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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
Be an agent of positive change with a rewarding career in social work Social workers are trained to address major social issues and provide therapeutic services for children, youth, and families. Becoming a Social Worker for Dummies will introduce you to this empowering profession and teach you about the fulfilling career paths that focus on improving community and society. Learn what skills you need to be prepared to work in the field, and discover how you can enter a role that allows you to make a positive difference working with individuals, groups, organizations, systems, and even whole countries. * Embark on a career that's satisfying, engaging, and financially sound * Read about the different kinds of social work jobs available and pick the right path for you * Learn how social work differs from other helping professions and bust common myths * Get started on your journey toward working for equity and justice in your community This clear, simple Dummies guide is for anyone who wants to learn more about the social work profession and its many sectors. Discover a career path where you can make a difference almost anywhere.
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Seitenzahl: 667
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
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Becoming a Social Worker For Dummies®
To view this book's Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and search for “Becoming a Social Worker For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the Search box.
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Introduction
About This Book
Foolish Assumptions
Icons Used in This Book
Beyond the Book
Where to Go from Here
Part 1: Getting Started with Social Work
Chapter 1: Seeing What Social Work Is All About
Defining Social Work
Seeing What Makes Social Work a Fulfilling Career
Differentiating Social Work from Other Helping Professions
Dispelling Myths about Social Work
Embracing the Heart of Social Work
Identifying the Stages of the Helping Process
Chapter 2: Studying for a Career in Social Work and Choosing a Specialty
Going to School and Getting Licensed
Considering the Many Professions in Social Work
Chapter 3: Looking at the Helping Side of Social Work
The Art and Science of the Helping Process
Where Social Workers Can Provide Help
Evidence-Based Interventions
Chapter 4: Navigating Race, Class, and Inequality Issues
Privilege, Oppression, and Power
Race and Racism
Class Inequality
Chapter 5: Supporting LGBTQIA+ Individuals
Breaking Down the Term: LGBTQIA+
Understanding the Power of Language
Considering Gender-Diverse Identities and Attraction
Looking at Sexual Orientation and Sexual Development
Chapter 6: Empowering Other Vulnerable Populations
Ability and Disability
Religion
Part 2: Exploring the Various Specialties in Social Work
Chapter 7: Assisting with Mental Health and Wellness
Understanding Mental Health and Well-Being
Acknowledging the Stigma of Mental Illness and Mental Health Treatment
Identifying the Social Worker’s Role in Mental Health
Developing Your Assessment and Diagnostic Skills
Treating and Specializing
Chapter 8: Providing Trauma-Informed Care
Seeing the Impacts of Trauma and Stress
Assessing and Treating Trauma
Taking Care of Yourself When You’re Treating People with Trauma
Chapter 9: Helping People Overcome Substance Use and Addiction
Addiction, Substance Abuse, Substance Use: Why Language Matters
The Brain and Addiction
Alcohol and Major Classes of Drugs
Treatment for Substance Use
Chapter 10: Adding Support in Health-Care Settings
Seeing Where Social Workers Fit into Integrated Health Care
Understanding the Social Determinants of Health and Health Disparities
Providing Patient-Centered Care
Chapter 11: Working with Kids in Schools
Seeing Schools as Places for Social Support and Interventions
Identifying the Educational Policies School-Based Social Workers Need to Know
Helping Students with Bullying and Harassment
Addressing Truancy and Empty Seats
Chapter 12: Community Organizing, Development, and Activism
Social Change: Where Should It Happen?
Community Organizing
Political and Legislative Action and Community Practice
Chapter 13: Enhancing Leadership Roles in Organizations
Understanding What Makes Nonprofits Unique
Seeing How Nonprofits Operate
Looking at What Nonprofit Leaders Do
Chapter 14: Going Broad with Global Social Work
Understanding the World and Your Place in It
Understanding the Role of the United Nations
Digging Deep into Colonization and Global Inequality
Working with Immigrant Populations
Becoming a Global Social Worker in Another Country
Part 3: Life in the Trenches
Chapter 15: Starting Your Life as a Social Worker
Knowing What to Expect on the First Day
Doing Paperwork: It Never Ends
Chapter 16: Facing Tough Situations
Addressing Ethical Dilemmas
Managing Crises with Clients
Chapter 17: Exploring Professional Development
Taking Opportunities to Grow within Your Role
Pursuing Licensure
Growing in Your Interest Area and Enjoying the Process
Part 4: The Part of Tens
Chapter 18: Ten Famous, Fabulous Social Workers
Jane Addams (1860–1935)
Dorothy Irene Height (1912–2010)
Francis Perkins (1889–1965)
Whitney M. Young (1921–1971)
Antonia Pantoja (1922–2202)
Alice Walker (1944– )
Suze Orman (1951– )
Brené Brown (1965– )
Larry Davis (1947–2021)
Abolitionist Social Workers
Chapter 19: Ten Jobs You Didn’t Know Social Workers Could Do
Therapeutic Preschool Interventionist
Intensive Family Preservation Specialist
Geriatric Transitional Care Planner
Animal-Assisted Child and Family Therapist
Sports Social Worker
Commissioned Officer in the Air Force
Health-Care Social Worker, Pregnancy, and Women’s Substance Use Recovery
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Manager/Officer
International Social Worker
Traveling Social Worker
Chapter 20: Ten Ways You Can Take Care of Yourself as a Social Worker
Fuel Up
Get Enough Sleep
Move It
Spend Time in Nature
Focus on Relationships
Feed Your Mind
Get Spiritual
Practice Radical Self-Acceptance and Healing-Centered Practices
Play
Create a Self-Care Plan
Index
About the Author
Connect with Dummies
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 1
TABLE 1-1 The Principles of Social Work
Chapter 5
TABLE 5-1 Understanding the LGBTQIA+ Term
Chapter 7
TABLE 7-1 Domains to Be Screened and Related Screening Tools
List of Illustrations
Chapter 13
FIGURE 13-1: A matrix map.
