The Social Workers' Toolbox aims to bring order to the diversity of tools which are so characteristic of social work: assessment tools, practice tools and outcome-measurement tools. The tools described in this Toolbox can be directly put into practice and adapted to the social workers' personalized approach with their individual clients and their environments. The underlying meta-theory for Sustainable Multimethod Social Work is the 'PIE-Empowerment Theory'. This theory defines social work practice in terms of the partnership between social worker and client and is aimed at enhancing quality of life through systematically and sustainably addressing human needs and human rights. The multimethod model promotes the flexible combination of well-written evidence- and practice-based tools.
Packed full of useful checklists, the Toolbox is ideal reading for both inexperienced and more practiced social workers. The book provides a solid basis through the use of practical examples. For the more experienced social worker it offers a substantial resource and the means to legitimize a chosen course of action and social work intervention. Schools of social work will be able to use the book as an easily accessible resource for social work assessments, interventions and quality social work management.
About the Author: From 1978, Herman J. de Mönnink has held a position as Senior Lecturer at the School of Social Work, Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen, the Netherlands; he is in private practice as a trainer in multimethod social work (MMSW) and a trauma psychologist/grief therapist. He believes that the strength of MMSW is that it effectively meets human needs and human rights of socially, economically and politically vulnerable people.
Herman graduated from the University of Groningen (1976) in Social Clinical Psychology (MSc), where he managed the practice research project 'Psychotherapy for the Poor'. He published several articles about evidence-based social work methods, grief support and burnout-prevention. In 1996, his first book was published, titled Grief Support, including Unfinished Business Syndrome (UBS) and Therapeutic Photo Confrontation (TPC). For Victim Support Netherlands he trained social workers using TPC for victims of sudden death (by accidents, homicide, suicide, natural disasters, terrorism and aircraft disaster).
In 2004, Herman published the Dutch version of this book titled The Social Workers' Toolbox: Multimethod Social Work. In this bestselling book he proposed a paradigm shift, working not from a one-method-fits-for-all-perspective but from a multimethod perspective. Herman trained social workers around the world about a flexible combination of 20 well-written social work methods.
