Reflective Practice in Mental Health: Advanced Psychosocial Practice with Children, Adolescents and...

religion and wider cultural practices around (forexample) forced marriages for adults with learningdisabilities is explored well in Chapter 8.

Concerns such as these highlight the daily chal-lenges facing service users and social workers andleaves the reader hungry for deeper consideration ofsimilar sensitive areas. The brief guide on world reli-gions (Appendix) introduces concepts developed inmany religions including Islam, which asserts thatthere are no mediators between the individual andGod, and communication is direct and personal.However, more on the benefits of, for example, emo-tional and psychological healing, which can takeplace within rituals around prayer and spirituality(Al-Krenawi & Graham 2000) would have beenextremely interesting. Reliance on faith can also leadto greater contact with family and community.Understanding the effects of this and other forms ofwritten, verbal and spiritual communication on indi-vidual behaviour is a key to developing social workpractice.

Adult abuse could have also benefited from addi-tional analysis. The case examples were short and theauthors set out the standard list of different forms ofabuse (p. 94) followed by a flow chart for social workintervention (p. 98). The definitions and processescould have been adapted, for example, to include theeffects of sanctions, coercion and pressure exerted byfamily or wider society on spiritual practices, ritualsand customs, particularly on those who are vulner-able, frail or aging.

The book is a welcome addition to the existingwork produced by the authors. However, the authorshave the complex task of synthesizing a subject,which is interpreted widely and differently by indi-viduals, families, regions and countries. The discus-sion adds a great deal to understanding of practiceareas where social workers need advanced commu-nication skills as well as knowledge derived from arange of sources.

Kish Bhatti-SinclairLecturer, School of Social SciencesUniversity of Southampton

REFERENCES

Al-Krenawi, A. & Graham, J.R. (2000) Islamic theology and

prayer: relevance for social work practice. International Social

Work, 43 (3), 289–304.

Hasan, R. (2010) Multiculturalism: Some Inconvenient Truths.

Politico’s Publishing, London.

Murray-Parkes, C., Laungani, P. & Young, B. (eds) (1997) Death

and Bereavement Across Cultures. Routledge, London.

Reflective Practice in Mental Health:Advanced Psychosocial Practice withChildren, Adolescents and Adults

Martin Webber and Jack Nathan (eds)

Jessica Kingsley, London, 2010, 272 pp. £22.99. ISBN

9781849050296

This book is the first in a new Jessica Kingsley series‘Reflective Practice in Social Care’, which addressescomplex practice issues through the use of caseexamples. It adds to a recently growing literature oncontemporary social work and mental health, settingout to provide ‘an authoritative articulation ofadvanced psychosocial practice as defining the disci-plines of mental health social work with children andadults’. Its editors draw here on three decades ofexperience of an advanced level post-qualifyingmental health social work programme at the Instituteof Psychiatry – the MSc in Mental Health SocialWorkwith Children and Adults – which, as the forewordmake clear was established as ‘a mental health socialwork course and not a course for social workers aboutpsychiatry’.The thesis of the book is that psychosocialpractice is at the heart of what social workers do andthat they are well placed to lead on these approachesin both mental health and child care settings. Giventhat social work is – through the work of the SocialWork Reform Board – currently rearticulating its role,I would concur with the editors that this is indeed atimely publication.

The book is in three sections. Part One sets thecontext for psychosocial practice and highlights therole for advanced practitioners in social work in itspromotion. Part Two explores a range of psychosocialtheories and approaches, demonstrating through theuse of case studies how these have been applied. Itsfive chapters provide an introduction to psychoana-lytic theory and research, cognitive behaviouraltherapy, systemic practices, attachment theory andgroup analytic psychotherapy. Part Three sets out toexplicate further how evidence-based psychosocialapproaches can be incorporated into day-to-day prac-tice within a range of settings; three of the chaptershaving been written by graduates of the Institute ofPsychiatry MSc programme, including one on ‘psy-chosocial mental health practice in children andfamily services’.

This is a well-written and skilfully edited book, withmuch to offer social work practitioners across a range ofsettings. It will be of interest to other professionals also.

Book Reviews Karen Broadhurst

113 Child and Family Social Work 2012, 17, pp 108–114 © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Chapters written by the editors provide a helpful over-view of advanced practice and its relationship to reflec-tive practice; the evidence base for psychosocial mentalhealth practice; the place of psychoanalytic theory andresearch in reflective social work practice; and thechallenges and opportunities for psychosocial practicein mental health. These draw the book together, pro-viding a sense of coherence and flow. A strength of thispublication is its rootedness within the work of a par-ticular educational initiative.The inclusion of a chapterby Tirril Harris, which describes the evolution of thestress-vulnerability model,bolsters the sense that this isa historically grounded publication. The book’s focuson London is – given its roots in the work of a particularprogramme – perhaps inevitable. It might have beengood though to see some examples of current practicefrom other parts of the UK.

Two of the chapters provide an explicit focus onservice user perspectives: the first, an overview by PeteFleischmann of service user and carer involvement in

research; the second, an account by Don Brand andSarah Carr of their own experiences of mental illhealth, the need for the development of social per-spectives and the challenges of working with a mentalhealth condition. The book concludes with a call toarms for ‘practitioners, employers and educators’ torise up together and seize the moment. There is adanger that in helping social work to assert itself and‘leave behind its historical status as a “semi-profession” ’, we fall in to the trap of creating a mys-tique about our advanced practice that could bealienating rather than helpful for service users. Onewould hope that there will be a place for people withlived experience of services – who may or may not bepractitioners, employers or educators – in the seizingof that moment too.

Jill AndersonSenior Project Development Officer – Mental Healthin Higher Education ProjectLancaster University

Book Reviews Karen Broadhurst

114 Child and Family Social Work 2012, 17, pp 108–114 © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd