The Future of Social Work Practice in Addictions
Keywords:
Future, social work, addictions
Abstract
Few social workers specialize in addictions practice. That number may grow in the years ahead due to demographic changes in the population, an expanding definition of addiction, and other factors. Social workers in all areas of practice see clients with addictions and their family members, but there is a large gap in the numbers who need treatment and receive it. The social work workforce of the future must be better equipped to develop and identify prevention and treatment services that are both appealing to clients and effective. These services may need to be offered in other setting where clients are seen. There is also much work to be done in the years ahead in the political environment to make treatment available and to see that individuals with addictions are treated fairly. Substantial research is being conducted on genetics and the brain chemistry of addiction. Psychosocial factors are also believed to play a substantial role in the development of addictions, thus ensuring social workers place in the addictions field in the years ahead.
Published
2005-04-30
Issue
Section
Articles

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright to works published in Advances in Social Work is retained by the author(s).
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
Beginning with Volume 17 Number 2, all articles published in this journal are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.