- Hi, I'm Gina Griffin,
and I'm a social worker,
and I'm happy to speak with you
about why social workers
need data science.
First of all, you might be wondering,
what the heck do social workers do?
And this seems to mystify
nearly everybody that I meet.
So, the National Association
of Social Workers states that,
"The primary mission of
the social work profession
"is to enhance human well-being
and help to meet basic
"and complex needs of all people,
"with a particular focus on
those who are vulnerable,
"oppressed and living in poverty.
"Social work is different
from other professions
"because we focus both on the
person and their environment."
We recognize that the
person is not separate
from that environment, and
that we have to understand
that entire system to help the
person to meet their needs.
We are trained to provide case
management and psychotherapy,
and develop policy and oversee practice
in administrative settings,
and also to develop research.
Traditionally, social workers
have been fairly resistant
to technology.
We tend to be late adapters,
sometimes this has to do with the fact
that we tend to skew a
little bit older, as a whole,
and so developing those new skills
can be pretty intimidating.
Often, this is also because we fear
that embracing technology will change
the field of social work.
Social workers take pride
in developing a practice
that values face-to-face
interaction with clients.
So the fear is often that
integrating technology
and relying more heavily on
science and data as a whole,
will remove us too far from
that person-to-person experience.
But the world is changing, and
social work has to keep up.
Social workers need to understand
how data is influencing
the world around us, and
how it can positively
and negatively impact our clients.
We need to understand
how and why tools such
as predictive policing
and recidivism algorithms
often negatively impact the
marginalized communities
with which we work.
And as practice in the
organizations in which we work
is becoming more and more data-driven,
we need to be able to
understand how to leverage
that data to provide the best
outcomes for the vulnerable
and marginalized
communities that we serve.
While many social workers
are rightfully enamored
with big data and its impact on clients,
I also see the value of
teaching everyday data science
to social work practitioners.
We need to be able to effectively
collect and interpret data
from a variety of sources,
such as mental health measures,
which we collect over time
and use in measurement-based care,
or even from mileage
logs, from staff members
who use fleet vehicles to provide services
to clients in the community.
And ultimately, we need to be
able to effectively interpret
what that data is telling
us, and to communicate
that to both staff and management.
Right now the preferred tool
is often the Excel spreadsheet,
and based on interview
that I've collected,
even those are sometimes a struggle
for some of my colleagues.
As a result, from my
doctoral capstone project,
I'm building a website and
learning management system,
named "Adventures in
Social Work Research",
this focuses on teaching research skills
to direct practice social workers,
and these are social workers
who work face-to-face with clients.
One of the primary segments of the website
will be devoted to teaching R
Programming to social workers.
I am hoping that this is one of the truly,
first truly functional
parts of the website,
as I believe that the
demand for these types
of skills will only increase over time.
And I'm drawing on my skills
as an R-Ladies facilitator
to share this skillset with
my social work colleagues.
I will be completing my
doctoral capstone project
in October 2020.
By that time, I would like to
have several beginner
R-Programming learning modules,
geared towards social
workers, available for use.
If you would like to
work with me and help me
to develop these modules,
please feel free to contact me.
I am also happy to answer questions
about the project as a whole,
and I'm always happy to discuss
ways in which social work
can benefit from practice
research and data science.
Thank you.
