Poverty is a major social problem in the United States: in 2014, the U.S. Census Bureau reported 46.7 million people living in poverty and an estimated 14.8 percent poverty rate. The poverty rate has been steadily increasing in the United States, with a 2 percent increase in 2012 over 2007. Federal and state governments have initiated many anti‐poverty programs, starting with the New Deal Program in the 1930s. With the advent of a new governance approach in the 1990s, many hierarchical bureaucratic government agencies were replaced with public, private, network, and collaborative approaches to solve this complex national problem. Tax expenditures, vouchers, and grants are the three major governance tools used by the U.S. federal and state governments to fight poverty. This article addresses three important programs—the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)—used in fighting poverty in the United States and discusses the problem of poverty, the effectiveness of these governance tools, suggestions for future research, and policy implications
The social work profession in the United States has experienced many changes in the last fifty years. Changes in health care practices, the increasing costs of healthcare, and the rising number of uninsured in the United States all have an impact on the social work practice. Currently, managed care is the premier mode of healthcare delivery in the United States. Managed care organizations aim to improve the quality and reduce the rising costs of health care in the United States. Managed care involvement has meant changes in social work education and practice. Schools of social work are incorporating these changes in their curricula in order to prepare future social workers and to empower them with the changing health care environment. The social work practice faces many ethical dilemmas within the changing environment in health care practices. This manuscript analyses major changes happening in the social work practice with an emphasis on social work education, ethical dilemmas, and social work practice in the acute and long-term health care settings. Suggestions for preparation include implementing evidence-based practices focusing on treatment plans, with measurable goals and outcomes
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.