Social work practice innovation and social determinants of health: Social work expertise for achieving health equity

For health care social workers, focusing our work on improving social conditions is not a new concept. Early social work leadership helped shape how we as a profession approach our work, viewing human behavior as interdependent with the social environment. Social Worker Mary Richmond introduced this perspective in her seminal book Social Diagnosis in 1917 and Helen Harris Perlman expanded this concept as the “person-in-environment” perspective in her book Social Casework: A Problem-Solving Approach in Perlman. More recently, the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare identified social conditions as essential to closing the health gap, and included this as part of The Grand Challenges for Social Work. To close the health gap, intervening to improve the SDOH is identified as a key area where social work can make a significant impact on society’s well-being caused by decades of racism, oppression, and social isolation.