Portrait of social work.

Full Abstract

Social work is concerned with enhancing the well-being of people within their social contexts. It is a broad profession with diverse practices. These range from a focus on the personal distress of individuals to the collective arrangements and social processes that influence the well-being of groups and communities. The unique contribution of social work to the caring professions is its broad contextualised approach to addressing human needs. Yet this breadth of scope also provides fertile ground for competing discourses within the profession. This paper provides an overview of the 'highly contested' nature of social work's goals, theories and methods of practice.

Author information

Author/s: Barnes, Diane (D); Hugman, Richard (R);

Affiliation: School of Social Work, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Review

Journal: Journal of interprofessional care (J Interprof Care), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Aug; vol 16 (issue 3) : pp 277-88

Dates: Created 2002/08/30; Completed 2002/10/21; Revised 2005/11/16;

PMID: 12201991, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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