Environmental Issues And Social Welfare

Explores how environmental concerns challenge prevailing political and economic theories and practices which drive conceptions of social welfare. This volume addresses social workers, documenting the environmental factors in: health problems, unemployment, racism and consumerism.

This topical collection examines a wide variety of themes and topics which links the environment to social policy and welfare. Represents the best current work on the realignment of social policy to confront environmental issues. Presents a challenging socio-environmental agenda for social policy. Examines a wide range of themes and topics which link the environment and social policy and welfare.

Divided into three parts, this field-defining work explores what environmental social work is, and how it can be put into practice. It focuses on theory, discussing ecological and social justice, as well as sustainability, spirituality and human rights.

Social work is the profession that claims to intervene to enhance people's well-being. However, social workers have played a low-key role in environmental issues that increasingly impact on people's well-being, both locally and globally. This compelling new contribution confronts this topic head-on, examining environmental issues from a social work perspective. Lena Dominelli draws attention to the important voice of practitioners working on the ground in the aftermath of environmental disasters, whether these are caused by climate change, industrial accidents or human conflict. The author explores the concept of ‘green social work' and its role in using environmental crises to address poverty and other forms of structural inequalities, to obtain more equitable allocations of limited natural resources and to tackle global socio-political forces that have a damaging impact upon the quality of life of poor and marginalized populations at local levels. The resolution of these matters is linked to community initiatives that social workers can engage in to ensure that the quality of life of poor people can be enhanced without costing the Earth. This important book will appeal to those in the fields of social work, social policy, sociology and human geography. It powerfully reveals how environmental issues are an integral part of social work's remit if it is to retain its currency in the modern world and emphasize its relevance to the social issues that societies have to resolve in the twenty-first century.

What is environmental justice? Why is it important to social work? Social work has a long history with the term "environment" as part of our guiding Ecological Framework. Yet frequently, the assessment of the environment is left out or seen as a difficult domain to understand as part of the complexities of the human experience, particularly for those who are vulnerable, oppressed and poor. This book contains nine articles that showcase environmental justice work in social work practice and in educational settings from around the world. The profession now seems ready to ensure that the "environment" is once again given the consideration it deserves when we are assessing problems in living. These articles were selected for their helpfulness in moving the profession forward conceptually while offering practical tools for the classroom, institutions, and for further scholarship. This book was originally published as a special issue of Social Work Education: The International Journal.

The United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world, but it is far from the healthiest. Although life expectancy and survival rates in the United States have improved dramatically over the past century, Americans live shorter lives and experience more injuries and illnesses than people in other high-income countries. The U.S. health disadvantage cannot be attributed solely to the adverse health status of racial or ethnic minorities or poor people: even highly advantaged Americans are in worse health than their counterparts in other, "peer" countries. In light of the new and growing evidence about the U.S. health disadvantage, the National Institutes of Health asked the National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to convene a panel of experts to study the issue. The Panel on Understanding Cross-National Health Differences Among High-Income Countries examined whether the U.S. health disadvantage exists across the life span, considered potential explanations, and assessed the larger implications of the findings. U.S. Health in International Perspective presents detailed evidence on the issue, explores the possible explanations for the shorter and less healthy lives of Americans than those of people in comparable countries, and recommends actions by both government and nongovernment agencies and organizations to address the U.S. health disadvantage.

Social policies of the future will have to be Green. As environmental problems multiply, and as welfare reform becomes more vital, so the debate concerning ecological social policies grows in importance. Yet what has been missing is a comprehensive review of the main questions, problems and themes that brings together the principal contributors to this debate. Environment and Welfare provides that review and so will be essential reading for all those interested in the welfare policies of the future.