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The Field Guide to Frontline Care: Practical tools for workers in homelessness, substance use, and harm reduction
Paperback
Medical ReferencePoverty & Social Work
Publisher Price: $19.99
ISBN13: 9780991798957
Publisher: Ethica Press
Published: Jul 28 2026
Pages: 138
Weight: 0.37
Height: 0.32 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
Frontline work is full of situations where there isn't a perfect answer.
Someone refuses help. A conversation starts to escalate. A client returns in crisis. You need to hold a boundary that feels uncomfortable. You leave work wondering whether you helped or made things worse.
The Field Guide to Frontline Care is a practical resource for people working in homelessness, substance use and harm reduction. Written by physician and social worker Marcus Greatheart, it offers practical tools to help frontline workers navigate the situations that rarely have straightforward solutions.
Inside you'll find guidance on:
- responding to refusal without increasing resistance
- understanding why help can become a threat
- setting boundaries without becoming punitive
- recognizing and reducing system harm
- navigating emotionally difficult interactions
- staying effective without carrying responsibility for outcomes you cannot control
Designed to be used during the work, each chapter is organized into short, accessible sections with practical language, clear frameworks and quick-reference summaries that readers can return to when they need them most.
Whether you work in a shelter, outreach program, hospital, supervised consumption site, primary care clinic or community organization, this book will help you make more thoughtful decisions, strengthen relationships and remain human while doing some of the hardest work there is.
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