FIGURE 13-2: A logic model.
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Begin Reading
Index
About the Author
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Becoming a Social Worker For Dummies®
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Introduction
Have you ever considered social work? You may have gotten this question from other social workers or career coaches when you talk to folks about your aspirations. People ask this question because social work is a gem of a profession, and many people don’t know much about it. That’s where this book comes in.
In Becoming a Social Worker For Dummies, I have the immense pleasure of talking to you about a profession that not only offers the deep satisfaction of knowing that you’re doing good in the world but also provides numerous career options and opportunities. I know this because I’ve had an amazing career doing work that matters, work that tries to make the world more equitable, and work that compensates me well. Yes, you read correctly: Social workers can earn a very good living and do it while making a difference!
Becoming a Social Worker For Dummies is unique in that it gives you foundational information about the subject of social work and tips and tools that practicing social workers use to be successful. Social workers, like other helping professions, love acronyms, programs, and jargon. This book cuts through all that mess and gives you the information you need in an organized and accessible way.
About This Book
One of my many roles is serving as a social work college professor and program director. When I meet with prospective students, we talk about why they should choose social work as a profession and why they might choose my program. In this book, I give you the information on why you should consider social work. If you want to come to my program, well, good for you! But there are many wonderful schools of social work and many career options and educational paths.
Becoming a Social Worker For Dummies introduces you to the field of social work practice in three distinct ways:
It gives you an overview of a career path in social work and the daily life of a social worker.
It gives you an introduction to the helping process and foundational knowledge on issues of justice and equity as the building blocks for the profession.
It gives you information on specialization areas of social work practice such as trauma, mental health, addiction, health care, community organizing, leadership, and international social work.
The chapters define terms and definitions, giving you context and some background information on the topic so you have an overall sense of it. Where possible, I use real-life examples to illustrate what this looks like in action. I’ve worn many hats as a social worker, and in my role as an educator I get to have lots of contact with practicing social workers and community organizations. My goal for this book is for you to feel like you have access to the topics in the way that I do and for you to be able to explore more if you want to look deeper into a specific area.
I use a social justice and a strengths-based framework in this book. This is because the field of social work addresses social problems by helping people who are hurting and by addressing the conditions that are causing the hurt. We do both. We ask the fundamental questions, “Why is this problem showing up this way, with this person/community, at this time?” and “What have we done in the past to address it?” These questions show that we’re curious about the person and the condition. We don’t blame or ascribe fault to the person; we want to know what happened. Social work is also a field that looks at capacity — how people and communities have thrived and coped, and what we can do to join this process. You see these themes throughout the book.
Within this book, you may note that some web addresses break across two lines of text. If you’re reading this book in print and you want to visit one of these web pages, simply key in the web address exactly as it’s noted in the text, pretending as though the line break doesn’t exist. If you’re reading this as an e-book, you’ve got it easy — just click the web address to be taken directly to the web page.
One note on the book’s title: Social workers would never use the word “dummy” to describe someone. But the For Dummies series uses the term irreverently — it’s tongue in cheek. Dummies readers are bright and capable — they just need to get up to speed quickly and easily on a subject they’re beginning to explore.
Foolish Assumptions
As I wrote this book, I made some assumptions about you, the reader:
You may be taking an introductory course in social work.
If so, this book can help clarify some topics and areas that may seem intimidating, like areas around social justice or nuanced topics like addiction.
You may know you want to be a social worker, but you’re not sure which career path you want to take.
If so, this book can help you explore the diverse areas of practice in social work and help point you to career tracks you hadn’t considered. Perhaps you only saw yourself working one-on-one with people and you’re discovering that you may like group work or community organizing. Maybe you were curious about international contexts and global social work. Or maybe you’re interested in macro or community practice but you aren’t too clear on what kind of work that involves. This book can help clarify these areas for you.
You may be interested in the helping professions in general and want to understand what social work offers.
If so, this book is for you, too.
