My Role As A Social Worker

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Social Workers help individuals, families, groups and communities to advance their wellbeing. I am interested in becoming a social worker in a Forensic or Corrections setting as I feel I will be able to connect with people in need of help because of my empathy and experience with youth who were in trouble with the law. Social Workers in the corrections environment help individuals who clash with the law and are convicted with a crime. They can also help the offenders’ family, which I find very important as the family would be strongly affected by the offenders’ actions. Social Workers have many different roles that are very interesting to me including assessing new arrivals, planning support for the offender, write progress reports, release …show more content…

One challenge I feel I will encounter is substance-abuse by my clients, which I feel I will be able to handle to some extent, as it really is the clients’ choice to recover. Drug and alcohol abuse is a common cause of crime. According to corrections.govt.nz, around two-thirds of New Zealand criminals have substance-abuse addictions and more than 50% of crime is committed by people under the influence of substances. I believe that is an extremely high number, which needs to drop down drastically in order to actually make a difference in communities. As my role as a Social Worker I will be trained to help offenders with their addictions by getting them medical attention, and provide support to the offenders’ family as drug addicts often hurt their family. As stress is a big factor for people to turn to drugs, it would be beneficial if I help the offender lower their anxiety and stress levels so they don’t depend on illegal …show more content…

Social workers earn $42K- $66K per year (source: Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers) which I feel is great, as I would choose to work in this role voluntarily. To become a Social Worker, you will need an approved qualification by the Social Workers Registration board. These can be a Bachelor of Social Work, Bachelor of Applied Social Service or Masters in Applied Social Work. These qualifications can be received in universities all over New Zealand. If the idea of big classes and long lectures doesn’t appeal to you, but you still want to gain a qualification, you can choose to study at a Polytechnic Institute such as Whitireia or Wintec where you will be in a small class but still have the same curriculum as a

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