By Staff Writer
Published on October 20, 2020
Social workers perform their roles and responsibilities within three interrelated levels of practice: micro, mezzo, and macro. These systems of practice use different methodologies to provide services to diverse populations, but they all operate within the Person-in-Environment (PIE) Theory.
Based on the importance of environmental factors on human behavior, PIE provides the central framework for social work practice. This theoretical premise connects the three systems, helping social workers to understand the complex set of societal influences that affect their clients' issues.
Because the field offers versatile career options and specializations, social workers often integrate different practice levels, working in multiple systems at once or shifting between levels to most effectively help their clients. While educational qualifications, licensure requirements, and the types of careers associated with each of the systems of practice may overlap, each level represents a distinctive subdiscipline.
This guide can help prospective social workers understand the three practice systems, including how they impact educational choices and career prospects.
Micro Social Work
Micro social work typically describes the individualized focus used by licensed clinical social workers (LCSW) providing direct services, interventions, and support to individuals, families, and groups. These social workers offer one-on-one counseling and small-group assessment in a variety of therapeutic settings, including healthcare, mental health, and school facilities.
The micro level, most often associated with traditional clinical social work, addresses the needs of society's most vulnerable groups, including children, the elderly, domestic violence victims, and those with mental illness. Some micro social workers also provide non-clinical services, such as connecting clients with resources to improve their well-being or cope with emergencies.
Dr. Alisha Powell, an outpatient therapist and adjunct professor of social work, suggests that social workers who can remain calm under pressure and provide creative solutions by "thinking out of the box" do best in micro practice settings. She acknowledges the importance of micro social workers as "first responders to the immediate emotional and social needs of clients."
Jobs in Micro Social Work
When referring to social workers in general, people outside the profession commonly think of micro-level practitioners, mentioning behavioral therapists, school counselors, substance abuse specialists, and others who provide direct client services. According to Gizelle Stokes, a mental health professional and CEO of the Mindful Center, micro social workers implement systems in practice settings where they "have the most one-on-one interaction with the population that they are serving."
The majority of micro social workers hold a master of social work (MSW) degree and an LCSW license. Their credentials prepare them for careers in conventional environments, such as hospitals, clinics, social service agencies, and private practice. Depending on their specialization, they find employment in mental health clinics, long-term care facilities, the criminal justice system, and schools, among other settings.
Mezzo Social Work
Although mezzo social workers may offer direct individual services, their primary focus centers on problem-solving on behalf of groups of clients, or "client systems." These social workers identify factors that affect the well-being of multiple clients within organizations like schools or social service agencies, or within a small community, such as youth at-risk in an inner-city neighborhood.
Mezzo social workers collaborate with other client systems and agencies, implementing programs and advocating for services and resources. Micro social workers often engage in mezzo-level social work practices to help their clients achieve treatment goals. For example, school counselors may develop substance abuse prevention workshops to benefit students dealing with these issues.
Dr. Debbie Rice, academic coordinator for Walden University's Ph.D. program in social work, calls attention to the important work done by mezzo social workers in "organizing community action, such as developing community watch groups or bringing together parents who suddenly must homeschool their children due to COVID-19."
Jobs in Mezzo Social Work
Mezzo-level social workers find employment in all types of organizations, including mental health clinics, schools, social service agencies, and businesses. Social work practice at the mezzo level comprises a range of services for diverse client groups. These social workers have developed afterschool programs for park districts, nutrition workshops for nursing homes, and conflict resolution sessions for businesses.
Although most mezzo social work positions require an MSW and clinical license, some employers hire bachelor of social work (BSW) degree-holders, depending on the organization and client population. BSW-trained social and community service managers, for example, can administer programs for specific demographic groups, such as veterans, older adults, or individuals experiencing homelessness.
Mezzo social workers provide leadership for institutional systems and structures. Stokes acknowledges their responsibility "for governing and creating policies and procedures that ensure effective interventions and ethics."
Macro Social Work
Macro-level social work addresses the challenge of alleviating societal problems to improve the quality of life locally, nationally, and internationally. Stokes, who calls this "big picture" social work, views macro social workers as the ones "in charge of creating the system and not just managing it." While micro social work focuses on individuals and mezzo approaches emphasize small groups and organizations, macro social work confronts issues at the systems-level.
Because macro social workers do not provide individual counseling or direct client services, they do not need a clinical license. However, they must acquire considerable training in theory, research, administration, and policy analysis.
Working in regional and federal government agencies, universities, human rights organizations, and nonprofits, macro social workers engage in a variety of roles, including advocacy, community organizing, program development, and policymaking. They may work for a political party to develop healthcare legislation or a mental health foundation to provide screenings and treatment to underserved populations.