Icons Used in This Book
Throughout this book, icons in the margins highlight certain types of valuable information that call out for your attention. Here are the icons you’ll encounter and a brief description of each:
The Tip icon marks tips and shortcuts that can help you do a professional task more easily.
The Remember icon marks information that’s especially important to know. To siphon off the most important information in each chapter, just skim through these icons.
The Technical Stuff icon marks information of a highly technical nature that you can skip over if you’re short on time.
The Warning icon tells you to watch out! It marks important information that may save you headaches.
Beyond the Book
In addition to the abundance of information and guidance related to the social work profession that I provide in this book, you get access to even more help and information online at Dummies.com. Check out this book’s online Cheat Sheet for an overview of the social work profession, the helping process social workers use to make change, and educational paths and jobs you can have as a social worker. Just go to www.dummies.com and type Becoming a Social Worker For Dummies Cheat Sheet in the Search box.
Where to Go from Here
This book is organized so you don’t have to read it from beginning to end — you can skip around to find the information you need, letting the Table of Contents and the Index be your guides. Not sure where to start? If you’re curious about the day-to-day work of a social worker, head to Chapter 15. Looking for foundational knowledge about social work? Turn to Chapter 1. Want to find out more about social work specialties? Part 2 has the answers you need.
I wish I had found the field of social work sooner and that I hadn’t stumbled onto it. My hope is that this book will serve as a clarifying guide for you and that you get a chance to check out the wonderful world of social work. It’s a great area, and it needs good people. Have you ever considered social work?
Part 1
Getting Started with Social Work
IN THIS PART …
Understand the social work profession’s values and principles.
Differentiate social work from other helping professions.
Explore the educational path for social work and the specialty areas in the social work profession.
Learn about the art and science of the helping process social workers use to intervene at the individual, group, community, and system level.
Get fundamental knowledge on areas of social justice dimensions of diversity that the social work profession is committed to addressing.
Chapter 1
Seeing What Social Work Is All About
IN THIS CHAPTER
Understanding what social workers do
Considering a career in social work
Seeing how social work differs from other professions
Setting the record straight about social work
Getting to the heart of social work
Considering the skills you need to be a social worker
Many people are looking for jobs that give them meaning and purpose and that do good in the world. But the path to finding work that meets these criteria isn’t always clear — there are so many ways to help. Social work is unequivocally dedicated to doing good in the world.
Maybe you’ve been looking for a career that matches your interests, and social work has repeatedly come up, but you aren’t sure what social workers do or your impression of social work isn’t super positive. Or maybe someone has told you, “You should look into social work,” and you’re finally getting around to checking it out.
In this chapter, I give you an overview of social work — what it is and what it isn’t. I also give you a sense of what kinds of work social workers do. If you want know more, keep reading this book! Or maybe this chapter will help you determine that social work isn’t for you. Either way, I want this chapter to help you make one of the biggest decisions of your life — which career path to pursue.
Defining Social Work
At social events, I’m often asked, “What do you do?” I beam and say, “I’m a social worker.” I don’t say I’m a professor, a therapist, or a board member — all roles that are presumably higher status. I proudly say I’m a social worker because I love the profession, what it stands for, and what good it does in the world.
Sometimes, I hear my friends or perspective social work students wonder about their purpose in the world or what kind of legacy they want to leave behind. Other times, I hear people feel really discouraged and hopeless about the state of the world.
This is where social work comes in. Every day I know that my work makes a difference and that I’m doing something that is morally and ethically aligned with who I want be and what I want to do, which is leave the world and the people and systems I interact with better than I found them. Social work allows me to pursue my passion for helping others and the world in a real, practical way. It’s not just wishing that things were better — it’s enacting change to make things better.
So, what is social work? Social workers tackle hairy and wicked problems — what social scientists call social problems. These problems are complex, seemingly impossible to address, and entrenched. Think poverty, homelessness, violence, trauma, addiction, and more — problems that seem to have a slippery definition, are hard to measure, seem to exist in society no matter how many ways we try to improve them, and are generally hard to solve. Social work is a profession dedicated to solving these issues because there is a moral imperative to do so and a deep and relentless hope in the fact that humans and structures can change and be better.
According to the National Association of Social Workers (NASW; www.socialworkers.org), the largest organization of professional members of social workers in the world, the mission of the social work profession is to “enhance human well-being and help meet the basic human needs of all people, with particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty.” We often say social work is a calling — it isn’t a job that you clock in and out of. It’s often an extension of your desire to do good in the world and, more important, to do better on behalf of and with folks who society has deemed invisible, unworthy, or, in many cases, intentionally harmed.
Social workers are trained to be interventionists (people who have the skill sets to break down complex problems into parts and enact change through a thoughtful, scholarly, and scientific process). Yes, social work involves training. You wouldn’t imagine a surgeon walking into an operating room without any medical training and saying, “Hey, hand me that scalpel. I have good intentions and really want this clogged artery to be clear.” That would be unthinkable! It’s the same for social work.
Social workers are trained to understand the potential root cause of the issue, devise a plan of treatment or action, execute the plan, and then evaluate the plan to see if it made a difference. What makes social work special is that it’s using this process — what social workers call the change process — to help make someone’s life better or society better.
