The Future of Strengths-Based Social Work

Abstract

The future of strength based social work is both promising and precarious. In this article we seek to capture this uncertain state by sketching the evolution of the strengths approach and offering and offering a brief evaluation of its status today. There are any number of approaches to both theory and practice at present that profess to be strengths-based. It is imperative that we develop stable and concrete criteria for determining whether a given perspective if framework is, in fact, funded by strengths principles and practices. We offer six standards for making such a judgment. We also examine the future of the strengths model. Of course, writing on the future tempts one to make predictions. We have eschewed such folly. Instead, we offer four tasks that we believe would bolster the development of strengths-based social work in the future.

Racial Disparities in Community Outcomes Among Individuals with Schizophrenia and Cooccurring Substance Use Disorders

“…Practicing from a strengths-based approach requires social workers to work with clients to identify both personal and community-based resilience factors, acknowledge structural barriers to treatment access and quality of care, and share in decision making about the best-fitting treatment approaches given one's diagnosis and social and cultural conditions (Snowden, 2012). Using evidence-based practices in treatment with Black persons with schizophrenia is vital to reducing disparities in the quality of care between Blacks and Whites, but social workers must also assist clients in addressing the needs and challenges that fall outside the spectrum of "treatment," such as low individual or family income (Rapp, Saleebey, & Sullivan, 2005). These challenges are stressful, disproportionately affect Black Americans, and lead to unhealthy behaviors such as alcohol and drug use among this population (Jackson, Knight, & Rafferty, 2010), thus potentially exacerbating functional problems in community contexts.…”

Introducing Asset-Based Models of Social Justice into Service Learning: A Social Work Approach

“…Blundo (2009) reported that the publication of Mary Richmond's book Social Diagnosis in 1917 provided the "fundamental 'medical' constructs" (p. 28) that form the basis for much of social work practice today. Over the decades, these constructs were strengthened and solidified by the profession's affiliations with modern psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and humanistic psychology from the 1920s to the 1950s (Specht & Courtney, 1994), and remain the dominant paradigm of social work practice, despite the emergence of strengths-based practice in the 1980s (Saleebey, 2009), and a growing base of research on the effectiveness of strengths-based practice methods (Rapp, Saleebey, & Sullivan, 2005).…”

Does a Social Work Degree Predict Practice Orientation? Measuring Strengths-Based Practice Among Child Welfare Workers With the Strengths-Based Practices Inventory–Provider Version

“…It is possible that a degree in social work does not uniquely prepare one for SBP. The SBP model has been widely stressed and implemented throughout most of the social service sector (Allison et al, 2003;Lietz, 2011;Lietz & Rounds, 2009;Rapp, Saleebey, & Sullivan, 2005;Sheely & Bratton, 2010;Whitley, White, Kelley, & Yorke, 1999), which means that providers will be exposed and trained in SBP, even without a degree in social work. Further, the lack of association between a degree in social work and SBP may be related to the fact that SBP was tested on a sample of CWWs, where SBP orientations are sometimes questioned, both within the profession and by others (Gelfand et al, 1973;Mullins, 2011 ;Wexler, 2008).…”