Journal of Social Development in Africa (1999), 14,2,119-122 
Book Reviews 
Social Work in Mental Health: Trends and Issues, Uri Aviram (ed), The 
Haworth Press, Inc (1997), New York, ISBN: 0-7890-0383-X, 134 pp inc index, 
Price: US$24. 
Social Work and Mental Health explores how social work academics and practitioners 
have responded to the challengeof providing adequate community services 
for mentally ill persons. It offers suggestions for supporting the recovery and 
empowerment process of mental health consumers and for developing programmes 
with a wide range of psychosocial, vocational and housing systems. 
Issues related to social work and mental health, discussed at an International 
Conference in Jerusalem, were compiled in this book to capture major issues of 
concern to health and social work professionals. The articles contained in the book 
capture issues important in working with persons with severe mental illness and 
who may need institutionalisation, but where community care can also be a 
possibility. Suggestions are put across to social workers to help them maintain their 
social work ethics when working with mentally ill persons and their families. 
Social work practitioners are reminded of the legal requirements in dealing with 
individuals with psychiatric problems, as well as authentic policies that guide their 
practice. 
Aviram discusses factors that have shaped and guided the social work profession 
to form a strong allegiance with psychiatry. It lays out trends that are of 
challenge to current social work practice. The author captures three major goals 
that societies attempt to achieve when providing psychiatric services in this 
section. He further discusses homelessness among psychiatric individuals and 
presents how researchers and professionals view psychological disabilities. 
Deegan further discusses what happens when individuals lose power over their 
lives and how this is reclaimed through a psychotherapeutic orientation. The 
chapter further elaborates on how this reclaim is interpreted as empowerment. 
Stuart discusses in another section why rehabilitation of persons with mental 
disabilities is not a complete process without including community care as a 
strategy for achieving independence. Institutional care which was criticised for its 
stereotyped activities became less favourable and gave way to community care 
which struck as a better way of providing an alternative method for treating mental 
illness. 
One other area in psychiatry discussed by Lurie in this book relates to strategies 
for helping young adults with severe mental disorders. This may leave individuals 
emotionally, economically and socially disadvantaged. Helpful interventive measures 
to assist these young individuals are discussed in detail.
120 Book Reviews 
Segal, et al, presents the effects of psychological disability on social network,s 
whilst Hatficld (1997) discusses tension brought about in the family as a result of 
mental illness. The writers call for professional intervention to these problems. 
Whilst Lightman presents suitable methods of social planning and community 
housing to assist individuals discharged from psychiatric institutions, Ronel 
suggests how self-help programmes can assist drug-dependent individuals to live 
independently. 
The articles in the book have been designed on a manner that helps social 
workers understand where they fit into psychiatry as a discipline. It is certain to 
assist them in gaining confidence in exploring this area which does not normally 
feature as a priority in traditional social work. The articles also help student social 
workers and society to appreciate how social work interventive measures can 
alleviate problems encountered by the mentally ill. The information captured in the 
articles is sure to build trust and good relationships between medical and social 
work personnel. 
Reviewed by Violet Matimba-Masuku, Lecturer, School of Social Work, Harare. 
Cutting the Gordian Knot. The Benefits of Girls' Education in Sub-Saharan 
Africa, Ann Cotton & Richard Synge (eds), 25 Wordsworth Grove, Cambridge 
CB3 9HH, UK, ISBN: 0-9532907-0-0, Copies available from CamFed at £15 (Plus 
postage & packaging) 
The need for sustained community-based action to reverse the high rate at which 
girls in sub-Saharan Africa drop out from school is underlined in a new book just 
published by the Cambridge Female Education Trust (CamFed) in association with 
the African Studies Centre, University of Cambridge. A compilation of papers 
presented to CamFed Seminars in Cambridge, Harare and Accra, the book is an 
important contribution on the widening international debate on girls' education. 
