Social Support Strategies : Guidelines for Mental Health Practice

A summary of research about the use of family, friends and neighbours as a natural adjunct to professional human services. The book is also full of practical ideas and examples, covering a range of applications which show how social support can be used in preventative programmes, in medical practice, at work, in caring for the elderly, and in the social services. Gottlieb also uses research to show how alterations to organizational structure can transform an unsupportive milieu into one in which social support plays a prominent part.

`...Social Support Strategies, is a useful addition to the SAGE range and to the ever-growing literature on community mental health...This is a useful book for social workers and residential care staff concerned with developing social support strategies, and it would be a helpful read for community nurses.' -- Health and Social Service Journal, March 1984

`A monumental task very effectively carried out, the book will be a welcome aid to both theorists and field workers.' -- Journal of the Institute of Health Education, Vol 21 No 4, 1984

`...(the author) has thoroughly reviewed social support research in order to suggest practical implications for professional helpers...What is striking about this book is Gottlieb's thorough familiarity with the social support literature; his bibliography reflects research from various fields, including medicine, business management, and behavioral sciences. Several models of social support interventions, useful in a wide variety of contexts, are presented for review, Human service professionals will find (this book) to be an excellent overview of social support research as well as a valuable resource of treatment options.' -- The American Journal of Family Therapy, Vol 12 No 3, Fall 1984

`(The author) demonstrates an unusual ability to distill essential concepts and research findings from a vast array of studies and to present these in a clear and concise manner...Through his understanding of the worlds of both the research scholar and the practitioner, and his ablitiy to communicate effectively with both, (the author) has been able to produce an excellent, practical and well written volume which makes a long overdue contribution to the social support literature.' -- Health Education Quarterly, Vol 12 No 1, Spring 1985