Social work practice: a unitary conception

Chauncey A. Alexander, MSW, is Executive Director, National Asso ciation of Social Workers, Washington, D.C. The social work profession has reomies and perceptions that have con newed its organized effort to develop tinued to spread doubt and dissension conceptual frameworks for social work in the social work profession. Promi practice. Like Rip Van Winkle, it has nent among the controversies are the awakened to a new world of maddengeneralist vs. specialist argument, the ing diversity. Since the last officiai efpractice vs. education perspective, and fort to do this in 1966, many new individual change vs. societal change, methodologies, such as transactional The latter precipitates its own related analysis, confrontation and negotiation dichotomies, such as agency vs. client, strategies, behavior modification, and psychological causes vs. social causes; systems analysis, are now utilized daily and universal services (i.e., to every by practitioners. Social workers are body) vs. services to one part of the employed increasingly in more diverse population, such as the poor, settings, including private practice, the Differing perceptions of what should courts, industry, politics, and health be the starting point for analyzing care, which require new knowledge practice—for example, social prob and skills. Behavioral, economic, solems, client groups, techniques, service ciological, organizational, physiologistructures, or methodologies—continue cal, and other utilitarian knowledge to produce confusion in communica for social workers has expanded geotion and "territory." Preferences in metrically. classifying practice activities, the Fortunately, attempts at conceptuclaims and criticisms of practice re alization of social work practice have suits, and the interprofessional depen continued. First, by social work edudencies all add to the babel of dis cators, as reflected in the writings of agreement. Smalley, Bartlett, Meyer, Minahan In general, the following problems and Pincus, Goldstein, Perlmutter, appear to interfere with the attempt to Schwartz and Goldiamond, and othdefine social work practice: ers.1 Second, conceptualization of 1. Confusion as to the place of practice has continued, although in a social work in various institutional sys more fragmentary fashion, through terns of the society, because social the development of standards by the work has a different degree of matur National Association of Social Workity, acceptance, and power in each ers (NASW) and the formulation of system. operational definitions in many areas 2. The swing of the pendulum back of practice, such as long-term care, and forth from individual to societal hospital social services, and child welfocus. fare.2 Although the profession has not 3. Posing a viewpoint as though it been immobile, it has not integrated were in opposition to another one the developments into a unitary conrather than accepting plurality of phe ception reflecting a consensus of pracnomena in the field, titioners. 4. Preoccupation with special prob The task of the 1976 meeting on lem groups, such as the poor, the aged, conceptual frameworks, with its five or the handicapped, rather than with commissioned papers focusing on the the function of social work as an social work mission, objectives, activiinstrument of society, ties, sanction, knowledge and skills, 5. Criticism of the profession for essentially started with the Working its deficiencies in meeting individual Definition of Social Work Practice that expectations rather than recognition the NASW Commission on Practice of its significant developments, stated as follows in 1958: 6. The incarceration of perspectives by the nature of an agency or subject Social work practice, like the practice intereS{ of all professions, is recognized by a . ,-n constellation of value, purpose, saneYet, out of all of the differences, tion, knowledge and method.3 agreements can be found that can pro vide the basis for understanding the The 1976 meeting and its papers theory and practice of social work, reconstructed and repeated the dichotExamining the approaches to the