Between reaction and prevention: a systematic review of a social intervention dilemma for Social Work (2000-2019)

The underlying purpose of Social Work is to promote changes that better people's quality of life and their environments. This is normally evidenced in social intervention that reacts to an emerging or existing problem affecting individuals, or families, groups and communities. Prevention, however, does not stay within the realm of immediate care. Instead, it relies on forward-looking diagnostics to assess the personal and environmental risk factors of vulnerable individuals to prevent them from suffering their effects or, equally, from aggravating them. In line with these assumptions, the objective of this study has been to analyse the characteristics of social intervention as found in social work journals published between 2000-2019, and to establish the relevance of reactive intervention (responses to problems already present) versus preventive intervention (attempts to prevent problems from ensuing). For this purpose, a review has been performed of 29 papers in published in scientific journals between 2000 and 2019. From the results obtained, it was observed that most studies relate to experiences based on reactive intervention whilst few are based on preventive intervention. Consequently, the authors propose recommendations for the practice and research of Social Work from a preventive approach.