At the recent 2010 Joint World Congress on Social Work and Social Development, one of NASW’s presentations focused on successful international collaborations to build social work capacity. The Congress was held in Hong Kong. A presentation and poster session were made available to attendees. The example of the Best Practices in Psychosocial Oncology Exchange between Hungary and the United States of America was used to communicate important foundations and principles for such collaborations. The Hungary project was undertaken as part of the NASW Foundation’s Social Workers Across Nations (SWAN) initiatives.
At the poster session, social workers from Croatia, Serbia and Thailand expressed interest in the project. They noted the need for similar projects and resources regarding cancer, palliative and end-of-life care in their countries. They were interested in materials that could be made available for translation to help social workers in their communities.
NASW is participating in additional international social work capacity-building collaborations through SWAN, including projects on the continent of Africa.
For more information about NASW’s work in this area, visit http://www.socialworkers.org/practice/intl/default.asp
