Is anyone here a social worker, if so I have some questions.?

Question

I am at a crossroads trying to figure out what career I would like to pursue. I know I want to help people, preferably children and or general abuse/sexual abuse victims. I don't have the time frame for medical school so a phd in psychology isn't an option. I think social work is probably the best fit for me.

My questions are;

1. What educational path did you take to get your position.

2.What is a typical day like for you?

3. Is it a misconception that social workers are "just" people who go out into homes and evaluate situations-the reason I ask is because I had a relative who was murdered while doing an investigation at someone's home and I have this undying fear of it happening to me.

So, replies would be appreciated.

Answer 1

1. Most social workers have a BA  or BS in one of the social sciences plus a MSW so for most it is a 5-6 yr educational  commitment however there are Bachelors degrees in social work which open door to some positions and one can pursue further study while employed often with educational assistance from employer. There are also casework aids who have a 2 yr associates degree.

2.  For me as director of a nonprofit that provides social services my day starts and ends on net and for me personally (and very untypically for the field) it starts mid afternoon and ends very late night)  A lot of it is paper work,net research looking for grant funding, There is also supervision of volunteers, dealing with clients in situations that range from needing food or other help because of a temporary emergency to needing to know local resources to escape domestic violence to how to get a job.   for more you can go to our website http://www.caringhandsministries.com click through to 2nd page then click spend a day with us.   However we are not typical or most social work

When I was a disaster services and armed forces emergency services caseworker my day was more typical.   Too much paperwork and computer work.  Taking calls from families and hospitals, police, and military installations re  illness or death in a service member's family,  Verifying the facts, contcting caseworkers on base or the CO's on the base near us re emergency leave needs, arranging transport, and seeing that itb was paid for, etc.   On the disaster svc side dealing with volunteer disaster action team captains, sometimes directly with the disaster victims, issuing and double checking purchase orders that provided immediate emergency help, coordinating help with other agencies.  

For a hospital or nursing home social worker it is mainly an in office job helping patients and their families find needed resources, helping with discharge planning (where the patient will go and how that will be paid for) normally a certain amount of  helping people through grief situations, and tons of paper work.  Surely I am not the only person who thinks an undergrad degree in accounting would be a good prep for the practical side of social work.  

As you can see 2 out of these 3 do not have a typical day that involves home visits nor are all home visit situations adversarial.   Even in domestic violence shelters most of the time the social worker is not making home visits but dealing with people who come to the agency for help.  Generally it is school social workers, communbity support caseworkers,  and protective services workers and ppl like us who do the majority of home visits.

It might help to take a look at the social services related jobs listed at http://www.careers.ga.gov/jobsearch/jobl...  Other related fields might be rehabilitation counselor, substance abuse counselor,  If you want to help in more medically oriented ways consider the various medical technology fields most of which have a 1-2 yr training for entry and possibilities of employer training for more advances skills.