Employment of social workers is expected to increase faster than
average for all occupations through 2014. Social workers work in
schools, hospitals, hospices, nursing homes, family service
agencies, mental health facilities, prisons, rehabilitation and
substance abuse programs, private counseling practices and
research, planning and policy making organizations. Social
workers work as administrators and policy makers, but many
social workers prefer work in positions in which they can
interact with clients. For instance, social workers provide more
than 50% of the mental health services in the U.S. Social
workers may also work with specialized populations such as
abused children, people experiencing chronic illness, children
or adults experiencing development delays, or the mentally ill,
among others. Social workers provide a wide variety of services
in many settings. Examples include arranging for adoptions,
providing individual, group and family therapy, working with
runaway adolescents, and planning activit