Social workers are born not made

By JEFFREY STEELE, Special Advertising Sections Writer
Illustration by Mercedes McDonald

Lindsay James remembers the oft-heard statement that would bring a smile to her professors’ faces during her college years.

“It’s a joke among social work professors that a young fresh social worker will say, ‘I just want to help people,’.” said James, the Los Angeles-based membership director for the National Assn. of Social Workers (NASW) California Chapter. “Sometimes they know specifically how they want to help people, and sometimes it’s just a desire.”

In training to be social workers, however, these novices with a common desire to help their fellow human beings move far beyond simply talking about their aspirations.

“You go from just having a desire to help people to knowing how to make an impact,” James said.

Happily, for those aspiring to social work, the demand for social workers is ever present, said Jan Lee Wong, executive director of the Sacramento-based NASW California Chapter.

“As long as there are human issues, there will be social workers,” he said. “As our society becomes more complicated, more complex, and as our culture moves from the nuclear family and the village family, we will need social workers. Social workers have been around professionally for 100 years. Programs [hiring social workers] are not shrinking. They’re growing.”

Persistent poverty, the aging of the Baby Boomers, a surge in Americans without health insurance and a growing gap between rich and poor all fuel the demand for social workers, he said. Many current and future social workers will spend careers working with children; others will help older people and the homeless.

“Many are interested in working in the field of mental health,” Wong said. “Social work provides a career path for those interested in serving all those populations.”

The demand for social workers over the next decade will be increased as the result of wide-scale retirements among those currently employed in the profession, said Gary Bailey, president of the Washington, D.C.-based NASW, and an associate professor at Simmons College School of Social Work in Boston. He said those retirements will also create a particularly large demand for individuals holding doctorates in social work to serve as professors at the university level, as well.

Also needed will be many more social workers who are members of ethnic minorities, according to Bailey.

“We are not producing enough African American social workers, and the same is true for the burgeoning Latino and Asian populations,” he said.

Social workers are employed by a wide array of organizations and entities. For instance, they may be hired by social service agencies, clinics and city and county governments, as well as the federal government, Wong said.

Veterans Administration medical centers, school, jails and home health agencies (or in-home supportive services) also employ social workers.

In addition, they can work as teachers, lobbyists, administrators, researchers, in labor unions and as entrepreneurs, according to James.

Funding for social work benefiting different populations of recipients ebbs and flows through time, Wong said.

Child and elder adult safety and protection administered through county and city governments is one big exception.

“The bottom line is if you’re interested in these areas, you don’t have to worry about jobs,” Wong said. “There will always be jobs in these areas, and it doesn’t matter what part of the country you want to work in.”

Education the Key

Calling social work “a marvelous career ladder,” Wong noted that people can start working in entry-level jobs with a high school degree or some community college courses. Such entry-level positions might be as an assistant in a child-care center, or at a residential care facility for individuals with mental health problems. Such positions pay about $7 to $9 an hour, Wong said.

The next rung on the ladder would require a Bachelor of Social Work degree.

“Now you’re getting into more complex work, such as protection work,” Wong said. Here, he said, social workers might work with families in which parents abused children. The social worker might be called upon to make regular visits to the family, ensuring the children are being well treated. This job might also require the social worker assist the parents in stopping the abusive behavior by guiding them into parenting classes or perhaps a drug treatment program.

Social workers who have bachelor’s degrees in social work earn annual salaries that range from the high $30,000s to the low $40,000s, Wong said.

Many social workers go beyond the bachelor’s degree to earn a Master of Social Work degree. They work with the most difficult populations, doing counseling and therapy, Wong said. For instance, a social worker with a master’s degree may team with a police officer, cruising the streets to build relationships with homeless people.

“The idea here is that if the homeless person can begin to trust the social worker, you have an opportunity to influence him or her to make the right choices and get on the right path,” Wong said. “This takes a lot of skills, which is why the master’s degree is required.”

Social workers with master’s degrees and five or more years of experience can earn from the mid-$60,000s to the low $70,000s. Master’s degree holders with less experience generally reap from the mid-$40,000s to $50,000s, Wong said. Some social workers go on to earn a Ph.D or Doctorate of Social Work and teach in universities. Social workers who rise to administration-level jobs with agencies and governments can earn six-figure incomes, Wong said.

Talk to experts about the characteristics that help foster success in a social work career, and many will discuss traits like the capacity to listen, communicate and be empathetic. But, the most common term used is passion.

“Someone who comes in with a genuine desire to impact lives, and doesn’t forget that when things get rough, that person is going to thrive as a social worker, and make an impact on issues [he or she is] passionate about,” James said.

Added Bailey: “Social workers are born, not made. It’s something that they know they want to do. There’s a passion there. You can’t really turn someone into a social worker who doesn’t already come with the passion and the desire to do the work.”

That said, compassion without competence is insufficient, Bailey said. “A good social worker has all three and then some.”

Jeffrey Steele is a freelance writer based in Chicago.

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