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What exactly is social work? -

Social work is a vast collection of professions and specialties that work to locate, assist, and empower individuals in various situations that are dangerous and detrimental to their well-being.

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The many faces of social work -

The problems and situations that social workers try to ameliorate are innumerable. Today, this wide-reaching line of work is active in everything from criminal cases to hospice care.

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Criminal justice case workers -

Social workers in the world of criminal justice help individuals within the justice system make sure they are provided with the due process they are constitutionally guaranteed, and ensure they aren't taken advantage of by predatory legal professionals. Case workers are also present in prisons and probation offices, and help convicted individuals through the process of reintroduction.

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Mental health services -

Mental health services are one of the most common specialties of social work. Mental health social workers provide individuals in need of help with affordable and accessible resources to help them find a path to a healthier and more manageable life.

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Substance abuse counseling -

Substance abuse counselors help individuals struggling with addiction on their path to or through recovery. Overcoming addiction is one of the hardest journeys a person can go through, and addiction counselors do their best to make sure individuals receive all of the necessary support.

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Family advocacy -

Family advocates are primarily involved with helping children and families take full advantage of family care programs such as Head Start. The bureaucracy involved in these types of programs is often insurmountable, so family advocates make sure that eligible families have easy access to all of the educational, nutritional, and financial support that they are entitled to.

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Direct care -

Direct care workers are assigned to individuals who are unable to live independently. This can include people with developmental disabilities, or elderly individuals who need help with tasks around the house.

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Child welfare -

Child welfare workers are expressly concerned with the well-being of youth in at-risk situations. This can include children in poverty, children in abusive households, and children who have lost their immediate caretakers.

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Crisis counseling -

Crisis counselors usually have relatively brief relationships with their clients. These social works meet with individuals in the midst of a crisis or in need of immediate assistance, and help direct them to more specialized professionals who can help in the long term.

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The origins of social work -

There are many ways to determine the origins of social work. If we simply equate social work to egalitarian charity, it could be said to have begun as early as ancient Rome. If social work is considered as an explicit profession with a scientific basis, it can be suggested that it started some time in the 18th century.

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Ancient charity -

Charitable assistance is a major tenant of nearly every major religion in the world. Nuns and imams alike have always been concerned with showing material empathy to the impoverished and incapable, through healthcare, housing, and a myriad of other ways.

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The 17th-century Poor Laws -

It can be argued that the first state-sanctioned social work began in England in the 17th century, with the advent of the English Poor Laws. These laws were put into place in order to provide assistance to people who were incapable of caring and providing for themselves, but also to weed out the truly "deserving poor" from the "sturdy beggars."

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For the good of the poor, or for the strength of capital? -

The Poor Law System was established in the wake of the Black Death, which wiped out catastrophically large numbers of the working class. In order to restrengthen the workforce, upon the backs of which all of affluent society relied, the Poor Laws also weeded out the "able-bodied" impoverished, and forced them back to work without granting the support that was given to "deserving poor."

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The first case workers -

The world's first bona fide social case workers, who dealt with people on an individual basis, belonged to the English Charity Organisation Society, which appeared in the 19th century. The primary mission of this group was to help lift citizens out of poverty one by one, and to maximize material success.

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English almoners -

In the medical world, the first case workers, also from England, were known as almoners. Almoners were stationed at various hospitals around the country, tasked with assessing potential patients to see if they were "deserving" of care, or if they should be made to pay for their medical needs.

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The settlement movements -

Social work gained a significant foothold with the advent of the settlement housing movements of the West. These movements dedicated themselves not only to relieving immediate poverty, but also to pressuring the political machine to work towards structural reforms that would help eradicate poverty at large.

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The settlement movements -

This surge in social consciousness began in the late 19th century, and saw the construction of the first public settlement housing projects, or tenement buildings.

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Jane Addams -

In the United States, the settlement movement was spearheaded by Jane Addams, an active social reformer and suffragette from Cedarville, Illinois.

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Hull House -

Addams co-founded the famous Hull House in Chicago, one of the world's most impactful settlement houses. From Hull House, Addams was able to provide invaluable support to individuals struggling with homelessness and poverty, single mothers, and orphaned children.

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The science of social work -

Concurrent with the rise of the settlement movement, ideas of "scientific charity" were also becoming commonplace. This school of thought led to the building of the modern world's first psychiatric asylums, and marked a movement of social work from the religious sphere to the secular sphere.

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Seebohm Rowntree -

Sociologist Seebohm Rowntree was a champion of developing scientific charity. In one of the most impactful studies of poverty to ever be conducted, Rowntree and his team inspected virtually every working class household in New York City in 1899 to record the conditions and effects of poverty. Rowntree was also the first to describe poverty in scientific terms, assigning numerical minimums for resources such as income and caloric intake, cross-referenced with age and family size.

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"Is social work a profession?" -

In the midst of all these advancements in social work was a burning question that concerned both the movements proponents and critics: "Is social work a profession?" Some argued it wasn't, claiming it only relied lightly on intellectual specialties and science. This led proponents to focus more closely on developing standardized processes and scientific explanations for the field of social work.

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Medical social work -

Social work in the medical field developed from its exclusionary beginnings to a force of support in the 20th century. These medical social workers were assigned to hospitals in order to oversee the links between a hospital's standards and the patients' well-being. These social workers pushed for more formal education in the medical field, and also worked to improve sanitary conditions in hospitals.

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The rise of the welfare state -

Since the developments of the 19th and 20th centuries, social work has become more and more intertwined with public funding and policy in countries around the world. Welfare organizations have been integrated into various governments as a way to ensure citizens' basic rights to food, shelter, healthcare, and employment are efficiently provided.

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The role of women in the rise of social work -

From the very beginnings of social work, women have been front and center in its development and implementation. Women and feminists groups who championed social work not only succeeded in bringing more care to those who needed it, but also made immense strides in improving women's place in society by making labor traditionally seen as unpaid "women's work" instead perceived as useful and essential work worthy of compensation.

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The role of women in the rise of social work -

The traditionally female workforce of the social work profession has also pushed forward the advancement of proper medical care for women, providing women and girls with the basic resources and information about their bodies, their rights, and their options.

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Social work and spirituality -

While social work is no longer the clergy-sponsored charity it once was, there is still a strong connection between religion and social work. Prominent social work organizations such as the Salvation Army are still closely tied to their Christian beliefs and aspirations.

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Social work and war -

Social workers have also become more and more involved with supporting the veteran demographic. As PTSD is becoming better understood and veterans are still brought home with virtually no psychiatric support, social workers and other organizations have stepped in to try to prevent veterans from slipping into homelessness, addiction, and mental health crises.

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The global impact of social work -

Today, there are millions of social workers across the globe, and the profession is growing at wonderfully quick rates. As studies continue to be constantly published extolling the benefits of social work, and current social workers continue to fight for better rights and better pay, the impact of social work and the quality of life for social workers is only set to grow and improve.

See also: A short history of nursing, one of the world's most impactful professions

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