Family Assessment Handbook: An Introductory Practice Guide to Family Assessment and Intervention

THE FAMILY ASSESSMENT HANDBOOK is a basic practice guide for social work students and beginning human service professionals of "how to" do a family assessment for case intervention. It is based on person-environment, or family systems, theory, drawing from evidence-based research for guiding practice decisions. This practical book presents the interplay of social work concepts, values, and skill dilemmas presented using case studies from the author's practice experience. By developing a "family journal," students can apply family systems thinking, theory, and concepts. The book is conceptualized as three teaching and learning units. Part One addresses the family systems assessment model. Part Two focuses on self-assessment and critical thinking through exploring the student's family system. Part Three includes four case studies.

Dr. Barbara Thomlison is a professor in the School of Social Work and director of the Institute for Children and Families at Risk at Florida International University. She obtained her Ph.D. in social work from the University of Toronto. Her academic experiences involve various undergraduate and graduate programs, where she teaches advanced clinical practice and family intervention courses. Her research interests include parenting programs, children at risk of maltreatment, family and youth violence, foster care, and early childhood interventions. Dr. Thomlison's extensive publications include articles, chapters, and books in the areas of child maltreatment interventions, parenting for effectiveness, family assessment, risk and resilience, foster care, APA style, forensic assessment, intervention in child sexual abuse, evidence-based internships, and designing evidence-based intervention search strategies. She is actively involved as a board member in local and national child welfare, foster care, and family service organizations. Her lengthy interdisciplinary practice history also includes services to children and families, as well as policy services research.