Social work

Social work involves ameliorating social problems such as poverty and homelessness.

Social work is a discipline involving the application of social theory and research methods to study and improve the lives of people, groups, and societies. It incorporates and uses other social sciences as a means to improve the human condition and positively change society's response to chronic problems. Social work is the profession committed to the pursuit of social justice, to the enhancement of the quality of life, and to the development of the full potential of each individual, group and community in society. It seeks to simultaneously address and resolve social issues at every level of society and economic status, but especially among the poor and sick. Social workers are concerned with social problems, their causes, their solutions and their human impacts. They work with individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities.

Social work as a defined pursuit and profession began in the nineteenth century. This was in response to societal problems that resulted from the Industrial Revolution and an increased interest in applying scientific theory to various aspects of study. Eventually an increasing number of educational institutions began to offer social work programs. The settlement movement's emphasis on advocacy and case work became part of social work practice. During the twentieth century, the profession began to rely more on research and evidenced-based practice as it attempted to improve its professionalism. Today social workers are employed in a myriad of pursuits and settings. Professional social workers are generally considered those who hold a professional degree in social work and often also have a license or are professionally registered. Social workers have organized themselves into local, national, and international professional bodies to further the aims of the profession.

Origins

Jane Addams (September 6, 1860 – May 21, 1935) was a founder of the U.S. Settlement House movement and is considered one of the early influences on professional social work in the United States.

Social work, as a profession or pursuit, originated in the nineteenth century. The movement began primarily in the United States and England. Social work has its roots in the struggle of society to deal with poverty and the resultant problems. Therefore, social work is intricately linked with the idea of charity work. The concept of charity goes back to ancient times, and the practice of providing for the poor has religious roots. However, the practice and profession of social work has a relatively modern (nineteenth century) and scientific origin.

During the Middle Ages, the Christian church had vast influence on European society and charity was considered to be a responsibility and a sign of one’s piety. This charity was in the form of direct relief (for example, giving money, food, or other material goods to alleviate a particular need), as opposed to trying to change the root causes of poverty. After the end of feudalism, a need arose to have an organized system to care for the poor. In England, the Poor Law served this purpose. This system of laws sorted the poor into different categories, such as the able bodied poor, the impotent poor, and the idle poor, and developed different remedies for each.

The nineteenth century ushered in the Industrial Revolution. There was a great leap in technological and scientific achievement, but there was also a great migration to urban areas throughout the Western world. This led to many social problems, which in turn led to an increase in social activism. Also with the dawn of the nineteenth century came a great "missionary" push from many Protestant denominations. Some of these mission efforts (urban missions), attempted to resolve the problems inherent in large cities like poverty, prostitution, disease, and other afflictions. In the United States workers known as "friendly visitors," stipended by church and other charitable bodies, worked through direct relief, prayer, and evangelism to alleviate these problems. In Europe, chaplains or almoners were appointed to administrate the church's mission to the poor.

During this time, rescue societies were initiated to find more appropriate means of self-support for women involved in prostitution. Mental asylums grew to assist in taking care of the mentally ill. A new philosophy of "scientific charity" emerged, which stated charity should be "secular, rational and empirical as opposed to sectarian, sentimental, and dogmatic." In the late 1880s, a new system to provide aid for social ills came in to being, which became known as the settlement movement. The settlement movement focused on the causes of poverty through the "three Rs" - Research, Reform, and Residence. They provided a variety of services including educational, legal, and health services. These programs also advocated changes in social policy. Workers in the settlement movement immersed themselves in the culture of those they were helping.

In America, the various approaches to social work led to a fundamental question: is social work a profession? This debate can be traced back to the early twentieth century debate between Mary Richmond's Charity Organization Society (COS) and Jane Addams' Settlement House Movement. The essence of this debate was whether the problem should be approached from COS' traditional, scientific method focused on efficiency and prevention or the Settlement House Movement's immersion into the problem, blurring the lines of practitioner and client.

