Back Home: Opportunities and Challenges of Social Work with Rural Communities

Rural Americans comprise an estimated 18 per cent of the US population and represent roughly 59 million people. Counter to many popularly held beliefs, rural communities can be less than ideal places to live. While these areas may have great natural beauty, they tend to be older, poorer, face healthcare challenges, and have older housing, among other social problems. On top of that, small communities are also likely to face shortages in professional social workers.

Despite this, rural content has not been a required element of the social work curricula, even though education programs in social work often address the needs of the region they serve and many of the over 800 accredited programs in the country are located in or serve a rural area.

To support social work students and practitioners in a rural setting, Back Home brings together reader-friendly chapters from experts in the field. It extends the scope of rural social work to consider anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion; rural clinical practice; rural advanced generalist practice; and work with day laborers, the elderly, and children.

Michael R. Daley is Regents Professor and Chair in the Department of Social Work at Texas A&M University - Central Texas. He is a NASW Social Work Pioneer, a former President of NASW/Texas, and the Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors (BPD). He is a former President of the Rural Social Work Caucus and received the Council on Social Work Education for Distinguished Recent Contributions to Social Work Education. His previous work includes Rural Social Work in the 21st Century.

Peggy Pittman-Munke is Social Work Program Director and Associate Professor at Murray State University. She is the current President of the Rural Social Work Caucus and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors.