(Newswire.net — October 9, 2020) — Being a social worker is an extremely challenging and difficult profession, but it’s also incredibly rewarding. No one knows this better than Marioli Sterling, a social worker that works with families in New York City. Sterling has spent most of her career as a social worker and knows the ins and outs of the profession. She provides her insight into the job, including a few key things you should know if you wish to become a social worker.
What is Social Work?
First, it’s important to consider what social work really is. According to Marioli Sterling, social work is a multifaceted profession. Broadly speaking, it is aimed at helping individuals or families meet their personal or social needs. In order to do this, they may be required to change their behaviors, attitudes, emotions, or relationships, and that’s what social workers help with. Social workers all over the world are trained to deliver a variety of care, ranging from psychotherapy to health and welfare. They know how to deal with both short and long-term conditions, including mental illness, marital problems, alcohol and substance abuse, learning and behavioral disorders among children and adolescents, and wider community problems and social issues. Overall, social workers serve an integral role in society, working to help those in need improve their lives.
Educational Requirements
Like with many professions, specific education is required. At the bare minimum, a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work must be obtained from a university. However, certain jobs may even require a Master’s degree in Social Work, such as clinical positions. Although the most common educational path is to earn your degree(s) in Social Work, degrees in Sociology, Psychology, or another related field may also be accepted in your state. If you choose to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work, you can expect courses on social policy, welfare, diversity, and human behavior. In addition, Marioli Sterling shares that most degrees include some amount of fieldwork, which was the part of her education that Sterling enjoyed the most. During this practical fieldwork, students may work with immigrants, elderly people, foster children, or homeless people. This work is typically done through another school, government agency, or healthcare facility. It is during the practicum that students tend to get a feel for the job and start to develop a passion for this line of work.
Duties and Responsibilities
After completing your education, it’s time to enter the workforce. Marioli Sterling is a prime example of how wide-ranging social work jobs are. There is not one clear path for social workers. Rather, a variety of institutions are in need of social workers. Thus, you could end up working for schools, hospitals, government institutions, or even private practices. Sterling recommends being exposed to as many of these institutions as possible during your college fieldwork, in order to give you an idea of which you prefer. No matter which setting you end up working in, the duties and responsibilities of social workers often overlap. For example, Sterling says that typical daily tasks for social workers include communicating with a client’s care team, ensuring all records comply with state policies and procedures, developing and coordinating treatment plans for clients, providing mental health counseling to individuals or groups, and conducting assessments of clients to determine their specific needs. In order to successfully do the job of a social worker, there are a certain set of skills required that you should be aware of. Knowing how to listen well and communicate clearly are two of the most important skills a social worker can possess. Critical thinking, time management, organization, and the ability to connect with people will also be vital.
Obstacles
Although being a social worker is an extremely rewarding career, it comes with its own unique set of challenges. Marioli Sterling asserts that there is no place for naivete in social work. The realities of the job can be harsh. You will be working with people who may have suffered from domestic violence, inequality, substance abuse, sexual abuse, isolation, and more. But with the right training and experience, you will learn how to best handle, address, and ultimately help people in need. There are a few major obstacles that Sterling says the profession as a whole faces, and so each individual social worker should be prepared to deal with.
First, you will likely begin to learn that many families have very limited access to health care due to factors like discrimination and poverty. You should see it as your personal mission to bridge this gap and help families find effective solutions. Second, family violence is a rising problem in the United States with 10 million abuse victims each year. Social workers have the power to intervene, helping identify abuse early on and providing mechanisms to prevent it from happening in the future. Third, homelessness is an issue that has been plaguing society for generations. As of 2016, there were nearly 550,000 people living on the streets on any given night in America. Social work can help reduce the rate of homelessness by developing new service technologies and drafting new policies that guarantee affordable housing to society’s most vulnerable population. Finally, mass incarceration is a serious issue in the United States, especially among people of color. In recent years, many social workers have begun a campaign of smart decarceration, centered on removing individuals from prisons and finding better, evidence-based ways of treating them, says Marioli Sterling.