[WikiEN-l] Clutch is on a POV tirade

[Ray Saintonge]

Tom Parmenter wrote:

>L.I.C.S.W. means "Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker".  It is
>a license from the government that allows one to conduct business and
>charge insurance companies for performing clinical social work.  All
>of those categories I listed are called social work in the United
>States (note the S.W. in the license).  I have no idea what the
>different functions are called in Vancouver (pause to note that
>Vancouver is the most beautiful city in North America, at least of the
>ones I have seen). 
>
>You seem to be saying that only the ones you hate are social workers,
>what you call the "nanny state" (a dead giveaway of POV) and I call
>the "cruel orphan warden" hypothesis (smarty-pants version of same),
>and all the others are something else.  But, at least in the states,
>they all go to social work school and they all call themselves social
>worker and no amount of bluster will change it, although I grant the
>terminology may be different in Canada.  
>
I, like Jonathan, live in the Vancouver area, and for the purposes of 
this discussion don't see any significant difference between Social 
Workers in Canada and the United States.  The terminology may be 
different, but that doesn't change the fact that educational standards 
need to be met before a person can call himself a social worker.  The 
categories of social work that Tom listed are just as valid here as there.

Jonathan's response seemed to make it clear that he was only concerned 
with one of the four categories, social workers employed by government. 
 This and some of the other discussion suggests that his criticism of 
social workers is misplaced.  When commissions here have investigated 
the operation of the provincial government's Child Protection Branch, 
they have determined that the social workers which it does employ have 
chronically huge case loads that do not permit the workers to give each 
case the attention which it needs.  The current provincial government's  
obsession with eliminating deficits at the same time that it is giving 
tax cuts for its more affluent supporters frequently means that spending 
cuts will have the greatest effect on those who can least afford it. 
 Adequate funding for social services would go a long way toward 
reducing the abusive incidents that Jonathan reports.

Eclecticology