Social Justice in Clinical Practice: A Liberation Health Framework for Social Work

Social work theory and ethics places social justice at its core and recognises that many clients from oppressed and marginalized communities frequently suffer greater forms and degrees of physical and mental illness. However, social justice work has all too often been conceptualized as a macro intervention, separate and distinct from clinical practice.

This practical text is designed to help social workers intervene around the impact of socio-political factors with their clients and integrate social justice into their clinical work. Based on past radical traditions, it introduces and applies a liberation health framework which merges clinical and macro work into a singular, unified way of working with individuals, families, and communities. Opening with a chapter on the theory and historical roots of liberation social work practice, each subsequent chapter goes on to look at a particular population group or individual case study, including:

• LGBT communities
• Mental health illness
• Violence
• Addiction
• Working with ethnic minorities
• Health

Written by a team of experienced lecturers and practitioners, Social Justice in Clinical Practice provides a clear, focussed, practice-oriented model of clinical social work for both social work practitioners and students.

Dawn Belkin Martinez is Lecturer in Clinical Practice at the Boston University School of Social Work, USA and formerly an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She is one of the founding members of the Boston Liberation Health Group and gives presentations locally, nationally, and internationally about her work with immigrant families, liberation health theory and practice, and social justice.

Ann Fleck-Henderson is Professor Emerita at Simmons College School of Social Work, USA, and a consultant on intimate violence issues and on social work curriculum and pedagogy.