Profession social worker. Specialty "Social work": who to work with? Choice of profession

Since ancient times, people have lived in society. Human nature has the ability to empathize with other people. Different religions of the world teach mutual help and encourage helping each other. Over time, groups of people have emerged in society who need help and care more than others. For example, such groups include people with congenital disabilities or those who have become disabled, accidentally (surviving a catastrophe), the elderly, lonely (having no relatives).

In the modern world, in a number of countries social programs are being created and revised, where it is clearly defined how much, to whom and what kind of assistance should be provided. The people working in this area are social workers.

In old age, a person becomes less active. This is mainly due to the deterioration of health, with a change in his financial situation. Therefore, older people need more attention, help, and sometimes care.

A social specialist must be competent and savvy, as well as:

• understand the law;
• follow job instructions;
• impeccably use the rules of labor protection;
• have knowledge of safety;
• adhere to hygiene standards;
• comply with fire safety regulations.

In addition to the above, a social worker must know the basics of the psychology of the elderly. You yourself need to be patient, enduring, restrained, and, if possible, win over the ward to yourself. If necessary, you need to know and be able to provide first aid.

Getting started, first of all, it is necessary to identify among the population in the entrusted territory, those people who need help with housekeeping and increased attention to care.

Responsibilities of a social worker

What does a social worker do and do? The social worker has the following responsibilities:

• arranges financial assistance;
• receives prescriptions for medicines;
• buys products and always brings checks for reporting;
• monitors the well-being of the ward;
• can cook dinner and make tea;
• makes sure that the house has water and heat;
• delivers and picks up clothes from dry cleaning;
• pay utility bills;
• accompanies, if necessary, to cultural events;
• helps with the preparation of various documents.

A conscientious and attentive social worker, an elderly person will always look forward to.

How to become a social worker

In youth, it is difficult to make the right choice of profession. If you find it easier to work with a personal computer than with people, then there is no point in studying to be a social worker. In this area, the following qualities will be useful: sympathy for an outsider, empathy, giving people their warmth and affection, care. Intolerance and discrimination are completely unacceptable. It is necessary to respect people of any faith confession, even you do not understand.

According to the results of the exam, enrollment in the university takes place. Getting the education of a social worker, students without fail study sociology, psychology, pedagogy, juvenology, and other specialized subjects.

A very important part of the training is the passage of practice, where from all sides there is an assessment of what is happening in your life. This is a real opportunity to understand whether you can work in this area: whether you find a common language with people of a certain category, whether you manage to get out of critical situations with dignity.

Do not miss:

During employment, it is not so much work experience that is important after graduating from a university, but your communication skills, the ability to resolve conflict situations. It is very difficult to force a person to do what he does not want, does not accept and does not understand. Therefore, working with the human factor always requires a lot of patience and strength.

Today our attention will be presented to the specialty "Social work". Whom to work on graduation from the university? In fact, it is very difficult to answer this question. After all, even many teachers cannot unambiguously answer students what lies ahead for them. Nevertheless, for some, building a career in this field is quite interesting and even successful. Unfortunately, there are few alternatives here. Here is such a cruel specialty "Social work". Where to work after graduation? Let's try to figure this out as soon as possible. After all, there are not so many vacancies offered, although the positions are, as a rule, constantly empty.

Social worker

Of course, the first place that can only be advised is work as a social worker. The thing is that this vacancy is not particularly popular in Russia, although it plays an important role for society.

You graduated with a degree in Social Work. Who to work? As already mentioned - a social worker. What to do here? You will have to help people in need as well as identify and register them. In other words, to be in the public service for "surveillance" of the social development of the population.

A social worker is not the most promising position. This has been shown in practice. After all, becoming a boss will not work - for this you must have connections. But everyone can become an "ordinary" employee. Only the level of salaries, taking into account responsibility and emotional burden, is very, very small.

Politics

Work can also be in politics. The thing is that many graduates of this specialty have great prospects for personal growth. And this, like nothing else, will help them achieve success in politics.

