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Abstract
Aithough collaboration is ubiquitous to social work, this article is the first to consider "collaboration" as a unifying method for all fields of social work practice and as appropriate to current sociopolitical practice contexts. From Interdisdplinary and social work literatures, the authors propose a definition fitting for social work practice and discuss necessary conditions, attributes, and phases, as well as a case example.
ALTHOUGH COLLABORATION IS ubiquitous to the literature, this article is the first to introduce collaboration comprehensively, as a method for social work practice. It begins by defining the term and explaining its relevance to contemporary social work practice. Conditions, antecedents, and phases for successful collaborative practice are discussed. A specific service area is used as an example of applying the collaborative method of practice.
Collaboration highlights current needs for effective teamwork, professional cooperation, and the enhancement of existing collaborative relationships such as worker-to-client, worker-to-colleague, worker-to-agency, agency-to-agency, and worker/agency-to-community/ society. Collaboration diverges from older practices of professional competitiveness, and lack of cooperation within bureaucracies and between agencies. These are no longer affordable in an era of severe social welfare retrenchment, persistent client needs, and desired high quality program delivery. Collaboration also eschews a professional epistemology that glosses over community and society inequalities. Given the current neoconservative era, these inequalities must be addressed front and center, both in theory and in practice.
Above all else, collaboration captures the need for professions, agencies, communities, and client systems to work differently - to begin pooling resources, linking and allying with one another in efforts to rethink current practices, and to develop innovative, new responses to rapidly changing social problems (Lawson & Anderson, 1996). In the past, many collaborative efforts were perceived as voluntary. In our own time, as several advocates point out, collaboration is necessary to address social issues that are beyond the capacity or scope of any one agency or profession (Bailey & Koney, 1996; Weil, 1996; Parsloe, 1990).
Collaboration and Social Work Theory
Throughout much of its history, social work has been teaching and advocating inter- and intraprofessional collaboration as a practice skill. Previous generations of theorists such as Ida Cannon on medical social work (1923, 1952) or Charlotte Towle on public assistance (1945, 1952, 1969), are excellent examples. In our...