Silverman, Brenda

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Clinical Sociology ReviewVolume 14 | Issue 1 Article 171-1-1996Social Work Malpractice and Liability: Strategiesfor PreventionBrenda SilvermanSyracuse Jewish Family ServiceFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/csrThis Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@WayneState. It has been accepted for inclusion in Clinical SociologyReview by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@WayneState.Recommended CitationSilverman, Brenda (1996) "Social Work Malpractice and Liability: Strategies for Prevention," Clinical Sociology Review: Vol. 14: Iss. 1,Article 17.Available at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/csr/vol14/iss1/17196 CLINICAL SOCIOLOGY REVIEW / 1996REFERENCESSchwartzbaum, Allan and Leopold Gruenfeld. 1969. "Factors Influencing Subject-Observer In-teraction in an Organizational Study." Administrative Science Quarterly 14:443-450.Social Work Malpractice and Liability: Strategies for Prevention, byFrederic G. Reamer. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994. 242 pp.$22.50 paper. ISBN 0-231-08263-0Brenda Silverman, Ph.D., CCS, CSWSyracuse Jewish Family ServiceSyracuse, N.Y.The fortuitous 1994 publication of Social Work Malpractice and Li-ability could not have been better timed as we currently reexamine USsocial policy. This work by Frederic G. Reamer, Professor in the School ofSocial Work at Rhode Island College, is only the most recent in a string ofarticles and books by him on ethics and legal issues dating back to 1979. Asclinical sociology and sociological practice move into fields crowded byother professional titles, it is fortunate that literature already exists to helpus through the morass of malpractice and liability issues.This 242 page book should be required reading. Reamer providesthe reader with a short course in law, while making no pretense to be alawyer or to outwit them. He carefully defines legal concepts in layman'slanguage. To name only a few, he examines privacy, confidentiality(relative and absolute), standards of care, acts of commission, misfea-sance, malfeasance, torts (unintentional and intentional), and the doc-trine of res ipsa loquitur (the act speaks for itself). Each term is thenfollowed by legal case history examples which tell the practitioner notonly what is generally accepted as good practice, but the author goesfurther and gives examples of contrary cases as well.For example, Reamer discusses in detail the Tarasoff case, the 1976landmark precedent in duty-to-warn and duty-to-protect cases. The Cali-fornia Supreme Court held that a mental health professional has a dutyto protect an intended victim from harm, even if that means disclosingconfidential information. After describing several other cases whichfollowed the Tarasoff decision, the author then presents a number ofcontrary decisions. He doesn't just give the reader primary material inan encyclopedic fashion, but, as in the Tarasoff example, follows thecase presentations with additional material on the finer points: "Balanc-ing Confidentiality and Protection," "The Ambiguity of Duty to Warn"and "The Concept of Privileged Communication."BOOK REVIEWS 197Many of the cases cited involved psychiatrists. Medicine has more of-ten been the recipient of lawsuits than other helping professions; but as theauthor points out, "90 percent of all malpractice suits ever filed in the UnitedStates have been filed in the last twenty to twenty-five years" (p. 4). Otherprofessions outside of medicine are only now beginning to catch up. Alongwith the new opportunities afforded to practice sociology is a climate whichis more adversarial in nature than at any previous time.Reamer covers the work of the private practitioner, the supervisor,and consultation. He devotes a chapter to improper treatment and im-paired practitioners. As he is writing primarily to a social work audi-ence, he castigates that field for its lack of research into impaired socialworkers. His standard of comparison is psychology. For the sociologi-cal practitioner, this should be a wake up call to police ourselves beforethe courts do it for us.Other items covered include referral, record keeping, deception andfraud, termination of services, and concluding observations on the so-cial worker as a defendant. The Sociological Practice Association Ethi-cal Standards, modeled after the standards for psychologists, documentsseven primary principles: 1) responsibility, 2) competence, 3) moral andlegal standards, 4) public statements, 5) confidentiality, 6) welfare ofthe student, client and research subject, and 7) regard for professionalsand institutions. Although this book does not cover all of these areas, itpresents so much material so well, that it is a must at this time of greatsocial upheaval.Postmodernism & Social Inquiry, edited by David R. Dickens and AndreaFontana. New York: The Guilford Press. 1994. 259 pp. $40.00 cloth. ISBN 0-89862-415-0. $18.95 paper. ISBN 0-89862-422-3.Nancy A. NaplesUniversity of California, IrvinePostmodernism & Social Inquiry is a constructive attempt to bridgethe often wide divide between ever multiplying postmodern frameworksand sociological theory and methods. Sociologists should welcome thisbook. The authors have succeeded in demonstrating both the value andlimits of various postmodern theories for sociological inquiry.Despite its ambitious agenda, the book is relatively short. Conse-quently, numerous theorists, approaches and debates are missing. As areader with particular interests in the postcolonial theory of Gayatri

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