Social work can cover a variety of issues from the homeless, pregnant teenagers, the elderly, as well as the mental and physically challenged. The purpose of this paper is to address and understand the chief function of the field of social work. Brueggemann (2002) questions if people are generally healthy but live in an unhealthy society, or are people basically unhealthy and live in a healthy society. This question was answered by Saul Alinsky in the 1950's. Alinksy felt that, poverty, discrimination, economic insecurity, and unemployment; a disease as well as powerlessness were an ...