Social work is a profession that administers a wide range of social services and programs. Specially trained persons called social workers provide counseling, support, guidance, and other services to people in need. The goal of such assistance by social workers is to help people resolve their psychological and social problems and attain their full potential. Social workers also try to improve living conditions by participating in programs to prevent such problems as drug addiction, mental illness, poor housing, and neglect or abuse of children or the elderly.
Most social work programs are financed by government agencies or private organizations. Most social workers are employed in family service agencies, hospitals, clinics, drug misuse centers, nursing homes, settlement houses, schools, prisons, and various business offices and industrial workplaces. Some social workers have a private practice and provide counseling for a fee.
Methods of social work
Traditionally, social work has consisted of three basic approaches—casework, group work, and community organization work. Casework involves direct contact between a social worker and the individuals and families being helped. Group work involves programs in which the social worker deals with several persons at the same time. Community organization work focuses on neighborhoods and their large groups of people. Since the mid-1900’s, social workers have increasingly combined the three basic approaches.
Fields of social work
There are five major fields of social work: (1) family and child welfare, (2) health, (3) mental health, (4) corrections, and (5) schools.
Family and child welfare
includes services to families during times when physical or mental illness, unemployment, or other situations seriously disrupt family life. Social workers in this field give divorce counseling, provide therapy for married couples and families, and lead programs that teach people how to improve their family life. The Alliance for Children and Families coordinates family service agencies in communities throughout North America.
Child welfare programs provide such services as adoption, day care, foster child care, and care for children with disabilities. Child welfare workers also aid physically or emotionally abused children and their families. The Child Welfare League of America organizes agencies that offer support services for abused or neglected children and their families.
Health.
Medical social workers help patients and their families in clinics, hospitals, and other health care facilities. They help physicians by providing information about the social and economic background of patients. Such problems as inadequate housing and lack of money for medicine may cause or aggravate illness. Medical social workers help patients and their families deal with the impact of illness and death. They also counsel patients who have been discharged, to help them return to everyday life. Many medical social workers specialize in a particular area. These areas include maternal and child care, the care of dying patients, and counseling victims of a certain disease, such as cancer.
Mental health.
Social work in mental health includes aid to people suffering from mental and emotional stress. Social workers in this field also provide many of the same kinds of services offered by medical social workers. Many receive training in psychotherapy, the treatment of mental or emotional disorders by psychological methods.
Corrections
includes programs concerned with the prevention of crime and the rehabilitation of criminals. Social workers in the field of corrections also counsel people who are on probation or parole.
Schools.
Social work is part of the program in schools on all levels, from preschool through college. It includes services to students in special schools for individuals with emotional disturbances or physical disabilities. Social workers in schools provide vocational counseling and help with personal problems. They also assist students who have learning difficulties and help them work to their potential.
Other fields
of social work offer assistance in a wide variety of situations. Many social workers help elderly people obtain financial assistance, medical care, and services that enable them to live as independently as possible. Social workers in clinics and community treatment centers counsel people who are addicted to alcohol or illegal drugs.
Some social workers aid people in public housing projects and help find dwellings for families made homeless by urban crises. Social workers employed by corporations and labor unions provide a variety of work-related services, including health counseling and retirement planning.
Other social workers practice social planning. This field involves organizing and developing programs that deliver social services. Still others specialize in researching social service issues.
History
Social work became a profession with the founding of the first social service agencies in the late 1800’s. Before that time, the needy relied upon charitable individuals and certain religious groups and fraternal societies for assistance.
Social service agencies began in response to changes that took place in society during the Industrial Revolution, a period of great industrial development that had begun in the 1700’s. During this period, the growth of populations and industries, together with a movement of people from rural areas to cities, brought such problems as overcrowding, unemployment, and poverty.
One of the first social service agencies was the Charity Organization Society, founded in London in 1869. Its counselors, called “friendly visitors,” went as volunteers to the homes of needy people and performed services, some of which were similar to those of present-day social workers. Such services later became known as casework. Charity Organization Societies also were founded in the United States and Canada.
Another type of social service agency that began in the late 1800’s was the settlement house. These centers worked to improve living conditions in city neighborhoods and helped immigrants deal with the problems that come with living in a new country. Group work and community organization work developed out of the settlement house movement.
The New York School of Philanthropy was the first school to train people for jobs with social agencies. This school, now the Columbia University School of Social Work, was founded by the United States’ Charity Organization Society in 1898 in New York City. By the early 1900’s, many state and local governments in the United States had started to provide social services financed by tax funds. The U.S. government created the Social Security program in 1935, during the Great Depression. Under this program, the government became a major source of public aid. See Social security.
Americans who have made important contributions to social work’s development include Jane Addams, Mary E. Richmond, Grace L. Coyle, Gordon Hamilton, and Bertha Reynolds. Addams was a leader of the settlement house movement. Richmond wrote the first scientific study of casework techniques in social work, Social Diagnosis (1917). Coyle helped develop group practice in social work. Hamilton built on Richmond’s work and formulated one of the major approaches to casework. This approach stressed the importance of establishing specific goals for individuals receiving help. Reynolds, through her teaching and leadership, showed how social work could be used to influence public policy.
Careers
Social work offers a variety of job opportunities. Most professional social workers deal directly with the people they serve. Others work as administrators, supervisors, planners, researchers, or teachers. Paraprofessional social workers do not require full professional training. They work as assistants to professional personnel, and some of them volunteer their services.
Professional social workers have at least a bachelor’s degree in social work. Many jobs require a person to have a master’s or doctor’s degree in social work. Many junior and community colleges have two-year training programs for paraprofessional jobs. In addition, a number of agencies and organizations provide on-the-job training.
