Exploring social work in Italy: the case of university training of ‘Social health educators’

This paper introduces the Italian ‘social health educator’, exploring aspects that could be particularly interesting for an international audience, while placing such aspects within the ‘international definition of social work’. In fact, the field of social work in Italy has been divided, since the 1980s, into two main helping professions following two university courses: ‘assistente sociale’ (or a social worker in public social services, such as local administrations) and ‘educatore professionale’ (or a social health educator in non-profit or public organizations in the health and social sector). The article describes the Italian situation of university training for social health educators, with a focus on the Universities of Trento and Ferrara, their degree course characteristics and the major reasons that may explain this specific didactic structure. Finally, the paper talks about the risk of the legal acknowledgment of the degree in Italy, which although necessary, may undermine the quality of education in the helping relationships for future social health workers and, consequently, also the well-being of the weak.