ABSTRACT

Child abuse and neglect (CAN) is a significant and growing public health problem, yet public health approaches to eliminating CAN have not been widely embraced in the United States or in social work education. Public health approaches require a large multidisciplinary infrastructure to scale evidence-based primary prevention strategies through multiple systems. The rapid growth in the workforce projected for the next decade, combined with the increasing ubiquity of social workers across family-serving systems, position social work to be a key mechanism to implement public health approaches to CAN prevention. This article presents a rationale for expanding CAN training in social work education. We then describe the Social Work in Health Impact Model (SWHIM), an orientation to social work practice that underscores the importance of prevention and population health, and subsequently apply the SWHIM to the problem of CAN. The SWHIM suggests that social work’s multilevel capacities can be enhanced, not by abandoning clinical practice but by infusing wide-lens approaches, harnessing the power of prevention, linking practice across levels, and addressing the social determinants of health. The article concludes with recommendations for U.S.-based social work education and training in CAN prevention.

摘要

虐待和忽视儿童 (CAN) 是一个重要且日益严重的公共卫生问题，但消除 CAN 的公共卫生方法尚未在美国或社会工作教育中得到广泛接受。公共卫生方法需要大型多学科基础设施，以通过多个系统扩展基于证据的初级预防策略。预计未来十年劳动力的快速增长，加上社会工作者在家庭服务系统中的日益普及，使社会工作成为实施公共卫生方法预防 CAN 的关键机制。本文介绍了在社会工作教育中扩大 CAN 培训的基本原理。然后，我们描述了健康影响模型（SWHIM）中的社会工作，社会工作实践的导向，强调预防和人口健康的重要性，随后将 SWHIM 应用于 CAN 问题。SWHIM 建议，可以增强社会工作的多层次能力，而不是通过放弃临床实践，而是通过注入广泛的方法、利用预防的力量、跨层次联系实践以及解决健康的社会决定因素。文章最后提出了针对美国社会工作教育和 CAN 预防培训的建议。并解决健康问题的社会决定因素。文章最后提出了针对美国社会工作教育和 CAN 预防培训的建议。并解决健康问题的社会决定因素。文章最后提出了针对美国社会工作教育和 CAN 预防培训的建议。