Personal Care Services: An Identity for Social Work

Abstract

Perhaps 10 percent of the total population of all ages can be considered to require long-term caretaking attention by other adults. By some estimates, as much as 3 percent of the labor force is devoted to such caretaking functions. The role of social work in modern society is examined against this background. Social workers are considered to be employed in host agencies where they perform useful but secondary functions in the host system, or in programs dominated by social workers, or in systems such as income maintenance where the assignment of professional roles remains unclear. It is suggested that social work's acceptance of responsibility for managing the caretaking function in modern society will provide an unambiguous foundation for professional development and responsibility with widespread social acceptance.

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