I don’t have a lot of experience in social work. However, because I am an expert on living with a disability and have done research on social justice, I’m expressing an interest in working with communities in need. One reason I found the right path is because I enjoy using my strengths and intentions to bring about change in the lives of people. Social work is a diverse field. It is an integral profession that helps people cope with various problems in everyday lives. The types of social work vary depending on the form of practice within a specific population. For example, clinical social workers diagnose and treat patients with psychiatric diseases. There are two distinct areas of social work practice: generalist and specialization. As with my understanding of the difference between both, generalist practice means having a broad base of knowledge of problems that can be addressed in all levels (such as family, group, individual, and community) while specialist practice includes a higher degree of intervention including palliative care and psychotherapy.
Below is a summary of the primary areas of social work that explains what skills are required to perform the job effectively based on the level of intervention. I have highlighted a list of jobs available across the United States, along with pictures depicting a social worker talking to clients directly. If you intend to become a social worker, this information will help you figure out which area of practice suits you the most. Think of something you are really good at doing. If you are interested in learning more about the types of work with clients, view www.betterhelp.com for additional details.
1. Healthcare Social Work
Medical social workers work with patients who are seriously ill to address the need for treatment options, scheduling appointments, and helping patient families cope with medical problems. Social work practice in clinical settings involves collaborating with nurses and healthcare professionals to provide information about resources available to care for the sick, making clients eligible for health benefits such as SSI and Medicaid. Some work with a combination of families and pregnant women to discuss possible solutions before a child is born normal and healthy. Others work with elderly residents to explore long-term care options when they are no longer managing independently at home. These jobs are found in hospitals, mental health clinics, and hospice care facilities. A medical social worker in the emergency room may experience frequent deaths of residents as well as traumatic incidents related to their physical and psychological conditions that require intensive care. They provide psychotherapy and substance abuse counseling in a client-centered approach. Depending on the field they are in, some social workers arrange follow-ups with foster care agencies to schedule child visits and report appeals to the court when children are living in a structured environment. Many hospitals have an intensive care unit and a substance abuse unit that they are assigned to take part in.
The days they work with their clients are good and bad. Many professionals think of clinical social work as an exciting career because they enjoy working with people deal with situations that affect human beings. There are positions where employees are intimidated by their relationship with client systems not being helped by them. The lack of autonomy and control over the position is one of the common issues social workers face when seeing patients suffering pain. Because of this, it’s important that clinical social workers keep track on their daily records and make time for a certain number of clients in response to health needs. Understanding the frustrations people have about themselves in hesitation to live in society requires active listening and it gives them a chance to accept the solutions a social worker is offering. The key responsibilities in getting the job done include checking in with clients to see how they feel, outreach with state and local agencies sharing complaints, and going to the office every day to get in touch with people who need immediate support.
Social work practitioners with the sub-specialty in HIV/AIDS must be highly knowledgeable of physiological effects of sexually transmitted diseases to maintain focus on sessions allowing clients to adjust to drug therapy. The number of patients struggling to learn how to survive despite suffering and pain feel the need to benefit from the help of clinical social workers who lead support groups to provide relief from life-threatening conditions. Client deaths happen many times during the position working with them and it makes the clinical situation exhausting and emotionally demanding. The job requires having a sense of creativity and skill to be able to make the best of helping survivors live with as much comfort and happiness as possible. The efforts to addressing pregnancy issues are essentially part of the priority for social workers with a broader understanding of infertility to offer reproductive services before the baby is born.
2. Research Methods
Research capacity helps social workers to document on client assumptions of life. They collect data and write field notes to learn how to help people in need. A direct service worker, for instance, may choose to do an exploratory research study focusing on parental caregiving and children at risk for HIV. The purpose of doing field research in social work is to evaluate the strengths, self-management, and what is most needed to achieve intervention goals. The types of research that is normally done in home visits or in the clinic would depend on the level of capacity. Questionnaires and interviews are administered by coworkers to discuss the ethical requirements of research papers. When participants are active in the studies, a researcher must develop strong interactions with them using analytical and listening skills. It’s not quite easy, but important. This makes the process more valid with the effectiveness of data collection. If you work in the clinic serving as a medical consultant, you would be assigned to join sick patients in the appointment room to do a correlative questionnaire before they are seen by the doctor. In addition to most other professions, psychologists and public health educators have the duty to gather data from observations for estimating the number of individuals who have received therapy.
