There are many different working condition social workers. They work a standard 40 hour week, some work weekend and go to community event to meet with clients. Social work can be emotionally draining do to understaffing and heavy caseload and pressure from their agencies.

In the year 2000 social workers held 468,000 jobs. The majority of the jobs are located in state, county, or municipal government. Child, family, and school social workers held about 281,000 jobs. Medical and public health social workers held 104,000 of the jobs. Mental health and substance abuse social workers held 83,000 of the jobs. Employment is expected to grow faster then the average job.

There are two degrees available to become a social worker. There are the bachelor and masters degrees. A bachelor degree is the minimum requirement to enter the field. Some agencies ask that you have a degree in psychology or sociology. The masters degree is needed to work in the mental and health areas. Social workers also have to be licensed to enter field that related to the health field.

The social work field is expected to grow until the year 2010. The number of jobs in hospital will become larger because of older people leave families to stay in long-term facilities. Home health care is growing because hospital are now releasing people to go home earlier then in the past. Private social serves agencies will grow also, but not as fast as other sections. Agencies will start to look for lower-paid human service workers instead of the normal social worker. The substance abuse section will also grow faster than normal, because abusers are now being release into treatment centers instead of being put into jail.

Social workers are not the highest paid workers. Going back to what was stated in the beginning you must have the heart of helping people. In child, family, and school the middle fifty percent earn about $24,910 and $ 40,170. In the lowest percent tiles, social workers make $20,120. The top fifty percent make $50,280. In the Medical and public health social workers the middle fifty percent make $27,800 to $43,450. The lower ten percent make around $22,490. The top fifty percent make $53,160 a year. In the mental health and substance abuse the middle fifty percent make around $23,840 to $43,450. The lower ten percent make around $19,300 a year. The top fifty percent make $48,750.

Social workers are here for the people. They are here to help the people make the most of their lives. To help them find jobs, become a better person, to help them through the lose of a loved one or just to help them find their way.

Qualifications
Some of the basic qualities required of social workers are compassion, sensitivity and responsiveness to others’ problems and needs, and interpersonal skills. You should be driven by your general love of humanity and desire to help people improve their lives. Social workers must have excellent judgement, but they can’t be judgmental. They must also be resourceful and flexible. A bachelor’s degree in social work is the most common minimum requirement to qualify for a job as a social worker; however, majors in psychology, sociology and related fields may be sufficient to qualify for some entry level jobs, especially in small communities. All states and the District of Columbia have licensing certification or registration requirements regarding social work practice and the use of professional titles. A growing number of states have begun to place much emphasis on communication skills, professional ethics, and sensitivity for cultural diversity.

Compensations
Social workers derive a great deal of personal satisfaction from their jobs. They get to witness the resilience of the human spirit in action, which can be very rewarding.
They are able to watch their clients reach deep into themselves and find the ability to cope with their problems, and not just survive, but thrive. To know that you have contributed to another persons recovering a sense of purpose and self-esteem is very gratifying. A social worker with a bachelor of social work degree can expect to start at a salary of around $25,000 to $30,000. Those with a master’s degree around $40,000 and make an average of approximately $50,000. Those with doctorates command in the area of $75,000 a year. The top 10% of social workers earn this salary or more. The earnings depend on the type of work, geographic factors, and employer. In addition to salaries, most employers offer other benefits such as healthcare insurance, paid vacation days, and sick leave. There may be additional benefits, as well, depending on where you work.

Hazards
Although helping people is very rewarding, things don’t always work out the way you expect. In spite of your best efforts clients may revert to substance abuse, be forced out of a job, or die of a terminal illness. Those who are employed by school systems, hospitals, the government, or other institutions are often frustrated by bureaucratic red tape. Most of the time these agencies are under staffed and under funded. In addition, even when you can help, it is emotionally draining to confront life’s misfortunes.

There are many different working condition social workers. They work a standard 40 hour week, some work weekend and go to community event to meet with clients. Social work can be emotionally draining do to understaffing and heavy caseload and pressure from their agencies.

In the year 2000 social workers held 468,000 jobs. The majority of the jobs are located in state, county, or municipal government. Child, family, and school social workers held about 281,000 jobs. Medical and public health social workers held 104,000 of the jobs. Mental health and substance abuse social workers held 83,000 of the jobs. Employment is expected to grow faster then the average job.

There are two degrees available to become a social worker. There are the bachelor and masters degrees. A bachelor degree is the minimum requirement to enter the field. Some agencies ask that you have a degree in psychology or sociology. The masters degree is needed to work in the mental and health areas. Social workers also have to be licensed to enter field that related to the health field.

