Assessment in Social Work Practice

Assessment in Social Work Practice confronts the current bureaucratic and fiscal constraints that have inhibited social workers from assessing clients and offers concrete ways of handling a wide array of cases.
Assessment, the process through which the social worker comes to understand individual cases in their full complexity, is addressed from a perspective that is not limited to a particular practice model, and Meyer carefully illustrates how her methods can be applied by all practitioners, regardless of their theoretical orientation.
Because assessment has been increasingly neglected as fiscal and bureaucratic constraints foster quick-fix solutions to immediate problems, social workers are overwhelmed by complex cases and problems; yet careful assessment remains the core process in professional practice.
Drawing from four decades of experience in social work, Meyer shows practitioners how to "think globally and act locally" and how to exercise careful judgment and thinking despite the often crushing economic pressures facing the profession.

The first comprehensive overview of the subject examines various applications of assessment skills in working with individuals, families, and groups and across varying fields and modes of practice. The book includes a special chapter on the uses of different types of graphs and visual images to help clarify complex case data.