Challenges of Living: A Multidimensional Working Model for Social Workers

The book provides a working model for social workers to integrate the most up-to-date evidence about challenges of living encountered in their daily practice. Using a multidimensional biopsychosocial-spiritual perspective, the book examines etiology, course, and intervention strategies related to 8 challenges of living. The book presents a range of theories of causation and brings together the most recent interdisciplinary research on risk and protective factors in each chapter. Of particular note are the up-to-date and accessible coverage of biological risk and protective factors, the emphasis on how each challenge of living is experienced across diverse identity groups, and intervention strategies across primary, secondary, and tertiary intervention modes. Chapter 1 lays out the dimensions of the working model. Chapter 2 begins with four life stories that social workers could encounter; these stories are used throughout the book to illuminate contemporary knowledge about selected challenges of living. Chapter 2 also provides a fresh discussion of the processes by which social workers move from knowing that to knowing how, focusing on knowledge about the case, knowledge about the self, values and ethics, and general knowledge form the behavioral sciences.