Summary required reading

Reviewer's Comments

Social Work Speaks, Sixth Edition. 2003. NASW Press. 407 pages. $42.99.

Reviewed for THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER by Linda May Grobman.

Have you ever wondered what the “official social work position” is on affirmative action, or family planning and reproductive choice, or peace and social justice?

Individual social workers’ views on these and other important social issues vary. Yet, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), as the largest U.S. organization representing social workers, must present its members’ views on these and many other topics as part of its ongoing advocacy efforts.

How do these NASW positions get decided, and how can you find out what they are?

The answer is this: Position and policy statements are proposed by members of NASW (like you and me) and taken to the Delegate Assembly—which is composed of individual NASW members (like you and me)—where they are debated and voted on. The position and policy statements that are adopted at the Delegate Assembly meetings are what guide NASW’s actions for the following three years, until the next Delegate Assembly meets.

The policy statements adopted at the Delegate Assembly cover virtually every social issue, from (alphabetically speaking) adolescent health to youth suicide.

I first came across Social Work Speaks when I was an NASW chapter staff member several years back. The book is well known and used in NASW offices around the country, but is just as important and relevant to individual social workers out in the trenches.

Social Work Speaks, 6th Edition is a compilation of all the NASW policy statements that are in effect from 2003-2006. These include new statements that were adopted at the 2002 Assembly, as well as those still in effect from previous Assemblies. There are 63 statements altogether, 21 approved in 2002.

The statements are organized in an easy-to-use fashion. First, they are in alphabetical order, but they are also listed in 18 topic areas, to make it easier to see those that are related at a glance.

Policy statements include four components—background, issue statement, policy statement, and references. NASW staff and leadership use these statements to guide their actions in the areas of advocacy and legal action (such as in participation in an amicus curiae, or friend-of-the-court brief).

Social Work Speaks is essential to any social worker who wants to understand the inner workings of NASW and the contemporary thoughts of the established social work profession on a wide range of social policy issues, provided that he or she also considers current sources of information regarding these issues between meetings of the Delegate Assembly. It should be required reading for every NASW member, if not every social worker and social work student.

Reviewed by Linda May Grobman, ACSW, LSW, publisher/editor of THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER.

This review appeared in the Summer 2003 issue of THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER magazine.