MSW Professionals Job Description:
Duties and Responsibilities Explained
No matter your age or economic background, you can rely on social workers to look out for you. When one dedicates their life to social work, they take an oath to help people from all walks of life. This oath extends to guiding those in their care through significant challenges, transitions, and emotional turbulences.
Social workers play a significant role in ensuring that underserved communities can access the resources necessary to maintain a quality standard of life. They also help connect the vulnerable individuals to professionals in the psychological and other medical arenas. The life of a social worker offers significant returns if you’re willing to bear its risks. It’s hard to get the needed help without social workers weaving their magic, especially for incapable or reluctant individuals. The article below provides a more in-depth look into this noble profession.
Roles and Responsibilities
There are two basic kinds of social workers, namely direct and clinical social workers. The former works with the community as a whole, whereas the latter focus on assistance in clinical environments.
Duties of Direct Social Workers:
- Guiding individuals of all ages and background in overcoming everyday hurdles
- Helping people resolve conflict
- Planning and advocating for improved public well-being
- Identifying the individuals in need
- Connecting individuals to community resources
- Serving both public and private firms or organizations
- Responding to those in crises
Duties of Clinical Social Workers:
- Diagnosing emotional disorders, behavioral dysfunctionalities, and psychological illnesses
- Assessing patient needs and recommending the correct treatment strategies
- Creating and implementing treatment plans
- Managing social service programs
- Consulting with healthcare professionals like psychologists
- Helping patient’s families navigate the treatment process
- The Necessary Qualifications
A bachelor’s in social work (BSW) is a minimum requirement, even for a beginner-level job. However, you can also land a job if you have a social sciences degree, such as in sociology. Sometimes, employers require a Master’s or a Doctorate level degree in Social Work. For instance, to become a clinical social worker, you must acquire an advanced-level degree. If you want to persuade your education along with your full-time job, consider enrolling in a doctorate in social work online. It will allow you to manage both tasks (i.e., a job and academics) simultaneously without breaking a sweat.
Often, academic programs surrounding social work may have supervised fieldwork or internship as a prerequisite. Moreover, most states necessitate people working in the social work profession to be licensed or registered. Through a quick internet search, one can easily find their relevant state’s licensing authority online.
The Must-Have Skills
Although your qualifications and educational background matter, you must also harness these following skills to progress your career as an MSW professional.
- Be a good listener. Lack of attention can make people feel worse after consulting you, so be an active listener.
- Be service-oriented. You won’t adjust to this career if you don’t have a strong calling to help other people.
- Be amicable. To develop a strong bond with people, you must learn to be friendly and open to interactions.
- Think Critically. To help people overcome their problems, you need to employ critical thinking. You must use logical reasoning to decide the best alternative solution.
- Be a proper communicator. This skill is the most vital as a social worker must convey life-altering information to those in their care and their families.
- Be organized. It’s common to get overwhelmed by the numerous emotionally charged cases you receive as a social worker. Therefore, it’s best to manage your time effectively and follow an organized work approach.
Major Career Paths
Almost all segments of a country’s population require and employ social workers. A social worker can choose to work in diverse settings like private and public health facilities, mental health institutions, rehabilitation facilities, and nursing homes. Schools, government offices, and military bases also present attractive work opportunities for social workers.
Moreover, social workers can decide on specific population demographics they wish to work with. For example, you can choose to help the elderly or deal with teens instead.
The Average Pay
Social workers having prior experience or greater job responsibilities can earn around $50,000 annually. However, roles like commissioning managers, heads of staff, and team managers can pay even higher sums. And though it varies with different local authorities and countries, entry-level social workers can earn between $32,000 to $41,000 annually. Still, there are no fixed national or international income rates for social workers.
Besides, a lot of factors go into determining a social worker’s salary. Your skills, supervising authority, specific work setting, and location all account for what you earn at the end of the day.
For instance, social workers who have just started working with the NHS in the UK can earn somewhere between $43,225 to $52,217. This range exists on band 6 of the NHS’s pay scale and is highly affected by the location, e.g., London.
You won’t have to sweat over your on-job travel costs, as the local authority will likely cover that. Plus, they may even be willing to adjust your working hours and offer employee benefits like childcare vouchers.
The Usual Working Hours
On average, social workers put in 37 hours a week. Though not necessarily a good thing, unsocial working hours are pretty common among residential social workers. And if the situation calls for it, you may also have to put in night and weekend shifts occasionally. For instance, someone needs protection from their spouse, or a child needs urgent fostering. If this seems over hectic, don’t forget you’re still allowed to work part-time and take career breaks.
In A Nutshell
This article discussed some essential aspects of an MSW professional’s career, notably their duties and responsibilities. These include identifying people in need, responding to crises, advocating for public health improvements, and administering social service programs. The article also focused on other aspects of an MSW professional’s career, such as pay scale, working hours, and the required skills.
