March is Professional Social Work Month

March is Professional Social Work Month. I have been a social worker since 1977.  To be honest the appeal of being a social worker was multi-fold.  At various times in my life I thought I wanted to be an attorney or a veterinarian.  Both service fields, in a way. Then I was set adrift.  The appeal of social work was to help people. To not be locked in an office. To be out and about in a community. To mix in all classes of society. To serve the underserved. To make a difference.

Since 1995, I have worked in a psychiatric prison. I had done medical social work, and community social work, but never what was considered clinical social work. I had wonderful teachers. And I discovered my niche in the social work world.

Working in the psychiatric prison had its plusses.  Fashion was not an issue.  There was no on call or weekend work, unless you wanted to work weekends, to make up work or time.  As the role evolved, we stopped doing night work.

I have always been task oriented, not time oriented. I am a workaholic. So, I do not care about the 40 hour week.  I rarely work less than 40 hours, even when I take time during the day for appointments. I am bad about taking vacation time. And I rarely use sick leave, although as I age, I use more and more.

I like my coworkers. I feel like I contribute to many of my patients' lives. I receive feed back that I do my work the way I am supposed to.  What more can I ask.  Every job has things that we do not like. I am human, every job I had was like that. I do what I can.

Social workers perform important work in many facets of life: child welfare, emergency assistance, medical settings as providers of resource, care navigators, discharge planners, financial assistance providers, service coordination providers.  Social workers do community justice work, community development work, self help and self awareness work. We are counselors, agency directors, and program administrators.  We do volunteer work in addition to our paid employment.

Social work is a very diverse field. It offers so many options. And so many rewards. I am thankful my profession allows me to minister to mankind.