God has sent humankind on earth to support, be kind, and help each other. Moreover, social work is a practice in which individuals work for the change, development, and well-being of society. It includes sociology, public health, community development, psychology, political science, dealing with social and personal problems and promoting social development. It can fall into two scales; small scale and large scale. The former includes dealing with a small group or directly with individuals, while the latter is working with communities or social issues such as poverty, unemployment, and domestic violence.
In the late 19th century, social work was to serve society as a charity. Churches served as social organizations providing food, healthcare, and shelter to the needy. With time, the influence spread across Europe motivating people to provide charity in terms of money or services to help the people in need. In the early period, charity was in the form of relief such as food, clothes, and money. The social work profession stemmed from three strands; individual casework, social administration, and social action. They dealt with personal casework and social administration: included the political authorities working on a grander scale.
Social Workers
Social workers are people who have the aim to improve the lives of individuals and communities. They help people in every stage of life, focusing on diverse demographics: children, homeless, elderly, and disabled. Their duties are differentiated based on their position. Social workers serve in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, schools, state offices, NGOs, and government facilities—the category falls into two types: direct services social workers and clinical social workers. Direct services social workers assist their clients in adjusting to changes and challenges of daily life, while clinical social workers help clients with their psychological problems. They are highly trained and well educated to deal with poverty, unemployment, disabilities, and domestic/child abuse.
Social Work Career
Before choosing any profession, whether it is social work, it’s important to observe one’s ability, interests, and professional goals. Before selecting this as a profession, one should analyze their interpersonal skills: are you an effective communicator and listener? Can you stand up for unfortunate people, or can you raise your voice against discrimination? Many people perceive it as an easy task, but little do they know its quite a broader profession. Social workers serve in various social services. You can become a social worker by pursuing education, but to work independently and for research-oriented work, a Master’s in social work is necessary.
Degrees
to get a potential social work degree trains an individual to help people in their problems and find solutions for their problems. It raises awareness of the current socio-economic issues in the world. As social work has two categories, it requires degrees and skills to meet the requirement. For direct services, you need a bachelor’s in social work degree. For clinical services, you need a master’s in social work degree to get a license for independent practice. You can also do masters in social work online.
Refining Key Skills With Advanced Degree In Social Work
Social workers help people fight against their problems, motivate them to stand against injustice, and improve the lives of people and communities. Studies have shown that social work career opportunities will grow by 11% from 2018 to 2028. Degree in social work helps to polish the essential skills and qualities such as :
Balance
As a social worker, you should need to balance your work and personal life. It’s essential to keep a borderline between your own life and professional life. Sometimes social practitioners indulge in their work because they become victims of constant fatigue conditioning towards the inability to feel compassion. It’s resultant of secondary traumatic stress. Social workers should keep in check of their healthy proportions and consider self-care. However, getting trained professionally helps to tackle such situations.
Communication
Regardless of their task at hand, social workers need to be fluent and persuasive in communication. Some social workers serve as an advocate for their clients, to do so they should have a silver tongue and soul touching writing skills. As social workers deal with people belonging to different demographics, they must have skills to clearly understand the needs of people regardless of their ethnicity, literacy, age, and gender. As a social worker, he should know how to deal with different levels of problems and must know how to document them as well.
Empathy
An ability to understand what another person feels and experiences can be beneficial for the client. They should empathize with the client to better translate their needs and learn how to walk in their shoes. It is also crucial to build a strong relationship with the client. High education and a Master’s degree in social work provide a basis for refining and developing empathy, which can be more beneficial to the client.
Problem Solving
Social workers come across different sorts of problems daily. Hence it is essential to have problem-solving skills.
Time Management
A social worker’s duty is of high importance, which requires skills such as determination and punctuality. The administration part of the job is crucial as it helps the substitute social worker understand the situation and circumstances. It is also vital that social workers are well organized and have excellent skills in managing time. Fortunately, you can learn time management through different programs. In the modern world, students can opt for courses to learn time management.
Active Listening
One of the most crucial aspects of working as a social worker in understanding the client’s needs. High concentration and frequently asked questions can help the individual to understand the situation of the victim better. There are some training which the workers have to undergo to communicate with ease and avoid discomfort
Patience
Social workers interact with diverse individuals leading to different cases with various challenges, which give them experience and build a high tolerance level to deal with clients. With a heavy workload and complex cases, it is difficult to be patient, so they are advised to extend their treatment range to avoid any inadequate decision.
Conclusion
It’s essential to acquire a specialization to excel in such an area to improve your fundamental skills to be a social worker. So getting an advanced degree in social work helps refine the skills and gain expertise to evaluate the socio-economic issues better and empathize with people. It includes ethnic conduct and client engagement as well. It is ideal to be better always with time in terms of your expertise to prosper in your career because, as they say, the sky is the limit.