The Future of Social Work

[vicklette55]

The bill needs to include ALL social workers. The field is littered with poor supervision and incompetent administrations--add a low salary, long hours, impossible expectations and an often abusive and dangerous work arena and it's no wonder several of my coworkers have left the field.

[vford43]

vicklette55, your comments are very interesting and true. What new do you personally bring to this industry? EX, I would never get a SW degree & spend the rest of my life in an agency. As a social work, it is up to us to create, develop programs & computerized technology that is competitive internationally, etc. Today you need to speak of a new way of doing things in any professional field; you have to think globally, considering the U.S. economic down turn & other new industrialized countries.

[vickihhh]

All of this research sounds ground but my primary concern which I think will help in all ways is to get salaries to where they ought to be. It is a shame that they are ridiculously low and all the other issues will cloud this primary concern . All the other issues can be served by lobbying for improved benefits and salaries.

[vickihhh]

The video ought to clearly state what the bill does. I followed the link and honestly, our main and focused concern ought to be the LOW salaries and monies received from insurance companies for our clinical work. This IS what is driving social workers away. REimbursements from insurance companies have not increase for over 15 years. Remarkable! Do we need a committee to research this??? We need a powerful lobby to effect change.

[socialworkers]

The Dorothy I. Height and Whitney M. Young, Jr. Social Work Reinvestment Act is designed to address all of the workforce challenges facing professional social workers including low salaries. The legislation is designed to address these challenges to the profession, thereby helping to ensure that millions of individuals and families throughout the nation can continue to receive competent care.

[socialworkers]

The bill sets the foundation for a professional workforce to meet the ever-increasing demand for the essential services that social workers provide. The bill is composed of two main pieces.

[socialworkers]

First, a Social Work Reinvestment Commission would be established to provide a comprehensive analysis of current trends within the academic and professional social work communities and would develop long-term recommendations and strategies to maximize our ability to serve others. This is important because there has not yet been a government study on the profession of social work. The workforce challenges must be officially identified in order to alleviate or remediate them.

[socialworkers]

The bill also creates demonstration programs to address relevant on the ground realities experienced by our nations social workers. These programs prioritize activities in the areas of workplace improvements (which includes grant funding to increase salaries), research, education and training, and community based programs of excellence. Both components are critical to ensure that our profession can survive and thrive for years to come.

[bwilso65]

While, I am not a practitioner in the U.S, I do hope that our profession receives more support politically as it would seem that we are still struggling for legitimacy. As a profession, I find many of our core values are not consistent with dominant political ideologies, which could be a reason for the decline in our profession in our inadequate pay, support, and so forth. All the best my friends to the south.

[justgeoi]

Awesome stuff!

[swkangelgirl]

what does this even mean? what are we supposed to be doing? besides sending letters..... what are we really changing?

[socialworkers]

The Dorothy I. Height and Whitney M. Young, Jr. Social Work Reinvestment Act is part of the broader Social Work Reinvestment Initiative which seeks to secure federal and state investments in professional social work to enhance societal well-being. This federal legislation in a big step to set the foundation to reinvest in the profession.

[socialworkers]

The full initiative including 56 chapter plans which address state level reinvestment issues such as title protection, licensure, and public education among others, and additional federal legislation focusing on issues such as loan forgiveness, social worker safety, training, and research. We must address the workforce challenges facing our profession as the baby boomers continue to age and as our economy continues to create negative repercussions for individuals, families, and communities.

[jcolis2]

I 'm a 30 year member of NASW . Although retired, I maintain my connection to our profession primarily through NASW.

Although there's a myriad of needs for professionly trained social workers, I perceive a decline in those who make Social Work their vocation. I hope that my observations are incorrect.

[momchecking13]

Impressive move towards use of modern technology!

[ZEKESACHI]

great to see you using the internet to mobilize support.....it would be terrific if you could say what the bill would do.....

Nancy Sartini

retired social worker,nasw member

[gailgrazian]

Thanks for the encouragement. It really is tough to stay in this profession with so little public support. I hope this bill will help us!

[cynthiaforequality]

Rock it! You are wonderful, thank you for all you do!