Social Worker – Strengthening Human Capacities And Serving Human Needs

Social work is, on the face of it, an exceedingly essential profession. Social workers are helpers whose mission is to make available the resources compulsory so that people can function better and progress their relationships and their lives. It is not as simple as described above. In reality, social work is a very extensive field that offers a great diversity of specialties, comprising of diverse responsibilities in various practice settings. The primary specialties in this profession are:

– Occupational welfare
– Family and child welfare
– Education
– Healthcare/medicine
– Aging and eldercare
– Justice and corrections

Social workers may as well be involved in community organization and growth, international relief organizations, policy and planning, advocacy, politics, research or teaching. Social workers support individuals, families, groups and communities with such troubles as inadequate housing, unemployment, and lack of job skills, domestic abuse, unwanted pregnancy, substance abuse, juvenile delinquency, and asylum for homeless, illness or disability, emotional disorders and more.

Social work is not an activity for those who can convince themselves easily of their general competence in the face of multiple social problems. The smug sanctimoniousness outlook is not appropriate for social work – this work requires endurance, optimism, friendly attitude towards others and rigor.

Social workers are also the target of mistreatment and censure by public. A vast majority of the public considers the ‘Welfare State’ was created to be a universal remedy for all social ills. They believe that large social service departments are financed by the heavy taxation and at the cost of diminishing earnings for themselves. They have high expectations of the ‘productivity’ of social workers. All manner of deficiencies are considered to be the burden of the ‘welfare’; the responsibility of the social services. It stultifies without public criticism, it can help social work agencies to understand how the users feel about the way the work is conducted.

Social workers have a grave responsibility to converse the nature of their task because they are employed under ‘social auspices’. Their responsibility is educative as well as practical, and if they are indecisive about the nature of the tasks they are undertaking, they will not acquire the extent of collaboration from the general public that is indispensable to the tasks they undertake. If these workers are not eloquent about the needs they are trying to meet them, the work will not be supported.