Exploring the roles of public health social workers—A rapid review

Abstract Social workers are assigned a variety of roles in resolving adversity in diverse contexts but are committed to serving the most vulnerable and promoting social well-being. Public health social work offers an overarching framework that touches many different locations and fields in which social workers operate. This review was conducted to explore and synthesize the literature of Public Health Social Work (PHSW) roles and is derived from a broader scoping study aiming to identify and describe public health social work interventions. Electronic databases were searched to identify eligible studies with varying methods published between January 2010 and December 2023. Twelve studies were included in the review. Guided by ecological systems theory, the roles were organized into the micro level, meso level, or macro level. Findings demonstrate that the roles are mainly performed at the micro and meso levels, in which tertiary prevention distinguishes itself as the predominant domain of effort. All the included studies originated from somatic health contexts. The minimal variation of studied contexts provides an inaccurate picture of PHSW’s achievement in diverse arenas and levels. This underscores the need for research representing the variety of contexts, the diversity of preventive social work, and at various levels.