Social Work with Adults (Mastering Social Work Practice)

Social work with vulnerable adults is becoming increasingly centred on a key piece of legislation: the Mental Capacity Act. The Act provides a framework for protecting the vulnerable while allowing those who may lack capacity to have certain safeguards enshrined in law.

This book will help support students to learn two things: first, how the Mental Capacity Act operates and what its key principles are when applied to safeguarding adults; and second, what are the compassionate skills and values that need to be interwoven with legislative knowledge? The authors show how these two principles interact and inform one another and how taking a person-centred approach to safeguarding vulnerable adults will mean better outcomes for the individual and our wider society.

Jim Rogers is currently a senior lecturer at the University of Lincoln in the Hull School of Social Work. He teaches on a range of modules on both undergraduate and post qualifying social programmes. He has been responsible for several years for co-ordinating the first year of the BSc Social work programme and has also developed several new programmes of study including a Certificate in the Mental Health and Well Being of Older People and a Best Interests Assessor Programme at PQ level. Jim′s research interests are in the fields of mental health and also in complementary therapies.

Lucy Bright completed her Masters/Diploma in Social Work in 1993. Since then she has worked in a wide variety of social work settings with adults, as well as spending four years working for a solicitor and specialising in mental health law. Lucy currently works as a best interests assessor and has a particular interest in the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards and how these have been working in practice since their implementation in 2009.

Helen Davies qualified as a social worker in 1986 and has taught social work students since 1999, while continuing in practice in statutory and voluntary services with adults with learning disabilities. As one of four social work co-ordinators at the Independent Living Fund, she led its work in Wales and Northern Ireland. Helen′s current role as senior lecturer at the University of Lincoln includes supporting students to make constructive links between theory and practice.