Even as many schools of social work opened and formalized processes for social work began to be developed, the question lingered. In 1915, at the National Conference of Charities and Corrections, Abraham Flexner spoke on the topic "Is Social Work a Profession?" He contended that it was not because it lacked specialized knowledge and specific application of theoretical and intellectual knowledge to solve human and social problems. This led to the professionalization of social work, concentrating on case work and the scientific method.

Contemporary professional development

The International Federation of Social Workers has defined contemporary social work as follows,

"social work bases its methodology on a systematic body of evidence-based knowledge derived from research and practice evaluation, including local and indigenous knowledge specific to its context. It recognizes the complexity of interactions between human beings and their environment, and the capacity of people both to be affected by and to alter the multiple influences upon them including bio-psychosocial factors. The social work profession draws on theories of human development and behaviour and social systems to analyse complex situations and to facilitate individual, organizational, social and cultural changes."

The current state of social work professional development is characterized by two realities. There is a great deal of traditional social and psychological research (both qualitative and quantitative) being carried out primarily by university-based researchers and by researchers based in institutes, foundations, or social service agencies. Meanwhile, many social work practitioners continue to look to their own experience for knowledge. This is a continuation of the debate that has persisted since the outset of the profession in the first decade of the twentieth century. One reason for the gap between information obtained through practice, opposed to through research, is that practitioners deal with situations that are unique and idiosyncratic, while research concentrates on similarities. The combining of these two types of knowledge is often imperfect.

Qualifications

Professional Social Workers are generally considered those who hold a degree in Social Work. Often these practitioners must also obtain a license or be professionally registered. In many areas of the English speaking world, social workers start with a Bachelor of Social Work (BA, BSc or BSW) degree. Some countries also offer post-graduate degrees like the master's degree (MA, MSc or MSW) or the doctoral degree (Ph.D or DSW).

Lay practitioners, often referred to as SSA (Social Services Assistant) or Care Managers are unqualified and unregistered social workers. They are not professionally registered and often do not hold any formal social work qualification. Within the mental health sector, unqualified social workers (Social Service Assistants / Care Managers) are called Care Co-ordinators.

In a number of countries and jurisdictions where registration of people working as social workers is required there are mandated qualifications. In other places, the professional association sets academic and experiential requirements for admission to membership. The success of these professional bodies' effort to establish these requirements is demonstrated in the fact that these same requirements are recognized by many employers as necessary for employment.

Role of the professional social worker

Professional social workers have a strong tradition of working for social justice and of refusing to recreate unequal social structures. The main tasks of professional social workers include case management (linking clients with agencies and programs that will meet their psychosocial needs), medical social work, counseling (psychotherapy), human services management, social welfare policy analysis, community organizing, advocacy, teaching (in schools of social work), and social science research. Professional social workers work in a variety of settings, including: non-profit or public social service agencies, grassroots advocacy organizations, hospitals, hospices, community health agencies, schools, faith-based organizations, and even the military. Some social workers work as psychotherapists, counselors, or mental health practitioners, often working in collaboration with psychiatrists, psychologists, or other medical professionals. Social Workers may also work independently as private practice psychotherapists in the United States and are able to bill most third party payers such as insurance companies. Additionally, some social workers have chosen to focus their efforts on social policy or academic research into the practice or ethics of social work. The emphasis has varied among these task areas by historical era and country. Some of these areas have been the subject of controversy as to whether they are properly part of social work's mission.

The main tasks of professional social workers are case management (linking clients with agencies and programs that will meet their psychosocial needs), medical social work, counseling (psychotherapy), human services management, social welfare policy analysis, community organizing, advocacy, teaching (in schools of social work), and social science research.

Professional social workers work in a variety of settings, including: non-profit or public social service agencies, grassroots advocacy organizations, hospitals, hospices, community health agencies, schools, faith-based organizations, and even the military. Other social workers work as psychotherapists, counselors, or mental health practitioners, normally working in coordination with psychiatrists, psychologists, or other medical professionals. Additionally, some social workers have chosen to focus their efforts on social policy or academic research into the practice or ethics of social work. The emphasis has varied among these task areas by historical era and country, and some of these areas have been the subject of controversy as to whether they are properly part of social work's mission.

