A broad definition may well include all organized societal responses that
promote the social well-being of a population. This would include education, health, rehabilitation, protective services for adults and children, public assistance, social insurance, services for those with physical and mental disabilities, job-training programs, marriage counseling, psy-
chotherapy, pregnancy counseling, adoption, and numerous other related activities designed to promote social well-being.
In the Encyclopedia of Social Work, P. Nelson Reid (1995) defines social welfare in this way:
Social welfare . . . is perhaps best understood as an idea, that idea being one of a decent society that provides opportunities for work and human mean-
ing, provides reasonable security from want and assault, promotes fairness and evaluation based on individual merit, and is economically productive and stable. The idea of social welfare is based on the
assumption that human society can be organized and governed to produce and provide these things, and because it is feasible to do so, the society has a moral obligation to bring it to fruition.