The Sage Handbook of Decision Making, Assessment and Risk in Social Work

Expert yet accessible, this Handbook interweaves research learning with experience.  While tuned to the social work profession, the authors' knowledge of assessment, decision making and risk will be of wider interest to other professionals and those supporting them. With contributions from 20 different countries the relevance of the subjects is clearly global. Drawing on a wide range of disciplines, this Handbook looks set to inspire new thinking and practice innovations.

Trevor Spratt opens the first chapter of The Sage Handbook of Decision Making, Assessment and Risk in Social Work with the phrase of being somewhat in awe of social workers decision-making abilities. I'm somewhat in awe too. Every day, social workers face challenges in decision-making by evaluating a complex interplay of risks and protective factors while lacking information for many of them. In this complex environment, humans are prone to using shortcuts and rules of thumb. Consequently, the authors of this Handbook not only present evidence on good practice, but also on biases and errors – combined with strategies to overcome these shortcomings.

This impressive, well-structured, and extensively researched Handbook, edited by leading academics in the field, is a ‘must have’. The individual chapter contributions, written by key academics, researchers, practitioners, and professionals from wide-ranging backgrounds, explore current theories, research, and practice in an accessible and thought-provoking way. The lead editor, with a highly regarded reputation for agenda setting in this area, has succeeded in bringing into one volume an authoritative account of contemporary issues regarding risk, assessment and decision making in social work. Essential for students, academics and people in practice, the Handbook is guaranteed to stimulate new ways of understanding, thinking, and doing. 

Brian J Taylor, PhD, is Emeritus Professor of Social Work at Ulster University, Northern Ireland. Professionally qualified in social work and teaching, he spent 10 years as a practitioner and manager, and then 15 years in training and organisation development in health and social care before joining the University. Brian was founder and principal organiser of the biennial conference series: Decisions, Assessment, Risk and Evidence in Social Work, 2010-2022. He has taught, researched and published on these topics, including being author on over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles. He has supervised about 20 PhD students, including some jointly with colleagues in communication studies, health care, psychology, youth and community work, law and computer science. Brian is a Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences; honorary Senior Fellow of the School for Social Care Research at the National Institute for Health Research, London; and honorary Associate of the Harding Centre for Risk Literacy at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin. He was a founder member of the Board of the European Social Work Research Association (ESWRA), and founder-Convenor of the ESWRA Decisions, Assessment and Risk Special Interest Group.

John D Fluke, PhD, is Associate Director for Systems Research and Evaluation at the Kempe Center with appointments as Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, USA, and the Department of Epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health. His research focuses on child protection decision making and child maltreatment epidemiology. He is known internationally for his research involving child welfare administrative data analysis, workload and costing, and performance and outcome measurement for children and family services. For the US government as well as local governments, foundations, and international entities he has been PI or key staff for numerous projects. He participates in ongoing international efforts to improve the global capacity to understand the epidemiology of child maltreatment. He is the author or co-author of many peer reviewed publications, as well as numerous edited books, book chapters and reports.

J. Christopher Graham, PhD, is a Senior Researcher in Child Welfare at the Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF), Office of Innovation, Alignment, and Accountability. Dr. Graham holds a Doctoral Degree in Social Psychology from the University...

Foreword - Annamaria Campanini Introduction to the Handbook - Brian J Taylor Section 1: Professional Judgement Introduction to Section One - Emily Keddell & Aron Shlonsky Sub-section A: Heuristics& Biases Chapter 1: Confirmation bias in social work - Trevor Spratt Chapter 2. Blame & emotion in professional judgement - Alessandro Sicora Chapter 3: The influence of optimism on analysis in professional judgement - Martin Kettle Chapter 4: Heuristics in professional judgement: between proximity & distance - Jacob Magnussen & Annemette Matthiesen Chapter 5: Collective cultures, risk, and individual judgement - Tracie Mafile'o, Jean Mitaera & Halaevalu F Ofahengaue Vakalahi Chapter 6: Social & relational contexts of professional judgement in organisations - David Hodgson,Lynelle Watts & Donna Chung Chapter 7: . Intuition in social work practice - Laura Cook Chapter 8: Challenges to using knowledge (evidence) in professional judgement - Paul McCafferty Chapter 9: Critical thinking and professional judgement - Eileen Gambrill Chapter 10: Sense making in professional judgement - Duncan Helm Chapter 11: Theories of professional judgement - Christian Ghanem & Joel Gautschi Chapter 12: Methods for studying professional judgement in social work - Joel Gautschi & Christian Ghanem Section 2: Assessment, Risk and Decision Process Introduction to Section Two - Campbell Killick Sub-section A: Contextual Aspects of Decision Making and Working with Risk Chapter 13: Cultural aspects of assessment and decision-making processes - Prospera Tedam Chapter 14: Legally-literate decision making and management of risk in social work - Michael Preston-Shoot Chapter 15: Interprofessional decision making - Ravit Alfandari, Jaroslaw Przeperski & Brian J Taylor Chapter 16: Decision making in organisational contexts - Mark Gregory Chapter 17: Assessment and risk: recognising the circularity of child-adverse-events and psychiatric disorders in children and adults - Colin Pritchard & Richard Williams Sub-section B: Engaging Children and Families in Assessment and Decision Processes Chapter 18: Engaging client families in assessment and managing risks - Lorna Montgomery, Mandi MacDonald & Eddy J Walakira Chapter 19: Engaging children in assessment and decisions - Janne Fengler & Peter Schafer Chapter 20: Reimagining participation of young people in decision making in contexts of vulnerability - Monica Lopez Lopez, Leo Wieldraaiher-Vincent & Mijntje ten Brummelaar Sub-section C: Engaging Adults in Assessment and Decision Processes Chapter 21: Engaging adults in the assessment - Gavin Davidson, Katherine Greer, Aodan Mulholland & Paul Webb Chapter 22: Shared decision making with clients - Anna Olaison & Sarah Donnelly Chapter 23: Decisional capacity in mental health social work - Jim Campbell & Ross Campbell Chapter 24: Risk, desistance and engagement: working with adult service users in Probation - Hazel Kemshall Sub-section D: Prospects & Developments Chapter 25: Studying risk-managing, decision-making & assessment processes - Campbell Killick & Brian J Taylor Section 3: Assessment Tools and Approaches Introduction to Section Three John D Fluke & J Christopher Graham - John D Fluke & J Christopher Graham Sub-section A: Foundations of Assessment Tools & Predicting Harm Chapter 26: Foundations of valid assessment - J Christopher Graham & John D Fluke Chapter 27: From validity to validation and beyond - J Christopher Graham & Doug Klinman Chapter 28: Standardized risk assessment tools: methods, development & applications - Julie L Crouch & Joel S Milner Sub-section B: Assessment and the Use of Tools Chapter 29: Implementing assessments using structured tools - Kresta M Sorensen Chapter 30: Decision aids, decision supports and managing risk - Pascal Bastian & Mark Schroedter Chapter 31: Legal aspects of decision-making processes in