Top 10 Social Work Definitions: Social Work Profession and World

(caps)Social work is a professional endeavor of aiding individuals, groups, or communities to enhance or restore their capacity for social functioning. It’s about creating societal conditions that favors individual existence. But social work isn’t just about providing help; it’s about equipping people with the tools to help themselves. It’s about tangible services, counselling, and psychotherapy with individuals, families, and groups. It’s about helping communities provide or improve social and health services, and participating in legislative processes.

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Social Work Definition by Internationals Bodies 

Throughout the world, many people and organizations have defined social work and attempted to justify the aim and objective of the profession. Some of these definitions are given below:

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Canadian Association of Social Workers

Social work is a practice-based profession and academic discipline founded on theories of social work, social science, and humanities. It is advanced through an evidence informed approach and recognizes the importance of Indigenous ways of knowing in practice, the development of knowledge, and education, clinical services, policy, and research. Social work focuses on the person within their environment and recognizes the importance of family, community, culture, legal, social, spiritual, and economic influences that impact the well-being of individuals, families, groups, and communities. Social work applies a strengths-based perspective and views individual, families, and communities as resourceful, resilient, and having capacity. Principles of respect for the inherent dignity and worth of persons, the pursuit of social justice, and culturally responsive practice that applies an anti-oppressive lens to all areas of practice and is grounded in ethics, values, and humility, are central to social work.

International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW)

Social work is a practice-based profession and an academic discipline that promotes social change and development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of people. Principles of social justice, human rights, collective responsibility and respect for diversities are central to social work.  Underpinned by theories of social work, social sciences, humanities and indigenous knowledges, social work engages people and structures to address life challenges and enhance wellbeing. The above definition may be amplified at national and/or regional levels.

National Association of Social Work (NASW 1973)

Social work is a “activity of helping individuals, groups, or communities enhance or restore their capacity for social functioning and creating societal conditions favorable to this goal. Social work practice consists of the professional application of social work values, principles, and techniques to one or more of the following ends:

Helping people obtain tangible services (such as housing, food, income)

Providing counseling and psychotherapy with individuals, families, and groups

Helping communities of groups provide or improve social and health services

Participating in relevant legislative process (alert-success)

Social Work Definition by Westerns Social Thinkers   

Alice Cheyney (1926)

Social Work includes all voluntary attempts to extend benefits in response to the needs which are concerned with social relationships and which avail themselves of scientific knowledge and methods.

Witmer (1942)

The primary function of social work is “to give assistance to the. individuals in regards to the difficulties their encounter in their use of an organized group's service or in their performance as a member of an organized group”.

Arthur Fink (1942)

Social Work is a “provision of services designed. to aid individuals, singly or in groups in coping with the present or future. social and psychological obstacles that prevent or are likely to prevent, full. or effective participation in the society.

Anderson (1943)

Social work is a professional service rendered to the people for the. purpose of assisting them, as individuals or in groups to attain satisfying relationships and. standards of life in accordance with their particular wishes and capacities and in harmony with. those of the community.

Helen Clarke (1947)

Social Work is a form of professional service comprising a composite of knowledge and skills, parts of which are not distinct of social work, which attempts on the one hand to help the individual satisfy his needs in the social milieu and on the other to remove as far as possible the barriers which obstruct people from achieving the best of which they are capable.

Friedlander (1955)

Social work is a professional service, based on scientific. knowledge and skill in human relations, which assists individuals, alone or in groups, to obtain. social and personal satisfaction and independence.

Youngdahl (1949)

Social work which seeks two things for people; economic well-being and the deeper source of happiness that is self-realization; the stuff of its concern is human behaviour and relationships.

Konopka (1958)

Social work is an entity representing three clearly distinguished but inter-related parts; a network of social services, carefully developed methods and process and social policy expressed through social institutions and individuals. All three are based on a view of human being their interrelationships, and the ethical demands made on them.

Boehm (1959)

Social work seeks to enhance the social functioning of individuals, singly and in groups, by activities focused upon their social relationship which constitute the interaction between man and his environment. These activities can be grouped into three functions; restoration of impaired capacity, provision of individual and social resources and prevention of social dysfunctions.

Stroup (1960)

Social work is an art of bringing various resources bear on individual, group and community needs by the application of a scientific method of helping the people to. help themselves.

Pincus and Minahan (1978)

Social work is. concerned with the interaction between people and their environment which affects the ability of. people to accomplish their life tasks, alleviate distress, and realize their aspirations and values.

Indian View Point on Defining Social Work

B.G. Kher (1947)

The aim of social work, as generally understood, is to remove social. injustice, to relieve distress, to prevent suffering and to assist the weaker members of the society to rehabilitate themselves and their families and, in short, fight the five giant evils of (1) Physical want, (2) Disease, (3) Ignorance, (4) Squalor, and (5) Idleness.

Sushil Chandra (1954)

Social work is a dynamic activity undertaken by public or private effort in the implementation of social policy, with a view to raise the standard of living and to bring about social, economic, political and cultural wellbeing of the individual, family and group with a society irrespective of its stage of social development.

Indian Conference of Social Work (1957)

Social work is a welfare activity based on humanitarian philosophy, scientific knowledge and technical skills for helping individuals, groups or community, to live rich and full life.

Mirza R. Ahmad (1969)

Social work is professional service based on the knowledge of human relations and skills in relationships and concerned with intra- personal and inter-personal adjustments resulting from unmet individual, group or community needs.

Moorthy and Rao (1970)

Social work is help rendered to any person or group, who or which is suffering from any disability, mental, physical, emotional or moral, so that the individual or group so helped is enabled to help himself or itself.

At last, Social Work is a profession that looks at a person in their environment, not just the person or the environment. It’s about seeing the potential in every individual and community, and working to turn that potential into reality.