Introduction to the Third Edition Every human work is created in a specific time and space, and these factors not only influence it, but also give it a certain conditionality. This also applies to the third edition of Theory and methods of social work I. In the introduction to the second edition (2014), we stated that it was published in a period when there were fundamental changes in international and Slovak social work. At the international level, a new global definition of social work was adopted in Melbourne, Australia, in July 2014. At the national level, on July 9, 2014, the National Council of the Slovak Republic adopted the Professional Act on Social Work and on the Conditions for the Performance of Certain Professional Activities in the Field of Social and Family Affairs and on Amendments to Laws. The authors of the presented publication had the opportunity to be members of the expert commission participating in the preparation of the draft of this law, which has the aspiration to improve the conditions of professionalization of social work in Slovakia. However, the implementation of the law only started this year, including the preparation of the Slovak Chamber of Social Workers and Social Work Assistants. As members of the Preparatory Committee of the Chamber, we had the opportunity to participate in the preparation of several basic documents of the Chamber. Among them is also the Code of Ethics of the social worker and social work assistant of the Slovak Republic, which we consider an important milestone in the deepening of ethically sensitive social work in Slovakia. Therefore, it is no coincidence that we timed the publication of the book on the day of the constituent assembly of the chamber, which will be held on September 18, 2015. This is also related to several fundamental changes in the content of the publication compared to the previous two editions. Two new separate topics were included in the introductory chapter, namely the topic of social workers' responsibility towards themselves and the topic of ethically sensitive social work. At the same time, we do not understand ethics as an independent discipline that has a certain place in social work, but as an integral part of social work in its three inseparable dimensions – profession, education and science, i.e. also in the theory and methods that are the subject of the publication. A separate chapter of the book consists of selected theories applied mainly in case social work, respectively at the level of its micro-practice. On the recommendation of the reviewers, we omitted the chapter on design, which has a different theoretical basis, as well as the introductory chapter on communication in social work.
From the introduction to the first edition of the publication in 2013, we remind you that it was originally a made-to-order book. Its primary customers and readers were university students and students of the field of social work. Their expectation was to have the theory and methods of social work in one publication or two publications that would serve as study material for partial and state final exams in their field. The combination of theory and methods of social work was intentional by the authors of the book. The theory of social work is not only closely connected with practice, but to a large extent it is also determined by it. Reciprocally, the practice provides important impulses for further research and scientific verification of the effectiveness of the procedures used. The publication was not born "on a green field", but is a continuation and addition to a series of books by several authors, mostly in the field of social work methods: Mátel, Oláh, Schavel et al. Selected chapters from methods of social work I (2011), Mátel, Hardy et al. Selected chapters from methods of social work II (2012), Mátel Methods and approaches in social work (2013). Several ideas that readers will get to know in the publication have already been outlined by the authors in the books Schavel, Oláh Social counseling and communication (2010, 2012), Mátel, Schavel et al. Applied social pathology in social work (2011), Mátel et al. Ethics of social work (2010, 2012), Schavel et al. Supervision in social work (2013).
Title of work: Theory and methods of social work I.
Authors: doc. PhDr. Ph.Dr. Andrej Mátel, PhD., mim. prof. (chapters 1-9) prof. PaedDr. Milan Schavel, PhD. (chapters 1.10.4, 6, 7, 8) prof. MUDr. Eva Grey, PhD. (subchapter 2.4)
Reviewers: prof. PhDr. Ján Gabura, CSc. University of Constantine the Philosopher in Nitra doc. PhDr. Peter Brnula, PhD. Comenius University in Bratislava doc. PhDr. Ing. Emília Janigová, PhD. Catholic University in Ružomberok
Publisher Society for the Development of Social Work 2015
Edition: 3. supplemented and updated
Number of pages: 420
ISBN 978-80-971445-6-2