Seeing What Makes Social Work a Fulfilling Career
Social work is a very fulfilling career. In my role as a social worker, I meet people at the hardest juncture of their lives and offer not just hope, but real solutions. What could be more important than that? But this work doesn’t just happen in a vacuum — social work as a profession comes from a strengths-based perspective and is focused on social justice, and those key principles form the foundation for the work itself.
Seeing people’s strengths
The strengths-based perspective of social work looks at each person as unique and imbued with talent and resources that give them the capacity to author their own solutions. This perspective contrasts with medical training, which sees people or society as sick and in need of a diagnosis and fashions treatment without input from the client. Social workers are trained to see the best in people and to help them develop to meet their potential.
The strengths-based perspective informs how social workers engage with people and communities. It makes the work they do inherently hopeful and fulfilling. It allows social workers to see the potential in people, to understand how they’ve coped and adapted, and it gives people the tools to empower them and their community. This energy and stance make the daily operations of the job joyful and fulfilling.
The strengths-based perspective is also respectful and takes the time to hear from the individual, family, and community before devising a plan for change. Social workers listen deeply and learn how people have overcome adversity in the past and what resources they have available. They take the time to learn about a person’s culture and their experiences with oppression. They listen for times when the person and their community weren’t heard, listened to, or given support to help address the problem. Social work doesn’t assume that the person is automatically at fault or is so deficient that things are beyond repair. Social workers devise help collaboratively, with the goal of giving the person and community agency and control to make decisions for themselves.
As a social worker, I’m in business of hope. Early in my career, I worked as a school-based social worker at a school that was under-resourced and fairly chaotic. I was told by one of the coaches in the school to only focus on the “good” children and to devise a plan for getting the “bad” ones out the school so they stop disrupting everyone. I was shocked by this advice. Our job was to help all kids — especially the “bad” ones. After all, they’re the ones who need the biggest champions! So, I made it my mission to make sure each child knew they were valued and that their families and circumstances mattered. I also decided to hang out with other folks who shared my values (because my supervisor and training told me that I couldn’t do this work on my own) and joined a community that’s committed to serving all kids. I loved getting up every day and working with children, the school staff, and the kids’ families. Even when it was hard, it was good work.
Focusing on social justice
Another central reason that social work is a fulfilling profession is that it’s concerned with making the world more equal and just. One of my social work friends often says, “I got into social work because I kept seeing people hurting and not getting what they need. I thought, ‘Wait, that’s not fair. That’s not fair.’” In essence, social work is committed to making the world fair for everyone. That may sound naive and idealistic, but it’s the truth. Social workers think about basic human rights, who has the opportunity and access to live out the rights afforded to them, and what we need to do to improve their chances.
The work of manifesting social justice is a rigorous but deeply fulfilling process. It requires curiosity, self-reflection, applied learning (where you apply in the real world what you’ve learned in the classroom), and thoughtful action. Just as people and community problems are unique, so are solutions.
BRINGING YOUR TALENTS INTO YOUR WORK
Social work allows you to use your talents and gifts to come up with interventions, policies, and resources. For instance, if you’re a creative person who loves the arts or music, you can devise your work so it includes those elements. You can specialize and get training that incorporates what you love and apply it to the population you want to work with.
For example, the director of a shelter for families who have experienced violence wanted to make sure that the families had access to a garden and creative space; they wrote a grant asking for support to fund this initiative and got it! Another social worker wanted to make sure dance and creative movement were accessible to families with low funds. She partnered with a local organizations and secured a site, hired dance instructors, and created sustainable programming so kids could grow in their dance skills until they graduated from high school.
If you’re like me and you aren’t really the creative type, but you are relational and a bit of a nerd, you can do the work that fits you! I use my skills to provide therapy, build community engagement and partnerships, and educate the next generation of social work students.
Differentiating Social Work from Other Helping Professions
Many helping professions are dedicated to helping people, specifically within human services. If you want to be of service or do good as part of your vocation, you may be weighing which path you should take. Maybe you aren’t clear what differentiates the various academic majors and their associated professions. For example, what’s the difference between psychology, sociology, human development, and community organizing majors? What makes a social work degree and career path different from these tracks? Can anyone who wants to do social good call themselves a “social worker”? (The answer to that last one is no.)
In the following sections, I introduce you to a variety of helping professions so you can see the difference between those jobs and social work.
The bottom line of all the following information is this: If you’re interested in therapy, you can do social work. If you’re interested in social problems and the conditions that create problems for people, you can do social work. If you want to be an activist who organizes and actively disrupts harmful systems, you can do social work. A social work degree enables you to quickly find a job doing exactly what you want and gives you greater flexibility in the workforce.
Social workers
Social workers usually have a bachelor of social work (BSW) and/or master of social work (MSW) degree. They must attend a school that is accredited by the Board of Accreditation of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE; www.cswe.org). The education usually involves coursework on human development, understanding and working with diverse populations, as well as skills classes that focus on teaching specific intervention skills like group work or grant writing.
