Top Job Thursday

Social Worker

Social work is a professional and academic discipline committed to the pursuit of social welfare, social change and social justice. The field works towards research and practice to improve the quality of life and to the development of the potential of each individual, group and community of a society. Social workers perform interventions through research, policy, community organizing, direct practice and teaching. Research is often focused on areas such as human development, social policy, public administration, program evaluation and international and community development. Social workers are organized into local, national, continental and international professional bodies. Social work, an interdisciplinary field, includes theories from economics, education, sociology, medicine, philosophy, politics, psychology, and as well as anti-oppressive and anti-racist discourse.

Contemporary professional development

The International Federation of Social Workers states, of social work today, that

"social work bases its methodology on a systematic body of evidence-based knowledge derived from research and practice evaluation, including local and indigenous knowledge specific to its context. It recognizes the complexity of interactions between human beings and their environment, and the capacity of people both to be affected by and to alter the multiple influences upon them including bio-psychosocial factors. The social work profession draws on theories of human development, social theory and social systems to analyze complex situations and to facilitate individual, organizational, social and cultural changes."

A hopeful development for bridging this gap is the compilation of collections of "best practices" which attempt to distill research findings and the experience of respected social work practitioners, educators and researchers into effective interventions. Another important contemporary development in the profession is overcoming suspicion of technology and taking advantage of the potential of information technology.

Qualifications

Professional social workers are generally considered those who hold a degree in social work. Often these practitioners must also obtain a license or be professionally registered.

The education of social workers begins with a Bachelor's degree (BA, BSc, BSSW, BSW, etc.) or diploma in Social Work. Some countries offer Postgraduate degrees in Social Work like Master's (such as MSW , MA, MSc, MRes, MPhil etc.) or PhD (doctoral studies). More and more graduates of social work continue to post-doctoral studies. It has been argued that social work education is supposed to be a lifelong process.

In a number of countries and jurisdictions, registration or licensure of people working as social workers is required and there are mandated qualifications.[3] In other places, a professional association sets academic and experiential requirements for admission to membership. The success of these professional bodies' efforts is demonstrated in the fact that these same requirements are recognized by employers as necessary for employment.

Role of the professional

The main tasks of professional social workers can include a variety of services such as case management (linking users/clients with agencies and programs that will meet their psychosocial needs - mainly common in US and UK), clinical social work (counseling & psychotherapy), human services management, social welfare policy analysis, policy and practice development, community organizing, international, social and community development, advocacy, teaching (in schools of social work), and social and political research.

Social work is the environment of a person with empathy and compassion. Those who find satisfaction in helping another or in creating a better world will likely find that becoming a social worker offers more rewards than any financial compensation. Social workers are the first to admit the career is one filled with stress and heavy workloads. They also testify to the satisfaction derived from solving a domestic problem or correcting a social inequity. The ultimate benefit of the job is the ability to make the world a better place and is perhaps the primary reason why anyone chooses this profession.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_work, http://www.becomingasocialworker101.com/benefits-of-becoming-a-social-worker/