How Social Workers Can Assist You and Your Family

There are few other professionals other than social workers, who provide very valuable services to individuals and families in different and diverse ways. Social workers help us function in our daily lives in the best way possible. They deal with difficulties in our relationships, help us solve family and personal problems, such as, unemployment, inadequate housing accommodation, disability assistance, serious illness treatment/recovery, educational opportunities and substance abuse, among many others. Generally, they are college educated and specialize in a specific area of the profession. But whatever back-ground they come from and the level of professional training they have, we are undoubtedly grateful for the service they are providing for our benefit. It is very important that we know and remember what they do and for what reasons.

The Professional Experts in the Social Work Environment have informed us that, Child, Family and School Social Workers are child welfare social workers, family services social workers, child protective services social workers, occupational social workers and gerontology social workers. They provide social services and assistance to improve the social and psychological functioning of children and their families in order to maximize the family wellbeing and successful academic functioning of our children. The Experts also say, some social workers also assist single parents, arrange adoptions, and help find acceptable foster homes for neglected, abandoned and abused children. While in our schools they attend to such serious problems as teenage pregnancy, misbehavior, and advise teachers of how best to correctly deal with student problems.

In addition, for our senior citizens, social workers who are specialized in services for the elderly are managing support groups for family caregivers, or for the adult children of aging parents. They also advice elderly people and family members about choices appropriate in their cities and states for housing, transportation, and long-term care, as examples. The social worker will even coordinate and monitor those services in the interest of those concerned.

Medical and Public Health Social Workers: These workers will provide persons, families or those more vulnerable in the general population with the psychosocial support needed to cope with chronic, acute, or terminal illnesses for example, cancer, AIDS, and Alzheimer's diseases. They counsel parents, help plan for the parents' needs, particularly after a medical discharge by arranging for at-home services, from meals-on-wheels to oxygen equipment, for examples. Our medical and health social workers will normally work for hospitals, nursing homes, personal care facilities, individuals and family services agencies, and also for the local city government.

Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers are the specialized professionals who assess and treat individuals with mental illness or substance abuse problems such as, alcohol, tobacco and other drugs abuse. Our social workers in this area will provide services that include individual and group therapy, outreach, crisis intervention, social rehabilitation, and training in the skills of everyday living. They are also known as clinical social workers and will be at substance abuse treatment centers, hospitals, family services agencies and local government organizations.

There are also Social Work Planners and Policymakers who function as Social Workers. They develop programs to address such issues as child abuse, homelessness, poverty, violence and substance abuse treatment. These workers will, on our behalf, research and analyze policies, programs, and regulations for correct and appropriate evaluation, implementation and monitoring to ensure that the policies are achieving the desires positive results. Social Policymakers and Social Work Planners will identify social problems and suggest legislative and other solutions to correct the problems. In addition, they help raise funds and may write grants to support such programs.

But in order to effectively assist individuals and families with their diverse problems, social workers must be emotionally mature, objective, and sensitive to the people they seek to help and their problems. They are required to handle responsibility, work independently, and maintain good working relationships with clients and fellow coworkers. Importantly, volunteer or paid jobs as a social worker aide offer ways of testing someone and his/her interest in this very essential profession.

For Social Workers and those aspiring to become social workers, in the profession, there are advancements to supervisors, program managers, assistant director, and executive director of a social service agency or department. This, however, usually require an advanced degree and related work experience. Other career options for social workers include teaching, research, and consulting in government policies, research institutions and legislators' staff.

Social Workers can go into private practice as clinical social workers who provide psychotherapy that are sometimes paid for through health insurance or by the clients themselves. But private practitioners must have an advanced master degree and a period of supervised work experience. Some private practitioners even work for an agency or hospital and in their own private practice. Interestingly, the employment for social workers in the United States is expected to increase faster than that of other occupations until 2014.Why?

The experts the social worker professionals say that with the rapid growing of our elderly population and the aging baby boom generation, there will greater demand for social workers. This will result in increased and rapid job growth among gerontology social workers. Gross annual salaries in this profession can range from approximately US$32,280 to US$57, 860 or higher for those with an advanced masters degree. The salaries in some private services are usually higher than those in the state or federal organizations. See U.S. Department of Labor: Bureau of Labor Statistics at http://www.bls.gov.

Therefore, we know how essential our social workers are to individuals and families. There are different specialized professional social workers in each area. The qualification and training commence from the social worker aide level, but the professional social worker will usually need to have a bachelor degree. Different career options are available, and someone can work in his/her own private practice and at an agency or hospital as well. The demand for social workers will increase in the United States and so job and career opportunities will be available.
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