Social Policy
Reform, Research, and Practice
Social policy has received enormous national attention in recent years. Open the
newspaper, turn on the television, or listen to informal discussions at social gatherings
and you will be immersed in debates about social policy: the future of Social Security,
Medicare, Medicaid, and programs such as the former Aid to Families with Dependent
Children (AFDC). Welfare reform, health care reform, managed care, and the social safety
net, once topics at academic seminars, are now front page news and common labels for
complex social policy problems. Moreover, there has been vigorous debate about how much
responsibility should be shifted from the federal to the state government and to the
private non-profit and for-profit sectors. In this changing social policy environment, Social
Policy: Reform, Research, and Practice focuses on issues that have a dramatic impact
on consumers of social services, on society as a whole, and on social work practice. This
book presents analyses of trends in health care, mental health care, child and family
services, education, housing, and public welfare and what they portend for the future.
This policy reader presents research on the earliest phases of current welfare reform and
shows how knowledge gained from such research prepares social workers to propose social
policy.
This book reflects the trends of the day. Important among these trends, for
example, is an emphasis on rebuilding communities, both socially and economically, by
relying on mixtures of public and private funding and governance by local residents. As
with many other changes, we do not yet know what the outcomes will be. We do recognize
that to address community initiatives requires collaboration between organizations and
residents to a magnitude previously unknown. The research findings reported here address
the mechanisms that facilitate interorganizational management and collaborative practice.
This book is organized around six areas of interest in social policy: (1) shifting
governmental responsibilities, (2) welfare and work, (3) children and families, (4)
health, (5) mental health, and (6) education and schools.
SHIFTING GOVERNMENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES
Major shifts in federal policy and funding decisions have occurred under the aegis of
greater local control without careful consideration of what such changes mean
operationally. For example, what will be the effect of these changes on federalstate and
statelocal relationships? How will community residents and informal leaders be involved
in decision making, if at all? Will the shift in responsibilities lead to increased
culturally relevant services for consumers? Will such changes in social policy lead to
capacity-building for community residents?
WELFARE AND WORK
Next to changes in health care policy, welfare reforms in benefit programs and in work
requirements have received the most national and local attention. The main target of
welfare and work policy seems to be women and children in poverty, although it is clear
other population groups receive benefits as well. Are there sufficient training and work
resources to absorb the numbers affected by new work policies? What parts of private
industry and the public sector can provide additional work and training opportunities for
former recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), and what policies are
needed to develop these opportunities? How will new mandatory lifetime restrictions for
AFDC benefits be regulated? Under what extenuating circumstances, if any, can such
restrictions be waived?
CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
Society has been heady with talk about valuing children and the family but myopic about
what is actually happening to them. How have past social policies affected children and
families, particularly those who are poor? What can social workers expect from the new
policy initiatives that are being implemented? What can social workers learn from careful
study and research that can help to anticipate what lies ahead?
HEALTH
Although President Clinton's health care reform initiative failed in Congress, the
health care system has been transformed nevertheless at an incredibly rapid pace,
affecting consumers, health care professionals, and health care organizations alike.
Mergers, acquisitions, and cost containment, topics formerly associated with the corporate
sector, are refashioning health care in the United States. Fee-for-service and private
practice are rapidly becoming quaint memories in the face of managed care, health
maintenance organizations, health care conglomerates, and restrictive reimbursement
policies. These transformations are not just taking place in the private sector but are
such reshaping programs as Medicare and Medicaid. Social work practitioners in the health
care field are in the midst of these changes.
MENTAL HEALTH
People with mental illness, particularly those with severe disorders, have historically
fallen between the health care and welfare systems because they frequently need both
treatment and economic assistance. In the current policy revolution, driven by cost
containment, people with mental illness are likely to be vulnerable to abandonment by
social services agencies. Social work is the largest profession in the mental health care
field and must stay informed about ways to improve care to this population.
EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS
Changes in education policy are affecting a broad spectrum of issues related to regular
and special education programs, services integration, family support and involvement, and
professional preparation and regulation of school social workers. New mandates for full
inclusion require shifts in how services are conceptualized and delivered. The new
policies also blur the boundaries between regular and special education. How are teachers
and other school staff being prepared for and supported in regard to such changes? How
will funding and policy decisions for services integration affect the role of school
social workers? How will these arrangements affect interdisciplinary collaboration? Should
services integration policies require community involvement or simply assume that such
involvement will occur?
This book shows that social workers are actively engaged in the current debate on
issues of significance to the future of social policy and the social work profession. Is
it important to specify a research agenda for the profession? What should be on that
agenda? What forms of advocacy are most effective in the current environment? Is family
support necessary for welfare reform? How should social workers attempt to shape social
policy? Is mental illness biological in origin, and how is public policy affected by the
answer to that question?
Social Policy: Reform, Research, and Practice contains 47 chapters selected from
the 1996 issues of Social Work, Health & Social Work, Social Work in
Education, and Social Work Research. Several chapters came from two special
issues, "Social Work in an Era of Diminishing Federal Responsibility" (Social
Work, September and November), and "Welfare Reform" (Social Work Research,
December).
This book demonstrates how social context influences the evolution of social policy.
Social policy is a work in progress, and this book reflects the driving force of policy in
the making.
Patricia L. Ewalt
Edith M. Freeman
Stuart A. Kirk
Dennis L. Poole |
