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Assessment of eating disorders: obesity, anorexia and bulimia nervosa
BOOK
REVIEWS
207
Teenagers in Foster Care: A survey by the National Foster Care Association. Kevin Lowe. London: National Foster Care Association, 1990. This report contains useful practical information, including telephone numbers and addresses, and provides a good source book for social workers involved in fostering schemes for teenagers. The project is based on questionnaire responses from fostering officers from 99 local authorities and nine voluntary organizations, and some of the information is clearly based on the subjective judgements of the respondents. What stands out in the report is the fragility of teams who have set up creative and successful fostering schemes for teenagers. There is a tremendous variation in the allocation of foster homes, the status, rewards and the support for foster parents, and the support to teenagers when they leave care, so that it was pleasing to hear of schemes that were seen to work well for the teenagers, the carers and the social workers. However, the very success of these schemes made them vulnerable. It drew attention to the overall level of practice in foster care, and this led to the reorganization of the whole care services, usually splitting the specialist team. This was alarming reading, given the poor service that many teenagers receive. I found the style of the report very dry, but it would be good if the document was used by people in the field of fostering to argue for a raising of the standards of foster care in most authorities. These arguments would need to be made in conjunction with the references cited in the report and listed below, such as Foster home breakdown (1987), Leaving care (1989) or Fostering teenagers (1990). Berridge, D. and Cleaver, H. (1987). Foster home breakdown. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Hazel, N. (1990). Fostering teenagers. London: NFCA. Stein, MI. (1989). Leaving care. In Child care research, policy andpractise. Kahanm B. (Ed.). London: Hodder and Stoughton.
Jeni Webster
Assessment of eating disorders: obesity, anorexia and bulimia nervosa. Donald A. Williamson. New York: Pergamon Press, 1990, pp. 216. Hardback $26.00 and paperback $14.95. This short, very readable volume is essentially a manual for the assessment of eating disorders. The author is Professor of Psychology at Louisiana University, U.S.A. and he has published extensively in the areas of behavioural assessment and therapy with eating disordered patients over the past ten years. The book has a number of strengths. It is practically orientated, offering a clear model for assessment in a number of relevant areas including behaviour, body image and secondary psychopathology, and it is unusual, although appropriate for the complete span of eating disorders to be covered in one volume. The evaluation of the relatively neglected areas of obesity and compulsive eating are particularly well covered. Several of the rating scales used are reproduced in full in the appendices and their use is clearly illustrated in the text, along with a large number of illustrative case vignettes taken from true histories, There is a good section on
208
BOOK
REVIEWS
treatment planning and evaluation, and the referencing is comprehensive and upto-date. There are however difficulties in recommending this book to a readership specifically concerned with adolescence. Most of the cases under discussion are adults and the assessment fails to cover the specific issues of adolescents and younger patients. Whilst many of the assessment techniques could be adapted to older adolescents, family issues are relatively neglected with only one page devoted to “recognition of family dysfunction”, and the forms of assessment offered do not take a developmental perspective. Other adolescent issues given little coverage include psychosexual development and enquiry into a history of sexual abuse, nowadays widely considered an essential part of an evaluation. This book will be of particular benefit to psychologists and will also be useful to other disciplines involved in the planning of services for patients with eating disorders, particularly those researching in the area, or with a high turnover of such patients. Psychiatrists, nurses and occupational therapists will also find it useful in the assessment and monitoring of treatment, particularly on an in-patient basis. S. Gowers (Senior Lecturer in Child and Adolescent Psychiutry, Manchester Universitv.)
REVIEWS
207
Teenagers in Foster Care: A survey by the National Foster Care Association. Kevin Lowe. London: National Foster Care Association, 1990. This report contains useful practical information, including telephone numbers and addresses, and provides a good source book for social workers involved in fostering schemes for teenagers. The project is based on questionnaire responses from fostering officers from 99 local authorities and nine voluntary organizations, and some of the information is clearly based on the subjective judgements of the respondents. What stands out in the report is the fragility of teams who have set up creative and successful fostering schemes for teenagers. There is a tremendous variation in the allocation of foster homes, the status, rewards and the support for foster parents, and the support to teenagers when they leave care, so that it was pleasing to hear of schemes that were seen to work well for the teenagers, the carers and the social workers. However, the very success of these schemes made them vulnerable. It drew attention to the overall level of practice in foster care, and this led to the reorganization of the whole care services, usually splitting the specialist team. This was alarming reading, given the poor service that many teenagers receive. I found the style of the report very dry, but it would be good if the document was used by people in the field of fostering to argue for a raising of the standards of foster care in most authorities. These arguments would need to be made in conjunction with the references cited in the report and listed below, such as Foster home breakdown (1987), Leaving care (1989) or Fostering teenagers (1990). Berridge, D. and Cleaver, H. (1987). Foster home breakdown. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Hazel, N. (1990). Fostering teenagers. London: NFCA. Stein, MI. (1989). Leaving care. In Child care research, policy andpractise. Kahanm B. (Ed.). London: Hodder and Stoughton.
Jeni Webster
Assessment of eating disorders: obesity, anorexia and bulimia nervosa. Donald A. Williamson. New York: Pergamon Press, 1990, pp. 216. Hardback $26.00 and paperback $14.95. This short, very readable volume is essentially a manual for the assessment of eating disorders. The author is Professor of Psychology at Louisiana University, U.S.A. and he has published extensively in the areas of behavioural assessment and therapy with eating disordered patients over the past ten years. The book has a number of strengths. It is practically orientated, offering a clear model for assessment in a number of relevant areas including behaviour, body image and secondary psychopathology, and it is unusual, although appropriate for the complete span of eating disorders to be covered in one volume. The evaluation of the relatively neglected areas of obesity and compulsive eating are particularly well covered. Several of the rating scales used are reproduced in full in the appendices and their use is clearly illustrated in the text, along with a large number of illustrative case vignettes taken from true histories, There is a good section on
208
BOOK
REVIEWS
treatment planning and evaluation, and the referencing is comprehensive and upto-date. There are however difficulties in recommending this book to a readership specifically concerned with adolescence. Most of the cases under discussion are adults and the assessment fails to cover the specific issues of adolescents and younger patients. Whilst many of the assessment techniques could be adapted to older adolescents, family issues are relatively neglected with only one page devoted to “recognition of family dysfunction”, and the forms of assessment offered do not take a developmental perspective. Other adolescent issues given little coverage include psychosexual development and enquiry into a history of sexual abuse, nowadays widely considered an essential part of an evaluation. This book will be of particular benefit to psychologists and will also be useful to other disciplines involved in the planning of services for patients with eating disorders, particularly those researching in the area, or with a high turnover of such patients. Psychiatrists, nurses and occupational therapists will also find it useful in the assessment and monitoring of treatment, particularly on an in-patient basis. S. Gowers (Senior Lecturer in Child and Adolescent Psychiutry, Manchester Universitv.)