Abstract
Although prior research has indicated a weakness in community practice skills in the context of community care provided by social workers, it has not yet identified the causes influencing this weakness. Therefore, this study seeks to empirically clarify the factors that promote community practice skills in social workers. To analyze the awareness level and influential factors, a survey was conducted on social workers in 500 regions across Japan. The results corroborated prior research, illustrating that social workers were conscious about weaknesses in their skills related to community assessment and coordination with local residents. Additionally, the results revealed that the effectiveness of district personnel systems and assigned community populations of 20,000 were important reference points. It was further discovered that district personnel systems hindered service development. Therefore, this study proposes the necessity of acquiring a two-layer structure comprised of a small district personnel system and a larger operations administrative system in order to establish an effective system to develop community social work in the future.