Jobs in Macro Social Work
Macro social work practice covers a broad range of professional roles and responsibilities. According to Rice, this level of social work "may include revising public policy, challenging unjust regulations, and increasing allocations of funding and resources to support those in need."
Macro social workers investigate the origins, persistence, and impact of social problems, such as homelessness or suicide among young people; create and implement social service initiatives to address social issues, including the opioid crisis or childhood diabetes; and advocate to encourage changes in policies and legislation to better serve vulnerable populations, such as those geared to broadening healthcare access to low-income groups.
Social workers at the macro level find employment as researchers and policy analysts in government agencies, administrators and program evaluators in nonprofit organizations, and university professors.
How Education Affects Micro, Mezzo, and Macro Social Work
Most BSW degrees teach generalist, micro-level, skills. Both undergraduate and graduate programs enable students to explore the practice areas that interest them through electives or practicum experiences.
Although undergraduates also learn about mezzo and macro social work, graduate programs delve more deeply into each specific practice level. Rice points out that the "second year of a master's program allows students to specialize or focus on a particular population or level of practice."
Social workers often move from one practice level to another. For example, a clinical social worker might provide individual counseling, lead a weekly support group, and contribute to lobbying efforts.
As Powell observes, social work's versatility contributes to considerable overlap among the practice areas, creating an array of professional possibilities, especially for those with graduate training.
"While some social workers start with macro practice, many others start their career in micro or mezzo practice and then transition into macro-level practice. After completing a graduate degree in social work, the opportunities are endless," she emphasizes.
How to Choose Between Micro, Mezzo, and Macro Social Work
While social work education typically focuses on one of the three practice levels, most professionals engage in all three areas throughout their career.
BSW graduates can find employment opportunities in mezzo-level positions, although most mezzo-level and micro-level social workers hold an MSW and an LCSW credential. Both levels require a broad understanding of different population areas and the resources and services available to support them. While macro-level social work does not require a clinical degree, these professionals must develop strong research and policy skills, along with an understanding of the social issues and client needs addressed by micro and mezzo social workers.
Because careers reflect the interconnectedness of the practice levels, Rice advises students and those early in their careers to avoid pigeonholing themselves into one particular focus. She stresses that social workers must "navigate situations across the levels," because "social work practice is as varied as society's problems." Students should attain as much experience as possible across all levels to gain insight into their professional strengths.
Meet Our Contributors
Alisha Powell
Alisha Powell, Ph.D., LCSW, completed her graduate studies in social work (MSW) from the University of Denver and her undergraduate studies in social work (BSW) from Oakwood University. Alisha completed a post-graduate certificate in marriage and family therapy from Denver Family Institute. She has experience working in a variety of settings, including long-term care, hospitals, outpatient clinics, residential centers, and hospice. Alisha currently works as an outpatient therapist and adjunct professor.
Dr. Debbie Rice
Dr. Debbie Rice, academic coordinator for Walden University's Ph.D. in social work program, is a licensed clinical social worker with more than 30 years of experience. Dr. Rice has served as executive director of a family service agency and founded a national initiative to reduce poverty by building relationships across race and class lines. Her research interests include social work education, professional values and ethics, and poverty. Dr. Rice has been a social work educator for nearly 20 years.
Gizelle Stokes
Gizelle Stokes is a leading education and mental health professional with over 15 years of experience in the field. Currently, the Buffalo, New York, native serves as the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Mindful Center. The goal of the Mindful Center is to provide strategic social emotional support services to businesses, schools and agencies by using mindfulness based strategies to promote holistic wellness. The ultimate goal is to provide her clients with self-care tools in order to live healthy, happy, whole, and productive lives.
FAQs
To accomplish this goal, social work is divided into three levels: micro (the individual level), mezzo (the group level), and macro (the community/governmental level).
What is the difference between the micro and mezzo-level of social work? ›
Micro social work effects change on an individual basis and involves working closely with clients to support them through their challenges. Mezzo social work seeks to improve small communities through initiatives such as school-based education programs and local health services.
What is the difference between micro and macro in social work? ›
For example, micro social work typically focuses on improving the personal experience of an individual client in a one-on-one clinical or office setting. Macro social work, on the other hand, focuses on improving the collective experience of a large group or segment of society, often by advocating on a political level.
What is an example of mezzo-level social work? ›
Examples of mezzo social work include community organizing, management of a social work organization, and practice that focuses on institutional or cultural change (rather than individual clients).
