Social Workers: This is Who We Are
With a new decade beginning, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is helping to lead this year’s Social Work Month celebration in March with the theme “Social Workers: Generations Strong” to honor the positive contributions social workers have made to this nation over generations.
In support of the social work profession, here are a few quick facts about social workers from the NASW:
- The social work profession is one of the fastest growing professions in the United States, with more than 777,000 people expected to be employed as social workers by 2028.
- Social workers work in a variety of settings, including schools, centers for veterans, the military, hospitals and mental health centers, corporations and local, state and federal government.
- Social workers are the largest group of suppliers of mental health services in the United States.
- According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), professional social workers are the nation’s largest group of mental health services providers. There are more clinically trained social workers—over 200,000—than psychiatrists, psychologists, and psychiatric nurses combined. Federal law and the National Institutes of Health recognize social work as one of five core mental health professions.
- The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs employs more than 13,000 professional social workers. It is one of the largest employers of MSWs in the United States.
- More than 40 percent of all disaster mental health volunteers trained by the American Red Cross are professional social workers.
- The social work profession has helped bring about some of the most profound, positive changes in our society over the past century, including voting rights, improved workplace safety, minimum wage and social safety net programs that help prevent poverty and hunger.