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General Facts about Social Work
A 2006 study of
licensed social workers conducted by the NASW Center for
Workforce Studies revealed the following about the profession
of social work:
- Social workers have advanced educational preparation and
practice experience. A master’s in social work is the
predominant social work degree for licensed social workers
(79% of active practitioners).
- Social workers’ most frequent specialty practice areas
are mental health (37%), child welfare/family (13%), health
(13%) and aging (9%).
- Social workers spend the majority of their time
providing direct client services (96%), followed by
consultation (73%) and administration/management (69%).
- With 12% of respondents planning on leaving the
workforce in the next two years and the increasing need for
social work services, there will not be enough social
workers to meet the needs of their clients.
Additional facts about social work:
- Social workers have the right education, experience, and
dedication to help people help themselves whenever and
wherever they need it. It takes a bachelor's, master's, or
doctoral social work degree — with a minimum number of hours
in supervised fieldwork — to become a social worker.
- More than 600,000 people in the United States hold
social work degrees.
- Social workers help people in all stages of life, from
children to the elderly, and in all situations from adoption
to hospice care.
- You can find social workers in hospitals, police
departments, mental health clinics, military facilities, and
corporations.
- Professional social workers are the nation's largest
providers of mental health services. Social workers
provide more mental health services than psychologists,
psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses combined.
- The Veteran's Administration – the largest employer of
social workers in the country – employs nearly 5,000 social
workers to assist veterans and their families with
individual and family counseling, client education, end of
life planning, substance abuse treatment, crisis
intervention, and other services.
- Forty percent of mental health professionals working
with the Red Cross Disaster Services Human Resources system
are social workers.
- There are hundreds of social workers in national, state,
and local elected office, including two U.S. Senators and
eight U.S. Representatives.
- According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the need
for social workers is expected to grow twice as fast as any
other occupation, especially in gerontology, home
healthcare, substance abuse, private social service
agencies, and school social work.
For more
information about social workers, please click here.
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