All community members desire to stay healthy and secure in all manners. To experience all amenities of a civilization, one needs to have a vibrant financial status and excellent public services. Social work profoundly impacts people’s quality of life by generating awareness and employment opportunities with their efforts. The contribution of social workers in community development is growing rapidly and benefiting different communities. These social works promote liberty and resilience, supporting some of the most vulnerable segments of the community. The current effort is to find out how a social worker can help enhance the quality of living in the community.
Different Career Path with a Social Work Degree
A social work degree courses offers that allow students or professionals to commence their careers in various domains such as clinical care, public health, and psychology. For example, a clinical social worker learns about psychological problems, substance abuse and plans its treatment accordingly. All such fields are related to human services. Social workers are the patient’s advocates and counsel them on various issues. The skills and expertise that come along with a social work degree are never-ending.
These include social responsibility, research skills, critical thinking, and communication skills. Yet, if you’re thinking, what can you do with a social work degree besides social work? There are enormous business and legal fields as well with a promising career. However, it’s not a rule to master every field to find a promising and successful career. You only have to go with your desired field and become competent enough to get a rewarding career.
Improving Healthcare:
Social workers serving in the healthcare industry help people pass through their emotions, financial and physical difficulties associated with chronic medical conditions. A patient who suffers a serious or terminal ailment has multiple hospital visits that can overwhelm them. These patients and their loved ones may not know or understand the extent of treatment and care options. Sometimes they need financial assistance or connections with a religious leader in the community. These professionals help build strong connections with community leaders to help every patient in need. During such grief, uncertainty, and stress, a healthcare social worker provides reassurance and stability along with the right directions to patients and their families on where to turn next in their lives.
Helping Child, Family & School:
Social workers are also active in handling all sorts of crucial situations involving youth. These professionals can help a child experiencing abuse or trauma. They also assist their parents in obtaining resources to help their child suffering from a mental illness. Many social workers are practicing in schools to recognize and overcome all obstacles that affect students learning. They counsel stressed students in schools and help bridge the gap between their school and home life. Moreover, they work on improving child’s behavioral issues and support them to thrive.
Assisting in Substance Abuse:
Social workers practicing in hospital facilities or rehabilitation centers assist individuals struggling with substance abuse, addiction, or mental health issues. They provide helpful resources along with short-term and long-term solutions for patients. Additionally, these social workers evaluate everything ranging from patients’ discharge plans to their treatment options. By offering support and stability, a social worker assists people in finding ways to overcome their weaknesses or work through a mental condition. It will ultimately help them live a drug-free and healthy life.
Improving Mental Health:
After receiving mental health services in any hospital setting, patients and their families might struggle to understand where to turn next. A social worker can help in such scenarios by offering their patients therapy and psychiatric health care services. They work with patients’ families to offer resources, make referrals, inform about legalities and long-term care options. Social workers practicing in psychiatric units ensure that patients only get discharged when ready. They also support them through mental health therapies and assessments. In this world of chaotic processes and legal ramifications, a social worker can ease things to understand and make them less hectic for patients and their families.
Helping Local Community:
Social workers help prepare, coordinate, and manage efforts relating to particular local populations. Also, they work with nonprofit organizations in their community to help counseling families and localities in the wake of natural disasters and tragedies. These professional social workers support solving local matters through community outreach, communicating with local politicians, and applying for funds. Additionally, their role in working for advocacy groups and supporting organizations and governmental agencies makes a big difference in community development.
Making Hospice & Palliative Care Better:
It’s devastating when a family receives the news of a life-threatening illness or a fatal prognosis. Every member of the family can feel the agony of that terrible process. Social workers help these families in pain through hospice and palliative care. Such type of care is provided to people who are chronically or terminally sick. Hospice and palliative care provide ease to relieve pain, help with crucial decision-making, and improve patients’ quality of life. However, the services of social workers aren’t limited to the patients but also expand to their families and friends. They help these people with the trauma of having an ill loved one.
Assisting Military & Veterans:
Social workers help soldiers, either active duty or veterans, deal with their feelings and better adjust to their family and life outside their workplace. The strain of military duty can result in chaos within the lives of these soldiers and their loved ones. Most of them return home with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), nightmares, guilt over their actions in combat, or even dullness in everyday life. Social workers specialize in providing care to the newly appointed soldiers and those returning their homes after a long time serving overseas. These professionals can assist soldiers with PTSD, an adjustment in life, implications of returning home, and even substance abuse caused due to combat.
Conclusion:
Every individual, at some level in their life, experiences hard times. Fortunately, no one needs to go through all this alone, whether it’s a tragedy, poor health, natural disaster, or other challenging life experience. A Social worker works every day to offer reassurance and guidance to people who need to stand on their feet and get back to their life. Now that you know a great force of social workers provides their endless services in various domains, you can get help on anything related to your situation. These professional social works aim to provide a better living, especially to vulnerable communities. Moreover, these social workers help you with emotional, physical, and financial stresses and provide better ways to improve your quality of life.
