Opportunities for social workers to mitigate unjust substance use policy

ABSTRACT A social work approach to addressing substance use embraces the NASW Code of Ethics with a dually focused client-centered and person-in-environment lens. These social work values often conflict with the myriad of U.S. policies that impact substance users by creating and reinforcing structural inequalities. Michael Lipsky’s Street-Level Bureaucracies reveal for social workers opportunities to mitigate policy with the consistent practice of a social work approach to substance use. This article provides an overview of Michael Lipsky’s Street-Level Bureaucracies and outlines opportunities to embrace social justice and human rights through micro and macro social work practice with people who use substances.