Social workers help people to deal with personal and social problems, either directly or by planning or carrying out programs that benefit groups or communities.

Social workers may perform the following tasks:

• counsel individuals through a crisis that may be due to death, illness, relationship breakdown or other reasons
• provide clients with information on services to assist them
• provide letters of referral or reports that will help clients to obtain other services such as crisis accommodation or social security benefits
• guide small groups of people to share their experiences, support each other and learn social skills
• help community groups to plan and carry out programs to help themselves (e.g. assisting newly arrived immigrants to form an association)
• research community problems, needs and solutions through client contact and records of welfare and health agencies
• analyse statistics and write reports
• develop policy and evaluate programs
• manage and train staff
• attend professional meetings
• lobby to change social welfare policies and procedures in the pursuit of social justice for all members of the community.

Specialisations: Social workers specialise in fields such as * family, * youth and child welfare services, * medical and health services, * disability services, * psychiatric and general mental health services, * juvenile and family law courts, * aged care and disabilities, * income support and * mediation.

Some social workers travel to visit clients or run group meetings. In country areas they may travel long distances. They may also be involved in private practice, research or teaching.

Personal Requirements:

• emotional maturity
• keen analytical abilities
• able to view other people's problems objectively
• good organisational and communication skills
• able to work independently or as part of a team
• commitment to social justice.

To become a Social Worker, you need to undertake a degree program.