Photo: Melanie Dallas, LPC, CEO of Highland Rivers Behavioral Health (photo courtesy of Highland Rivers)
by Melanie Dallas, LPC
If you’ve never met a social worker in person and have instead only seen them portrayed on TV, you may believe they are all hurried, harried and underpaid. Although there may be some truth to that, what is too often missing from popular portrayals of social workers are the very things that led most of them to become social workers in the first place: compassion, heart, and a desire to help people so strong they’ve chosen to make helping their life’s work.
As we recognize March as Social Work Month, I want to share some insights about this profession – one which, admittedly, no one chooses expecting to become wealthy – and the variety of ways social workers positively impact the lives of individuals, families and communities.
But to start with – as anyone in a helping profession will tell you – social work can be difficult work. When a social worker is “called in” – in a school, hospital, or other workplace – it is usually because someone needs help. And often, someone needs help because they have experienced something negative in their life.
As a result, a social worker’s first introduction to someone may be when that individual is in crisis, upset, angry, belligerent, grieving – in a mental or emotional states most of us would hope not to meet someone for the first time. And yet, a social worker always answers the call.
Becoming a social worker – by which I mean a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) – also requires a good deal of work. After completing a bachelor degree, someone who wants to become a social worker must earn a Master of Social Work (MSW) degree at an accredited college or university. There are several of these in Georgia, including Kennesaw State (which is in Highland Rivers’ service area), Georgia State, Clark Atlanta and University of Georgia, and…
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