Tangled Relationships: Managing Boundary Issues in the Human Services »

Frederic Reamer is professor of social work at Rhode Island College and was chair of the NASW Code of Ethics Revision Committee. His previous books include Ethical Dilemmas in Social Service, Social Work Values and Ethics, Social Work Malpractice and Liability, The Philosophical Foundations of Social Work, AIDS and Ethics, The Foundations of Social Work Knowledge, Rehabilitating Juvenile Justice (with Charles Shireman), and Social Work Research and Evaluation (all published by Columbia).

Reamer examines the ethics involving intimate and sexual relationships with clients and former clients, practitioners' self-disclosure, giving and receiving favors and gifts, bartering for services, and unavoidable and unanticipated circumstances such as social encounters and geographical proximity. Case vignettes help illustrate important points. Reamer also gives practical risk-management models to aid human service professionals in the prevention of problematic situations and the managing of dual relationships.

Booknews

Noting that boundary issues in therapist-client relations are a recent focus of his own evolving concern with professional ethics as well as of the literature in the human services field, Reamer examines key concepts, needs, and unavoidable/unanticipated circumstances in dual relationships through case study examples. Sexual involvement with clients is deemed taboo. The author chaired the committee that rewrote the National Association of Social Workers' . Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)