General opinions on social workers?

I'm a junior in high school and considering having a career as a social worker. I've been offered an intership with one in a city close by, but I'm not entirely sure if I should do it.





Oh and did I mention that my parents are COMPLETELY against this whole social work thing? They won't tell me exactly why, but they don't want me to be a social worker.





I was just wondering what your opinion on social workers were and/or why I should NOT be one...

General opinions on social workers?
First off, one of the best ways for you to see if YOU want to consider social work is to do the internship. It will give you a good beginning feel to evaluate for yourself what social work is and what being a social worker is like.





I would encourage you to have the conversation with your parents to understand why they are completely against it.





Some possible reasons or myths


1) Myth: it is all about taking children out of the home - Reality - while child welfare is one area that social workers work in - it is not actually the largest area of social work practice - most social workers are actually therapists. Also social work is primarily about keeping families together - kids are removed ONLY when they are in danger of abuse and often this is temporary as parents work on addressing the issues causeing abuse.


2) Myth: Social workers don't make money - Reality in compared to other helping professions with similar level degrees - social workers actually make more money BA level 20-40 and MA level 40-60 as starting salaries. If you compare to other fields like business or medicine obviously this is less


3) Myth: social workers have few career options - Reality social workers have more career choices as the socail work degree is the most versitile in terms of populations, settings, and type of work.


4) Myth: Social work is dangerous (usually because social workers go into dangerous neiborhoods and take kids out of the home). Reality - there can be danger however when removing kids you actually have the police with you, and as said previously this is not the major focus of social work.





I think you should not be a social worker if you don't care about people, poverty, social justice, improving the lives of all people.





DA
Reply:First off, you %26amp; only you will live your life as you see fit. It is your future, regardless of who wants what.


All is that is asked of you, upon completion, do not become a yes sir. Intrepret the law as it is written and uphold it your upmost ability. Do not uphold at your convenience for personnal gain or to please those above you.
Reply:I can't imagine why your parents wouldn't want you to get into social work.


Well, maybe they are just trying to protect you. Those who need social workers are usually in a hard place..all kinds of places..in their lives that your parents may want to shelter you from experiencing.


But if you are compelled to do social work, then there is a very special and giving quality about you, and I would hope they could support you in this decision and just give you solid advice on how to protect your own emotions from what you might experience.


Whatever you decide, do what's right for you.


I wish you much success.
Reply:I got taken away from a social worker, from my house. They want to do whats best, i guess. that's cool that you want to be a social worker, it means your a good person, caring about stuff like that. I once wanted to be a social worker, also.
Reply:I worked with many social workers at a residential school for severe physical handicapped youths. We had a special ed school K-12. Many fo the kids were in wheelchairs and needed nursing services, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy etc.





It was the Social Workers responsibility to ensure that the services were delivered and resulted in measurable gains. They also chaired the meetings and wrote reports to inform the parents of problems and progress of their child. Overall they were to watch out for the child's rights and make sure that they were taken care of as best was possible.





I got along very well with all of them. They were professional people and tried to be helpful whenever the could. They also acted as liaison to the hometown school system where the child lived. Each Social Worker had about 20 kids in their case load.





These children were mostly afflicted with birth defects, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, lesch nyhan, Smith lemmi opitz, muscular dystrophy, etc. But we also had adolescent head injury, spinal cord injury or brain injury caused by lack of oxygen due to near drowning. The children were actually wonderful to work with for the most part.





It was very rewarding for me to work there. I am an engineer and helped them with their durable medical equipment, wheelchairs, communication devices, and anything else that anyone could think of to make their life a little easier.





Now there are situations where I do not think it would be quite so rosy. For instance, working with real bad behavior kids capable of hurting another, juvenile deliquents, ex-drug addicts, and populations such as that.





The place I worked was The Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center in New Hampshire and a simialr place I visited was The Massachesetts Hospital School for Children.





Here's the link to where I worked, the picture just down the page is the room I used to work from:





http://www.hospitallink.com/index.php?pr...





The work can be rewarding but there also can be a lot of frustration and sadness that goes along with it. I was there about 8 years and I think 6 or 8 of the kids passed away and that is hard to take especially after you have become friends with them and their parents. Sometimes you wanted to do something and you get over-riden by money concerns or parential opinion etc. Toss in an occasional lawsuit that puts every one on edge and you can create as much stress as any job can have.





I remember one gal I worked with said she wanted to stay out of the opinion fields and therefore she became an audiologist. It was much more objective and it still gave her a chance to help people. It was pretty straight forward, you can measure some one's hearing losses and recommend corrective action and its kind of hard for anyone to mount an argument against that.





Well, good luck with whatever you decide. You could probably email the place I worked if you want to get more info.