3. School Social Work
School social workers manage group and classroom activities for students. They are generally employed full-time compared to classroom hours for teachers and school personnel. They work Monday through Friday each week and take weekends off to relax and have fun. Students can often be supervised and taken care of by social workers if they have serious trouble at school. The caseload focuses on helping kids cope with changing situations that impact their social behavior. School social workers communicate with teachers and parents of students with difficulty balancing classroom learning and feelings of distress. Dealing with peer pressure and bullying is always a perfect way to promote a better education for all students. As a school social worker, you may observe young kids getting into a fight in a playground, what would you do? Imagine that you are investigating an incident that happened at recess. You may decide to pull students apart and escort them to the front office to arrange disciplinary referrals and discuss resolutions of conflict. Social workers also provide group counseling to help kids make better choices for learning to meet their goals. It can be referred to students in special education who share the same teachers. Part of the job involves attending IEP meetings with teachers and staff to discuss transition plans and the possibilities for disadvantaged students to take mainstream classes. Many feel isolated when working alone in a designated environment, which is why being able to connect with other social workers within the school district is helpful. Creativity and effective time management skills are necessary characteristics of school social work. There are jobs available in rural areas that social workers must become trusted and confident with respect to the values as a member of the community. Being respectful to the entire population gives you the ability to do the job in an ethically responsible manner so your interventions are appropriate in practice.
With a problem-focused approach in school social work, professionals need to be able to intervene child-family systems who are in conflict with each other, ranging from abuse to disruption in student learning and mental functioning. A teen who is hurt or depressed after being beaten by his or her parents should seek intensive counseling and psychotherapy to reduce these feelings even if the victim chooses to drop out of school. This method of intervention plays a big role in resolving conflict between families and the school community. Social workers receive reports about what happened to kids to try to deal with the incident.
4. Working with Gay and Lesbian Youth
Since social work with homosexuals is a widely growing field, many jobs are available in community-based organizations that provides a supportive network for gay and lesbian couples. An interesting thing about coordinating programs for young people is that a team of social workers and members of an agency are engaged in projects to help gay and lesbian clients who struggle to come out. They provide opportunities to face the challenges in living as a homosexual through outreach and group interaction. They often put together a list of foundations to make clients eligible for support groups. A social worker in this field helps families with a history of sexual complications reduce anxiety towards gay and lesbian relatives. Understanding and analyzing the stereotypes of same-sex couples leads to greater effectiveness of helping them cope with isolation, violence, and rejection from family members. A mother who is disappointed about her daughter’s relationship with a lesbian partner creates stigma as a result of her homophobia (it is an important concept in working with lesbians and gays who are coming out.) A social worker must acknowledge the feelings shared by clients in order to get the help they need and connect them with groups. Community-based projects consisting of state grants and funding for direct services provide transportation and recreational activities to support LGBTQ movement. The social worker’s role in meeting with gay and lesbian youth is to explore possible opportunities to participate in groups that can solve problems for them. A nightclub, for example, is a perfect place to hang out with others who share similar experiences in dating. It is true that growing up as homosexual isn’t a bad thing, but there are some cases where crime rates are reported in certain areas that require enough licensed social workers available to address the issue.
5. Social Work in Child Protective Services
In this field, child protection social workers are responsible for intervening the cases of child abuse and neglect. They often keep children safe in foster care programs once they are removed from their homes. The placement of abused children into institutions with adaptive caregivers is an important task because it provides them with security and comfort on a daily basis. Social workers who serve in child welfare agencies are often employed by state governments. With difficult decisions to be made, you have to go through these allegations to ensure quality protection based on a family systems perspective. Most child protective workers submit reports for the judge to issue a court order to permit children’s withdrawal from unsafe homes. This profession is filled up with different types of services to help families who have the history of abuse, psychiatric problems, violence, and drug/alcohol addiction. If a father is mentally ill and tries to kick his daughter out permanently, you must respond to this situation by testifying the consequences for abuse. Agency vehicles are designed to pick up children at various places and driving them to hospitals or adaptive care facilities for getting the help they need. Other tasks include casework, management, and administrative planning. Some child welfare social workers work in neighborhood centers that supervise youth development while creating day programs for adolescents.
A specific skill set is required in this field. You must be able to empathize for others in order to best protect families and children. It’s important to keep the levels of stress down, maintain a balance of what you do during and outside of work. Recognizing the “good” is vital to enhance preparation for challenging outcomes of working in the field.
