A Social Work Career? Here Are Five Important Checkpoints

  There is a wider range of career options than you might think for people who earn social work degrees.  As our population ages and the government safety nets expand, social workers have workplace options that include health clinics, schools, family support agencies, in-home care institutions and the criminal justice system www.ottosafariguide.com.  If you want to work with children who are at risk because of family situations, a social work degree will provide you that opportunity.  If you are interested in making the lives of senior citizens richer or rejuvenating the lives of addicts, you'll develop those skills while you earn your degree and you'll find that job opportunities are growing rapidly in the field.

There are several steps you should take before you sign up for an education in social work.  Every career choice deserves careful consideration;  these touchstones will help you make your decision and lead you towards your area of concentration within the institutions that deliver social work services.

Make a detailed study of the entire field. 

The U.S. Department of Labor provides three categories of social work in its Occupational Outlook Handbook https://crackedsoftwares.org/.  The first is in the areas child, family and school; second is the medical and public health support system; and third is the field of mental health and substance abuse.  Each of these areas requires differing skills and understanding of the client base.  One of them may become your primary interest and if so, you may want to tailor your college major accordingly.

My research into social networking sites for social workers suffering from or open to stress at work has resulted in a major finding; it can be an appropriate wellbeing stress buster if used wisely. As a social work professional connecting with family friends and even business colleagues on social networking sites can be a huge stress relieving advantage.

It is a way of reconnecting very quickly and efficiently with people who support you do your job from your own networks, networks which you can build up just to do that.

It can be very frustrating to be working for an organisation that has a policy of not enabling workers to access social networking sites on the company internet.

Social workers have to work long hours with very difficult situations, if they are able to build a supportive circle of friends around them to support them this should be encouraged. However it does need the support of their organisations to be in agreement that this is a worthwhile tool.

The disadvantages

Some social workers may take inappropriate advantage of being able to access social networking sites; they may not get on with their work or they may be running their businesses on company time

The remedy

Organisations can have restricted access at various times say before the working day as a lot of social workers have to come in early to work when the office is quiet, before the phones start to ring and service users come in on duty or for appointments Certain sites or activities can be monitored good policies can be put in place to help workers understand the issues

The advantages

Workers can use social networking as a way to offer support to each other and to relieve the tensions of the day. There are a lot of social workers who are now using these mediums to share information and to offer good and useful information; this also includes Schools of Social Worker and Universities and other statutory social work organisations. Workers can connect with family and friends around the world Workers can arrange their social life and therefore ensure they have good breaks from their caring roles

Caution

Finally social workers not allow the process of social networking to give them additional stress. You should continue to make sure you protect yourself on- line; choosing where you go and how long you spend on social networking sites wisely and making sure that you do not break the policies of the agency you work for.

Talk to experienced professionals. 

The study of socialwork at an accredited school will usually require an internship or hours as an understudy at an existing facility, so the veterans that run these social service clinics and offices are accustomed to working with inquisitive students.  Most will be willing to grant you the time to discuss the services of their particular facility and the nature of the work for the professionals who staff it.

Visit a mixture of social work sites. 

You need to see how the varieties of social services are provided.  Visit a public health clinic to see what sort of social work goes on there. You can decide, for instance, if you want to deal with the evidence of child or spousal abuse that is seen every day in such clinics.  Call on a large school in an impoverished neighborhood and learn about the variety of outreach services that key on the student but reach into the home.  Visit a homeless shelter to see what acute social work looks like.  These are three examples of the rich detail you'll find on the nature of the profession by visiting work sites.

Match up your interests with your academic options. 

The coursework for degrees in this field can vary significantly, from social science theory to intervention skills.  Degrees in this field can range from public health to mental health counseling - you'll need to sort through the academic choices until you find a school with a socialwork degree program that suits you.

Look into licensing requirements. 

All states require licenses of their resident social work professionals, and those requirements must also align with your academic choice.  Many states require up to 3,000 hours of field work as an intern or understudy.  A number of online schools have arrangements for this requirement with local facilities.  Licensing is a third component that should be in sync with your interests and your academic choice.

Working with the poor, the dysfunctional and the abused is one of those noble professions for which the rewards are internal.  Nevertheless a substantial number of people are drawn to it and according to the U.S. Department of Labor it's a field that will be adding jobs rapidly in the coming years.  A social work degree is not easily earned; many jobs in the field require education at the master's level.  However it will put you in a dynamic field where increasing specialization will allow you to look for a career opportunity that matches your interests.  Social work is an excellent choice for people who are rich in compassion.

"It's essential that we reach the global centers of power to fight not just centralized planning, but privatization-based planning".

Medha Patkar is a well-known Indian social activist, environmentalist, politician, and social worker working towards several optical and economic issues of the farmers, Dalits, Tribals, laborers, and women facing injustice in India. Born to socially active parents, Medha pursued her MA in social work from Tata Institute of Social Science after which she worked with voluntary organizations in Mumbai slums for 5 years and tribal districts of North-East districts of Gujarat for 3 years. She is the founder member of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) in three states namely, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat where she fought for the rights of people affected by the Sardar Sarovar Dam project which aims at building dams across the Narmada River especially those whose homes will be submerged but have not yet been rehabilitated. She is a founder member of the National Alliance People's Movement (NAPM), an alliance of hundreds of progressive people's organizations. NAPM filled several public litigations including those against Adarsh Society, Lavasa Megacity, Hiranandani (Powai, Mumbai), and many other builders.

Since 1992, the NBA has been running Jeevanshala's several schools set up in the Narmada valley. Over 5,000 students have already passed out of school. They are also working consistently in health, environment protection, right to food and PDS, rehabilitation, and employment sector. With the help of local communities, she developed several alternatives for education, energy generation, and water harvesting. She took up 'fasting' for 22 days, in which she was nearly dead but continued the same in 1993. In 1994, she was attacked by some people physically and verbally abuse her but woman of courage, Medha was immovable. She is a member of the world commission on dams, which works towards finding the environmental, social, political, and economic aspects and impacts of the development of large dams globally and their alternatives. For many years she was a national coordinator, followed by conveyor of NAPM, she stills continues to be n advisor to NAPM. She is a proud recipient of numerous awards including the Goldman Environmental Prize, Amnesty International Human Rights Defender's Award, the BBC's Green Ribbon Award, MA Thomas National Human Rights Award, Mahatma Phule Award, Bhimabai Ambedkar Award and Mother Teresa Award for Social Justice.