ABSTRACT
Since the late 1970s, social work experts have been articulating and encouraging a role for the profession in the complex and rich specialty of pain management (Altilio, 2004; Hamilton, 1967; Holden et al., 1999; Hudgens, 1977; Kelley & Clifford, 1997; O’Neill, 2003; Roy, 1985a; Subramanian, 1991a, 1991b, 1994; Subramanian & Rose, 1988a). In many respects the profession has reflected the attitudes of the larger society as well as the field of health care wherein the treatment of pain has been viewed as a choice rather than an essential responsibility mandated by ethical principles such as beneficence and respect for the dignity of persons. Social workers practice in a range of settings, including hospitals, nursing homes, facilities for senior centers, hospices, correctional facilities, chemical dependency programs, mental health facilities, social service agencies, and private offices, providing extensive opportunity to advocate for, and promote and provide competent, compassionate pain management. This opportunity creates a mandate that clinicians become knowledgeable of the myriad issues that inform pain-related experiences. Social work authors have encouraged this potential for professional contribution and advocacy as it easily evolves both from our presence in multiple settings and from historical traditions and values such as commitment to vulnerable populations, social justice, and respect for the worth and dignity of the individual. An assessment of the person in the environment, which might include social, economic, cultural, and spiritual aspects of his or her experience, is fundamental to social work practice. These values infuse the profession’s approach to clinical care, research, and policy work, and they have become increasingly important as the care of persons with pain has moved beyond the medical model to a multidimensional focus and most currently beyond the clinical relationship to the political, regulatory, and legislative arenas.
