Social workers must understand the problems commonly brought to the attention of social agencies and how human problems cluster & together and overlap. In discussing the problems of adolescent crime, school-age childrearing, school dropout, poverty, unemployment, drug abuse, family violence, and so on, each can be studied separately, but in the real world they interact, reinforce one another, and often cluster together in the same individuals. Increasingly, the damage that begins in childhood becomes so visible in adolescence. It echoes throughout a neighborhood as part of an intergenerational cycle of social devastation. The interrelatedness of human problems is an inescapable fact.

As background for dealing with social problems, the social worker should be familiar with factors that contribute to the overall quality of life on this planet. Some of these are clean air and water, a safe and sufficient supply of food and energy, opportunities for employment, worldwide political and economic conditions that support personal freedom and social justice, the wise use of technology to improve human welfare, success in controlling communicable illnesses and promoting wellness, and a world free of discrimination, racial hatred and war. In short, the thoughtful social worker possesses a world view.

Social work practice and related social services and services are particularly influenced by events and decisions at the national level. When practising in Hong Kong, the social worker must understand the beliefs, values, organization of society and its governmental, political, and economic systems. An in the near future, the social worker must understand the system, beliefs, values, and the like of China.