6. Employee Assistance
These jobs in the employee assistance programs are available in providing human services to employees and their families in need. Like many other professions, employee support workers help clients remove barriers related to job performance. Since most social workers serve in national networks that contribute resources to employee assistance programs, they are involved in a combination of roles through a specialized process of addressing employee problems including advocates, counselors, mediators, brokers, and organizers. The professionals in this field meet with clients to assess specific reasons why they don’t get along with co-workers. It provides training for employers and supervisors to help them understand how to manage troubling situations experienced by those who fail to perform well on the job. An intervention strategy involves looking at a difficult situation in which group dynamics impact diversity in the workplace. For employees who are referred by the supervisor, social workers must notify the concerns on job performance to a team to seek employee-based services. A chemical dependency assessment is also an important part of the position that enables social workers to acknowledge substance use as a job performance issue. Imagine that you have an appointment with a teenager who is referred by his supervisor for using drugs with a group of friends that he ended up losing his job. What would you do to solve this problem regarding his poor behavior? It is important to understand that workplaces are stressors to employees and that work-related problems cannot be resolved without offering help, as it is for EAP to be used as a resource. You may conduct workshops to inform the strategies of managing stress and handling conflicts off employees and employers. It allows both a social worker and a client to work together on getting help from an agency so they can improve focus on their productivity and do better at work.
7. Social Work with Individuals with Disabilities
An area of work with children and adults with disabilities is a meaningful position. Agencies that direct the services to this population provides support and information on resources that best meet the needs of families and children. Disability social workers assess and review the diagnosis of a client’s specific disability that includes physical and cognitive limitations. The job has a primary focus on adapting resources with accommodations according to disability needs. These professional social workers supervise and coordinate with agencies that provide consultation of staff of special education teachers, physical and occupational therapists, and speech-language pathologists to guide their work with children with special needs. Advocacy is an equally important aspect of the field because many family systems face the challenges for a child’s ability to function in the world. A social worker must acknowledge that all people with disabilities have the right to become a full human, advocate for opportunities to obtain necessary accommodations despite limitations. Everyone can attend school and be part of the community with access to public transportation and personal care. The hours of support are manageable within agencies. Many disability social workers share a depth of knowledge in vocational rehabilitation that enables clients to find good jobs and live independently. The field of Supported Employment is a practical concept as it comes with disabilities. If you are the one working with a client employee who suffers from injury on the job, think about what needs to be done to monitor the changes to the client’s lifestyle. There are challenges that may not always be intervened immediately. The good news is that social workers and employment specialists expand a full range of resources for accommodations to be provided so that disabled individuals of all types can enter the workforce. However, it is important to be cautious about what might work best for them based on their differences. If you have a strong interest in developmental disabilities, you may meet with single parents who are unemployed and require public assistance to reduce risk for poverty while raising children. You would say that mothers who are unable to work are eligible for financial aid regarding her disability like SSI or SSDI, but eligibility is often determined by an agency. Funding is a key issue for the disability population. In most cases, organizations offer programs to help effectively meet basic needs of family and child with special needs. Social workers must gain professional expertise with writing and case management skills. Implementing clear policies about disability rights requires a sufficient amount of knowledge in law and development throughout the life span.
8. Social Work in the Mental Health Field
Mental health is a widely growing field of social work practice that deals with psychiatric conditions affecting the lives of people with intense needs. Psychiatric social workers provide therapy and assessments to patients and their families. These professionals are employed in a wide variety of settings that is typically based on the level of intervention. Some work in clubhouses that support members with their educational and employment goals. If you are the social worker looking to help clients who require long periods of mental health care, earning a master or graduate degree in this field is a useful way to obtain knowledge of treatment options for those in constant need. This type of practice includes clients with drug and alcohol addiction, and those who have suicidal thoughts. Social workers also work with mentally ill patients being hospitalized for days to weeks. Facilitating admissions and discharges is the goal for clinical social workers to make treatment plans for their clients. Some patients may be offered to put in a waiting list for transitioning to a residential care program if they need to. The most important aspect of the position involves leading groups to educate individuals about ways of coping with mental health problems. During therapy sessions theyr perform lectures on specific topics such as communication skills, reducing stress, anxiety and anger management, etc. Additionally, they teach their clients to be honest when describing feelings and thoughts about what they’re experiencing. Most of all, attending community meetings is considered one of the busiest times of the day that they are expected to be there. If you work in a highly clinical setting, you are to see patients throughout the day by doing psychotherapy. You meet with doctors abs other therapists to review diagnostic assessments and schedule appointments for psychotherapy. In other places where you will meet people with severe mental illnesses needing help adjusting to outcomes of life, you must possess a high degree of flexibility towards dealing with various issues. Psychosocial rehabilitation involves helping people who have difficulty overcoming personal and relationship problems on their own. The focus on a client’s diagnosis for psychiatric symptoms enables therapists to assess their treatment needs and exposing them to day programs that can provide mental health services. Having close contact with psychiatric staff is important because it builds on clients’ specific needs to guide intervention in meeting their goals. The job requires patience, flexibility, and advanced social work skills in order to work effectively with people. The reasons why the clients are in the group and what their goals are must be documented before beginning the intervention process. There is a tool called the “partial hospitalization model” designed to support outpatient treatment so that patients don’t have to stay in the hospital with 24 hours of care. It is the program less restrictive than total hospitalizations that these clients attend to successfully achieve psychiatric stability through daily medication. A therapeutic approach to support groups demonstrates problem-solving as a strategy to improve mental functioning. A clinical social worker must be aware that behavioral changes are needed according to the severity of a patient’s condition. Any client should be allowed to return to community life after receiving therapy. The number of patients moving from in-patient care to programs without very strict policies has increased since the 1970’s, meaning more resources are being available to provide effective treatments over shorter periods of time. Day care centers and group homes are also places you can find work in mental health. The key duties a social worker performs on the job include meeting with different kinds of people, managing and organizing activities, completing administrative tasks, and reality checking in with clients to see how they are doing.