Role of social work in the USA

In the United States of America, leaders and scholars in the field of social work have debated the purpose and nature of the profession since its beginning in the late 1800s. Workers, beginning with the settlement house movement, argued for a focus on social reform, political activism, and systemic causes of poverty. Social workers of the Settlement House Movement were primarily young women from middle-income families and chose to live in lower-income neighborhoods to engage in community organizing. These workers sometimes received stipends from charitable organizations and sometimes worked for free.

In contrast to the settlement house movement, the friendly visitors were women from middle-income families who visited (but did not reside among) families in lower-income neighborhoods. Friendly visitors emphasized conventional morality (such as thrift and abstinence from alcohol) rather than social activism.

Others have advocated an emphasis on direct practice, aid to individual clients and families with targeted material assistance or interventions using the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental diseases DSM-IV. While social work has been defined as direct, individual practice in last quarter of the twentieth century, there is a growing resurgence of community practice in social work. Of broad and growing significance are the relationship counseling and Relationship Education movements which seek to assist in interpersonal social skill building which can be of great societal value in promoting marriage and family stability. Relationship education and counseling primarily aid that majority of individuals who are free of pathology or who have found that DSM-IV based services are ineffectual. This majority can benefit from education and exposure to relationship skills that have not otherwise been discussed and distributed by social services in this time of weakened family, church, and societal conventions. Another new development in social work is the focus on informatics. For many social workers, the use of any online technology is problematic due to persistent concerns about privacy. However, other social workers recognize that clients are going on line for many purposes. Some schools of social work offer courses to build informatics skills at the graduate level.

Community practice is the new term of art for what used to be known as "macro practice" social work. Community practice includes working for change at the systems level, including human services management (administration, planning, marketing, and program development); community organizing (community development, Grassroots Organizing, policy advocacy); social policy and politics; and international social development.

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is the largest and most recognized membership organization of professional social workers in the world. Representing 150,000 members from 56 chapters in the United States and abroad, the association promotes, develops and protects the practice of social work and social workers. NASW also seeks to enhance the well-being of individuals, families, and communities through its work and advocacy. Although membership is generally not required for licensure, NASW survey data give a rough idea of how social workers are employed in the US. According to NASW:

Nearly 40% of NASW members say that mental health is their primary practice area. The health sector employs 8% of NASW’s members, and 8% practice in child welfare or family organizations. Six percent of NASW members say school social work is their primary practice area, and another 3% work primarily with adolescents.

Within the mental health field, social workers may work in private practice, much like clinical psychologists or members of other counseling professions often do. Social workers are often in the position of recommending the use of psychopharmaceutical agents, though not prescribing them. The increasingly widespread usage of these agents in the U.S. has received little scrutiny by the NASW, despite that fact that these drugs are prescribed far more heavily in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world. Social workers in private practice may take direct payments from clients and may also receive third-party reimbursement from insurance companies or government programs such as Medicaid. Insurance reimbursement for mental health services involves the designation of the recipient of services as mentally ill, or more specifically a label is assigned from the DSM-IV, the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental illness. This assignment, when recorded to an individual's medical history can prove to be a significant impediment to future pursuits. It can raise the cost to the individual for health or nursing home insurance; it can be the basis of denial for life insurance; and it can limit an individual's professional choices, such as in health care, motor vehicle operation, or airplane piloting.

Private practice was not part of the social work profession when it began in the late 1800s, and private practice has been controversial among social workers, some of whom feel that the more lucrative opportunities of private practice have led many social workers to abandon the field's historic mission of assisting disadvantaged populations. The private practice model can be at odds with the community development and political activism strains of social work.

Social workers in mental health may also work for an agency, whether publicly funded, supported by private charity, or some combination of the two. These agencies provide a range of mental health services to disadvantaged populations in the US.

Some social workers are child welfare workers, a role that looms large in the public's perception of social work. This role contributes to a negative view of social work in the U.S., since child welfare authorities can remove abused or neglected children from the custody of their parents, a practice that is fraught with controversy and sometimes with scandalous incompetence. Many child welfare workers in the US do not in fact have social work degrees (though all caseworkers in most states have at least a Bachelor's degree in a related field).