In addition to the coursework, you do extensive internships that are 500 to 1,000 hours long. The internships are considered classroom in the community, where you get to apply your coursework to the population or community you’re interested in serving. You can choose from a variety of sites for your internship, like mental health clinics, schools, shelters, hospitals, government, and community centers. Because social work focuses on the person in the environment there are many career opportunities (turn to Chapter 19 for some examples).
Similar to psychologists, social workers can do clinical work (work that involves assessing and addressing individuals’ or groups’ psychosocial challenges, often within a broader social and environmental context) or therapeutic work (work that is directly tied to addressing mental health conditions). A person who wants to pursue therapeutic work as a social worker needs to earn an MSW. After completing the MSW, you must do 2,000 to 3,000 hours of supervised clinical work (the amount varies from state to state). The supervised clinical work usually takes about two years. After completing those supervised hours, you have to pass the licensure exam.
Some social work positions are filled by people without social work degrees because the organization hiring needs workers. In other instances (for example, child protective services), social workers should exclusively be the people hired for the work. Due to staffing storages, many counties hire folks who have a background in humanities or social sciences and do extensive training to try replicate social work training. They even offer full scholarships for their employees to get educated in schools of social work.
Psychologists
The career path that is most often confused for social work is psychology. Psychology is the study of the mind and how people behave. Psychologists are interested in understanding the mental process, brain function, and the behavior of individuals. When people think of psychologists, they’re usually thinking of clinical psychologists (people who treat mental health conditions and what they call abnormal psychology).
The American Psychological Association (APA; www.apa.org) requires a doctoral degree as the educational requirement for a psychologist. Training usually involves four to six years of graduate school training.
There are subbranches of psychology that focus on areas like the function of the brain and how a person understands and processes information, the development of a person across the life span, and how people are influenced by group dynamics or their workplace.
What’s important to note about psychologists is their focus on the individual person — how the individual person thinks, behaves, and interacts with their environment. This is different from social work because social workers always think of the person in the context of their environment. The environment influences the person and the person influences the environment, even when considering their mental health and behavior.
A psychology background and degree aren’t as flexible as a social work degree. If you choose to major in psychology, you should be prepared to earn a doctorate if you want to do counseling.
As a young person, I found the idea of doing four to six years of doctoral studies in psychology daunting, so I pursued the MSW degree, thinking of it as a shortened path to becoming a therapist. What I discovered along the way was that the social work degree allowed me to do the clinical work but with a strong emphasis on understanding a person in the context of their environment. It taught me that I have to address issues of justice and equity even in therapeutic work. Plus, the MSW degree allowed me to have other roles, like doing advocacy work or school-based work, which a doctorate in psychology wouldn’t have enabled me to do.
Sociologists
A sociologist studies social behaviors and interactions among groups and society. They look at things like education, race, and gender, and study and understand how policies and programs address inequities within these issues. Unlike social work, there is no internship or applied part of a sociologist’s educational path.
The internship experience is key to the social work profession, and robust accreditation requirements must be met. Higher education is a costly investment, and the internship is an essential part of the apprenticeship process.
Sociology is primarily a study of social problems. Social workers also look at social issues and then take the next step if they’re devising an intervention to address the inequity.
Sociology is another field that gets conflated with social work. One of my sociology professor friends likes to tell people that he worked as a social worker as part of his background because he did some community-based work and wants to have street cred. I always correct him and say, “No, you weren’t a social worker. You were a sociologist who was hired to be a case worker.” It may seem like I’m being persnickety, but I’m protective of the social work profession because people who aren’t trained in our methods think it’s a matter of semantics or words — and it isn’t.
Community organizers or activists
Community organizers or activists may identify with the mission and vision of social work but may not be formally trained as social workers. These folks may be deeply committed to communities but not too caught up on labels or what they’re called.
Some social workers do community-based or macro-level work and have a specialization where they’re taught how to do effective organizing, brokering, and targeted activism. They’ve also trained in collecting data and conducting analysis that they can use to make or influence policy changes. Social workers are taught tangible skills for organizing — they don’t just fall into it or do it as they go along.
Dispelling Myths about Social Work
When I announced to my family that I wanted to pursue a degree and career in social work, they were apprehensive about my future because they had misconceptions about the profession. They thought I was nice person but worried that I was choosing a career where I would be poor and take children away from their families. I’m guessing that when you tell people that you’re interested in social work, you might get a similar type of reluctant support. If so, this section is for you! Here, I outline the top three myths about social work and bust the misconceptions about the profession.
Myth #1: You’re taking a vow of poverty
Choosing social work as a career is not synonymous with living a life of poverty. On the contrary, a social work degree is one of the most flexible when it comes to career opportunities. Plus, it gives you the chance to earn a good living in a job that is personally fulfilling.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS; www.bls.gov), the median income for a social worker is $50,390 with the highest 10 percent of social workers earning more than $82,840 per year. Certain positions (such as hospital or government-based positions) have higher starting salaries than other positions (such as crisis workers). The BLS is also projecting that there will be around 78,000 job openings every year in the field of social work. That’s more than you’ll find in many other professions, and it’s growing faster than the average job market. Thanks to the recent introduction of the licensed baccalaureate social worker (LBSW), the demand for social work students is set to skyrocket.
