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Introduction: Background, History, and Need
Christine Callahan, Jodi Jacobson Frey, and Rachel Imboden
Introduction
Financial social work is a growing area of social work practice that emphasizes the importance of financial well-being within a comprehensive approach to social work practice. It dovetails withâyet goes beyondâissues of poverty and income inequalityâand encompasses factors associated with the incredibly complex financialization of daily life. Many communities lack reputable and accessible lenders to spur the economic growth of businesses. And individuals need access to a living wage, but often find themselves working multiple jobs to make ends meet and support their families. Challenges to individual, family, and community financial stability and well-being âboth clinically and structurallyâare ever-present and will be discussed in this book as well. In this handbook, financial social work will be explored thoroughlyâboth as a concept and as a set of practice interventions or methods for social work direct practice. This includes screening, assessing, and intervening in meaningful ways with clients, especially within the context of vulnerable populations.
Financial social work occupies a unique place when considering the financial services landscape. It is the one discipline among several within this overall landscape (including financial advising and financial planning) that emphasizes the importance of justice and sensitivity and responsiveness to clients and communities that often are dealing with difficult and painful circumstances and situations that may be long-standing. While this has always been true of social work, financial social work began gaining more traction and attention since the time of the Great Recession in 2008 when it became clear that millions of Americans were inordinately impacted by excesses of Wall Street and other entities seeking only to enrich themselves at the expense of ordinary Americans, such that finances were destroyed and homes were lost (Sherraden, M. S., Huang, Frey, Birkenmaier, Callahan, Clancy, & Sherraden, 2015). As Sherraden, Frey, & Birkenmaier (2016) point out, financial social work acts in response to complex financial issues ever-present in American and global spheres by ensuring income sufficiency, financial capability, and asset building across the micro to macro continuum.
This handbook will help social workers and other helping professionals understand how financial and psychosocial issues are manifested with all client populations and the unique issues with which some populations may deal. Often social workers are unsure about or reluctant to do a deep dive into clientsâ financial struggles and stressors. They often think that these issues are none of their concern (âitâs private, not my businessâ) or they feel ill-equipped to assess and respond to financial issues and problems with which most people struggle at some point in life. Financial issues such as credit and debt problems; insufficient or stretched income; non-workable budgets; crippling debt and slide towards bankruptcy; and housing and/or food insecurity are critically important to clients seen in diverse social work settings. Yet integrating financial well-being into oneâs scope of practice has not historically been at the forefront of social work direct or clinical practice. Financial stressors have a way of weaving themselves into psychosocial and even physical health challenges, and ignoring them does a disservice in social work. The scholarly literature is replete in describing how financial stress and poverty have profound manifestations in physical health (Case & Deaton, 2015; McDaniels, 2017); depression, anxiety, and trauma (Taylor, Jenkins, & Sacker, 2011); and inter-personal strife (McCoy, Ross, & Goetz, 2013). Consider for a moment how uncertain and frightening it must be to be without emergency savings or not to have enough money and resources to care for oneâs family when unexpected expenses arise. Think about what it is like when this is all you have ever known. When lack of money is ever-present and pervasive, physical, emotional, and cognitive consequences are undeniable and overwhelming.
In this handbook, social workers will read about real-life, relevant issues at play in clientsâ lives, especially when they are also dealing with unique psychosocial stressors and problems. The financial and the psychosocial are integrated and woven together, and comprehensive social work practice takes into account all stressors and how they are informing and even reinforcing each other. The authors have found that financial distress can be present in virtually all service settings and populations, and this is why many do not think financial social work should become its own specialization (Coyle, 2016). Rather, it should be integrated into all types of social work practice. And this book explicates how this is accomplished within the context of vulnerable populationsâpopulations who struggle not only with financial but other psychosocial stressors that potentially compound their distress.
Overview of the Book
Each chapter in this handbook will explore a unique client population and the financial and psychosocial struggles they most often encounter. Here is a breakdown and description of the chapters:
Overview of Interventions: In the next chapter, Callahan, Frey, and Imboden will provide a summary of common financial social work interventions (drawing not only from social work, but contributions from other disciplines) as well as tools that can be employed in this work. They bring a depth of clinical experience from a combined 50+ years of social work practice in a range of settings, including health care, behavioral health, the workplace (i.e. employee assistance and well-being), workforce development, crisis intervention, including suicide and other violence prevention and response, and ethics in social work practice.
