Social Workers Count Numbers and Social Issues

Social work students are often required to take courses in the domain of quantitative literacy, but struggle with the relative inattention to policy and social issues of special significance to professional social workers. These courses, as well as the books written for them, may also present mathematical demands many social workers are unprepared to meet. However, issues such as poverty measurement, adjustment of the purchasing power of social welfare benefits, demographic strains on the Social Security program, and probability theory as a means of estimating the likelihood of child abuse or neglect represent only a few of the many quantitative problems related to the concerns of professional social workers. Written in an accessible style, Social Workers Count provides social workers and those in neighboring disciplines with the background necessary to engage the quantitative aspects of policy and social issues relevant to social work.

Michael Anthony Lewis, PhD, MSSW, is a social worker and sociologist on the faculty of the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College. He's also co-author of Economics for Social Workers, co-editor of The Ethics and Economics of the Basic Income Guarantee, and co-founder of United States Basic Income Guarantee, an organization of academics and activists interested in promoting discussion of Universal Basic Income.