Sensory Awareness and Social Work

This book is part of the highly sucessful Transforming Social Work Practice series and is written specifically to support students on the Social Work Degree. It is full of practical tips, case studies, activities and opportunities for students to critically reflect and explore theory and practice.

Understanding sensory needs is fundamental for good social work and care management practice and is an important aspect of anti-oppressive practice. This book outlines different sensory needs, including Deafness/deafness, hearing impairment, Deafblindness and visual impairment, and enables students and practitioners to develop the knowledge, skills and values for best practice. There are chapters on communication skills, technological adaptations to increase and maintain independence and sensory awareness issues with different service users groups, including children and families, adults and those with mental health issues.

This book is designed to encourage the student to make useful applications of theory to practice and promote anti-discriminatory conduct with regard to sensory issues. Social policy, as well as current government legislation, is addressed and explored and applied to real practice issues.

Michelle Evans has 14 years of practice in all areas of sensory need, including Deaf/deafness, visual impairment and Deafblindness. She has a first class honours degree in social work and has worked as a care manager in adult services and a social worker in children's services. She has a particular interest in methods of social research which contribute to raising sensory awareness in social work/care management. She lectures social work students at London South Bank University and develops and delivers sensory awareness training to practitioners and managers.
Andrew Whittaker is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at London South Bank University. He has worked as a practitioner in adult and children's services and was the director of a voluntary organisation. He has taught on social work and nursing qualifying courses since 1993 and written about the impact of stigma and discrimination and research methods in social work. He is currently seconded as project coordinator at the Centre for Social Work Research at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust/University of East London.
Professor Jonathan Parker is Head of Social Work and Learning Disability at Bournemouth University and, with colleagues, has developed the Centre for Social Work and Social Care Research. He is currently vice-chair of the Joint University Council Social Work Education Committee.
Greta Bradley is a senior lecturer in social work at the University of York. Her academic interests are in community care and workforce studies in social work. Her most recent research is on aspects of sustainable practice in social work. She is a former editor of Practice.