(published 12/8/99)

    Social Work: My Greedy Profession
     by Mischa Gelman

  Which of the following two should upset you more - the difficulties of
the clients your profession is designed to serve or the portrayal of your
profession on television?  If you're a member of the National Assocation
of Social Workers (NASW), your professional group thinks TV images are far
more important than real life troubles.  While most folks take the
presence of the sitcom "Norm" as evidence of the low quality of television
programming, the NASW feels the show is a dastardly evil creation because
it pokes fun at social workers.  Among their most vocal complaints is the
fact that the primary character on the show does not comply with NASW
ethics.  It is hard to tell whether the NASW has a lack of humor 
or simply a problem with a show that lacks humor.  Meanwhile, the NASW
feels "Judging Amy" deserves recognition for putting social workers in a
positive light.
   As far as I can tell, no one profession is as obsessed with the way
they are depicted in the media.  I don't read the Journal of the American
Medical Association, for instance, yet I highly doubt they demonize the
show "Becker" for its containing a lead character who is a doctor and
spends his days maligning both patients and staff in his office.  In
looking at numerous nursing journals, I have yet to see one complaint on
how nurses are treated by producers of comedies.  Teaching magazines and
papers don't rant against the cold-hearted and ignorant teachers often
shown on the tube, instead spending their time advocating for an improved
educational system.  Every profession has good and bad members and even
fictional mediums realize this and usually offer a balanced view.  Why do
social work organizations care so much and complain so much?
   Perhaps my profession is too full of itself.  The largest social work
listserv to which I belong has not focussed primarily on child abuse,
welfare reform, managed care, plans to change Medicaid and Social
Security, or battered women.  Instead, the issue which got the most
attention was licensure.  Greedy concern for the profession here outweighs
any concern for those we serve - a danger in any field, but especially
wrong-headed in something like social work which arose specifically to
meet the needs of those overlooked by other occupations.  While some may
take this as a decay of social work, I am not sure if this is the heart of
the matter.  After all, our textbooks show us historical precedents.  One
of the big concerns for early social workers was whether social work was a
"profession."  This issue took up much of their time and seems to have
been very hotly debated.  Why should anyone care?  As long as we help
those we intend to serve, we're doing our job.  Caring about self-image
instead of caring about clients is a definite sign we are NOT doing our
job.
   The Pitt student groups in social work are a microcosm of this apathy.
What has the BASWO (Bachelor's of Arts in Social Work Organization)
accomplished?  I would like to say it has been at the forefront of
pointing out the underreported problems of welfare reform.  I'd like to
say they've helped petition on issues like the living wage.  The fact is
that they did practically nothing in my time in the BASW program, despite
having a quality leader my senior year who was highly concerned about what
was going on.  In the three-plus months in the MSW program, I have yet to
find out anything that the social work student groups have done.  Why are
people in this field if they aren't going to work to help others?
   Of course, social work is not unique in being concerned about itself at
the expense of others.  Other professions also care too much for their
own self-serving whims.  It has reached the point where Pope John Paul II
has condemned numerous groups for such greed, saying, "It is not right
that categories of professionals have their own privileges as their
primary concern."  As I mentioned, this should especially trouble social
workers, whose primary concern, secondary concern and tertiary concern
should be the well-being of those they exist to serve.
   Let's hope the NASW one day heeds the message of the Pope.

  Mischa Gelman surprisingly did not renew his NASW membership.  He has
bigger concerns than "Norm."