Last Updated on March 10, 2021 by Filip Poutintsev
A career that is devoted to helping people, societies as well as families to uplift their personal and communal welfare is known as social work, and whoever chooses this career are called the social worker.
The prime motive of being a social worker is to assist individuals in enhancing their abilities as well as skills for countering issues by utilizing their own as well as society’s resources. They deal with victim and family problems along with wider societal concerns such as homelessness, poverty, and local abuse.
Social integrity and human rights are social work practice’s ethical substructures. The practice of social work is unique due to some distinct skills, knowledge, and values along with the relationship use for basing all the interferences. Social workers play a critical and substantial role in the socio-political-economy for reducing social tensions and instability.
The services provided by the social workers to the client can be as a part of a multidisciplinary team or as an individual entity, which varies as per the variety of environments they operate on.
The environment on which social workers operate can be a child support organization, family care programs, mental and general hospitals, prisons, school boards, federal and provincial departments, and welfare programs, where government sectors or the health and social care industries attract around 93% of those social workers.
History of Social Working
Social work practice and discipline has a fairly modern and scientific origin and is widely believed to have formed from three branches. The first being the emphasis on individual casework, emerged from the Charity Organization Society’s (COS) work, established in 1869 in England at Lord Lichfield’s home during a meeting.
The second being the part of social work in social organizations, predominantly concerning several types of poverty relief. Though most of this emerged in the 17th century Poor Law, it was also encouraged in some of the COS’s work. Finally, the last being the insistence on social activism, which has been directly related to the Settlement Movement’s evolution in Britain as well as the United States.
Payable social research arose in England in the 19th century and had its origins in the Industrial Revolution’s social and economic change, chiefly in the systemic scuffle to solve the ensuing urban-based mass deprivation and its associated complications. Since early social work’s key concern was the deprivation, the concept of charity work was intricately connected to it.
Pros of Being a Social Worker
As a social worker, one can experience some of the following benefits:
1. Satisfying Career
Being a social worker, one acquires the opportunity of helping others to deal with several issues such as abuse, illness, addiction, unemployment, poverty, etc. Looking back on those deeds, one feels satisfied and rich, which can be considered happier than possessing any other wealth.
2. Diverse Job
A social worker has a variety of fields to choose from such as schools, prisons, hospitals, clinics, government interventions, non-profit organizations, etc. for deciding as a path for their future. This diversity allows them to choose what’s best for them and their future.
3. Higher Popularity Job
The requirement for a decent social worker is everywhere and keeps on increasing with the increase in social as well as personal problems such as poverty, unemployment, population, ageing, diseases, etc. Thus, this job has a high level of popularity around the globe and many are easy to get.
4. Growth Prospects
For acquiring a job in the field of social work, one is required to have a bachelor’s degree, after which they meet with several prospects of proceeding in their job. Prospects of the job increase with an increase in education, and one can achieve as higher as director level posts with the advancement in their education.
Cons of Being a Social Worker
Being a social worker, one is compelled to go through some of the below-mentioned demerits
1. Extreme Workload
The number of cases an average social worker needs to handle at once ranges from about 15 to 20, but he/she is mandated to handle more than double the needed range because of the negligence of the administration, and also budget cuts. This reduces the effectiveness of the social worker due to an increase in fatigue with an increase in the cases.
2. Extended Work Duration
Being a social worker, one is required to be available anytime irrespective of their shift since helping some requires dedication as well as flexibility. For developing a warm relationship with others, one must spend some of their time knowing them and discussing their issues. This surely gives people courage and trust in sharing their problems but also eats away one’s precious time.
3. Dangerous Situations
Not all social workers need to face this challenge, but most of those who are stationed in non-profit organizations or prisons and are required to intervene with ferocious personnel might have to face some dangerous situations.
4. Partial role
Many social workers choose their jobs for benefitting the common people and society. But, most of the time they aren’t equipped with enough resources for aiding their customers. Regardless of the strong desire to help, one is unable to do so in the absence of the resources.
5. Poor Health
Since social workers are required to work longer and harder regardless of the scarcity of resources and support, they are likely to develop a high amount of physical as well as emotional stress. This results in declination of their health and might cause them to hate the job that once they looked up to.
Conclusion
Summarizing the article, on one hand, people who become a social worker get the satisfaction of helping others and can also claim to be able to visit some rural but beautiful places as a part of their job, making them very much different from the others. Social workers also do make enough for leading a prosperous life.
While, the other hand social workers can’t easily catch a break from their work, and are required to adjust to very harsh conditions while visiting rural areas. Social workers can also find themselves in life-threatening situations and aren’t able to receive promotion irrespective of their contribution without higher education and some training.
Thus, being a social worker can’t only be a beneficial factor every time and also can’t always lead to such disadvantageous situations. One, if desires to be a social worker, can go through their interest but also needs to consider the techniques to eliminate those negative aspects.
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