In practice, to be honest, this situation is very rare. After all, the standard description of the specialty does not include any mention of political activity. As a rule, graduates are told that they will be able to get a job only as an ordinary social worker at some enterprise and work there almost all their lives.

So, do not think that "Social Work" is a sentence. You can easily become a successful politician. Only for this you will have to make a lot of effort. But the result will be able to please you in every sense.

teacher

Such a vacancy as a social teacher is very common today. To be honest, this position is most often found in kindergartens. There, graduates of the specialty "Social work" often become educators. Why is it so?

The thing is that such employees, as a rule, very quickly identify social problems in kids and their parents. And if necessary, they are registered as a dysfunctional family. This, in turn, helps eliminate problems and improve the atmosphere. And, of course, it has a positive effect on the child.

But social work with children is not particularly popular among graduates and young employees. The thing is that here you will not be able to receive high wages. Yes, and with career growth, things are very tight. Thus, only those who "have a soul" for this profession are able to work as a (social) teacher.

Nurse

You graduated with a degree in Social Work. Who to work after graduation? For example, such graduates have the opportunity to work as a professional nurse for the disabled. The prospect is not the most radiant, but this vacancy is almost always empty.

However, not everyone agrees to work as a nurse. Especially when you consider that, again, you will receive low wages, but during the working day you will have to give all your best. Often, nurses look like a squeezed lemon by the end of the week.

Therefore, young graduates are not particularly interested in this vacancy. They are more interested in the vacancy "dormitory teacher". Only in practice, people with great life experience are accepted for such a position. Usually this vacancy is occupied exclusively by women after 50 years. So young graduates have very little chance of getting this job.

Psychologist

A sociologist-psychologist is another place that is available to graduates. But here things are a little better than with previous vacancies. The thing is that a sociologist-psychologist can work both in a public institution and in a private one. In the first case, you will be in the civil service, but your salary will be meager. And there is a lot of work.

In the second case, you will not have a civil service in the length of service, but the level of wages will be several times higher. In addition, the clientele is also different in these two places. In the first case, you will most likely have to work with dysfunctional families, and in the second, you will serve elite clients.

Of course, everyone chooses what is best for him. Only now, in practice, it has been proven that a sociologist-psychologist is quite often chosen as a private job, rather than a public one. And this is understandable - career growth is very important for young employees, as well as the level of wages, which are not satisfied in state institutions.

The medicine

You have a specialty "Social work" written in your diploma. Who to work? For example, in addition to all the listed vacancies, you can also work in medical institutions. And here there are several options for the development of events. Which ones? Let's figure it out.

For example, graduates of our current specialty can work as a so-called social health worker. This vacancy implies support and assistance to sick people. For example, work with alcohol and drug addicts, as well as with people with disabilities of various categories. This is far from the best place for young and promising university graduates to work.

You can also work as a psychologist in a medical institution. This is a better place. Usually it is for this position that employees are hired for whom it is important to work in medicine, but at the same time have a degree in sociology.

Conclusion

Today we figured out what kind of specialty "Social work", who to work with, and also what places are chosen by graduates most often. To be honest, in practice it turns out that very few people work with a diploma in this area.

Often it is enough just to get at least some higher education in order to work in one place or another. For example, sociologists are very often found as managers, waiters and cashiers. That is, with this diploma, you can find a job wherever you want. But in most cases, only an ordinary employee.

Social work has come a long way from monastic charity to an academic specialty. Today it is an opportunity to combine knowledge, professional methods and personal qualities - becoming someone who supports, comforts, teaches, restores faith in oneself and helps to change life, whether it is the life of one person or a whole group.

Demand

Payability

Competition

entry barrier

prospects

Help evolution

People began to help each other since ancient times, because not everyone can hunt mammoths! The ability to feel empathy for another is inherent in human nature. Yes, and world religions teach to help each other and encourage mutual assistance.

To help means to support on an emotional, material and social level. Over time, groups of people have emerged who need help more than others. A person can fall into such a group from birth (congenital disability) or end up in it unexpectedly (survivor after a disaster).

