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The Faculty of Health & Social Care at The Open University invites you to:

'Stories and Experience of Practice'
Joint book launch

Thursday 11th December 2014, 15:00 - 18:00
Berrill Lecture Theatre, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA

Dr Joan Simons, Mr Andy Rixon, Ms Jean Gordon, Dr Chris Kubiak, Dr Jonathan Leach and Dr Barry Cooper.

The Open University would like to invite you to join us for the launch of four new titles focussing on 'Stories and Experience of Practice' in health and social care. The afternoon and evening will include a short introduction to each of the titles by their OU Academic authors; Dr Joan Simons, Mr Andy Rixon, Ms Jean Gordon, Dr Chris Kubiak, Dr Jonathan Leach and Dr Barry Cooper. This will be followed by a short Q&A session and the chance to network with the authors and other delegates during a celebratory reception where refreshments will be provided.

This event is free of charge. To book your place or if you have
any queries regarding this event please email
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

About the Books:


*         Stories of Children's Pain: Linking Evidence to Practice

Bernie Carter, Joan Simons (Sage Publication)

Children's and young people's pain is challenging. This unique book draws on the stories told by children, young people, parents and professionals to explore what it feels like to be in pain, to parent a child in pain, or to be a health care professional trying to prevent and/or manage a child's pain.

Each chapter starts with a personal story that describes memorable incidences and moments in managing children's pain. The chapter then goes on to integrate relevant research, theory and implications for practice with the key points from the story.

By keeping the child or young person and their family central throughout the book it engages readers' hearts as well as their minds, thus enabling them to be/become knowledgeable, compassionate, child centred pain practitioner.


*         Improving Mental Health through Social Support: Building Positive and Empowering Relationships

Jonathan Leach (Jessica Kingsley Publishers)


Social support is the everyday assistance offered by family, friends, neighbours and colleagues, as well as the foundation of support in a range of non-clinical settings, and it plays a vital role in a person's mental health and wellbeing.

This book examines the nature of social support and offers a practical approach to how it can be enhanced. Focusing on the relationships between service users and supporters, it examines service users' experiences of issues of identity, stigma, social exclusion and social networks. Individual chapters look in depth at how social support is enacted in close relationships, educational institutions and in the world of employment. The nature of 'community' is explored with particular reference to how service users can be supported into greater engagement with social networks.


*         Best Practice with Children and Families: Critical Social Work Stories

Barry Cooper, Jean Gordon and Andy Rixon (PalgraveMacmillan)

Extract from the foreword by Prof David Howe.

"We have many excellent books on social work theory, skills and interventions which give practitioners a chance to breathe the theoretical airs at their clearest and cleanest. But we have very few books that capture what social work feels like, looks like and smells like on the ground, down and dirty. This is why Barry Cooper, Jean Gordon and Andy Rixon's book, Best Practice with Children and Families: Critical Social Work Stories, is so welcome.

As the authors explain, best practice is 'the art of the achievable'. Theories and techniques are brought into play, but they shift and re-shape as they accommodate to changing circumstances and evolving situations".

A practice-based blueprint for all work with children and families, this title takes a bottom-up approach to a highly-contested field of social work. Based on the authors' interviews with practising social workers, it provides examples of best practice in this challenging area, encouraging professional development through reflection.


*         Learning in Landscapes of Practice: Boundaries, identity, and knowledgeability in practice-based learning

Edited by Etienne Wenger-Trayner, Mark Fenton-O'Creevy, Steve Hutchison, Chris Kubiak and Beverly Wenger-Trayner (Routledge)

The book combines a strong theoretical perspective grounded in social learning theories with stories from a broad range of contributors who occupy different locations in their own landscapes of practice. These narratives locate the book within different contemporary concerns such as social media, multi-agency, multi-disciplinary and multi-national partnerships, and the integration of academic study and workplace practice.

Both scholarly, in the sense that it builds on prior research to extend and locate the concept of landscapes of practice, and practical because of the way in which it draws on multiple voices from different landscapes. Learning in Landscapes of Practice will be of particular relevance to people concerned with the design of professional or vocational learning.

-- The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an exempt charity in England & Wales and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 038302). The Open University is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

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