Some states restrict the use of the title social worker to licensed practitioners, who must hold a degree in the field. Such restrictions are a high legislative priority of NASW.

Role of social work in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom and elsewhere, a social worker is a trained professional with a recognised social work qualification, employed most commonly in the public sector by local authorities. Spending on social services departments is a major component of British local government expenditure.

In the UK, the title "social worker" is protected by law (since 1 April 2005) and can be used only by people who have a recognised qualification and are registered with the General Social Care Council (in England), the Scottish Social Services Council, the Care Council for Wales (Welsh: Cyngor Gofal Cymru), or the Northern Ireland Social Care Council.

The strategic direction of statutory social work in Britain is broadly divided into children's and adults' services. Social work activity within England and Wales for children and young people is under the remit of the Department for Children, Schools and Families while the same for adults remains the responsibility for the Department of Health. Within local authorities, this division is usually reflected in the organization of social services departments. The structure of service delivery in Scotland is different.

Within children services some social workers are child protection workers, a role that looms large in the public's perception of social work. This role contributes to a negative view of social work in the U.K., since child protection workers for local authorities can remove suspected abused or neglected children from the custody of their parents, a practice that is fraught with controversy and media criticism.

In 2007, the General Social Care Council launched a wide-ranging consultation, in concert with a number of other social care organizations, to agree a clear professional understanding of social work in the UK.

Major areas of intervention

Social workers are active in all areas of society, providing a valuable resource for those who are in distress, disadvantaged, or vulnerable. The settings and roles encompass community and inpatient mental health, inner-city and rural schools, prisons, adventure-based therapy, private practice, HIV/AIDS, public health, administration, hospitals, the military, managed care, residential treatment centers for adolescents, hospice, homeless outreach, college counseling centers, public child welfare, nursing homes, international social work, public policy, community organizing, youth centers, and many more. The following major areas of intervention are of note.

Child welfare

Child welfare is a term used to describe a set of government services designed to protect children and encourage family stability. These typically include investigation of alleged child abuse and neglect ("child protective services"), foster care, adoption services, and services aimed at supporting at-risk families so they can remain intact ("prevention services" or "family preservation services").

The idea behind child welfare programs is that, in certain circumstances, the interests of the child could be better served by removing children from the care of their parents and placing them into state custody. While a preferred scenario is to support the family while keeping it intact, the circumstances that are detrimental to the child may be too severe. Under these conditions, children are removed on a temporary basis while the parents, and possibly remaining siblings, receive supportive services until the family is deemed in a position to resume care of the child.

Most children who come to the attention of child welfare social workers do so because of any of the following situations, which are often collectively termed child maltreatment or child abuse:

• Neglect (including the failure to take adequate measures to protect a child from harm)
• Emotional abuse
• Sexual abuse
• Physical abuse

Child welfare policies and initiatives target the health and well-being of children. They aim to protect children from the harmful effects of poverty, family and parenting problems, child abuse and neglect, and inadequate resources.

Community practice

Community Practice is a branch of social work in the United States that focuses on larger social systems and social change, and is tied to the historical roots of United States social work. The field of community practice social work encompasses community organizing, social planning, human service management, community development, policy analysis, policy advocacy, evaluation, mediation, electronic advocacy and other larger systems interventions. In the field of social work, community practice is often contrasted with direct practice social work, in which social workers work directly with individuals solving micro-level problems. Community Practice has been referred to in the past as Macro Practice, though Community Practice is now the standard term in the United States.

Community Practice has considerable overlap with many other applied social sciences, such as urban planning, economic development, public affairs, rural sociology and nonprofit management. Community Practice social workers typically have a Masters in Social Work (MSW). There are several MSW programs in the United States that offer Community Practice Concentrations, while many other MSW programs offer specializations in one or several types of community practice, such as social services administration or policy analysis. The professional group of community practitioners is the Association for Community Organization and Social Administration (ACOSA), which publishes the leading journal in the field, The Journal of Community Practice.

