Social Work Records

The latest edition of Social Work Records describes an approach to recordkeeping that is well-suited to contemporary practice. The authors encourage practitioners to seek a balance among accountability, supporting and improving practice, efficiency, and client privacy in selecting and organizing information in their records. They propose guidelines for improving agency-wide policies and procedures and include new material on demonstrating cultural competence, systematic assessment, managed care, computerization, and record security. The process of recording, as well as the record itself, are described and illustrated in ways that fit the realities of today’s practice. Social Work Records is a single source that: introduces the 15 principles of good records and their usefulness to assess the quality, appropriateness, and impact of services; presents an overview of the content of social work records using the Service-Centered Record format; focuses on the structure of the record by describing and analyzing a wide range of approaches, formats, and forms that are used to select and organize information; offers solutions to issues in practice from both the direct-service and the administrative perspective; provides a thorough analysis of records and the law.