With the development of mankind and the humanization of the ideas guiding them, views on how, how much and to whom to help were repeatedly revised. So, if once in England poverty was considered a crime and one could get into a workhouse as a punishment for it, now it is a phenomenon that can be successfully combated, and many countries create entire programs to combat poverty (but not the poor).

Social work is traditional and continues to be not very highly paid. However, this is gradually changing, and today men are happy to join the ranks of professional assistants.

Requirements and contraindications

It's hard to do when you're young. Draw in your mind a picture of "I'm at work." How do you see yourself? If high earnings are at the forefront for you, if you think that “every man for himself”, that “everyone has what he deserves in life”, if it is easier for you to work with a computer than with people, then it will not be easy for you to adapt to the requirements of this profession.

It is difficult for a social worker without the following qualities:

• the ability to sincerely sympathize with other people;
• faith in social justice;
• desire to influence the life of their country;
• ability to work in a team;
• interest in personal and social processes;
• ability to work in a crisis situation;
• ability to use criticism effectively;
• belief that words can change a lot.

But I consider racism, chauvinism or any other views that allow intolerance or discrimination to be absolutely unacceptable in a social worker. You can belong to any confession, but you must be able to respect those who belong to another, even alien or incomprehensible to you. At the same time, I do not believe that you can be a good specialist without loving your job. Childfree will have a hard time working at a school, and an anti-abortionist will work hard at a family planning center for young people.

Therefore, it is very good that social work includes a very wide range of activities. Social workers in Russia are employed in various fields - these are:

• social Security;
• work with children, adolescents and their families;
• work with disabled people, both adults and children;
• work with drug and alcohol addicts.

Such a wide range of opportunities in social work is one of the main advantages of this profession. In it, everyone can find something to their liking.

Admission and study

Admission to the university is based on the results of the Unified State Examination. Requirements for admission to the budget stream, evening and correspondence departments may vary. It all depends on the particular educational institution.

The profession of a social worker in Russia is still young: academic training in this specialty started in 1991. The curriculum is standardized with respect to foreign methods adopted in Europe, the USA, Israel - so it makes sense to immediately start studying where such education has a longer tradition, especially if in the future you do not exclude the possibility of continuing your studies abroad. And if it was not possible to enter the day department, enter the evening or correspondence department. Then you can transfer - and you will not spend a whole year waiting.

The theoretical part of the training includes compulsory subjects - mathematics, national history, a foreign language - and profile disciplines. The future social worker studies psychology, sociology, pedagogy, juvenology, the basics of counseling work with an individual and a group, etc., depending on the chosen specialization.

Every student is required to complete an internship. There are educational, industrial and research practices; the number of hours required for working out is determined by the university. The student finds a place for internship himself, but in the educational part he will most likely be provided with a list of organizations cooperating with the faculty.

For me, for example, practice was the most important part of my studies. After all, what are lectures and seminars? Listened, read, learned and passed. Some of the teachers teach the subject in an interesting way, some not so much, and as a result - a column of numbers in the student's record book.

Practice is another matter. There you deal with living people, and not only do you learn to work with them, but you are also evaluated and checked from all sides. Check and management, and colleagues, and customers. A formal test in practice does not yet mean that it was a success. After all, this is a real chance to check: do I find a common language with this category of the population, do I cope with work, do I learn from my mistakes, can I think creatively, how do I get out of crisis situations? And the most important question - do I see myself working in such an organization after receiving a diploma?

I remember how upset I was when I received a referral to practice in the geriatric department. I did not want to work with mentally ill elderly people at all. I wanted to go to the barricades - to the center for helping drug addicts or victims of violence. But, at the end of the practice, when we said goodbye to our wards and listened to their wishes for success and words of gratitude, I did not feel either boredom or irritation. And now I have a completely different attitude to working with older people. I hope someday I will have the opportunity to participate in an interesting project in this area. Therefore, do not forget that practice teaches what you yourself are ready to learn.

