Jobs in social work can take on many forms. Each one is often vital in ensuring that those in need receive the care that is required for a reasonable standard of living. Those who get involved in social work are often motivated by the opportunity to help people. The people requiring care are usually in desperate situations, and this is often because they aren’t able to care for themselves. However, with the help of a social worker, they can begin to find relief from many of their burdens.
Working in the Adult Services Field
In your role as an adult services social working, you will be working with people who have various difficulties that make it hard for them to find work, such as learning difficulties, for example. You will work with offenders by providing supervision when they are in the community, and you will help and offer them support in their mission to find work. The adult services role will also require you to assist people who have HIV/AIDS and work with many older people who are at home and have problems with their housing, benefits, or health. Often, the people requiring these services won’t be informed or able bodied enough to be able to complete the tasks themselves.
Working in the Children and Youth Services Field
As a social worker who is assisting children and youth, you will play an important role in assisting and advising the young people in order to keep families together. You will work in the children’s homes, and much of your responsibility will be managing the adoption and foster care processes. The work also involves supporting young people who are leaving professional care. You also assist youth who have been in trouble with the law, or who are potentially at risk of getting into trouble with the law. Also, many children are facing challenges at school or they have problems that are associated with family illness, and these children require care and attention.
Working in the Mental Health/Clinical Social Work Field
In this field you will be assisting people who have either been in professional care, or who require a person to come to their home to care for them. In this field of work, social workers are found in various settings, however, and it is not just at the home. Furthermore, they could also be a part of a team that cares for the individual. The emphasis in this field is to help people to help themselves. Essentially, the social worker helps the client to understand the reasons for their distress, connecting them with the necessary community resources, and implementing methods that can help resolve difficult situations.
To become a social worker, you need to attain professional qualifications, and this is usually a degree. There are undergraduate and postgraduate master’s levels of degrees that will put you on the path to becoming a social worker. Degree courses that combine mental health or learning disability nursing are also available and will help you to find a career in social work with people who suffer from mental health issues.
