social worker jobs and dangers?

lightspeed

Hi all

Im at a point where after years of working in office based roles and lots of college, I have decent qualifications in areas such as business and accounting.

However, im finishing up in my current job and considering continuing education to become a social worker down the line.

As applications for courses i would need to do have since closed, It would be 2 to 3 years before i could get the qualifications i need to meet the minimum criteria.

I'd like to find out more of the daily life of a social worker. Also being a male and with such tight competition for social work jobs, im wondering how realistic my chances would be of finding work as a social worker?

Also as title suggests, im curious as to what protection if any is given to social workers in Ireland?

Like if your knocking on the door of people who may be mentally unstable and/ or on drugs whilst presenting the possibility of taking away that persons child, it seems like there could be a high risk of assault or worse.

Are there garda escorts for such cases? do social workers make visits in groups of two or more?

Loveinapril

There are tonnes of different types of social workers- maternity, fostering, adoption, probation, addiction, mental health, prison, children in care, aftercare, child protection, medical, elderly etc.

What you have mentioned regarding child protection is a common misconception but social workers do not have the right to remove children from the care of their parents. A court order is sought and the gardai are the only ones allowed to remove a child. The social workers are there to take the child into the care of Tusla. It is always done as a last resort and the parents will often be aware of the possibilities because of the long process and assessment that preceeded it.

lightspeed

Loveinapril wrote: »

There are tonnes of different types of social workers- maternity, fostering, adoption, addiction, mental health, child protection, medical, elderly etc.

What you have mentioned regarding child protection is a common misconception but social workers do not have the right to remove children from the care of their parents. A court order is sought and the gardai are the only ones allowed to remove a child. The social workers are there to take the child into the care of Tusla. It is always done as a last resort and the parents will often be aware of the possibilities because of the long process and assessment that preceeded it.

Hi thank you for your reply.

If i did go down the route of qualifying as a social work, I would be interested in areas other than child protection, its just my understanding is that, that is were there are most jobs.

So from the above my understanding is that the gardai are the party responsible for removing the child from the household upon the granting of a court order to do so.

However, I assume there must be quite a bit of danger at the initial process when social services are involved.

Like for example, lets say my team leader tells me we got a call about a child in a household where the father is violent and often under the influence of alcohol or drugs and you need to visit the house to investigate. In this scenario, I would imagine when the social worker knocks on the door and introduces themselves and the purpose of the visit, isnt there a significant risk the person will react with anger and violence towards the social worker?

Is the above a realistic scenario and would you be left on your own to handle such cases?

Psychology is also an interest of mine and i feel it would be beneficial to gain experience working with children and other areas including those with disabilities and intellectual difficulties.

Perhaps also a misconception, but upon qualifying i would be a male in his early thirties and im assuming many other applicants would be younger college graduates, some with experience and the majority probably female.

Given that a social worker working with children might involve close contact with teenage girls, struggling mothers etc, Im weary that there might be a consensus that putting a male in such a position is perceived more high risk that hiring a female and thus my chances of employment may be relatively low.

The above is just a blind concern of mine but given that there are so few males employed as social workers, it's a valid point of concern.

Apparently, from reading the below article the hiring panels are mostly male yet only 17% of social workers employed in Ireland are male. Its also only 20% in UK.

Is it just generally a career that is not well marketed to males and not considered as a career suitable for males or is there some discrimination against males being employed in such roles?

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/fewer-male-social-workers-leads-to-gender-bias-says-tcd-academic-1.2543216

Loveinapril

Women tend to be in the higher percentages of people who find themselves in a caring profession, so social work is no different.

In relation to challenging behaviours, risk assessments are carried out on a regular basis when dealing with clients. First contact with people is made over the phone. You would aim to build a rapport with the clients, and ensure they know that you are there to support them/ their child. The assessments are done to get an idea of what help or supports they may need to allow them to better cope. If it is deemed unsafe for you to go to their home at the start, you could conduct meetings at the office. Most people don't want social work involvement in their families lives but understand it's purpose. Assessments end at some point and for most, that means social workers go away if you do what they want/ need.

As part of the masters, you do placements so you would get a feel for the different areas and also learn what it is like 'on the ground'.

lightspeed

Can you advise what the general working hours are like?

I've see jobs advertised at 37 hours a week but when i look at videos from USA and UK, social workers talk how they ending up working longs hours due to understaffing and burnout is not uncommon.

So in reality what hours can a social worker expect to worker?

As you mentioned, there are different areas of social work so this may differ between different areas, for working in childcare for example, do you work 37 hours or near enough or is it much, much more?

Loveinapril

I'm not a social worker but most I have worked alongside work regular 9am- 5pm hours with a bit of flexibility. But they are based out of offices, as opposed to prisons, hospitals, residentials, etc.

Burnout is common in most caring sectors. There are huge case loads for social workers and it is really stressful so you have to be prepared for all of that. Self care is really important.

lightspeed

Loveinapril wrote: »

I'm not a social worker but most I have worked alongside work regular 9am- 5pm hours with a bit of flexibility. But they are based out of offices, as opposed to prisons, hospitals, residentials, etc.

Burnout is common in most caring sectors. There are huge case loads for social workers and it is really stressful so you have to be prepared for all of that. Self care is really important.

Id imagine there are huge case loads, hence why im curious how they could realistically work 9 to 5 without having to pop back to the office and finish documenting the case they are working on.

In financial service sector where im working at the moment, you roll off a job and if there is work left to finish which there usually is then you do it at home or stay late and even work weekends.

Im guessing though that working in the health sector you probably are kept plenty busy throughout the day but not expected to work in excess of your contract hours to get work finished.

Im open to correction on that though.

Elizabeth Smith

Sometimes you have to stay behind/work extra hours but you generally get them back..the extra hours worked would mostly apply to child protection social work.

Working as a medical social worker or within the community it usually is a 9-5 shift, Mon-Fri.