The purpose of this article is to review various aspects of home-visiting programs that have shown to be effective in recent literature to inform policy makers, practitioners, and other involved stakeholders of the current best practices or limitations and to discuss future recommendations based on the literature. Areas of review include…

This report summarizes interviews with five social workers who helped families that experienced political violence, and with 16 families that lost a family member due to terrorist activity in Israel and Palestine from 2000 to 2005. Results revealed a great disparity between the Israelis and the Palestinians on the types of and extent of benefits…

Social work practitioners are increasingly confronted with couples and families who have come from war-torn countries. Refugees may have experienced genocide, organized violence, ethnic wars, displacement, and losses of various kinds. Such experiences will often be carried through the post-migratory period and obscure legitimate individual and…

Almost 300,000 children in the United States from birth to 3 years of age are affected by a developmental disability. Disabilities have a lasting effect on a child's development and, in turn, may have a psychosocial impact on the child's family. In addition, the limitations of a child with a disability are often related to family members' stress,…

This article adapts the stages of change model, a model in which specific interventions of harm reduction are directed toward the client's readiness for treatment, as a guiding framework for counseling family members of alcoholics/addicts. Interventions at each stage of the family's readiness for change, from precontemplation to action, are…

As advances in cancer care have led to more treatment options and longer survival for cancer patients, a focus on quality of life for patients and their families has gained importance. This review provides a discussion of stress and coping theory, documents the relevance of this topic area for social work practice, and illuminates the results of a…

This paper assesses the engagement of family therapy and family practice with families with children, who are living in poverty. It analyzes four promising models from two perspectives. The first perspective relates to critiques, which have been made of the practice of family therapy with families living in poverty; and the second relates to the…

Responds to C. Aaron McNeese's (1995) article, "Family Social Work Practice: From Therapy to Policy." It encompasses the long-standing debate in social work over micro- and macro-level approaches to problem solving, commonly referred to as the "cause-function" debate. The struggle to minimize adverse effects of diversity has…

Responds to the Witkin's (1993) comparison of family social work and family therapy. Argues that family social work and family therapy share important commonalities, and challenges Witkin's characterization of family therapy as outdated. Characterizes family therapy as having contributing important writings about gender and culture. (JPS)

Proposes a critical constructionist approach to family services as a useful framework for family social work. Presents the foundations and basic ideas of critical constructionism, and applies these ideas to social work with families. (JPS)

Explores the applicability of a feminist model for clinical social work with couples and families. Summarizes the feminist critique of traditional family systems theory and explores other areas of concern including family theory and healthy family functioning. (JPS)

Responds to C. Aaron McNeese's (1995) article, "Family Social Work Practice: From Therapy to Policy." Suggests that it is time for family therapists to shift to a new paradigm, one which encompasses both policy and practice interests of social work, and that, for the purposes of public policy, that a definition of family be confined to…

Challenges the dichotomy between policy and practice. Presents an alternative view concerning the relationship between social policy and family therapy. Summarizes the increasing importance of family policy in family therapy, and a new trend within marriage and family practice--policy as practice--is discussed. Current practice context of managed…

In order to assist trainees in preparing for brief family therapy interventions, the following domains are discussed: knowledge of brief treatment research, clear decision-rules for problem assessment and task intervention, skill-building in service delivery, and practice in adapting to idiosyncratic responses from the client family system. (JPS)

Although family therapy has become highly acceptable in the West, its applicability and acceptability for Chinese adolescents and young women with anorexia nervosa (AN) remains unknown. In this article, we report the results of a qualitative study using post-treatment in-depth interviews to understand the subjective perceptions of sufferers of AN…