The purpose of this paper is to review three general areas of occupational social work, a field of practice defined by Googins and Godfrey (1985) as those services:
. . . in which social workers attend to the human and social needs of employees and the work milieu by designing and executing appropriate interventions to ensure healthier individuals and environments. (p.16)
The three areas reviewed are: (1) Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs); (2) Occupational Health and Safety; and (3) Unemployment. For each area, the paper identifies one clinical issue and one "macro-level" or policy issue.
Many sociologists have stated that America faces no challenge greater than that of making the workplace safe and healthful. However, it is important to note that safety and health in the workplace can be placed at risk in two ways: (1) through safety hazards in the external work environment; and (2) through impaired work performance on the part of employees with personal problems (e.g. family problems, psychoemotional problems, substance abuse problems, etc.) The Employee Assistance Program was designed to address and remediate worker-related problems that are a threat to their occupational safety and health.
Clinical Issue. In a statement issued by the AFL-CIO Executive Council (May 21, 1986), it was noted that the use of prevention and rehabilitation programs such as EAPs was supported by the union for treatment of the substance abusive employee. However, one of the basic clinical issues regarding the treatment of these employees is: How are they to be identified? Without proper identification, there can be no treatment. Clearly, if employees' behavior becomes sufficiently impaired, they can be spotted; but waiting until this point places both these employees and their fellow workers at serious risk of on-the-job accidents.
In their statement, the AFL-CIO notes that one increasingly often used procedure for identifying employ...