And if you’re wondering where you can make a big impact, think rural areas and underserved communities. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 37 percent of the population lives in places where there’s a shortage of psychologists, counselors, and social workers, and most of that gap is in rural areas.
Plus, there’s good news for job security: The Health Resource and Service Administration predicts that the number of social workers will go up by a whopping 114 percent by 2030. So, if you’re on the lookout for a career that’s not only in demand but also lets you make a real difference, social work should be on your radar!
Some employers are even offering signing bonuses for new hires! You read that correctly — signing bonuses aren’t just for people in the tech industry.
As you grow your role and specialization, your pay will also incrementally increase. For example, maybe you land a paid internship at a social service agency. In a win-win situation, you get hired by the agency for an entry-level position after graduation. You get good benefits and support for clinical supervision (either support to pay an outside consultant to provide clinical supervision for your licensure or support internally in the form of access to an in-house clinical supervisor who is credentialed to supervise for licensure). After two years, you’ve gotten specialized training in the area of addiction and passed the licensure exam. This automatically bumps up your pay and makes you eligible for roles in midlevel management. It also allows you to start a private practice as an additional stream of income. As you grow in your roles, you’re promoted to director and eventually leave the job to be an executive director for a local agency that serves families struggling with substance use. Executive directors have incomes that exceed the $83,840 salary and are often $100,000 or more.
This career path is not unusual. Most social workers have happy and stable lives and can claim that they do the job because they love it and for the money.
Myth #2: You’ll only be removing children from their homes
One of the enduring stereotypes about social workers is that they unduly take children away from families. In movies or TV shows, this situation is often depicted as a crying child having their small hands pried from their equally distraught mother. This is followed by the lack of understanding in the depth and breadth of the social work profession. Not only do we not unduly remove children from their homes, but we do so much more.
The truth is, social workers cherish the family bond and do our best to support and restore families who are in crisis. Child welfare is an incredibly important part of social work dedicated to identifying and protecting vulnerable children from abuse. This is a critical social function, necessary to prevent child fatality.
That’s not to say that children aren’t removed from their homes in situations where there is imminent danger. But child removal is the very last option and resort.
Social workers are trained in the strengths-based perspective (see “Seeing people’s strengths,” earlier in this chapter) and have two important charges: Keep kids safe, and try to preserve and strengthen the family. In the sad event that there is confirmed abuse, a child is removed from the home, but there is a great effort to connect the family to supportive resources. The ideal outcome is family reunification and the safest environment for the child. Federal policies mandate that diligent searches must be done to place children with kin or biological family members when possible. The idea is to place the child in the safer part of the family system while the social worker provides support to the immediate family so the child can return to a safe space.
Social workers work with folks across the entire spectrum of life. We work with infants, toddlers, preschoolers, school-age children, teenagers, young adults, middle-aged adults, older adults, and the very oldest adults. We do the work in many contexts — in health-care settings taking care of pregnant women, in school settings taking care of kids and youth, in community spaces where families and groups can meet, and in government offices where we make policies and enact change. There is an incredible array of work available, and working in public child welfare is one of the many jobs you can hold.
Myth #3: You don’t need specialized training
Social work is not charity or volunteer work. It’s a discipline of study with specific education and training and with a code of ethics that governs the activities of the profession.
In its early history, social work was charity work where wealthy white women wanted to do some good and address issues of poverty and industrialization. They considered themselves to be “friendly visitors.” Over time, this practice evolved, and the volunteers began to study the social conditions that created child labor and poverty and became interested in reforming society and how help is given. They conducted research, helped establish court systems to take care of abandoned children, created pension programs for widows, and promoted laws that prohibited child labor and introduced social insurance. Formal methods of training for this type of work started and schools of social work were established.
The first schools of social work were at Columbia University and the University of Chicago. As society evolved and major social issues (such as wars and economic crises) arose, social welfare policies and programs, like Social Security, became incredibly important. These policy developments impacted the social work profession because they made the field very necessary and visible. As pubic aid grew, the need for social workers also grew. Additionally, as the profession grew, specialization in the field grew. Today, social workers make up the largest sector of professionals working in mental health services, in child and family services, and in health care.
Social workers are people who care. But caring is the start of the helping journey, not the end or the only motivator. Clients and systems don’t need just hugs — they need policies and people who understand those policies and can create strategies and interventions to make their lives better.
Embracing the Heart of Social Work
The part of social work that is universally respected and appealing to those who care about others and want justice in the world are the core values, principles, and code of ethics. These standards act as guideposts for the profession and the individual social worker. They’re particularly useful when you must make difficult decisions that aren’t always black and white.
