Important Role Of Social Workers Revealed At GASOW Conference

It has come to light that the role of the social worker in the development efforts of Ghana has been overlooked and that most of the social vices the country is grappling with alongside underdevelopment can be blamed on the absence of the much needed social services offered by social workers.

This was made known during the General Meeting and Conference of The Ghana National Association of Social Workers (GASOW) held here in Accra themed “THE ROLE OF THE SOCIAL WORKER IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT” under the auspices of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP).

Participants of the conference were made up of social work practitioners from all over the academia and students of social work from the University of Ghana, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the School of Social Work (SSW) Osu.

In a welcome address by the chairman of the nine- member Interim Management Committee, Mr. Stephen Adongo it was made clear that the social work profession has been dormant for some time now although the social work profession is supposed to offer critical social services to the Ghanaian society.

He said that notwithstanding, social workers through the Department of Social Welfare has contributed immensely to national development and a revamped GASOW would further see an improved regime of the services of social workers at this critical time of an increase in social ills such as child trafficking, child labor declining social systems and increasing poverty levels.

Mr. Adongo that the role of the social worker is critical in the ongoing National Child Care Reform Programme between the MoGCSP and the USAID being implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and that the revamping of GASOW is well timed.

Delivering the keynote address on the occasion Prof. Kwaku Osei – Hwidie, Dean of Academic Affairs of the Kofi ANAN International Peace Keeping and Training Centre said the social work profession has been in Ghana for the past 70 years and yet is not very well known in the country.

He said the contribution of social work in Ghana is undervalued, its mandate unclear and is not well recognized and regulated as a profession.

He emphasized on the contribution of social work in National Development and advanced arguments for the need for licensing and regulation of the profession in Ghana.

Other speakers on the occasion included Dr. Stephen Ayidia who spoke on the topic of “social work Practice in the Education and Health Sectors” and Prof. Mavis Dako-Gyeke, Head of Department of Social Work University of Ghana who spoke on “Creating An Enabling Environment For Professionalization of Social Work Practice and Training in Ghana.”

Dr. Frimpong Manso, Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana also took participants through “Child Care Reforms in Ghana: Implications for Social Work Practice.”

Ending he programme most of the participants who contributed during an open session blamed politicians for paying lip service to the professionalization of social work.

They said politicians generally ‘hijacked’ the work of social workers for the benefit of popularity and that these engagements usually done unprofessionally is blighting the social work profession.