According to the Social Work Summit of 2002, "The public has a limited view of social work. For example, the majority of mental health professionals in the U.S. are social workers (as reported by HHS/SAMHSA), however, the media, many policy makers, and the public have not yet recognized this fact. Social workers practice in areas including gerontology, end-of-life care, disaster relief, adoption and foster care, employee assistance, veterans’services, domestic violence, and political development. Other professions, however, are more visible with these populations than social workers." 

“There are almost 200,000 clinically trained social workers in the

United States. That’s more than psychiatrists, psychologists,

psychiatric nurses, and counselors COMBINED.”