MAXIMIZING THE POTENTIAL OF THE SOCIAL WORK TEAM: SOME ORGANIZATIONAL AND PROFESSIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

The effective use of different kinds and levels of personnel is a major concern of the social work profession at the present time. A 1974 policy statement of the National Association of Social Workers recog-nizes several levels of practitioner engaged in the provision of social services: (1) the social service aide who has no formal training; (2) the social service technician who has an associate degree in a social service field or a bachelor's degree in a field other than social work; (3) the social worker with a BSW degree; (4) the graduate social worker with an MSW degree; (5) the certified social worker who is a member of the Academy of Certified Social Workers (ACSW); and (6) the social work fellow who has a doctorate or substantial specialized experience beyond the ACSW. 1 At the same time, the social milieu in which social work finds it-self is changing rapidly so that the profession is being challenged to engage itself purposefully with problems that are completely new or that have been radically redefined. As social service roles in changing or new kinds of organizations become more complex and ambiguous, there is an urgent need to examine the ways that available kinds of social ser-vice personnel can best be involved in the provision of professional and preprofessional practice. The team model of staff differentiation and service provision is gaining considerable support among social workers, primarily as a result of some limited but encouraging experimentation with it