As medical care and the overall life expectancy continues to rise in developed countries, elderly care is an important social welfare topic, because they are a large population requiring significant assistance. Issues in elderly care include the best course of trying to pay for care (several countries, including the United States, have set up schemes for requiring workers to save for their old age), as well as the responsibility of children for caring for elderly parents.
Substance abuse is a pattern behavior that involves continuously taking a drug (including alcohol) to the point where it affects work and relationships. Additionally, there is substance dependence, which is a step above substance abuse and is when an individual can not function on a day to day basis without their drug. Social welfare topics involving substance abuse and dependence focus on the best ways to help treat those who are suffering from these disorders, as well as the best approaches to preventing these problems before they start (such as education about drug use targeted towards children).
Orphaned children are one of the most important topics in social welfare, especially internationally, where AIDS in Africa has left millions of children without parents, according to a 2007 United Nation's Children Fund (UNICEF) report. Topics with regards to orphaned children include trying to determine the best type of foster care to ensure a relatively stable life for the orphan, as well as how to match potential adoptive parents with children.
The mentally ill are also an important topic in social welfare, including determining a definition of mental illness, as well as trying to find the appropriate treatment for those who suffer.