Tools for Practice Tuesday
Last week I blogged about the first annual Digital Healthcare Conference hosted by the National Institute of Health. During that conference the chief technology officer of The U.S. Department Health and Human Services (Susannah Fox) talked about the potential of digital technology to “unleash empathy”. I began to contemplate how social work can play a leadership role in using technology to achieve this goal.
But how and where to we begin? This week, the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare published “Practice Innovation through Technology in the Digital Age: A Grand Challenge for Social Work”. This document lays out why and how social work should be involved in utilizing digital technology.
The article lays out an argument about how much digital technology is impacting individuals we serve. The authors talk about how research can further our understanding of technology. Powerful collaborations with other disciplines can also further our role in the development of digital technology. I would also take it step further and say that social work can be a leaders in this area.
The authors agree with Ms. Fox in their concluding statement that social work can use technology to “Unleash empathy”…
A paradigm shift in the social work profession is necessary to see technology as an imperative, not extraneous, too difficult, or burdensome. There is the potential to create a new generation of social workers and a new breed of social work that fully harnesses technology for social good.
Please click on the image for full report here…
Berzin, S.C., Singer, J, and Chan, C. (2015) Practice Innovation through Technology in the Digital Age: A Grand Challenge for Social Work. Working Paper No. 12 Grand Challenge 9: Harness Technology for Social Good. Found at http://aaswsw.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Practice-Innovation-through-Technology-in-the-Digital-Age-A-Grand-Challenge-for-Social-Work-GC-Working-Paper-No-12.pdf
