What is Social Work?
Social work is a profession concerned with helping individuals, families, groups and communities to enhance their individual and collective well-being. It aims to help people develop their skills and their ability to use their own resources and those of the community to resolve problems. Social work is concerned with individual and personal problems but also with broader social issues such as poverty, unemployment and domestic violence.
Human rights and social justice are the philosophical underpinnings of social work practice. The uniqueness of social work practice is in the blend of some particular values, knowledge and skills, including the use of relationship as the basis of all interventions and respect for the client’s choice and involvement.
In a socio-political-economic context which increasingly generates insecurity and social tensions, social workers play an important and essential role.
For more information refer to the CASW National Scope of Practice Statement (March 2000) available from the CASW office and web site.
Where Do Social Workers Work?
Social workers work in a variety of settings: family services agencies, children’s aid agencies, general and psychiatric hospitals, school boards, correctional institutions, welfare administration agencies, federal and provincial departments. An increasing number of social workers work in private practice.
'93% of those in the social worker occupational category are employed either in the health and social services or government industries, with 74% in the former and 19% in the latter. Relatively few social workers are employed in private practice offices, but the number almost doubled between 1991 and 1996.'1
1 In Critical Demand: Social Work in Canada, Vol. 1, Final Report
What Do Social Workers Do?
Social workers provide services as members of a multidisciplinary team or on a one-to-one basis with the client. The duties performed by social workers vary depending on the settings in which they work.
Social workers employed by child welfare agencies (public and private) investigate cases of family violence, child abuse and neglect and take protective action as required. They may recruit foster parents or supervise the placement of children in protective care. Others work on adoption cases.
Many school boards hire social workers to help students adjust to the school environment. They help students, parents and teachers to deal with problems such as aggressive behaviour, truancy and family problems, which affect the students’ performance.
In general and psychiatric hospitals, social workers are members of the treatment team. They provide a link between the team and the family as well as with community resources. In these settings they contribute to the care, treatment and rehabilitation of the aged and of physically or mentally ill individuals, as well as the care of disabled persons.
In health and community services centres, social workers are involved in the provision of counselling to individuals or families and in providing services to seniors. Some work as community developers helping citizens to identify their needs and proposing ways of meeting these needs. Others may assist with parent-child relationships and marriage counselling. The services may be offered on an individual basis or in groups.
In the correctional field, social workers may be part of a team concerned with the social rehabilitation of young or adult offenders. They may work as classification officers. Others work as probation officers or as parole officers. Parole officers help ex-prisoners adjust to life in the community while conforming to the conditions of their parole.
Social workers in private practice offer their services on a fee-for-service basis to individuals, families and organizations. Their services include counselling, psychotherapy, mediation, sex therapy, policy and program development, organizational development, and employee assistance programs.
Social workers involved in policy analysis, policy development and planning are usually working in federal and provincial departments or social planning councils. Researchers are found in universities and governments. Others are teaching in universities and community colleges.
The 1996 The Canadian Census identified 37,470 social workers; of those the majority worked for non-institutional social services (12,580), institutional health and social services (4,530), hospitals (4,165), and non-institutional health services (3,765).
Future
Employment opportunities in Social Work do exist. The situation changes from province to province. For more information contact the individual provincial/territorial social work organizations.
