Determinants of Willingness to Be Involved with Addiction among Medical Social Workers:

Abstract

Social workers are insufficiently willing to be involved with recovery support for addiction. Quantitative analysis of the determinants of this willingness is scarce, and evidence is lacking on how to enhance willingness. Therefore, this study analyzed the determinants of medical social workers’ willingness to be involved in addiction, focusing mainly on their sense of self-responsibility toward addiction. A survey of Japanese Association of Social Workers in Health Services members was used for the analysis (n=1,158). The main results were as follows: 1) those who do not consider addiction to be their fault are more proactive; 2) those who have received addiction training are more proactive; 3) those who have had contact with addicts are more proactive; and 4) those who work in an environment with many social workers are more proactive. These results suggest that overcoming the sense of self-responsibility, increasing opportunities for training and contact with addicts, and increasing the number of social workers in the workplace will increase proactivity.