NASW Press Publications

NASW Press is a leading scholarly press in the social sciences. It serves faculty, practitioners, agencies, libraries, clinicians, and researchers throughout the United States and abroad. Known for attracting expert authors, the NASW Press produces scholarly journals, books, and reference works.

Below are some of our most recent publications. Please visit naswpress.org to see our full catalog.


Recent Titles


Social Work in an Online World: A Guide to Digital Practice

Social Work in an Online World: A Guide to Digital Practice book cover

Prior to 2020, the field of social work was limited in its adoption of digital practice. However, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, traditional, in-person service delivery was dramatically interrupted. Previously at a crossroads, the field is now experiencing a seemingly unstoppable shift toward modern technology-mediated forms of delivery.

Social Work in an Online World, edited by David A. Wilkerson and Liam O’Sullivan, addresses this shift and charts the changing landscape from analog to digital practice in varied client systems, system needs, and system levels (micro, mezzo, and macro). Going beyond online mental health service, which is largely individually focused and synchronously delivered, the authors offer a map of digital social work practice that can be expanded to include support, identity, community action, education, and psychoeducation. In addition, the book places special emphasis on digital equity and data justice, highlighting the core social work value of social justice.


Lessons from Abroad: Adapting International Social Welfare Innovations, 2nd edition

Lesson from abroad cover

There is much to learn through the international exchange of policy initiatives and program models. “Lessons from abroad”—the knowledge of problem-solving programs in other countries—can be an important component of understanding and addressing social problems in the 21st century United States, inspiring and informing policy action and program development.

Editors Amy Restorick Roberts and M. C. “Terry” Hokenstad bring together top scholars who share their expertise about approaches for understanding and addressing an array of global challenges through policy and practice examples from both developing and developed countries. Chapters examine distinct content areas, such as child welfare, aging, the climate crisis, and forced migration. Other chapters more broadly address global issues directly aligned with the values and professional ethics of social work, including environmental justice, the alleviation of poverty, social security, and community development. One chapter is devoted to the international social welfare treaties and conventions that affect social welfare and social work practice around the world, and the final chapter provides a thoughtful review of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and discusses the 2030 Agenda, examining implementation strategies and the contributions of social work.


South Asians in the United States: A Guide for Social Workers and Other Helping Professionals

South Asians in the United States book cover

Currently, about 5.4 million South Asians live in the United States, with family origins in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Bhutan. When working with South Asian clients, it is crucial to understand their level of acculturation to the mainstream and the profound impact it has on their stress levels, coping mechanisms, and lived experiences.

This unique book debunks the myth of the “model minority,” a term often used to describe South Asians in the United States due to the rapid financial and cultural success of some of the subgroups among South Asians. Instead, the authors have compiled comprehensive evidence-based literature on the prevalence, nature, and types of social issues that South Asians in the United States face, as well as how best to intervene. Beginning with a history of South Asians in the United States, the book explores the immigration patterns, religious diversity, and languages and cultures that shape this community. Using an intersectionality framework, the authors bring together previously fragmented research into this population and explain through case studies the topics particularly relevant to South Asians, including domestic violence, mental health, parenting, gender and sexual orientation, workplace barriers, and aging.


Interactional Supervision: A Teaching Guide for the 4th Edition

For decades, Lawrence Shulman’s text, Interactional Supervision, has been the standard-bearer for teaching supervision, introducing students to the interactional model, work-phase skills, skills of helping, and the concept of parallel process. Now, for the first time, this seminal text has a companion teaching guide designed to aid instructors—both new and experienced—in the teaching of these essential materials.

Interactional Supervision: A Teaching Guide for the 4th Edition masterfully combines Shulman’s supervision principles with activities, assignments, and quizzes that align with the 2015 Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS), the nine competencies that ensure academic excellence by establishing thresholds for learning dimensions and professional proficiency.


Economic Well-Being: An Introduction

by Deborah A. Figart and Ellen Mutari

We are all part of the economy. We all have contributions to make to the economic well-being of our communities. We all make decisions about how we conduct our economic lives based on our values and preferences. Economic Well-Being: An Introduction provides us with tools to accomplish these goals.

As students of social work or other human services professions, it is essential that we understand how economic well-being—or the lack thereof—shapes people’s lives. To use a person-in-environment framework, we must appreciate the challenges faced by our clients, including their access to financial resources and their level of economic functioning. In this groundbreaking text, Figart and Mutari make the study of economic life accessible, applicable, and exciting.


