What social workers wish you knew

The portrayal of social work in the media is negligible at best. And, what little is actually represented, generally reflects undesirable, negative and misleading information. In a study conducted in 2004, researchers examined American-made movies from the periods of 1938 to 1998 that included a “social work character” and found that nearly all of them contained a white, middle-aged, middle class woman who was incompetent, in a subordinate position of authority, and worked almost exclusively in child protective services.

“Everyone always hears the worst of the worst…that’s what people always see on the 6 o’clock news” says Jennifer Bascom, Social Services Supervisor for Washoe County. This is likely the reason why the many aspects of social work either go unnoticed or are notoriously regarded.

“A lot of the youth have had negative experiences with social workers in the past, perhaps, and so they hear social worker and they automatically think either it’s gonna be a bad experience or I’m gonna call the police on them, or get them in trouble, or put them in a placement,” says Cassi Levesque, a social worker employed by Eddy House in Reno. She mentions that not all social work is focuses on child protective services.

“It’s so broad.” says Levesque. “It’s really great to know if I get sick of working with teens — great, I can go work with the elderly, I can go work with homeless, I can go work in hospice, there’s adoptions. Literally anything you can think of, and there’s always a need, and no matter where I go, it’s kinda like nursing, everywhere I go I’ll have a job.” Other applications of social work include clinical, school, healthcare, medical, mental health, and substance abuse according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Caitlyn Wallace, an individual and family therapist at Family Counselling Services, responds to the misrepresentation of social workers by referencing an ongoing case in Southern California. An 8-year-old boy died at the hands of his mother and her then boyfriend while two social workers were actively involved in the abuse allegations leading up to the boy’s death; but the boy was never pulled from the home. “If you do your job well, nobody cares. If you don’t do it well, you end up with your face on a newspaper being indicted.” According to Wallace, this is partly why someone might be hesitant to seek the help of a social worker when they could really benefit from their services.

To turn the negative stigma around, Levesque suggests just talking to a social worker. “Just ask!” she says. The more people she meets, the more opportunity she gets to clear the air about what she does and what social work as whole contributes to the community. For example, more than 40% of all disaster mental health volunteers trained by the American Red Cross are professional social workers,according to the National Association of Social Workers.

One of the biggest problems that Bascom remarks, is that there isn’t enough awareness to the social issues at hand. If there was more understanding of social work, and the law, then perhaps the public would be less conflicted about the profession. She suggests that the media highlight more of the success stories in the local news, and possibly more accurate portrayals of social workers in both movies and TV shows.

Ricky Salazar, a social worker at The Center for Student Cultural Diversity on the University of Nevada, Reno’s campus believes that a “grassroots” approach would more effectively solve the problem. If [social workers] visited people on the streets, or in the shelters to just talk to them, and offer our services, we would probably see an influx success stories, and therefore, a more positive representation of social work would start to emerge.

“The system is scary,” adds Wallace, “but not everyone who works there is.”