Masters in Social Work Jobs
Master of Social Work Jobs
There is a vast universe of job and career tracks for MSW graduates that only begin to develop in the classroom and field work environments. Social workers provide services to the elderly, to children, adolescents, and families; they work with community organizations and advocate for the dispossessed within public agencies and governmental bodies. The collection of jobs we have assembled here is a small sampling of the opportunities that exist in the public sector, the private sector, and in organizations that fall somewhere in between.
1. Medical Social Worker assists and counsels home health patients and families with health related financial, social and emotional concerns. This work may involve varying levels of medical oversight according to the physician's orders, especially for elderly patients who are living at home and unable to track medication intake, etc.
2. Addiction Counselor works with addicts and alcoholics in a group environment, providing support for counseling sessions and individual guidance as needed. Many workers in this environment spend extensive hours with family members, who may be profoundly confused by the addiction experience of a family member and the impact it has had on everyone around him or her.
3. Program Director is a job title in social work that one reaches by virtue of experience as well as education. MSW students who focus on program administration will get there faster than clinical social workers, but it is still experience that matters in managing a volatile service population, continuous budget fluctuation, and the variety of forms social assistance can take.
4. Case Manager can be a term for a working counselor in a social services agency, for an administrative worker that handles the paper flow associated with ongoing treatment, or an individual that manages the intake of social work clients as they walk in or are brought in off the street. Case work is usually a defined role in larger agencies or programs.
5. Hospice Worker is a role for a MSW graduate in a facility where social workers are needed to work alongside medical staff for placement, family issues, maintaining relationships with community based agencies, and generally acting as liaison between medical management, families, and public health organizations that are involved in the service cycle.
6. Mental Health Counselor works with individuals who are in need of counseling due to emotional or psychological difficulties. Often these problems are tied to and inseparable from addiction, but it take a willing participant for addiction rehabilitation. Mental health counseling is another field that involves working with families who are concerned about the affected individual, or who are being affected by the individual's behavior.
7. Hospital Intervention: Many public health hospitals have a social worker on staff to work with the families who may bring in someone suffering from addiction or nutritional problems, or general neglect. Family intervention can often be the first step towards recovery in situations where a health problem is being ignored in the household.
8. Foster Care Clinical Worker: A trained child and family clinical social worker is an important asset within a foster care agency where placement issues can be complex and the decision making often occurring in a pressurized atmosphere. Foster care clinicians work with placement homes and with the children themselves to try and bring a semblance of order to the child's life.
9. Assisted Living Services: Many operators for these facilities recruit MSW graduates to manage the social services aspects of managing a long term living environment for the elderly. The job description may include counseling for those suffering from emotional or psychological problems, group activities or meetings, education, and community relations.
10. Rehabilitation Counselor works with individuals to help them back to a productive life and a normal social environment when they have been coping with personal, social, and vocational difficulties that result from birth defects, illness, disease, accidents, or the stress of daily life.