9. Social Work in the Criminal Justice System
In general, criminal justice social workers conduct individual, group, and family therapy in dealing with charges of crime. A variety of roles they serve in the field include victim advocacy, promoting alternatives to incarceration, and working with police departments to reduce chances of crime. They work in jails and prisons as the first to serve clients in therapy sessions. A body of knowledge and skills to effectively seek support for victims of crime.. Criminal justice is a practical area of work that consists of providing comfort for those convicted of crimes to cope with the consequences for their actions. The profession brings many challenges and opportunities for social workers to develop solutions of conflict in all levels. Let’s think about it this way...what if you attend the court hearing and the judge tells you there is a case for periodic prison sentences? If you are working with violent men, having empathy and compassion for victims is important in accomplishment of client-based intervention. Most social workers within the criminal justice system engage in contact with probation and parole officers and families about reports of criminal behavior. Part of the field involves a perspective in mitigating death penalty cases. Most importantly, a set of roles in practice with victims include leading a fight against racism, preparing victims to testify in court, and seeking prevention services to those with expressing thoughts of suicide. If you work in a defense team that is committee to support racial justice in local communities, you are probably aware that policy changes are needed to bring together civil rights and equity of all people. A foundation for establishing group therapy techniques will enable you to incorporate positive reactions to the relationship between victims and their offenders. Some people with a social work license are employed in residential treatment centers and programs for juveniles who commit sexual offenses. In response to child abuse and neglect, they become part of an investigation process to protect children and adolescents from being physically or mentally assaulted by family members. The reports of intimate partner violence that they receive from police departments are representative of groups with similar situations. The couples who experience rape or any form of sexual offense require immediate attention and that social workers are needed to deal with these significant social problems. It can be a very stressful position, but if you enjoy clinical work it’s a good idea to consider working in a psychiatric setting that specializes dynamics of group conflict among victims of child and sexual abuse. It’s because you love doing psychotherapy with much of the focus on applying cognitive-behavioral techniques to improve personality and life satisfaction once a client recovers from mental illness. In order to gain experience with victim services, you may decide to volunteer in an emergency room or courthouse to learn about the history of clients’ lives. For example, when you are working with clients who are experiencing serious injuries caused by physical abuse, your job is to review victim records carefully and provide support available to remove harmful aspects of victimization. Social workers who serve in criminal justice must be educated and trained to develop interviewing skills to effectively communicate with different groups of people involved in crimes.
In my opinion, social work can be an excellent opportunity for those who enjoy being part of a helping process to solve problems in all levels. The field of practice I like best is the one that includes people with disabilities. I have learned from my experience with a social worker that if I needed support I was eligible for special education since I was six years old. It means my family and I faced your struggle for reasonable accommodations in place to ensure I had access to education. My social worker recommended to get me into an elementary school with better teachers who recognized my disability status and understand how best to help me become successful. It was more of a honor to have a social worker in the past because she did a good job helping me overcome the barriers and I felt grateful for the support I received in school. I also had the opportunity to participate in mainstream classes with special education services to assist my ability to learn. As a social worker I would do the same thing for the coming generation of children and adults with disabilities. I’m happy about the profession, and I’m hoping to accomplish my career goals when I enter the field.
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