Thinking of going to school to become a Social Worker?
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If you’re looking for a career with meaning,
action, diversity, satisfaction, and an abundance of options, consider social
work.
Social workers are people who care about people, who want to make things better, who
want to
relieve suffering, who want their work to make a difference.
Social
work is
a profession devoted to helping people function the best they can in their
environment. This
can mean providing direct services or therapy directly to people. It also can
mean
working for change to improve social conditions.
The phrase "in
their
environment" points to a distinguishing characteristic of social work—one that sets
it apart
from other helping professions. Social workers help clients deal not only with how
they feel
about a situation but also with what they can do about it. For example, a man
suffering
stress stemming from single parenting may be referred by a social worker to a child
care
agency. The social worker also might help him explore flextime with his employer and
might
work with a coalition of local employers to make flextime and child care more
available. In
addition, the social worker might provide therapy to help him handle the immediate
stress.
Many social workers work for social change as well. The
victim
of an assault benefits not only from therapy but also from efforts to curb
neighborhood
crime. The client under stress because illness has devastated the family finances
benefits
from efforts to reform the nation’s health care system.
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