Employment and colleagues

The main difficulty that all graduates face when applying for a job is the lack of experience. But do not rush to despair.

It is important to remember that social work is an area where your personal talents are critical. The main tool in the work is not even your knowledge, but you yourself. Your communication skills, emotional intelligence, the ability to act responsibly in your own way, the ability to resolve conflicts, think creatively - these are your main assets. When writing a resume, keep in mind that such facts as participation in various student projects and volunteer activities work for you - all this increases your value in the eyes of a potential employer.

One of the easiest ways to get a job after graduation is to apply to the place where you did your internship (assuming you liked it there, of course). There is every chance that the management will prefer a person who is already familiar with the specifics of the work and the team to someone from the outside.

In general, in this area it is necessary to be able to communicate with colleagues, maintain connections that will come in handy later. Suddenly you have a professional supervision? Keep in mind that a roommate can give valuable advice, and a casual acquaintance at a conference can give an idea for a whole project. In social work, colleagues are not the same as colleagues in the office of a law firm or in a factory. Here you can't work together and not know what's going on with your roommate - and when you find out, you can't help but react to it.

And if you ran away from an alcoholic in a dysfunctional area together, called security together to calm a raging visitor, and sat silently together after your client committed suicide, this is not forgotten - and often this relationship lasts a lifetime.

Clients

You are trying to get the person to do something new. For example, do not beat your children. Naturally, he perceives this as a gross interference in his family life and expresses dissatisfaction in every possible way. As a result, you ... may be called to court to testify or for an examination.

The law restricts you. You cannot take any action if your client does not agree to it. For example, a 10-year-old girl, usually active and cheerful, begins to come to school in warm, out-of-season clothes, with dirty hair, behaves stiffly, and does not participate in games. This behavior may be a symptom of domestic sexual abuse. But until she says that someone did something bad to her, nothing can be investigated. Even if you understand how it will be better and what needs to be done for this or that family, you can only offer. To offer a woman to leave her husband who beats her. Encourage the alcoholic to go to treatment. Offer to transfer a hard-to-learn child to a specialized class.

Among your duties may be playing with mentally retarded children, visiting disadvantaged areas, communicating with officials from the city hall, policemen, psychiatrists and teachers ... The main disappointment is when you realize that those whom you so wanted to save and support are not welcome at all. They treat you with suspicion and sometimes with anger. In their eyes, you are a representative of the state, and they have a lot of claims against this state (otherwise they would not be among those in need of social protection). An orphan may well steal a thing from your bag, and a retired veteran may swear. This does not mean that they do not need help, quite the contrary ... But just try to make them accept it!

People will always be dissatisfied with the material aspect of assistance - simply because any figure, no matter how large it is, is not the largest. In this area, you can operate within a certain budget, which, most likely, was not approved by you, and which, of course, is not enough. Therefore, your main capital in work is something that cannot be measured by numbers: respect, sympathy, support, sincere interest.

Like any person, a social worker is pleased with success. When you work on something for a long time, hard, tedious, and suddenly - once! - and the poor fellow, who was injured in the terrorist attack and was afraid to ride the bus, can already drive 3 stops. Or a single mother does not buy a fifth gold bracelet for benefits, but pays for a circle at school for her child. When you are involved in changes in the lives of other people, and these changes are for the better for them, this is success. When you feel that you have helped someone, “gnawed through” a difficult conflict, supported, comforted - in general, did the job - this is the best emotional “dope”.

***

And friends and acquaintances are also pleasing, who at first did not believe that words could change something, but now they know for sure (from me) and tell others. And none of them will say that a social worker is an unnecessary profession. By the way, it is developing rapidly. Even the commercial sector is beginning to understand the importance of such specialists and is using them in the field of organizational consulting. The value of social capital is gradually beginning to be understood all over the world. Promoting its growth in your own country is not an easy, but honorable, and most importantly, exciting task.

Who is a social worker? What are his responsibilities? What do you need to know to become a social worker? You will find answers to these and other questions in this article. So, a person who provides social and domestic services to the elderly and disabled is a social worker.