Clare Short, the UK Secretary of State for International Development, applauds 
the editors' emphasis on the need for study of the problem to shift towards finding 
real solutions. In the book's Foreword, Ms Short calls for "approaches and 
strategies which are both imaginative and realistic," saying that women and girls 
who fail to receive an education "are unable to develop their full talent and are 
locked into a position of powerlessness." 
The book, Cutting the Gordian Knot. The Benefits of Girls' Education in Sub- 
Saharan Africa, edited by Ann Cotton and Richard S ynge, analyses the reasons for 
the high drop-out rate of girls throughout sub-Saharan Africa and examines the 
strategies being formulated by governments, international agencies and nongovernmental 
organisations to encourage more girls to stay at school.
Book Reviews 121 
The contributors, who include educationalists and government officials, enumerate 
a wide range of obstacles to girls' chances of receiving an education, 
including parents' inability to pay, a shortage of schools and teachers, the long 
distances that children often have to travel to school, a gender bias in favour of 
boys, a perception that boys have better job opportunities than girls, pressure for 
early marriage of girls, or the risks of sexual harassment and pregnancy. The 
common ingredient, say the editors, is a context of persistent poverty. The focus 
of action, they add, has to be at the community level, through partnerships between 
all those who are committed to spreading the benefits of education. 
The importance that African governments are beginning to place on redressing 
gender imbalances in their educational systems is underlined by the contribution 
of ministers and government officials from Botswana, Ghana, Malawi, Zambia 
and Zimbabwe. 
Educating girls, say Ann Cotton and Richard Synge, is "an investment in better 
standards of living in the future, with multiplier effects in terms of health, nutrition, 
hygiene, smaller families and women's improved social status. Equally, the 
process of family and community decision-making about girls' education can 
become part and parcel of the removal ofthefamily' sand community' sownsocial, 
economic and even political barriers to progress." 
- Editor, Journal of Social Development in Africa 
Tales from Family Therapy - Life Changing Clinical Experiences (1997) 
eds Frank N Thomas, Thorana S Nelson, The Haworth Press, New York, London, 
ISBN: 0-7890-0065-2 (h/b); 0-7890-0450-X (p/b), 304 pp inc index, Price: 
US$49.95 (h/b); US$24.95 (p/b). 
Book reviewers can get to keep the book reviewed, but although I usually still try 
to avoid the onerous task of reviewing a book, this one was just too good to miss! 
If, like me, you find most academic books dry and difficult and would rather read 
a novel given the choice, then this one is for you. I could hardly put it down - 
innumerable (53 in fact) short and interesting accounts by therapists of cases which 
had moved and changed them in some way. I think both beginners and experienced 
therapists could learn more about the actual practice of family therapy and being 
a therapist through this than by almost any other means. 
The book has sections which include Therapy with Families, Couples, Children, 
Medical Issues, Humour and just Remarkable Clients generally. Difficult Cases, 
Use of Self, Collaboration and Supervision are some of the other areas addressed. 
Although most cases are American (after all what else do you expect from 
Americans?), there are a few from Australia, Norway, India, Canada and New
122 Book Reviews 
Mexico, but they do include different cultural groups within America and I found 
the experiences almost all understandable and relevant in some way to our own 
Zimbabwean context. 
What I most enjoyed was the incredibly wide variety of problems and experiences 
that people described, from the suicidal Pueblo Indian boy at the beginning, 
through an amazing array of various children and families, single parents, elderly 
people, jockeys, war veterans and on to the last family who were dealt with by some 
"expert" and later confessed they hadn't understood more than a quarter of what 
had been said! 
The strength of the different accounts lies in the message that change is not only 
possible but comes about through all sorts of unpredictable ways. The therapist's 
agenda is probably the least helpful in promoting such change, whereas the ability 
to respect and believe in people and their own experiences is the most important 
ingredient of successful therapy. 
Finally this collection of unique tales of the joys, fears, mishaps, ingenuity and 
lessons learnt that informs us generally what the human side of being a therapist 
is all about, is a must for all those involved in therapy and is great reading for other 
interested parties as well. 
Norma Hall, Clinical Social Worker!Family Therapist, Harare, Zimbabwe