Neuroscience and Social Work Practice: The Missing Link

Over the past 30 years, findings in the neurosciences have grown exponentially and have provided a profound understanding of the link between behavior and biology. Although the Social Work community has long taken pride in using a bio-psycho-social-spiritual (BPSS) framework in conceptualization and intervention, the biological aspect of this BPSS framework has been sorely missing. Neuroscience and Social Work Practice provides the critical missing link. Introducing the latest neuroscience research, it gives practitioners essential data—in an easily accessible form—with which to take on the challenges of increasingly complex human problems and diagnoses.

Key Features

• Takes readers on a “tour of the brain” and makes dense scientific material more engaging
• Provides a framework for how human service professionals can understand and implement neuroscience clinical data with the use of the Transactional Model
• Uses case vignettes to explain how neuroscience findings have been applied to specific practice situations
• Offers a deeper understanding of the links between neuroscience research and social work in such areas as trauma, attachment, psychotherapy, substance abuse, and the effects of psychotropic medications

Intended Audience
This cutting-edge text is indispensable for practitioners in the human services field and is an essential supplement for upper-level undergraduate or graduate students of courses in Human Behavior in the Social Environment and Social Work Direct Practice as well as courses on Interpersonal Practice with Individuals, Children, and Families.

Over the past 30 years, findings in the neurosciences have grown exponentially and have provided a profound understanding of the link between behavior and biology. Although the Social Work community has long taken pride in using a bio-psycho-social-spiritual (BPSS) framework in conceptualization and intervention, the biological aspect of this BPSS framework has been sorely missing. Neuroscience and Social Work Practice provides the critical missing link. Introducing the latest neuroscience research, it gives practitioners essential data-in an easily accessible form-with which to take on the challenges of increasingly complex human problems and diagnoses.

Key Features

• Takes readers on a "tour of the brain" and makes dense scientific material more engaging
• Provides a framework for how human service professionals can understand and implement neuroscience clinical data with the use of the Transactional Model
• Uses case vignettes to explain how neuroscience findings have been applied to specific practice situations
• Offers a deeper understanding of the links between neuroscience research and social work in such areas as trauma, attachment, psychotherapy, substance abuse, and the effects of psychotropic medications

Intended Audience
This cutting-edge text is indispensable for practitioners in the human services field and is an essential supplement for upper-level undergraduate or graduate students of courses in Human Behavior in the Social Environment and Social Work Direct Practice as well as courses on Interpersonal Practice with Individuals, Children, and Families.

Rosemary Farmer is associate professor of social work at Virginia Commonwealth University from which she also earned her Ph.D. Her dissertation is entitled: Selected Effects of Underlying Neuropsychiatric Impairment on Adaptation of Persons with Schizophrenia to a Chronic Mental Illness. Within the Human Behavior in the Social Environment (HBSE) track, she teaches courses on HBSE; psychopharmacology; clinical experience; mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders, and family therapy. A prolific author, she has published numerous journal articles on psychopharmacology and neuroscience as they relate to clinical social work practice.