Working with vulnerable people can give you immense job satisfaction and this is how social workers feel when they’ve successfully helped someone in a bad situation. Social workers identify those in society who need help, assess the needs of that person and organise support networks to achieve their goal of helping. Their aim is to assist people in solving problems and helping them to cope with their everyday lives. For this kind of work you will need to undergo a DBS Check. For more information, visit http://carecheck.co.uk/.
They can work with a wide variety of people including the elderly, drug addicts, vulnerable children and those suffering with mental health issues. A typical day might involve the following activities:
- Developing plans to improve their client’s well-being
- Help clients to adjust and change their situation and face challenges like unemployment, divorce or illness
- Refer people to other community help such as child and health care
- Respond to crisis situations such as child abuse
- Evaluate services to make sure they are remaining effective
- Following up with clients to ensure their continued well-being
No two days will ever be the same and you could be helping people with addictions, people with disabilities, those with serious illnesses or lonely elderly people who might be at risk of injury in their home. Social workers often make the news due to their work with vulnerable children because unfortunately when things do go wrong, they can result in tragic consequences. However, the media don’t show us all the success stories and the wonderful work done by our often over-stretched social workers.
Child and family social workers work to protect children and help families in times of crisis. Crucially, they intervene when the safety of a child is at risk and can arrange things like adoption and fostering. On the plus side, they can also be involved in helping families to piece things together again and unite as a family unit again.
A clinical social worker will diagnose and treat mental, behavioural and emotional disturbances such as anxiety and depression due to any number of reasons including family upheaval, divorce or addiction. The support that they provide can come as one-to-one support, group, couples or family therapy. Social workers can help to plan a treatment system along with doctors, healthcare professionals and the client themselves. They can work in private practice and others work alongside mental health professionals.
Social workers could work in any of the following settings:
- Hospitals
- Schools
- nursing homes
- Private practices
- Universities
- Prisons
- Substance abuse clinics
- Child welfare agencies
- military bases
It can be a tough job with the potential for some upsetting cases so it’s important to be emotionally stable and quite resilient but also to show compassion and empathy for others. You’ll have to have good organisational skills and problem-solving qualities to come up innovative solutions to your clients’ problems. You must demonstrate excellent interpersonal, communication and listening skills as without these you won’t be able to understand exactly the kind of help your client needs.
