Social Work Records

Thoroughly revised, the third edition of Social Work Records describes an approach to recordkeeping that is well-suited to contemporary practice. Kagle and Kopels 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: 1) introduces the 15 principles of good records and their usefulness to assess the quality, appropriateness, and impact of services; 2) presents an overview of the content of social work records using the Service-Centered Record format; 3) 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; 4) offers solutions to issues in practice from both the direct-service and the administrative perspective; 5) provides a thorough analysis of records and the law. It describes various federal and state laws, including a thorough treatment of the privacy provisions of HIPAA and how they affect specific client populations; and 6) presents legal issues pertaining to subpoenas, records, record retention, personal notes, and privilege and their impact on social work practice. Titles of related interest also by Waveland Press: Crosson-Tower, From the Eye of the Storm: The Experiences of a Child Welfare Worker (ISBN 9781478629399); Parsons, Fundamentals of the Helping Process, Second Edition (ISBN 9781577667162); and Royse et al., Field Instruction: A Guide for Social Work Students, Seventh Edition (ISBN 9781478635291).