ABSTRACT
Since the first edition of this book was published in 1992, strengths-based approaches have made a major contribution to developing a social work practice which is empowering and values-led, as demonstrated in settings as diverse as children and families, mental health, criminal justice and community social work across the world. Strengths-based approaches, as the title suggests, focus on identifying the strengths which service users have in themselves, their families, their wider lives and communities, and building from these. The notion of ‘resilience’, central to research findings on children at risk, has resonance with this approach (see Masten et al. 1990; Smith and Carslon 1997), as do solution-focused approaches (highlighted in the previous chapter) and cognitive behavioural approaches (see Sheldon 1995; Sheldon and Macdonald 2009). Strengths-based approaches see the relationship between the social worker and the service user as fundamental to motivating change (see Nash et al. 2005), a message taken forward in the review of social work in Scotland (Scottish Executive 2006) and also reflected in earlier research by Prochaska and diClemente (1984) on helping people with addictions problems. The extract is taken from the fourth edition of the groundbreaking book by Dennis Saleebey who is based at the University of Kansas in the US.
From The Strengths Perspective in Social Work Practice, 4th edition, Boston, MA: Pearson Education (2006): 7–22.