Identifying Moral Panic: The Discourse of Fear in Social Policy

Identifying Moral Panic Book Cover

By Michael H. Eversman

Using the sociological framework of moral panic — periods of exaggerated public fear triggered by high-profile incidents linked to feared social groups — Michael H. Eversman illuminates historic and contemporary moral panic episodes to show how political discourse and stereotyping lead to policy-making and enforcement that maintain social inequalities. Those most affected by these harsh and reactionary policies tend to be vulnerable populations known as “folk devils” — young people, public assistance recipients, immigrants, LGBTQ individuals, those with mental illness, and illicit drug users— groups that have long served as feared targets of moral condemnation.


Clinical Social Workers in Private Practice: A Reference Manual

Clinical Social Workers in Private Practice: A Reference Manual is a comprehensive guide focusing on the social work specialty area of private practice. It includes information that clinical social workers should know when starting a private practice and while maintaining it. This pamphlet, produced by the National Association of Social Workers, offers information on business planning, risk management, reimbursement, documentation and record keeping, emergency and disaster planning, preparing a professional will, and many other topics to help clinical social workers succeed in this growing specialty practice area.


Diagnosing and Treating Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Guide for Social Workers and all Frontline Staff

Dissociative identity disorder (DID), previously known as multiple personality disorder, is a misunderstood and often underdiagnosed condition. Whether you are a new social worker or an experienced frontline staffer who is new to DID, Diagnosing and Treating Dissociative Identity Disorder is the resource that can help.

Gregory L. Nooney uses case studies, diagnostic tools, and clinician self-care to demonstrate how to confirm a DID diagnosis and establish a therapeutic relationship; assist the client in developing internal communication, cooperation, and co-consciousness; and lead the client from emotional rigidity and chaos to integration.


43 Essential Policies for Human Services Professionals

Gerald V. O'Brien boils down key policies to their most essential elements: historical overview and nature of the social problem, policy overview, and effectiveness. Analysis elements address issues related to the policy, such as trigger events, problem framing, social engineering, covert rationales, unintended consequences, target efficiency, and governmental responsibility.

A 45-page Instructor Appendix is available as a separate PDF. To request a copy, send an e-mail to press@socialworkers.org.


Burnout and Self-Care in Social Work: A Guidebook for Students and Those in Mental Health and Related Professions (2nd edition)

The first edition of Burnout and Self-Care in Social Work was a breakout hit, providing a guiding light for those who were struggling. Now SaraKay Smullens has updated the text to reflect our evolving understanding of burnout, adding a fifth dimension, societal burnout, to her examination of personal, professional, relational, and physical burnout. She also shows us how moral distress and injury negatively affect all those who are devoted to a just and ethical society.

For those who are struggling, these pages offer opportunities for reflection, redirection, and hope. Whether you are a student or a professional at your wits’ end, let Burnout and Self-Care in Social Work be your guide to find direction and balance, better serve your clients, and increase your personal and professional fulfillment.


Leading and Managing Nonprofit Organizations

Leading and managing a nonprofit organization is a complex, demanding, and often overwhelming task. Identifying concise resources that will help you build your leadership and management skills can be equally challenging, whether you are already in the boardroom or are aspiring to be. Richard Edwards and Paul Kurzman have assembled over a dozen university faculty and field experts, providing best practices and thought leadership for turbulent times.


Social Work Speaks (12th Edition)

The 12th edition of Social Work Speaks is a comprehensive and unabridged collection of policies adopted and revised by the NASW Delegate Assembly in 2020. The policy statements set the parameters for NASW’s positions and actions on a broad range of public policy and professional issues. Social Work Speaks is a first-rate introductory social policy text that will spark dynamic and valuable debates on public policy and the role of social work in leading change. Social workers who want to be informed and involved in policy analysis, advocacy for social policies, or the formulation of future policy statements will find this volume a useful resource.


Mentoring Women for Leadership: Empowering the Next Generation

Mentoring Women for Leadership (by Saundra H. Starks, Gayle M. Mallinger, Christa C. Gilliam, Halaevalu F. O. Vakalahi, and Cathryne L. Schmitz) is a guide for educators, students, practitioners, and administrators to support the growth and development of female leaders.

The book includes a historical, global overview of women in social work, political, social justice, and other leadership positions. It provides theoretical frameworks and practical knowledge and skills related to leadership development, including the pipelines and pathways for preparing and supporting women in leadership.


NASW Code of Ethics

The NASW Code of Ethics is a set of standards that guide the professional conduct of social workers. The 2021 update includes language that addresses the importance of professional self-care. Moreover, revisions to the Cultural Competence standard provide more explicit guidance to social workers. All social workers should review the new text and affirm their commitment to abide by the Code of Ethics.

The Code of Ethics is also available in Spanish.

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