First, I think it is important to include 'clinical social work' along with Psychology and Psychiatry as part of the 'Topics' at the bottom of this article. All to often, clinical social workers are left out of discussions of mental health issues even though they are often the ones providing mental health services. In addition, a huge number of those providing mental health services are Jewish- from Freud to present day clinicians, and for an organization like JWA, that fact also needs to be acknowledged. When I was young and entered social work school, I assumed that all social workers were either Jewish or people of color. I learned otherwise. But it has always seemed to me that social work is an extension of the Jewish values of justice, empathy, compassion, and desire to make the world a better place in which to live which I learned from when I was young and which I deeply believe in providing to help others and our world.
First, I think it is important to include 'clinical social work' along with Psychology and Psychiatry as part of the 'Topics' at the bottom of this article. All to often, clinical social workers are left out of discussions of mental health issues even though they are often the ones providing mental health services. In addition, a huge number of those providing mental health services are Jewish- from Freud to present day clinicians, and for an organization like JWA, that fact also needs to be acknowledged. When I was young and entered social work school, I assumed that all social workers were either Jewish or people of color. I learned otherwise. But it has always seemed to me that social work is an extension of the Jewish values of justice, empathy, compassion, and desire to make the world a better place in which to live which I learned from when I was young and which I deeply believe in providing to help others and our world.