In other instances, they make the decision process very easy. For example, one of the core values of social work is the dignity and worth of every person. Every person is treated with care and respect, even when they do deplorable things. When I worked in a jail setting, I sometimes came into conflict with correctional officers because we had competing values — they often felt like I was too permissive or too soft and being taken advantage of by these terrible criminals. I never saw the people who are incarcerated as throwaways. I saw them as people worthy of dignity, even in this setting, because my training and professional values informed my perspective.
In the following sections, I unpack the values, principles, and ethics that guide the profession.
Recognizing the core values of social work
Values are strong beliefs about how the world should be, how people should conduct themselves, and what kind of conditions the world should be in.
One document that states the values of the American people is the Declaration of Independence. It outlines what human rights look like and the kind state that the United States should be. It states that all people are created equal, that they have the right to pursue a life of happiness, and that they have the right to a representational government. These are big ideals and ones that people hold dearly.
Similarly, professions and professional programs also have values, principles, and a code of ethics that guide their thinking and practice. Social workers have one that they’re deeply proud of and would be happy to quote to you at dinner parties. I was delighted to discover them in my studies and found them to be consistent with my moral code and aspirational in how I wanted to practice.
There are six core values of social work. These core values are articulated in the Social Work Code of Ethics published by the NASW. These values are deeply rooted in the history and philosophy of social work, which places a strong emphasis on human rights, social justice, and improving the well-being of individuals and society as a whole. They provide a moral compass for social workers as they navigate the complex and challenging issues they encounter in their practice.
The six core values are as follows:
Service
Social justice
Dignity and worth of the person
Importance of human relationships
Integrity
Competence
In the next section, I cover the principles that arise out of these values — they shed more light on what the values mean.
Looking at the principles social work is built on
The principles of social work (see Table 1-1) arise out of the six core values (see the preceding section). The principles flesh out the core values.
TABLE 1-1 The Principles of Social Work
Value
Principles
Service
Social workers help people and address social problems.
Social justice
Social workers challenge social injustice.
Dignity and worth of the person
Social workers respect the inherent dignity and worth of each person.
Importance of human relationships
Social workers recognize the centrality of human relationships.
Integrity
Social workers behave in a trustworthy manner.
Competence
Social workers practice in areas of competence and develop in their area of expertise.
These values and principles create a road map for how to be our best and ideal selves as social workers. Social workers are dedicated to a life of service — some would say public service — with the goal of addressing social problems. This is done by acting with integrity, in a trustworthy manner and with competence. Your clients should be able to trust you to keep your word, do right by them, and connect them with others when you aren’t the right person for the job.
Social justice is nonnegotiable in social work. If you only want to help people or modify their behavior, and you don’t want to take their conditions into consideration, social work isn’t the field for you. Instead, try another discipline where the person is central and is the only point of concern (see “Psychologists,” earlier in this chapter).
Social workers must approach people and systems with humility and respect and believe that relationships are critical for change. Building bridges through intentional relationships is core to what we do. A simple example of this is in the health-care setting. Health-care providers focus on treating the body. When patients are ill, doctors and nurses do their best to stabilize the body and provide a path for recovery. During the COVID-19 pandemic, health-care folks did their best to treat the virus, and isolation or quarantine was mandated. Social workers recognized the need for humans to be connected to one another and devised creative ways for families to see their sick relatives. They advocated for telehealth visits or allowing people to be seen through windows. These practices helped patients recover better.
Accepting social work’s code of ethics
The code of ethics outlines how social workers should behave and what the public can expect from them. It’s also critical to addressing unethical or egregious behavior that causes harm to clients or the profession. It’s used as the standard for enforcing discipline or adjudicating ethics complaints.
The code of ethics is a guide for ethical conduct and the decision-making process. Sometimes there are competing values, and you must suss out the best things to do given all the information, the limits of the law, agency policy, and social work research and theory.
Good supervision comes into play in this situation to help you with these dilemmas. When I was a school-based social worker, one of my middle-schoolers came to see me because she needed help getting access to pregnancy tests. She didn’t want her mother to know she might be pregnant, and she knew the school nurse didn’t give out pregnancy tests. I had to make an ethical decision about what I should do. Complex situations like this were something I had to work through routinely in my work.
In the United States, the NASW developed and set the ethical principles of the profession. The principles align closely with the core values of social work. The Social Work Code of Ethics outlines six ethical responsibilities:
Responsibilities to clients:
A social worker is responsible for promoting the well-being of their clients and using strengths-based language they referring to their clients. They should allow their clients to have as much say as possible in their treatment (even if the social worker disagrees with their clients’ priorities), to consent to treatment, to have the right to privacy and confidentiality, and to have reasonable access to their own records. Social workers should avoid conflicts of interest and have strong boundaries so their clients are protected. Basically, don’t be an unethical jerk who takes advantage of someone in a vulnerable state.
