It is quite sad to notice that there are so many that make the mistake of thinking that social work is the same thing as charity work. The concepts are completely different. We are not faced with the exact same concept. Charity work stands out as one sub-sector of social work, of sorts. However, the scope of why the work is done is the main difference. Charles Phillips’ wife is constantly involved in charity work and highlights the following about the topic.
Charity Work Main Scope
Charity work has the main scope in aiding individuals that are now faced with really dire situations. The scope is normally to help them to get a decent living standard. Also, a part of this is having all human rights protected at the same time.
Social Work Main Scope
Social work is something that has existed ever since ancient civilizations and even world religions in all corners of the world have something like this available. Some of the sectors that are associated with social work include: health care, poverty alleviation, legal aid, sustainable development, stress management, domestic violence, child abuse, homelessness and addiction. Many others do exist though.
Social Work Examples
Many have the misconception that social work is really difficult. That is not actually the case. It can even be something really simple like helping disabled people get to the hospital or cross the street. Finding and offering psychological help to the women that were abused by domestic violence is another example.
Social care is also something that is not connected just with helping poor people, as some believe. All the people that need some sort of help and that are helped can fall within this category. It is important to understand that even those that are really well off and that have a lot of money may need social help at one point in time because of the different circumstances that may have appeared as time passed. The situation of addicts is the most common one mentioned in this case. Even counseling patients that have incurable diseases can be included in social work.
Education Requirements
We do have different social work jobs that will require formal education. With charity work this is rarely the case. Online education and classroom education is necessary whenever the job cannot be done without it. As example, if someone wants to teach people that are poor, the person needs to be able to do this. Being accredited as a teacher is a necessity. The cases associated with nurses and doctors are those that are quite obvious.
The Payment Factor
This is a big difference when comparing charity work with social work. It is definitely really important to understand that with charity work people are normally not going to be paid. However, small amounts of money offered for the work can be seen as being charity work. Whenever we are face with something that is done in a charitable way, we can discuss charity. When the scope is just to help people, we refer to social work.
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