Social workers should prevent crises, not just treat them, researchers argue
A new viewpoint calls for social work to adopt prevention strategies from public health, shifting focus from fixing problems after they occur to stopping them before they start. The approach could reduce costs and improve outcomes by addressing root causes like poverty and poor housing rather than their consequences.
Originaltitel: From Reaction to Prevention: A Viewpoint on Reimagining Social Work Through a Public Health Lens
<p>This viewpoint article argues that social work should incorporate key prevention principles from public health practice. Rather than replacing existing interventions, it aims to complement them by shifting practice from a reactive model to one that is proactive, explicitly prevention-focused, and systemic in scope. Public health has long emphasized the critical value of early intervention through a four-tier framework—primordial, primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention—that reduces risk and addresses inequities before they become entrenched. Applying this model could enable social work to act further upstream, focusing on the root causes that create social problems, rather than just treating the resulting symptoms downstream in the causal chain of disadvantage. Prevention-oriented practice would integrate professional judgment, values, and lived experience with evidence on effective approaches, while addressing social determinants of health such as housing, education, employment, poverty, and the environment. Implementation requires interdisciplinary work and cross-sector collaboration.</p>