Julie Fish,Social work and lesbian,gay,bisexual and trans people – making a difference

Reviewed by: John Hancox, Manukau Institute of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

Aiming to provide an introductory text for practitioners, educators and students on qualifying programmes, in order to focus debate, stimulate further reading and incorporate the distinctive concerns and experiences of GLBT people accessing social work and services, is no easy task. To look to add to the task by seeking to provide a framework, which underpins the knowledge, skills and values, from which to develop best practice to work with LGBT people, is to add high ambition to the task. That all of these aims are achieved is due, in no small measure, to the systematic and skilful crafting of the content of this work. The text has a pattern without ever being formulaic.

For a book which has as its focus a UK context, its style and content resonates with a saying from Aotearoa/ New Zealand Maori, ‘Titiro ki muri kia whakatika a mua,’ which translated means ‘look to the past to proceed into the future.’

The opening chapters revisit and explore how past legal, theoretical and social perspectives impact the current experience and perceptions of GLBT people today, providing a solid foundation on, and from which, specific individual and group needs are examined. Seven specific areas of work and practice are considered, these are, work with Trans people, Children and Young people, Older people, Mental Health, Disability, Substance misuse and work with Asylum Seekers and Refugees.

The text is resource rich, references are current, useful, plentiful and underpin the content of each chapter as do the case studies, activities, practice scenarios and quotes taken from participants of service. Mixing how the content is delivered enables reflection of the major themes and issues, which are constantly and consistently threaded throughout the work by providing different lenses through which to consider each aspect. The themes are plentiful and cover GLBT experience, the current and historical invisibility of GLBT, the legal, social and emotional climate GLBT people face, the dominance of hetrosexism and the pathologising of identity. Service context themes explore legal requirements, codes of conduct and ethics, the position of human rights and practice theory including anti-discriminatory practice and cultural competence. Personal / practitioner themes include, how to build trust and demonstrate an equal acceptance of sexual diversity, the importance of networking, creating safe environments, and balancing one’s own wellness when confronting the additional challenges working to achieve the needs GLBT people can bring.

This is not a passive work. The interactive nature of the text means the frameworks for practice described, are not offered as an end in themselves, rather they are as guidelines within which the practitioner, educator, and student is provided with an opportunity, indeed a challenge, to add knowledge and understanding, and at the same time develop a personal and professional value base which will enhance GLBT service experience.

Building a foundation for the consideration of GLBT practice by pulling together universal themes and experiences enables the UK context explored in the text to be easily transferable and worthy of comparison wherever in the world work with GLBT people is being considered or taking place.

Each reading of this text will raise questions and present challenges. There is no commitment to answer all of the questions contained in the text let alone new ones as they emerge. Additionally the text does not claim to cover all of the issues and experiences faced by GLBT people in seeking social work / service access. In these gaps lies a further strength. The text, in taking responsibility to inform, direct and signpost GLBT work and experience, balances that responsibility by providing gaps which can only be addressed by practitioners, students and educators who choose to reflect and close the gaps for, but not by, themselves.

In conclusion, this is a text which deserves to sit on the desk, or at the very least be on the office / classroom shelf of every social work practitioner, student and educator. It is a ‘reach for’ resource which needs be accessible where, and whenever consideration of, or direct work with, GLBT peoples is undertaken.