Family welfare

Family welfare programs seek to preserve and strengthen the family unit, regarding healthy family life as the optimal situation. Family welfare programs must tackle the most complex and difficult issues facing families, such as domestic abuse, mental health problems, learning disabilities, and severe financial hardship.

They seek to support the family through both economic and personal assistance with a variety of services. Personal assistance services include marriage counseling, maternal, prenatal, and infant care programs; family planning services; family-life education, which promotes both the enrichment of family relationships and the improvement of home economics; "home-help" services providing household assistance to families burdened with chronic illness, handicaps, or other dependencies; and care of the aged through such programs as in-home meal services, transportation, regular visitation, and reduced-cost medicines.

School social work

School social work has an extensive history in the United States, dating to the first decade of the twentieth century, when it was established in New York, Boston, Chicago and New Haven, CT. At its inception, school social workers were known, among other things, as advocates for equity and fairness as well as home visitors.

The expansion of school social work services was encouraged by a number of factors. By 1900 over two-thirds of the states had compulsory attendance laws and by 1918, each state had passed compulsory attendance laws, making school attendance obligatory, and not simply a privilege. Child labor legislation, the Progressive Movement which saw social work efforts initiated in the schools, and community settlement programs also led to its growth. A 1917 study of truancy in Chicago supported “findings that the need for school attendance officers who understood the social ills of the community” and school social workers were best equipped for that responsibility. Mary Richmond, one of the founding mothers of social work, devoted an entire chapter to the visiting teacher in her 1922 book on What is Social Casework? The testing movement influenced school social work growth as well. Through the testing movement, educators were gaining knowledge about individual differences, underscoring the need for some children to attend school, children whose social conditions related to their test scores. Lastly during this time, leaders in the field like Sophonisba P. Breckinridge, expressed concerns of how school and education would relate to future success and happiness, and expressed the need to connect school and home in order to relate to the needs of children.

In the 1920s, the mental hygiene movement was concerned with treating nervous disorders and behavioral problems in difficult children. In the 1930s, like school counseling, school social work also declined. From the 1940-1960 casework in schools had become an established specialty, the profession began to emphasize collaboration and communication with teachers and others school personnel. Now the school social worker was an expert who could help schools on psychosocial issues.

School social workers were affected by governmental reforms and education research. In the 1960s, like school counselors, these pupil-personnel laws, called for greater emphasis for school social workers to help develop school policies, they were now called to address student needs while addressing sources of student troubles within the school. In the 1970s, inflation was rising at an alarming rate, and budget cuts threatened the profession of school social work, especially as many were being replaced by other school personnel claiming similar roles. The National Association of Social Work (NASW) published a newsletter to bring attention to the issue and get responses from practitioners. Through this, NASW conducted research and replicated findings of others studies on the roles of school social workers, and models of practice, school social work continued to expand. In the 1980s, this led to NASW giving more attention to the profession and more service to meet the needs of this social work group. NASW participation in the profession eventually lead to a school social worker credential in 1992—the first time the School Social Work Credential Exam was given. From then until, now there has been a trend of integrative collaborative services. (Allen-Meares et al., 1996) In July of 1994, driven by a need for more specific services for school social workers, a group of about 64 school social workers from across the country met in Edwardsville, IL to discuss that idea. The group decided to form the School Social Work Association of America and drafted the first constitution and by-laws for the organization.

School social work is structured around a range of ever expanding practice models. Alderson first described these as the traditional-clinical model; the school change model whose major focus was the dysfunctional conditions of the school; the community school model which urged school social workers to employ community organization methods; and the social interaction model which de-emphasized a specific methodology and required the worker to intervene with the systems interacting with the target system. Many school social workers use an approach that draws on components from all of these but the traditional model, which focuses on working with students with social and emotional difficulties and their parents continues to predominate. In the clinical model, school social workers work primarily through casework methods supplemented by group methods with students and family members. In today's practice, a greater emphasis is placed on evidence based and promising intervention methods.

