The month of March happens to be National Professional Social Worker Month. Moreover, since this website contains a mixed bag of posts that pertain mostly to healthcare-oriented topics, a piece devoted to Social Worker Month seemed very timely as well as respectful to this awesome, underrated profession. After all, a large number of social workers are currently employed in the healthcare sector.
Social workers are found working in healthcare facilities such as hospitals, clinics and nursing homes across the U.S. Also, many social workers function in an autonomous manner as licensed clinical social workers. A licensed clinical social worker is a clinician who assesses, diagnoses and treats mental, psychological, behavioral health, social and emotional problems either as an employee of a company or in a private practice.
Since a vast number of social workers permeate the healthcare field in many different ways, Social Worker Month deserves an honorable mention on this site by way of a post of its own. In the midst of the chaos that regularly takes place in the medical field, social workers are the professionals who can calm the environment back down with their expertise, fund of knowledge and creative ways of offering practical assistance.
Here is a terse history on the origins of Social Worker Month. According to St. Olaf College (2012), the White House had officially designated the month of March as National Professional Social Work Month way back in 1984. In other words, Social Worker Month has been recognized in an official manner and on a national scale for more than three and a half decades.
By way of observing National Professional Social Work Month, the public can help shine the spotlight onto the indispensable role that social workers continually fill to address peoples’ personal and social issues. Social workers surely deserve the ultimate level of recognition because they assist people in all walks of life and in many different stages of life by providing education, resources and training.
Per the National Association of Social Workers (2019), National Professional Social Work Month provides a large scale opportunity for social workers across the U.S., as well as their colleagues, to shine the light onto the noble profession of social work and point out the significant contributions they make to American society. Thus, this month is the optimal time to recognize the nearly 700,000 social workers in this country.
Every year since 1984, each Social Worker Month has been assigned a defining theme on which to base activities and recognition. For the year of 2019, the theme for Social Work Month is “Social Workers: Elevate Social Work.” This year, social workers and members of the general public can make their contributions to Social Work Month by respectfully elevating the profession of social work in as many ways as they possibly can.
There are a number of interesting ways to do one’s part to elevate the professional field of social work. The following ideas on ways of elevating the social work profession have been listed below:
- Inform the public about the multifaceted role of the social worker to ensure people know about the plenitude of things that they do.
- Make young people ages 14 to 24 aware about the possibility of social work as a career pathway to consider and potentially enter.
- Actively network with other professionals at conferences and conventions to promote unity. Many people have heard the olden adage that reads, “United we stand and divided we fall.” Well, it has the ring of truth.
- Use social media outlets in an astute way to spread the word regarding the purpose and mission of National Professional Social Worker Month.
REFERENCES
National Association of Social Workers, North Carolina Chapter. (2019). Social Work Month 2019. Retrieved from https://www.socialworkers.org/Events/Campaigns/Social-Work-Month
St. Olaf College. (2012). The History of Social Work Month. Retrieved from https://wp.stolaf.edu/socialwork/the-history-of-social-work-month/
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