Domestic Violence/Intimate Partner Violence And Issues of Financial Abuse and Control: What Does Financial Empowerment Look Like?: In this chapter, Hoge, Postmus, Stylianou, and Johnson explore the issues fraught with financial pain and trauma of which to be aware when working with survivors of domestic or intimate partner violence. All have years of experience in working with survivors, and they bring much financial capability knowledge to their direct practice and research with survivors.
Financial Abuse and Victimization of Older Adults: In this chapter, Betz-Hamilton and Zurlo delve into the special financial needs of older adults, especially when they face financial victimization. Both authors have many years of research and practice experience regarding older adults and seniors.
Financial Capability in the Military: Wood and Kano bring a unique perspective to financial social work within military populations. They are a social work practitioner and military spouse, respectively, and see first-hand the importance of financial capability in this population.
Maximizing Financial Capability During Acute and Chronic Medical Conditions: In this chapter, Cagle and Ware explore the myriad of financial issues present in health care and medical settings. Cagle brings a wealth of experience in hospice care, palliative care, and direct practice, research, and education within these broad areas. Ware has degrees not only in social work, but also in public health, and has much experience in health care within vulnerable populations.
Financial Capability and Behavioral Health: The critical and always timely issues of financial capability within mental health and behavioral health are described thoroughly in this chapter, written by Anvari-Clark and Frey. Anvari-Clark brings a breadth of experience in clinical and macro social work realms within financial social work, along with financial advising work. As described above, Frey brings tremendous experience in social work practice, research, and administration in critically important areas within behavioral health.
Financial Capability and the Workplace: This chapter covers what financial capability looks like in the workplaceâan emerging, important venue in which this work takes place, especially when employees are on low- to moderate-income. Imboden and Jodi Jacobson Frey bring the extensive clinical experience as described in earlier chapters, and McKinney is a leader in financial social work nation-wide and leads her organization (CASH [Creating Assets, Savings, and Hope] Campaign of Maryland) in individual, family, and community services in financial capability and strong policy advocacy for low- and moderate-income working families at the state level.
Financial Education Among School-Aged Youth: Shanks, Moss, and Blumenthal bring a wealth of research experience with vulnerable youth, and Shanks has devoted her career to financial capability and especially asset building with vulnerable youth. This chapter offers a unique look at the growing field of financial education with these youth and in American schools today.
Beyond Jobs: Building Financial Capability for Adults Returning to Community after Prison: This chapter is written by Grier and Bright, who have a combined 50+ years of experience working within and on behalf of those in the criminal justice system, both researching and offering direct practice services. The intersection of financial capability and re-entry after prison is a critically important, growing area of work within financial social work; practitioners realize increasingly that the financial capability needs of those facing re-entry need close attention, such that opportunities for financial well-being are maximized in this vulnerable population.
Financial Capability and the Social Work Community Outreach Service (SWCOS) at the University of Maryland School of Social Work: This chapter is another that offers a unique contribution in describing the financial stability and financial capability needs of individuals, families, and communities served by this program based in the University of Maryland School of Social Work. This chapter was team-written by SWCOS social workers (staff and administrators) and it gives an excellent overview of their innovative, collaborative work with communities in Baltimore City.
Preparing Social Work Students and Practitioners for Financial Social Work: This chapterâs lead is Birkenmaier, and Callahan, Sherraden, McClendon, and Huang contributed. It covers financial capability education within schools of social workâwhich is increasingly acknowledged by both students and faculty alike as a critical component in social work curriculaâand how we can train new and graduated social workers on how to integrate financial social work within their practice.
Conclusion: This brief chapter, authored by Callahan, Frey, and Imboden provides a road map for resources and next steps for financial social work.