What are the 3 levels of practice in social work? ›
The practice is typically categorized into three interrelated scales: micro, mezzo and macro. For those considering a career in social work, an understanding of the vast opportunities available at each level is imperative.
What are the 3 types of MSW? ›
Another way to look at the profession is to consider it from the three divisions or types of social work: micro, macro, and mezzo social work. These terms help categorize virtually any type of social work that these human services workers perform.
What is the difference between macro and micro scale? ›
These two words macro and micro are antonyms, meaning they are the opposite of each other. Macro means on a large scale. Micro means on a very small scale.
What is an example of macro level? ›
Research at the macro level examines large-scale patterns. In recent years, sociologists have become increasingly interested in the process and impacts of globalization. A study of globalization that examines the interrelationships between nations would be an example of a macrolevel study.
What is macro social work? ›
Macro social work is a very broad field. It entails changing, negating or repairing large scale systemic issues that affect large groups of people or entire communities and cultures. The field of social work was pioneered by Jane Addams in the late 1880's.
What is the difference between micro and macro give examples for each? ›
Microeconomics deals with various issues like demand, supply, factor pricing, product pricing, economic welfare, production, consumption, and more. Macroeconomics deals with various issues like national income, distribution, employment, general price level, money, and more. It is applied to internal issues.
These prefixes can often be so similar that they refer to different degrees of the same measurement. Macro and micro refer to measurements of size but in different directions. One refers to large measurements, and one refers to small measurements.
What are examples of macro-level issues? ›
Macro-level social workers holding these director positions may be involved with issues regarding education, poverty, hunger, crime, violence or orphaned populations. Macro-level social workers may also be involved in large-scale research.
Why is mezzo-level important? ›
Definition: Mezzo-level social work promotes social development and cohesion within larger groups, organizations and communities. At this level, social workers cultivate supportive relationships among individuals and their communities.
What are the 4 macro-level social factors affecting work today? ›
These intersecting macro-level social forces, such as poverty, race, family structure, and neighborhood characteristics, ultimately constrain the life chances of those living in the inner city irrespective of personal traits, individual motivations, or private achievements.
What are the 4 P's in social work? ›
DISCUSSION: For many years, Perlman's (1957) 4 Ps (person, problem, place, and process) have proven useful to social workers as a way of organizing their thoughts about a client, his or her situation, and the agency context of social work intervention.
What are the 3 secondary methods of social work? ›
The knowledge in social work can be differentiated in three categories. 1) Tested knowledge. 2) Hypothetical knowledge that requires transformation to tested knowledge. 3) Assumptive knowledge which is practical wisdom requires transformation to hypothetical knowledge and from there to tested knowledge.
What are the four stages of social work process? ›
Engage, assess, intervene, and evaluate
Professional practice involves the dynamic and interactive processes of engagement, assessment, intervention, and evaluation at multiple levels. Social workers have the knowledge and skills to practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
What is the most common MSW? ›
The total MSW recycled was more than 69 million tons, with paper and paperboard accounting for approximately 67 percent of that amount. Metals comprised about 13 percent, while glass, plastic and wood made up between 4 and 5 percent.
What are the 7 roles of a social worker? ›
Responsibilities of a Social Worker
- Assess Your Client. ...
- Create and Implement A Treatment Plan. ...
- Secure and Refer Needed Resources. ...
- Evaluate and Monitor Improvement. ...
- Serve as a Client's Advocate.
Meso level
In general, a meso-level analysis indicates a population size that falls between the micro and macro levels, such as a community or an organization. However, meso level may also refer to analyses that are specifically designed to reveal connections between micro and macro levels.
Micro factors tend to the economic function of the family, the economic value of children, cost of labor training, women's occupation, social security, household consumption, and education level.
What skills do macro social workers need? ›
What skills and credentials does a social worker need for macro social work?
- Demonstrate ethical and professional behavior.
- Engage diversity and difference in practice.
- Advance human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice.
- Engage in practice-informed research and research-informed practice.
A macro is a series of commands and instructions that you group together as a single command to accomplish a task automatically. Newer versionsOffice 2007. Word for the web. To save time on tasks you do often, bundle the steps into a macro. First, you record the macro.
Why is macro important in social work? ›
Macro social work is an incredibly important field central to the mission of social work, which, according to the National Association of Social Workers open_in_new, is “[t]o enhance human well-being and help meet the basic needs of all people, with particular attention to the needs of those who are vulnerable, ...
What are examples of macro social structures? ›
Social Structure: The Macro Level of Society
The major social institutions recognized by sociologists include family, religion, education, media, law, politics, and economy.
