ABSTRACT
Social Workers (NASW), the professional organization for the social work profession, issued a policy statement supporting “the promotion of social work as a distinctly different profession from other human service disciplines (such as counseling, clinical psychology, nursing, marriage and family therapy, and so forth) as it focuses on [both] the intra-and inter-personal aspects of clients’ lives” (2012-2014c, p. 80). Social workers consider their clients’ social environments-their families, homes, places of work, states of physical and mental health, and communities, and they take into account clients’ interactions with those environments. Perhaps the most important distinction between social work and other helping professions is social work’s emphasis on social justice and advocacy for those society oppresses or discriminates against. Although social workers often provide services in a community-based agency setting, the profession also strives to influence policy-makers through advocating for resources and justice for such social conditions as homelessness, hunger, teen pregnancy, poverty, health and economic disparities, and discrimination.
