Did You Know These 12 Facts About Social Workers?

People and communities are empowered through social work, which is a practice-based profession that fosters social change, development, cohesiveness, and empowerment. Understanding human growth, behaviour, social, economic, and cultural structures and interconnections are essential for social work practice.

While social workers work in a variety of settings, they all share a commitment to promoting social welfare, assisting people of all backgrounds in overcoming their individual challenges, advocating for social and economic justice for members of diverse communities, and upholding social work code of ethics.

Mental Health, Medicaid & Medicare, Child Abuse & Neglect Prevention, Civil Rights, Unemployment, and Disability are some major areas of social work. As an avid reader of the subject, you might be interested in the following fascinating facts about social workers.

1. They go above and above to assist others.
   Social workers apply their knowledge and abilities to improve mental health, develop relationships, and break generational cycles of trauma and substance abuse, resulting in better families and communities. 
2. They possess the necessary qualifications.
   Social workers have the training, experience, and commitment to assist individuals whenever and wherever they need it. To become a professional social worker, you’ll need a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree in social work, as well as a certain number of hours of supervised fieldwork. 
3. They assist people at all phases of their lives.
   People in all stages of life, from youngsters to the elderly, and in all situations, from adoption to hospice care, benefit from the services of social workers.
4. They contribute to society at all levels.
   Social work is a vast, diverse discipline with work that takes place in a variety of contexts. Individuals, families, schools, universities, nonprofit organizations, corporations, hospitals, and government agencies are all served by these experts. 
5. They’re only interested in the end result, not the money.
   Working as a social worker is not going to make you wealthy. Many professionals are drawn to the sector because they are motivated by a desire to serve others and accomplish meaningful work. 
6. They can be found in almost all settings.
   Hospitals, police departments, mental health clinics, military bases, and even corporations employ social workers. 
7. They’re the largest mental health provider in the country.
   Professional social workers are the most common providers of mental health services in the United States. According to government data, social workers provide more than 60% of mental health therapy. 
8. They have to make difficult choices.
   Social workers have a lot of responsibility when it comes to making judgments that affect people’s lives. Above all, safety is the most important consideration in these decisions. To examine all options and make well-informed decisions, most social workers engage with families, coworkers, and other stakeholders. 
9. They also provide assistance to veterans and their families.
   Individual and family counselling, patient education, end-of-life planning, substance addiction treatment, crisis intervention, and other services are provided by the Veteran’s Administration, which employs over 3,800 MSWs. 
10. They account for a significant section of the Red Cross workforce.
    Social workers make up 40% of the mental health specialists employed by the Red Cross Disaster Services Human Resources system. 
11. They also work in government offices.
    More than 170 social workers hold elected office at the federal, state, and municipal levels, including two United States Senators and four United States Representatives. 
12. Their demand is predicted to increase at twice the rate of any other profession.
    Social workers are predicted to increase twice as quickly as any other occupation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, particularly in gerontology, home healthcare, substance abuse, private social service organizations, and school social work.

Also Read: Social Work Case Management Guide

The rising importance of mental health (psychiatric) social work 

Mental health or psychiatric social work is one of the most in-demand forms of social work. Psychiatric social work is a subset of medical social work that focuses on assisting, counselling, and coordinating the care of persons who are severely mentally ill and require hospitalization or other forms of extensive psychiatric treatment.

In this difficult and demanding sector, social workers must engage directly with people who are suffering from complicated and difficult-to-manage conditions, are in profound emotional distress, and/or maybe a danger to themselves or others. Psychiatric social workers may also have difficulty obtaining the tools and assistance that their clients require to fully address their issues.

An anxiety disorder, life crisis, suicidal thoughts, depression and other mood disorders, psychosis, personality disorders, marital problems, trauma, family conflicts, and other mental health illnesses are assessed and treated by a Mental Health Social Worker.

They assist their patients in improving their lives by resolving present psychological concerns as well as the social challenges that arise as a result of them. A mental health social worker is aware of the broader consequences of their patient’s mental illness, including how it affects their employment, family, friends, and way of life.

Clinical social workers, school social workers, and substance abuse social workers are all important responsibilities in mental health social work. Hospitals, mental health clinics, and private offices are common places for mental health social workers to work.

Identifying and reaching out to those in need, assessing people’s needs and developing a plan of action, assisting people in adjusting to major life changes, responding to crisis situations, connecting people with important resources and support, evaluating social services and support programmes, providing advocacy for people when needed, and following up with people to ensure their circumstances are improving are some of the common duties of a mental health social worker.

Inpatient psychiatric social professionals, emergency and crisis services psychiatric social workers, and outpatient psychiatric social workers are all examples of psychiatric social workers. Some psychiatric social workers may work in all three sectors – inpatient, outpatient, and emergency care – depending on their work context and role.

Inpatient Psychiatric Social Workers

Inpatient psychiatric social workers work with patients who have been hospitalized for debilitating or dangerous psychological and/or behavioural issues, such as severe substance abuse, psychosis, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and other conditions, in psychiatry departments of hospitals and medical centers.

Psychiatric Emergency Services and Crisis Response Social Workers

As part of a crisis or emergency services team, psychiatric social workers undertake psychiatric examinations, short-term crisis support, and care coordination for patients who are experiencing acute crises or are in danger of harming themselves or others.

Outpatient Psychiatric Social Workers

Patients in outpatient psychiatric settings are often at risk of needing hospitalization or have recently been discharged from an inpatient setting. Outpatient psychiatric social workers provide therapy and care coordination services to individuals who do not require immediate hospitalization but still struggle with severe mental illness and debilitating emotional and/or behavioural issues.

Case management as a core duty of psychiatric social workers

Psychiatric social workers are in charge of comprehensive case management, also known as care coordination, after determining their patients’ mental health state and treatment history. This may entail ensuring that their patients receive the mental health care they require by:

• Working with medical and mental health professionals to develop a patient treatment plan based on the results of the psychosocial assessment.
• Educating patients on various treatment alternatives and programs.
• As needed, communicate with the treatment team on changes in a patient’s mental health status.
• Keeping track of a patient’s development during treatment.
• Linking patients to appropriate resources both inside and outside the treatment facility.
• Organize safe and efficient discharges when it’s time for patients to move on to another treatment center or return home.

The rise of technology in mental health case management

Psychiatric social work is a difficult and demanding career. People suffering from extremely severe, complicated, and multifaceted mental health and behavioural difficulties require comprehensive and, at times, holistic treatment from psychiatric social workers.

Furthermore, seeing people who are in severe pain and may be a danger to themselves or others on a daily basis can be unsettling and taxing for certain experts in the industry.

Furthermore, many Americans face considerable impediments to mental health treatment access. More than half of adults in the United States with mental illness do not obtain treatment, amounting to about 27 million adults in the country who are untreated.

However, in order to improve the utilization of mental health services, we must first understand what inhibits people from seeking them.

Financial obstacles, a dearth of mental health specialists, a lack of mental health awareness, the social stigma associated with mental illnesses, and some racial barriers to mental health access continue to obstruct the promotion of high-quality mental healthcare for all.

However, to overcome organization-level barriers, care providers are rapidly adopting modern, technology-based mental health case management solutions to ensure maximum coverage of their services, allowing people to more effectively combat this epidemic.