Social Work

Social work is a profession aimed at improving the living conditions and welfare of individuals, families, groups, and communities. Social work focuses primarily on the most vulnerable groups in society, such as: children at risk, people living in poverty, people with special needs, people who face sudden crisis or tragedy situations, and other groups in need of short-term or long-term support and assistance.

Social work also has a component of scientific research regarding various issues and methods, such as: individual social work, social policy and welfare, social work with groups, social justice, and community social work. Social work research also incorporates knowledge from the related social sciences, especially from psychology and sociology. Social work practice and research plays a valuable role in disaster relief and provides effective tools to deal with severe, psycho-social consequences of disasters.

[Page 646]Two women—Mary Richmond and Jane Addams—are considered the founders of modern social work. While various forms of social support, assistance, and charity have existed throughout history, only at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century was social work formalized as a distinct profession and field of knowledge. Richmond related to fundamental social work practices, while focusing on individual social work. She focused especially on social workers' visits to people living in poverty. In addition, she was very active in the initial attempts to establish formal social work education and develop social work research. Her own research concentrated on various aspects of marriage.

Addams added to the profession's formation a central element and goal of working toward broad social change and improvement of social conditions. The two founders established the basis for the two main components of a modern social work: individual (micro) and community (macro) social work.

The initial spread of social work began in the United States and in Europe. Over the years, it appeared in other regions, and currently is active all over the world. Formal academic programs were also established. Currently, many academic institutions all over the world have not only undergraduate, but also graduate and Ph.D. programs to prepare social work researchers and educators.

In terms of breadth of scope, social workers are involved in a variety of fields, including social welfare and policy, health, education, social change initiatives, advocacy, community development and organization, social entrepreneurship. Social workers are involved in all the sectors in society: the governmental sector, which includes governmental institutions on the local and the national level; the nongovernmental sector, which includes social organizations and movements; and the private sector, which encompasses private enterprises and foundations. Typically, social work missions are not the core issues of businesses, and social workers in the private sector deal primarily with various elements of corporate social responsibility—activities initiated by businesses and private donors to address specific needs of vulnerable groups in society.

In general, modern social work is based on three professional methods: individual social work, social work with groups, and community social work. Individual social work focuses on professional intervention with individuals and families. Clients of individual social workers may include persons in different vulnerable situations, such as the disabled, the unemployed, children at risk, people who live in poverty, homeless people, alcoholics or drug addicts. The individual social worker centers his or her intervention on the client's personal situation, and works with them to help them cope with reality or change the situation more fundamentally, if possible. The method of group social work views the group as a primary setting for social worker intervention. It is based on the assumption that the improvement of the client's situation may be accomplished through the processes of interaction among the participants in the group, with a social worker's facilitation.

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