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This book takes up the challenge of the failure of most initiatives in community-based service delivery to address the significant philosophical shift that is necessary to create, implement, and evaluate appropriately these sorts of projects. Challenging the tendency to focus entirely on practicalities, the authors emphasize the centrality of philosophy to any successful community-based undertaking. While fully acknowledging the importance of local knowledge and the guidance of projects by local people, this volume shows that these principles are often at odds with the ‘Cartesian'mindset that underpins much project planning, with its emphasis on objectivity in science and knowledge. Since all knowledge is mediated by human activity and embedded in language and other modes of expression, this dualist approach must be reconsidered. A thorough rethinking of traditional service delivery, which takes into account issues of data, methodology, and bias together with questions of generalizability, community, power, and communication, this book will appeal to scholars of sociology, social policy, and social work with interests in community-based service delivery.

This title includes a number of Open Access chapters.Social Work in Public Health and Hospitals explores a variety of issues related to social work in hospital settings as well as the public policy concerns that guide them. Topics discussed include hospital stays for the elderly, identifying postnatal depression during well-child visits, breast-fee

This title includes a number of Open Access chapters. This book explores a variety of physical, mental, and lifestyle challenges faced by community populations. Some of the topics discussed include homelessness, smoking trends among certain populations, mental health issues among different age and gender groups, substance abuse, and domestic violence. The book also examines community health promotion, nutrition intervention, contraception, and more.