National Association of Social Workers

Economic Issues Challenging in Practice

Financial Concerns Affect Clients and Clinicians

Social workers are well-suited to addressing the ways money impacts all aspects of life.

By Lyn Stoesen, News Staff

Illustration: John Michael Yanson

Economic concepts have long been a part of social work practice. Social work education includes a strong social justice focus, and students understand the impact of social policies on poverty and social service resource allocation. In recent years, NASW and others have worked on welfare reform issues, advocated better social work salaries and made gains in loan forgiveness programs for social work students.

But while social workers may understand the broad economic picture of society, those concepts don't always translate into individual clinical practice with clients. Social workers may not feel qualified to address financial problems their clients face and may also have difficulties addressing the financial realities of their own practices.

An underserved population. Reeta Wolfsohn, founder of the Center for Financial Social Work based in western North Carolina, became interested in working on financial concerns after she earned her MSW. Planning to work with women, Wolfsohn said, she "recognized how many stayed in unhealthy jobs and situations because of the money . . . [but] I could not find anything that really helped create change with clients."

She began to develop her own materials on financial concerns with a strong psychosocial perspective. "I discovered how thoughts, feelings and attitudes drive behavior and people's relationship with money. If those don't change, nothing changes," she said.

In addition to the Center for Financial Social Work, Wolfsohn is the founder of the Femonomics Institute, which offers support for women to help them become more financially knowledgeable and secure and has worked to reform the credit card industry because "we need to be clear that overspending is as dangerous as drinking, taking drugs and smoking."

"Jane Addams would probably turn over in her grave if she realized what an underserved population this is," Wolfsohn said. "We, as social workers, have neglected it. I've spent a decade of my life researching this. Financial problems are the number-one cause of divorce, the number-one cause of stress, a major cause of violence and depression and contribute to the cycle of poverty."

"We, as a profession, are really missing out on an incredible opportunity to make a difference in people's lives," Wolfsohn said.

Click here for full story…> >

From October 2005 NASW News. © 2005 National Association of Social Workers. All Rights Reserved. NASW News articles may be copied for personal use, but proper notice of copyright and credit to the NASW News must appear on all copies made. This permission does not apply to reproduction for advertising, promotion, resale, or other commercial purposes.