Let's Enable Social Workers to Practice
Ask any social worker what the central issues of concern to the profession are and you are likely to hear that day to day practice is extremely tough. Most social workers I know think of themselves as quite able to provide services to people in need and to make a difference. Unfortunately, they are concerned that they are too often undercut from making that difference.
All too often, it has been easier for the individual social worker to express this concern than it has been for the professional association as a whole. At NASW, with thousands of members, dozens of committees, more fields of practice that we can shake a stick at, and so many social problems confronting the consumers of our services, it is much harder to define "central" issues for the profession. But this is now changing. Thanks to the continuity of the recent and current leadership, and what I believe are good decisions in prioritizing by our Board over the last three years, the Chapter is becoming focused as it has not been before, at least in my memory.
The focus that is so clearly evolving may strike you as obvious, but I assure you that it is not. The focus is social work practice. Social work practice is what professional social workers do to deliver a service to people in need. Enabling practice to occur starts with designing good programs for service delivery and includes hiring properly qualified people to staff those services. It means providing a work environment that will allow social workers to carry out their activities in an efficient, productive fashion, and it means assigning cases with regard to the actual time required to carry out important tasks so that the service will be meaningful. It means a lot of other things as well.
One of the insidious things that goes on around town is that too many programs that make claims of delivering social work services don't stand up to scrutiny. The air has been squeezed out of the service, leaving one to question what the service actually is and what benefit is accruing to clients. And then, with poor service, comes finger pointing at social workers for not doing meaningful work.
I am pleased to say that the New York City Chapter is making important strides in addressing these issues. With 9,200 members, most of whom are struggling with their daily practice, it is hard to see what could be more relevant. Now the task is to garner the attention of those actors on the public scene who define the issues in public policy circles. Each year, a lot of public money is being pumped into services that are choking, and NASW will be doing a public service to "blow the whistle" on this.
The task will not be easy because we are vulnerable to being accused of being self serving, and unless we are prepared, we will fall into this trap. We need to become more adept at articulating the relationship between what we need in order to provide good social work services and what clients need to improve their lives. Only the latter will merit support in the eyes of the public, and that is actually fair enough. We also need to learn how to express more clearly, far more clearly, what social workers do and why people with less formal education cannot perform at the same level. How do we demonstrate this? We can begin by putting into words what the differences are, but the words need to be vivid and easily understood.
The Chapter's new position paper, "Improving the Environment for Social Work Practice: Quality of Practice Reflects Quality of Work Life", highlighted last month in Currents, now provides us with the platform for moving forward. Chapter committees are already utilizing the paper and its recommendations for their specific areas (refer to this month's lead story on professionalizing the public child welfare system), and members can do the same.
What can you do to help? First, get involved in a chapter committee: call the office at (212) 947-5000 to find out more about this. If you cannot find the time, we'd like to know whether it would be meaningful to utilize a copy of the paper on "Improving the Environment for Social Work Practice" in opening discussions with staff at all levels of your program, department or agency. I realize that social workers are likely to have different thoughts and expectations about this. I'd be interested in hearing what you think. Drop us a line at 15 Park Row, 20th Fl, New York, NY 10038.
Maybe, as we move ahead, the professional social work community will begin to find enhanced support for the provision of our services. Let's take it one step at a time, together.