice and Education is for human service professionals and educators who are seeking innovative ways to make their practice and service delivery more culturally appropriate and their education and training more relevant. As Editor Yvonne Asamoah explains, “There has never been a more critical time for social work practitioners, educators, and policy makers to critique their programs, service delivery systems, and curricula for cultural relevance. Apart from federal and state mandates which require agencies to demonstrate how they are preparing workers to deliver culturally sensitive services, demographic shifts and increasing economic hardships are continually producing a more diverse clientele in need of service. . . . Being sensitive to the needs of the local community and the subtle, but significant, ethnic differences within them is critical and has important implications for training, policy, and practice.” The contributors describe actual models put into practice in the U.S. and Canada--analyzing the results and debating the issues of diversity and cultural sensitivity in regard to the social work profession. Innovations in Delivering Culturally Sensitive Social Work Services gives you an inside look at different approaches, programs, and studies, including: an innovative demonstration project designed to deliver social services to people from different cultures in Canada an eight-step communication process model that social work agency supervisors and training units may use to help workers become more effective multicultural practitioners a study on the incidents of misunderstanding between social workers from a Western-oriented society and those from a non-Western society in terms of culture shock the results of a statewide survey in Nevada on attitudes of social workers in relation to diversity, using a modified Multicultural Counseling Inventory to measure awareness, knowledge, and skills the four major multicultural issues considered critical to the delivery of health and mental health, and preventative and treatment services to Latino clients an examination of the issue of diversity in the workplace using the university and schools of social work as examples Other important contributions in Innovations in Delivering Culturally Sensitive Social Work Services include a unique look at the topic of cultural diversity and sensitivity from a management perspective--introducing you to the concept of the ‘globally aware’social work manager. Practical suggestions to assist you in achieving global awareness are provided through a “Global Problem Analysis Worksheet” including issues of staffing, hiring and retention of foreign born staff; service planning and organization to meet the needs of immigrants, refugees, and other international populations; staff development; and broader organizational concerns of information systems and policymaking. Two other chapters directly relate to the critical issues raised by Paige in his comprehensive 1986 work on cross-cultural orientation and applications. These chapters will help you view your own cross-cultural encounters with both clients and peers in a broader, theoretical context.

Make the most of your human services training or practice with these electronic tools! Human Services Technology: Innovations in Practice and Education shows how technology can help practitioners, educators, organizations, and agencies to overcome obstacles, develop problem-solving skills in adults and children, and resolve fear/anxiety issues. It also illustrates how the right software can make a profound difference in the learning experience by transforming students from passive consumers to proactive information hunters. The first half of this vital book highlights well-designed, user-friendly, practice-focused software for use with children and youth, including Funny Face, Bruce?s Multimedia Story, Say No With Donny, Talking it Out, and more. These can be used in play therapy, as a child welfare aid, as an educative/preventative intervention for a variety of issues, and for problem solving in school. This half of the book continues with six chapters discussing software designed for human services professionals working with adults. These include interactive video conferencing, online support for job stress, a computer-aided art therapy program, telephone counseling, an electronically supported way to conduct staff meetings, and more The second half of Human Services Technology discusses software used for training counselors. These programs monitor users’understanding of the material, provide feedback, allow users to decide what direction their studies would move in, and make provision for students to determine their own pace. This vital book shows how technology can help practitioners, educators, organizations, and agencies to: deliver effective services to clients who cannot or will not come to face-to-face sessions use electronic games and simulations to develop problem-solving skills in children and adults use virtual environments and realistic stimuli to resolve issues of fear and anxiety make prevention information easily available to more people than ever before and much more! Describing and illustrating software developed and tested in the United States, Australia, Canada, Israel, Finland, and the United Kingdom, Human Services Technology: Innovations in Practice and Education is essential for every human services reference shelf!