What are micro skills in social work? ›
Microskills education typically begins with teaching basic communication skills, such as paraphrasing, reflecting feelings, summarizing, asking open and closed questions, providing factual information, using minimal prompts, and using body language and facial expressions to demonstrate listening and interest in what ...
Can you differentiate between micro and macro environment? ›
The micro environment is specific to a business or the immediate location or sector in which it operates. In contrast, the macro environment refers to broader factors that can affect a business. Examples of these factors include demographic, ecological, political, economic, socio-cultural, and technological factors.
Which is more important micro or macro? ›
Research has shown students who study macro first perform better academically in both macro and micro than students who study micro first.
What is the difference between micro and macro quizlet? ›
microeconomics is concerned with individual markets and the behavior of people and firms, while macroeconomics is concerned with aggregate markets and the entire economy.
What is the difference between macro process and micro process? ›
A micro-process is a short chain of inputs, events and outputs where it is relatively easy to understand what is or should be happening. A macro-process is a mid-level collection of processes. Final assembly, accounts payable, demand planning and recruiting are macro-processes.
Unemployment results from two main micro-level decisions of workers and firms. Most of the efficiency wage and bargaining theories predict that over the business cycle, unemployment falls below its natural rate when the worker's real wage exceeds the reservation wage.
What is macro meso and micro-region? ›
The micro-region is coterminous with a development block, the meso-region is to be coterminous with a block involving three to five lakh people having comparable levels of socioeconomic development and the macro region will be formed of bigger tribal belts for planning of tribal development.
What are some macro interventions? ›
Examples of the impact of macro interventions include improving economic conditions, defeating unjust policies, initiating reforms in human service organizations, and expanding human rights (Ohmer, 2008; Weil et al., 2012).
What is micro level and macro level? ›
Key Points. Macro-level sociology looks at large-scale social processes, such as social stability and change. Micro-level sociology looks at small-scale interactions between individuals, such as conversation or group dynamics. Micro- and macro-level studies each have their own benefits and drawbacks.
What is mezzo used for? ›
In dynamics, it is often used to modify other musical terms as mezzo forte (medium loud or literally half as loud as forte), mezzo piano (medium soft or literally half again louder than piano), or in voices, mezzo soprano (a voice type with a range half-way between the highest and lowest female voice types), and mezza ...
What are mezzo-level interventions? ›
Mezzo-level practice is interventions with organizations and communities or neighborhoods. The purpose of mezzo-level practice is to improve organizational functioning and service delivery and community well-being for vulnerable populations.
Why is macro practice important to mezzo and micro social work practice? ›
They could provide guidance and intervention on issues such as bullying and truancy. Often, mezzo-level social workers are also engaged in micro and/or macro social work. This ensures the needs and challenges of individual clients are understood and addressed in tandem with larger social issues.
What is the difference between micro and macros? ›
In basic terms, macronutrients are the nutrients that the body requires in large amounts, while micronutrients are those required in smaller amounts. To break this down even further, macronutrients make up your total caloric intake, and include carbohydrates, proteins and fats.
What is macro meso and micro? ›
Micro refers to the individual carriers of rules and the systems they organize, and macro consists of the population structure of systems of meso. Micro structure is between the elements of the meso, and macro structure is between meso elements.
Is there a difference between micro and macro? ›
Here is a helpful trick to remember micro vs. macro. Simply put, micro refers to small things and macro refers to big things. Each of these terms appears in a wide variety of contexts and refers to a vast number of concepts, but if you remember this simple rule, you will generally be able to remember which is which.
Carbohydrates, fat and protein are called macronutrients. They are the nutrients you use in the largest amounts.
What comes first macro or micro? ›
Taking into account all of the above, most economics students are better off studying microeconomics first, and then progressing on to macroeconomics. That way, the principles of economics can be learned on an individual level, before being applied to the wider society and world.
What is an example of a macro? ›
A macro in excel is a series of instructions in the form of code that helps automate manual tasks, thereby saving time. Excel executes those instructions in a step-by-step manner on the given data. For example, it can be used to automate repetitive tasks such as summation, cell formatting, information copying, etc.
What is macro in social work? ›
Macro social work is a very broad field. It entails changing, negating or repairing large scale systemic issues that affect large groups of people or entire communities and cultures. The field of social work was pioneered by Jane Addams in the late 1880's.
What are the 3 levels of environment? ›
Looking at the environment, a distinction can be made on three levels: macro, meso and micro.
- Macro – contextual level. ...
- Meso – transactional level. ...
- Micro – organizational level.
Microeconomics requires knowledge of calculus, which makes some students say it is more difficult than macroeconomics. Students must earn a score of at least three to pass, though some schools require a four or five.
