Social Workers: Advocates for Social Justice

If we practiced the same way as our founders, we'd be advocating for eugenics. So yes, Jane Addams is turning in her grave because people she disproved of are procreating. Did you mean Saul Alinsky?

I agree with you in the sense that therapy doesn't begin to tackle larger issues like systemic oppression and coinciding capitalism, it essentially aids individuals to better go about living within those systems. I understand how this can blur some lines between our mission of advocating for social justice and providing therapy, but to completely dismiss clinical social work on these grounds is absolutely ridiculous. Therapy is an important and needed component of the profession, it is a critical part of planting strong seeds to bring about change on a macro level and collective healing as a society. One person cannot change the world, but we can change the world of one person; do that enough and our environment will begin to reflect the same. Not only that, it builds a caring support system within the profession to essentially take care of the parts of the world everyone seems to forget about and remain good at it.

Social work, as opposed to other helping professions, focuses on incorporating greater concepts of areas in need of social justice into our education, giving us a well rounded view of the system before going in. Saying that clinical social workers are "wannabe psychiatrists" doesn't spark debate about legitimate issues that face the profession in a clinical sense that you indeed brought up, rather it just sparks an emotional response from a subreddit full of social workers. You know this, given your account history.

/r/socialwork Thread Parent Link - journals.iupui.edu