**1.4 Social work profession in Oman<sup>2</sup>**

The start of social work profession practice in Oman was in the educational field, the first group of social workers was employed at the beginning of the 1970s of the last century, specifically in 1973/1974. The total number of this group reached 22 social workers (15 males and 7 females), including 11 who were employed in the Governorate of Muscat (The capital), while the remaining number was distributed among some Governorates of the Sultanate [16]. These social workers mainly were Omani scholarship students who had studied social work in Egypt or Egyptian social workers who were employed in some schools in Oman. After that, The Omani government recognized the urgent need for more social workers to employ in many professional practice fields. The government employed non-qualification persons to play the social worker's role in the schools, which was unsuccessful and led to a wrong impression of the profession among the residents of the community; this led to the profession's ineffectiveness and reduced its status in the society. The Omani government took two steps to solve this problem (the lack of Social workers), the first step was to send a huge number of students abroad to study sociology or social work, and the second step was to launch the sociology department in Arts and Social Sciences College, at Sultan Qaboos University in 1987. The department has introduced the Bachelor's program in sociology as a major discipline and social work as a minor discipline. In 2001, the department established a separate Bachelor's degree in social work. Then the department's name was changed to become the department of Sociology and Social Work. Thus, the process of providing community organizations with qualified social workers began. The Master's program in sociology started in 1992/1993 for a few years and paused in 1997. The Master's program resumed in both sociology and social work again in one program in 2004/2005. Since then, the development process has continued to develop the Master's programs into two separate programs, one for sociology and another for social work 2011. In addition, Dhofar University introduced multiple programs in social work (diploma- bachelor- master) in 2004 [17]. Thus, Omani social workers were employed in most organizations and ministries, where they were employed in schools, the various departments of the Ministry of Social Development, higher education institutions, the Ministry of Health, and in other fields, etc.

In conclusion, regarding the fields of practice, the school social work is considered the most widespread field placement in Oman; it is also the most acknowledged and accepted area of social work. In this field, the school social workers cooperate with other professionals from different disciplines, such as physicians, nurses, teachers, physical therapists, vocational rehabilitation specialists, and others; to help pupils satisfy their needs, solve their problems, and provide welfare programs, such as health, educational, social, and psychological welfare assistance. This cooperation takes the form of teamwork, which is based on coordination and integration to achieve the desired goals [18]. However, most of these social workers have achieved little progress in most cases. Accordingly, they have begun to look for other governmental or private practice institutions to get direct help to achieve the successful treatment

<sup>2</sup> The Sultanate of Oman is an Arab country in West Asia ruled by a monarchy. It is the Arabian Peninsula's third-largest country in terms of land area. The Sultanate of Oman occupies 309,500 km in the southeastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. The Gulf of Oman borders it to the north and the United Arab Emirates to the northwest. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is to the west, Yemen is to the south, and the Arabian Sea is to the southeast.

of complicated cases. It is noteworthy that the primary focus of private practice is the direct delivery of clinical social work services [19].