Of all the models, this one, first articulated by Lela Costin, seems to be the most comprehensive. It focuses on the school, community, and student and the interactions among the three. They serve as mediator, negotiator, consultant, and advocate for students and school personnel and listen to student grievances, and set up informal groups for students, teachers, and other school personnel. They study and evaluate characteristics of students, school, and community conditions that affect educational opportunity for target groups (students with chemical dependency, disabilities, and so on). They are grounded in social learning theory and systems theory.

Welfare of the elderly

In all advanced industrial societies the proportion of infirm elderly is on the increase, and, although they constitute only a small minority of the retired population, their claim on social services is disproportionately heavy. Services include transportation, friendly visiting, home delivery of hot meals, nurse visitation, and reduced-cost medical supplies. Senior centers sponsor group activities such as crafts, entertainment, outings, and meals on a regular basis. Nursing homes provide medical and custodial care for those who are unable to live independently.

Types of professional social work intervention

There are three general categories or levels of intervention. The first is "Macro" social work which involves society or communities as a whole. This type of social work practice would include policy forming and advocacy on a national or international scale. The second level of intervention is described as "Mezzo" social work practice. This level would involve work with agencies, small organizations, and other small groups. This practice would include policy making within a social work agency or developing programs for a particular neighborhood. The final level is the "Micro" level that involves service to individuals and families.

There are a wide variety of activities that can be considered social work and professional social workers are employed in many different types of environments. In general, social workers employed in clinical or direct practice work on a micro level. Social workers who serve in community practice are occupied in the mezzo or macro levels of social work. The following lists detail some of the types of jobs that social workers may do.

Clinical or direct practice

Assessment and diagnosis Adult therapy Brief therapies Case management Child/adolescent therapy Clinical supervision Counseling Crisis intervention

Family therapy/Family interventions Gerontology Group work/group therapy Employee assistance programs Medical social work

Psychosocial and psychoeducational interventions Psychotherapy Relationship counseling Relationship/interpersonal counseling Relationship Education Social work with groups

Community practice

Community organizing Community development Community economic development Community education International development

Management Mediation Neighborhood development Policy advocacy Policy analysis

Political social work Praxis intervention Program development Program evaluation Research Social planning

Fields of professional social work practice (both direct and community levels)

Aging or gerontology Nursing home Hospice Anti-poverty Income assistance Job training/placement Anti-racism Child welfare Adoption Child abuse Foster care

Disability services Domestic violence Family planning Food bank programs Forensic Social Work programs Health and wellness Hospital social work Medical social work Housing and homelessness Immigrant and refugee services and supports

Juvenile and criminal justice Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered supports Mental health Praxis intervention Religious and spiritual settings Reminiscence therapy Substance abuse School social worker Violence prevention Informatics Nurse Social Work Practitioner

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Allen-Mears, Paula. Social work Services in Schools (5th ed). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2006. ISBN 978-0205484690
• Downs, Susan Whitelaw, Ernestine Moore, Emily Jean McFadden, and Lela B. Costin. Child Welfare and Family Services: Policies and Practice (8th Edition). Boston, MA:Allyn & Bacon, 2008. ISBN 978-0205571901
• Flexner, Abraham, “Is Social Work a Profession?” (paper presented at the National Conference on Charities and Correction, 1915), 581, 584-588, 590.
• Grobman, Linda May, Days In The Lives Of Social Workers: 54 Professionals Tell "Real-life" Stories From Social Work Practice. White Hat Communications, 2004. ISBN 978-1929109159
• Parker-Oliver & Demiris, Social Work, 51(2), (2006): 127-134.
• Rubin, Allen and Earl R. Babbie, Research Methods for Social Work. Wadsworth Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-0495095156

External links

All links Retrieved January 8, 2008.

• International federation of social workers
• Definition of Social Work Adopted July 2000 by the International Federation of Social Workers. German translation also available at: Austrian National Federation of Social Workers
• Australian Association of Social Workers
• Social Work & Society - Online Journal for Social Work and Social Policy. Open Access and Non-Governemntal
• The New Social Worker Online
• Micro, Mezzo, & Macro Practice Skills From Northwestern State University's Department of Social Work.
• Solution focused and goal oriented social work

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