The social work field is expected to grow until the year 2010. The number of jobs in hospital will become larger because of older people leave families to stay in long-term facilities. Home health care is growing because hospital are now releasing people to go home earlier then in the past. Private social serves agencies will grow also, but not as fast as other sections. Agencies will start to look for lower-paid human service workers instead of the normal social worker. The substance abuse section will also grow faster than normal, because abusers are now being release into treatment centers instead of being put into jail.

Social workers are not the highest paid workers. Going back to what was stated in the beginning you must have the heart of helping people. In child, family, and school the middle fifty percent earn about $24,910 and $ 40,170. In the lowest percent tiles, social workers make $20,120. The top fifty percent make $50,280. In the Medical and public health social workers the middle fifty percent make $27,800 to $43,450. The lower ten percent make around $22,490. The top fifty percent make $53,160 a year. In the mental health and substance abuse the middle fifty percent make around $23,840 to $43,450. The lower ten percent make around $19,300 a year. The top fifty percent make $48,750.

Social workers are here for the people. They are here to help the people make the most of their lives. To help them find jobs, become a better person, to help them through the lose of a loved one or just to help them find their way.

People have unconditional value and are inherently worthy of respect. The idea that there is a general quality behind all differences in ability, value, and circumstance, that qualifies people as having worth and value, is the foundation for the concepts of human rights. The United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) states that, “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights,” and may claim “equality of opportunity” and “equality before the law.” As social workers, the belief that all people have unconditional value is the basis for other social work values. Because people regardless of their situations have a right to self-determination and equal justice, and they deserve basic respect. Social workers may not approve of their clients’ behavior, may believe a client is an inadequate or selfish parent or spouse, or even a dysfunctional person. Still, the social worker must value the client and show basic respect.

To respect the dignity and worth of each individual means that social workers recognize the humanity within each person regardless of how that person may be judged by others. Social workers are reminded that there are times and circumstances when one individual, or a group of individuals have been judged to be less than fully humans. Social workers must resist accepting such judgments, and must insist that individual clients be treated with dignity and respect in recognition of our common humanity.

An example of social workers need for allocating dignity and worth of every person is if a social worker has opposing views of their clients. If a woman chooses to stay in an abusive relationship and has no children, regardless of the social worker wanting her to leave the situation, then the social worker has to respect the ideas and beliefs of the client about what she thinks is best for herself. The social worker may want to encourage the woman to leave, but the social worker needs to make her aware of the pro?s and con?s of staying in that relationship and allow her to make her own decision. Once the woman has decided what she wants to do, then the social worker should respect her choice.
Dignity and worth of a person is necessary in order to establish social justice. Justice refers to fairness. It is often misconstrued to mean simply equality or humane generosity. However, the concept of justice is much more complicated. The universal recognized symbol for justice, a blindfolded woman holding a balancing scale, symbolizes justice as an objective and fair balancing of competing interests. Social justice aims for the good of the whole community. It requires people to inspire, work with, and organize with others to accomplish together a work of justice.

Friedrich Hayek, who believed that social justice is either a virtue or it is not, coined the term “social justice.” If it is, it can be ascribed only to the reflective and deliberate acts of individual person. However, the term is not ascribed to the individuals, but to the social systems. The term ?social justice? is used to denote a regulative principle of order (Novak, 2000).

Social workers often work with people whose rights have been violated or threatened, whose privacy has been invaded, or whose basic needs are not being met. The most common issues that arise in social work practice include: racism, elitism, sexism, heterosexism, ageism, and handicapism. All of these populations have been discriminated against, are those perceived as less productive, and hence disruptors of the economic order. So they unquestionably need social workers to speak for them in the political realm.

Social justice takes many forms. An example of social worker advocating for social justice is social workers addressing issues such as: poverty and the needs of the poor and working poor within a specific community. The poor, and the working poor, deserve special attention, as poverty cuts across all boundaries and defies any attempt we may make to categorize the poor. People are poor because they lack economic resources needed to meet their basic needs, and they are invisible to many citizens. Advancing social justice means being involved at a variety of levels to create awareness for individuals to move out of poverty and to increase their access to needed economic resources. Since it can be agreed that an underlying bias against the poor exist within our society, advancing social justice also means advocating for the poor in each arena of social work practice.
In conclusion, social workers will need to pay close attention to their values with the advancing of the profession. There has been a decline in social workers in the pubic social services. Such shift suggests important questions about the mission of social work and its value base. To what extent should social work place primary emphasis on the poor and oppressed as opposed to social action, such as advocacy on behalf of the least advantage?

Certain value issues will continue to permeate the future of social work. Although some of these issues will change in response to new trends and developments, the fundamental issues related to social workers’ values will persist, such as the worth and dignity of people and social justice. Therefore, it will always be essential for social workers to examine these issues, which in the end form the very foundation of the profession.
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