Duties

The duties of such a specialist include a huge number of works, namely:

Provision of social services guaranteed by the state and legislation;

Strict adherence to the established schedule of visits;

Identification of older people and persons with limited physical abilities who need social assistance;

Informing this group of the population about the rights and obligations, the conditions for the provision of state-guaranteed social services;

Conducting a survey among the elderly and disabled in a certain area;

Participation in the preparation of documentation for pensioners;

Submission of their proposals regarding the improvement of living conditions and services to the population;

Establishing contacts with relatives and neighbors of wards in order to involve them in helping a pensioner or a disabled person;

Maintaining contact with the doctor of the wards;

Observance of absolute confidentiality;

Making purchases with the money of wards with the provision of a report on expenses, etc.

Addition

In general, the duties of a social worker may differ. It depends on where exactly he works, with what people, in what city and region. In some cases, the social worker must also deliver the necessary medicines and other goods to the home, pay for utilities with the help of the ward, and provide assistance and assistance in cleaning the premises. If necessary, such an employee should organize housing repairs, treatment of the site near the house, funeral services, and so on. In situations where a pensioner or a disabled person becomes ill, a social worker must provide first aid, so it is very important that he has the necessary skills for this.

First, the social worker enjoys general rights. Its activities are based on the legislation of the Russian Federation on social services, internal labor regulations and job descriptions provided by the social protection authority. In general terms, such a specialist has the right to receive truthful and complete information about the ward and his family members, including information about their state of health; involvement of relatives to provide assistance to a disabled person or a pensioner (if this assistance is beyond the scope of the duties of the social service); the use of personal documents of the served person in order to fill out the necessary paperwork.

Responsibility

The social worker is responsible for various violations of labor discipline. He must be loyal to the wards and understand their situation. You need to be prepared for anything: for poor health and other problems. A social worker may be held liable for untimely or poor-quality medical care, denial of it, and other violations.

The social worker profession is noble, but often thankless. Only a psychologically stable person who is ready to do good for a very a modest fee.

What are the responsibilities of such a specialist? Where can he go to work? Is there any specific training required for him?

How to become a social worker

To get this profession, it is not at all necessary to graduate from a university or technical school. The competition among applicants in this field of activity is small, and employers are usually happy to accept those who wish to work in the state without qualifying "crusts".

In such circumstances, training is limited to short courses, less often to several weeks of internship under the supervision of an experienced curator.

You need to apply either to state organizations (local comprehensive centers for social services for the population, centers for helping families and children), or to some structures.

Sometimes a social worker can find a relatively successful job in a private nursing home, in a paid hospice.

Of course, you can learn if you want. This specialization is available in some medical academies, in humanitarian universities

Responsibilities of a social worker

Responsibilities are determined by the institution in which the person works and what position he has.

The most common case is social work with home visits to clients. An elderly person who is not capable of full self-service, or a family in which a disabled child is brought up, can act as a client.

Social workers for pensioners and adults with disabilities:

• bring products to order;
• tidy up the apartment;
• prepare or deliver hot food;
• help to get and take the necessary medicines;
• pay utility bills.

A specialist helps parents of children with disabilities not so much by participating in household chores as by giving recommendations. Trained employees give the children therapeutic massage, conduct developmental classes for them.

Social workers who do not go home are responsible for the implementation of any programs directly on the basis of the center - for example, they run interest clubs for the elderly, are responsible for the art therapy program, and organize a school for parents of children with mental disabilities.

The most important advantage of the profession is its humanistic value. A social worker can confidently say that his life is serving people, and not meaningless earning and eating money. However, few people manage to endure such hard work.

Not everyone knows how to overcome disgust (ask yourself if you are able to change diapers for a bedridden paraplegic or wipe the saliva of a child with severe cerebral palsy).

Not every social worker has enough physical strength to regularly shuttle between supermarkets and deliver heavy bags of groceries to different parts of the city.

Social work involves constant stress.

Sick and weak clients are sometimes capricious. They do not always say a heartfelt "thank you" for help.