Abstract
Reviewed by: Kerry Cuskelly, General Adult Community Mental Health Team, Dublin, Ireland
The topics covered in this book consider a wide range of social work fields across Ireland. The book draws together a plethora of established academics on subjects such as child protection, fostering, globalization, ethics, adoption, family violence, substance misuse, intellectual disability, mental health, probation, health and aging. Each chapter is densely populated with well-researched evidence and arguments. The authors of each chapter are clearly knowledgeable in their fields of specialty and give well-rounded considerations to the topics. Each chapter covers a general outline of the history of the topic, the present considerations for practice and suggestions for future focus of practice or implications for practice.
This book is a comprehensive contribution to the discussions and debates on the past, present and future of social work in Ireland. It follows nicely from previous books on the evolution and history of social work in Ireland, for example by Skehill et al. (Buckley, Skehill, & O’ Sullivan, 1997; Kearney & Skehill, 2005; Skehill, 1999, 2004).
On examining the book from an overall perspective, it can be noted that social work in Ireland has progressed in different fields at various paces. The most advanced social work field is, unsurprisingly, that of child welfare and protection, a subject, which is covered by Buckley and Burns in chapter four. It is noted in chapter 12 by Butler and Loughran that social work in the field of substance misuse is quite under-developed and that the involvement of social work in that area has remained quite limited. They argue that social work has much scope for practice in this area especially when considering that addiction issues are prevalent in a substantial number of families who interact with the child protection system.
It is also positive to note that throughout the book authors were open about critiquing the role of social work as it affords social workers the opportunity to critically reflect on practice and to seek to enhance it in a positive way. For example, in chapter one, McGregor and Quin note that while internationally social work (correctly so), positions itself as an activity that is oriented towards advocacy, values and justice, in Ireland the extent to which these can be considered core aspects of the profession is queried. They evidence their position by noting that, in general, the voice of the social work profession in Ireland has not been very evident in emphasizing the impact of austerity and cutbacks to services on those who need and use them. They further note that the Irish Association of Social Workers has been limited in its ability to be prominent on a national level in regards to the impact of the recession on families and the increasing experience of deprivation of users of social work services. In chapter 10, Sapouna and Brosnan offer a critique of social work in the field of mental health. They challenge social workers in mental health to take the lead in challenging the medical hegemony prevalent in Irish mental health service through recovery-oriented practice and prioritization of a social approach to mental distress. They offer many suggestions for how social workers can do this, for example, through promoting meaningful service user involvement and through acknowledging the social causes of service users’ mental distress.
Overall, the book is a strong contribution to debates and discussions about social work in an Irish context and should be of great interest to social work students, practitioners and academics alike.