**Author details**

*Global Social Work - Cutting Edge Issues and Critical Reflections*

recognition of diversity [42].

in solving problems [44].

the socially vulnerable experience.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

**Acknowledgements**

dously to this article.

**Conflict of interest**

based on diversity and their ability to address them [42]. The third area focusses on the "Methods of Social Work Practice," which include assessment, formation of relationships and aid processes, value, ethical principles, application of knowledge and skills, social work research and skills, and field training [42]. The last area is the "Paradigm of the Social Work Profession," which includes human dignity and values, advocacy, empowerment, respect for the rights of service users, tasks and crises along the life cycle, recognition of strengths and potential, respect and

Considering the above, the general social work education strategy can be thought of as a strategy that focuses on various areas, such as basic development process and socioeconomic support that can affect them through direct and indirect intervention and psychological support for re-entry into the capitalist economy, based on an in-depth understanding of individuals and families or specific groups. One point to be noted here is that the healthcare sector was not included, although social work has specified access to and involvement in various areas that affect their vulnerability as a core curriculum. Based on this, the academic boundaries [43] can be expected to exist, emphasizing healthcare centered on disease prevention and treatment and social work centered on social and psychological support for re-entry into the capitalist economic system. Furthermore, such academic boundaries also mean that healthcare issues, including various social factors, such as health promotion or health inequalities, simply approach health and medical issues in the same way as a team approaches, that does not help much

As we saw earlier, the limitations of the healthcare approach to reduce health inequalities have been found in the prevention-oriented policy keynote and lack of understanding of the function and role of the community, which presupposes the willingness of individuals to practice health behaviors. Further, the limitations of this approach to the phenomenon of health inequality can be considered as a factor that continues to this day, despite the various efforts and attempts in the past four decades to resolve it. Therefore, to overcome these limitations, it is deemed necessary to add healthcare-related subjects, such as public health or social epidemiology and etiology to the existing curriculum of social work, which are based on a deep understanding of the social environment and the human nature. Moreover, given that the issue of health inequality is a social problem experienced by the socially vulnerable, the main target of social work, the motivation and monitoring of these people to implement and maintain health behaviors and the possibility of improving the environment of the community and organizing related community resources through social problems can be found in the aforementioned academic and practical features of social work. This, in turn, can be expected to compensate for the limitations of the healthcare approach to reduce the health inequalities that

The first author wishes to express his deepest gratitude to Eun Jin Lee, Ji Young Park, and Soo Hyun Sung for their support and guidance, who contributed tremen-

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Jung Youn Park1 , Eun Jin Lee1 \*, Ji Young Park<sup>2</sup> and Soo Hyun Sung3

1 Department of Health and Welfare, Yuhan University, Gyeonggi, South Korea

2 Department of Social Welfare, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea

3 Department of Public Policy, National Development Institute of Korean Medicine, Seoul, South Korea

\*Address all correspondence to: eunjin6434@yuhan.ac.kr

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
