Learning about alcohol: Personal experiences taken into social work practice

Livingston, Wulf (2016) Learning about alcohol: Personal experiences taken into social work practice. Practice. ISSN 0950-3153

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Abstract

This article explores social workers’ knowledge of alcohol, as acquired through their experiences of familial and personal drinking. In doing so, it explores how non-codified knowledge acquisition complements that of the classroom, policy guidance and textbooks. It does so by presenting a data subset which is an extraction from a more comprehensive study of social workers’ knowledge of alcohol. The overall study adopted a predominantly qualitative methods approach: in particular biographically structured interviews with fifteen qualified social workers. The contextual considerations are presented first, before abundance of illustrative data which demonstrate how social workers’ knowledge of alcohol is significantly contributed to through familial and personal experiences. The detailed exploration is set within a number of distinct themes; learning from family drinking, accounts of personal drinking, explorations of defining drinking through language and social workers’ individual relationships with alcohol. Discussion is set within the data presentation and highlights how these moments of learning strongly influence understanding of alcohol: a topic which is an increasingly significant element in most social work practice. The discourse is set within a context which explores how working within more inclusive typologies and frameworks for social work knowledge has potential implications for accepting that social work practice is additionally informed by understanding acquired beyond the classroom or office setting.

Item Type: Article
Keywords: Social work, knowledge, alcohol, drinking, experience
Divisions: Social and Life Sciences
Depositing User: Mr Stewart Milne
Date Deposited: 24 Feb 2016 17:02
Last Modified: 19 Dec 2017 14:37
URI: https://glyndwr.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/9147

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