Task Strategies: An Empirical Approach to Clinical Social Work

In Task Strategies: An Empirical Approach to Clinical Social Work William Reid focuses on task-centered intervention strategies to attain a variety of goals that regularly arise in short-term clinical work with both individuals and families. These strategies involve problem-solving actions or tasks carried out by clients in the treatment session, at home, or in the community. A task consists of acting in a planned way to solve a problem, rather than talking about the problem as a means to develop insight or promote personal growth. Reid emphasizes a collaborative effort in which practitioners help clients design, plan, practice, and implement tasks and learn to resolve difficulties through their own problem-solving actions, especially outside the treatment session.Task Strategies presents an in-depth examination of intervention strategies suitable for common problems encountered by clinical social workers: difficulties experienced by families and children, anxiety, depression, alcohol abuse, inadequate resources, and psychosocial problems associated with mental and physical illness. Reid presents specific strategies that all practitioners, regardless of their theoretical persuasion, can use to treat these problems. The book also provides a synthesis of recent developments in behavioral, cognitive, and family therapies within the framework of the task-centered approach.Based on the task-centered practice model empirically tested and refined over the last two decades, Task Strategies will prove to be essential for students and practitioners of clinical social work.