Responsibilities to colleagues:
A social worker is responsible for treating their colleagues with respect, fairness, and courtesy. They should promote cooperative and collaborative relationships among colleagues to enhance the effectiveness of service delivery. This principle encourages social workers to address conflicts or ethical issues with colleagues through appropriate channels, maintaining confidentiality when necessary, and upholding professional standards within the workplace.
Responsibilities to practice settings:
A social worker should ensure that the practice settings in which they work are conducive to providing ethical and effective services. This includes advocating for policies and practices that uphold the welfare and rights of clients and ensuring that the setting provides adequate resources, supervision, and support for ethical practice. Social workers should address any barriers or challenges in the practice setting that may hinder the delivery of high-quality services.
Responsibilities as a professional:
A social worker should uphold the values, ethics, and standards of the social work profession. They’re responsible for continually enhancing their professional knowledge and competence and for promoting the profession’s mission and goals. This principle encourages social workers to advocate for social justice and engage in activities that strengthen the profession’s influence and relevance in society.
Responsibilities to the social work profession:
Social workers have a responsibility to contribute to the growth and development of the social work profession. This includes participating in activities that advance the profession’s knowledge, research, and ethical standards. Social workers should also mentor and support emerging professionals, contribute to professional organizations, and engage in advocacy to address issues that affect the profession’s integrity and effectiveness. A lot of reciprocity and mentorship happens in the profession.
Responsibilities to the broader society:
Social workers have a profound responsibility to the broader society, requiring them to uphold the highest standards of integrity and professionalism. This entails consistently acting with honesty, competence, and transparency in their practice, while respecting colleagues and diverse perspectives in interdisciplinary settings. However, when confronted with policies or practices that harm clients or contradict ethical principles, social workers must prioritize doing what is right and just, even if it means advocating or protesting to uphold the profession’s commitment to social justice and the welfare of vulnerable populations.
Identifying the Stages of the Helping Process
The helping process includes key steps: engaging, assessing, goal setting, intervening, and ending the process.
Engagement
The engagement phase is the first step of coming into contact with a person or situation that needs help. This is the part where you establish rapport and build trusting relationships with your clients. During this phase, you actively listen, empathize, and seek to understand your clients’ needs, values, and strengths. People have to trust you or believe that you can help them. Engagement works on that.
Assessment
After you engage the person or situation, you need to gather the relevant information to have a full understanding of where things are now. Whether you’re assessing an individual, a family, a group, or a community, there are methods and tools to help you gather the kind of information you need.
This is also where you’ll use scientifically or research validated screening or assessment tools or processes to aid you. Social workers deal with complex problems, so you usually need to spend time getting to know the person and system in order to formulate or devise a plan of action to remediate the issue. This, too, takes skills — you’ll get better the more you do it and the more support and coaching you have.
In school, as part of their coursework, students practice doing assessments in class and then are supervised when they do it out in their internships.
Goal setting
The next step is to set mutual goals with your clients. I said mutual goals, not goals you want for your client, but goals they want for themselves and that you support.
When I was working with people who were victims of intimate partner violence, I thought the goal was always to sever ties with the abuser and get a new, better life. But what I learned was that most people are in relationship with the person who is hurting them — they want the harm to stop, but they don’t always want the relationship to end. I had to respect that and help them devise the best way to be safe and get what they need. Specific treatment modalities teach social workers how to best do this.
Intervention
After the goals are set, you get to the action part. Intervention is what the social worker does to move the client from the problem-identifying part of the helping process to the coming-up-with-the-solution part of the process.
In the example of working with survivors, one common goal people have is to be safer in their homes and have more financial stability. In this case, social workers devise what’s called a safety plan and talk through the steps the client needs to be more financially stable. I may connect a client to social services, educational programs, and other survivors who are on the other side. I also work one-on-one with them to help them process their feelings about themselves, their partners, and other people in their lives.
If you’re interested in macro social work (addressing social issues and systems at a large scale), you may do an assessment of the organization. You’ll also use a model to identify the needs of the organization and devise a strategic plan to address the gaps and needs of the organization. This process is similar to working with individuals, but your audience is bigger, so the level of impact you have will be larger. That’s often the reason people like doing macro or group-level work.
Ending the process
Believe or not, it also takes skills to end the helping process. You need to effectively conclude the professional relationship with a client, which includes discussing their progress, addressing any unresolved issues, and facilitating a smooth transition to ensure they’re prepared to continue their journey independently or with appropriate ongoing support. These skills help create closure while emphasizing the client’s growth, self-sufficiency, and readiness for change. The end of the process has to be planned, and it’s something you’ll keep your eye on when you start the helping journey. The goal is for folks to be well resourced and have access to material, emotional, and social supports, ensuring a comprehensive foundation for their ongoing journey. The goal is for them not to need you anymore. Social workers often joke that their goal is to go out of business and for social problems to end. People should be developing strengths, skills, and the capacity to not need a social worker, or at least not need them as much.
Endings take on many forms. Sometimes it’s ending the relationship all together — maybe you’ve connected a family with a resource or another service, and you’re no longer needed. Usually, it’s an ending for now, and you’ll tell your client to contact your later if they need you.
