Non children's services social work in Ireland?

Galbin

I am considering going back to college to do social work. I already have a degree in Psychology and tons of work experience in the NFP sector. However, without a specific qualification, it seems I can't get the type of job I want. So, I was wondering if anyone could tell me about social work opportuunities in Ireland. I did some brief work with child and family services before, so I know I absolutely do not want to do that at all. Does Ireland have vacancies in medical social work, or social work with the homeless etc.? Or is it really just child and family social services in Ireland?

If not, I wonder is there any other area I'd be better off training in in order to move up in the NFP sector.

Thank you.

Mrs OBumble

I think - not 100% sure - that most people who work with the homeless are social-care qualified rather than social workers. Medical social work is probably affected by the recruitment embargo.

You could try contacting some of the elderly support organisations to see what they know about social work jobs with older people.

The other adult population that have contact with social professionals working on a legislated basis are of course prisoners. I'm not sure what these roles are called in Ireland - overseas I'm used to them being called probation officers.

lovelyjubbly

There are other branches in social work. Older People, Elder Abuse, Primary Care, Disabilities and Medical. If you do a masters in sw do your placement in a hospital, there are jobs in this area.

baby and crumble

I think you might find, OP, that social worker posts are few and far between these days, particularly if you don't want to work in family/ child services. Yes, you get occasional openings in medical SW, disability (VERY occasional) and the prison service. But mostly it's child protection. But even then there's a panel you have to get onto, and from what I hear it's really lengthy at the moment.

If you have experience already and a psychology qualification, I'd think about the areas you want to work in and look into masters in those areas. Like womens studies/ disability studies/ equality studies etc. Social work qualifications here will allow you to be employed as a social worker, but if that's not what you want, you'll swiftly find yourself overqualified, and many places that are looking for social care worker level employees won't touch you with a barge pole. (I speak from experience!!!)

LadyMayBelle

Hi OP.
From what I have seen, SW jobs outside Children and Family Services are few and far between; saying that because I did both my SW placements outside that realm (mental health and then hospice work). You need to have your finger on the pulse and network network network as so many jobs in the voluntary sector are word of mouth almost. I work in the voluntary sector in London now and the only way I found out about the job was because I was out walking one day and came across a Centre for kids with Disabilities; went home and googled it andfound a SW job in another area in that organisation.

Hospice work (not a huge amount in Ireland but they do emply SWs)
Prison work
Disability organsiations (voluntary ones like Brother of Charity and Enable Ireland, have SWs)
HSE hospital SWs (possibly embargoed)
Primary Care SW
Housing and Local Authorites do employ SWs, worth enquiring in your local authority
Places like Simon etc may well have one or two on the books but you needs to check links like Activelink for job vacancies, or the sites themselves
Organisations helping minority groups

k_t11

Hi,

Most medical jobs do come up through the panel (there isn't a HSE embargo on SW) but some do occasionally come up online. google social work jobs instead of looking at specific sites because I have found jobs aren't coming up on findajob/irishjobs when i search on their websites but are coming up when i google search them. Also be sure to get the Irish Independent on Thursday and Sunday as thats when they have a business supplement and sometimes jobs come up there but are not posted online. There are also jobs with the agencies as well but I haven't gone down that route so can't comment.

A Social Worker in homeless services is a Case Manager position (was told this when interviewed by Focus Ireland); keep an eye on the Focus Ireland website they are always recruiting and as was said before watch activelink.ie

Also I did a placement in Primary Care and it was fantastic! Absolutely anything under the sun can come up! But they are also few and far between!!