The handbook is designed to be an introduction to financial social work and to describe thoroughly special clinical issues and intervention opportunities. It may be that you are working with a client population or in a setting in which you find yourself floundering a bit regarding the financial issues presenting concerns. Perhaps you have come to recognize that financial realities within your practice cannot be ignored. This handbook is crafted to give a well-grounded analysis of the clinical considerations regarding financial and psychosocial needs that social workers and others in the helping professions need to be aware of when working with vulnerable populations. The chapters have been written by experts in their respective fields, and they are immersed in the issues and realities with which these clients are coping. You may turn to one chapterâor to several, depending on your scope of practiceâbut this book was written to provide a hands-on resource to help guide your practice and to help you feel more comfortable with the ins and outs of financial distress. Additionally, it explores the opportunities for greater financial well-being in those you serve. Moreover, this book will provide tools and strategies to conduct a financial distress screening within the context of a comprehensive psychosocial assessment and to better understand how you can help. Interventions that help you do that and increase your knowledge are covered in the next chapter.
Definitions of Concepts
In the introduction to this book, we touched on financial social work as an emerging area of practice and also an umbrella term for interventions in social work practice. We will now turn to discussing some of the building block definitions that comprise this continuously growing area of social work practice. While many in the financial services industry use the term âfinancial literacyâ to denote the level of knowledge and ability needed to conduct oneâs day-to-day financial life and to make beneficial financial decisions, some within the social work arena have promoted a more encompassing term called âfinancial capability.â Sherraden, Birkenmaier, & Collins (2018)âall leaders within this fieldâcharacterize it this way: âFinancial capability and asset building (FCAB) improves peopleâs financial knowledge and skills, facilitates access to programs that create pathways to financial well-being, and shapes policies that improve financial well-beingâ (p. xv). Elsewhere, financial capability connotes both knowledge and access (Johnson & Sherraden, 2007), meaning that it is important not only what you know, but also that you have access to reputable resources and opportunities. As we will see in this book, many people do not have these resources and are at a disadvantage along the financial capability continuum, which is delineated as moving from financial crisis to financial stability (Asset Building Continuum from CASH Campaign of Maryland).
âAsset-buildingâ mentioned above is also an important concept. It refers to how individuals, families, and communities build assets that grow in value and permit greater advantages and opportunities. Assets are things such as homes, cars, businesses, jewelry, art, stocks and bonds, and so forth. These are often the gateway to acquiring more resources and things that are of even greater cost. In other words, assets are valuable not only in and of themselves, but also because they open doors. We will see in this book how assets benefit individuals, families, and communities, and how their absence can impair our clients. Asset-building is a strategy for growing wealth in a way that improves financial well-being, especially for people and communities that are struggling to achieve a more stable financial quality of life (Sherraden, 1991).
As an example of the critical nature of assets, consider the racial wealth gap. Due to our nationâs history of slavery and profound racism and discrimination towards communities of color, African-Americans in particular are at a great disadvantage regarding their assets. In particular, white families in the U.S. have 20 times the wealth of African-American families, and 18 times the wealth of Latino families (Asante-Muhammad, Collins, Hoxie, & Nieves, 2017; Taylor, Kochlar, Fry, Velasco, & Motel, 2011). This has tremendous negative consequences for a family of color to be able to grow assets and benefit in numerous ways from their increase in value, not to mention having an excellent quality of life. There are documented gaps in income-earning potential as well.
Mezzo and Macro Social Work Practice Implications
In addition to clinical practice within financial social work, it is important to consider how mezzo and macro realities contribute to responsive, sensitive social work practice. At the mezzo level of social work practice, agencies understand and incorporate financial realities into their policies and services and/or know how and where to refer via trusted partners and resources. Practicing good financial social work at the organizational level goes beyond having eligibility and income criteria and guidelines. It means that there are staff and services in place that help clients achieve greater financial stability by exploring and addressing challenges that hinder this quest. It also means recognizing that clients may be frustrated and at times demoralized by financial problems. Financial crisis and cumulative financial stress takes an understandable toll on emotions and feelings of capability. Social workers may find themselves working with clients to process financial losses and fears and to address the hopelessness and other emotions that are engendered with ongoing financial distress.
In terms of macro implications, this book will touch on relevant policies and legislation that impact financial capability at all levels. Often issues within financial social work are perceived to be purely client-driven, and it is often mistakenly assumed by the broader population, and even among social workers, that peopleâs financial struggles are no fault except their own...
