The Future of Social Work: Responding to Organizational Workplace Needs
摘要
The social work profession has evolved from the early years focused on helping the neediest, speaking out against injustices, establishing settlement houses in the late 1800s, and advocating for improvements to social problems. Later, the profession developed employee assistance and member assistance programs to help unions address drug and alcohol misuse, while the past several decades have focused on clinical work. Recently, the impact of the pandemic, racial violence, and political conflict has affected the workplace. Working families and oppressed populations were among those impacted the most, resulting in employer efforts to address employee turnover, increased mental health issues, burnout, and reduced well-being. Despite the efforts of human resources departments and employee assistance programs, there remains an information and expertise gap as to how best to address these recent changes in the workplace. However, with trained expertise in human behavior, proficiency in understanding systemic issues, and intentionally improving organizational micro-, mezzo-, and macro-settings, there is a timely opportunity for social workers to lead efforts offering solutions to dismantle oppressive workplace structures. This chapter will look at how social work expertise could positively contribute to addressing these workplace issues through the creation of a new organizational model inclusive of a social work unit whose goal would be to improve employee and organizational health and well-being.