Poverty Perceptions of Social Workers and Physicians in Israel

Abstract

This qualitative study comparing poverty perceptions of social workers (SWs) and primary care physicians (PCPs) employed in Israel's public services found that both attributed the poverty of their own clients to similar causes—individualistic, structural, fate, and policy—but differed in most of their perspectives and moral imperatives. The PCPs tended to be more angry, skeptical, and accusatory than the SWs, who were more forbearing and accepting. Both believed that those in a position to work should, but only PCPs held that they should work for any salary. With respect to policy, PCPs looked at the macro, SWs at the micro. The findings suggest that it might be more fruitful to keep inter-professional discussions on the poor and poverty pragmatic, rather than theoretical and principled.

Keywords:

• poverty perception
• social worker
• primary care physician
• client
• patient
• moral imperative

Notes

1. Income tax reductions for dependants are very low in Israel. To make up for this, for many years the government provided child allowances, which increased in accord with the number of children in the family. The problem with the allowances, as many saw it, was that for every additional child, the per child allowance was larger than for the previous child. This, the critics claimed, encouraged large families.