Hi all, I’m not sure what I need from this community. Maybe commiseration. Maybe kind advice. I completed the clinical track in my MSW program in the U.S. I had people all my adult life tell me I’d make a great therapist (even some of my own therapists), felt incredibly interested in and drawn to the work, celebrated finally entering into an individual outpatient role, and just 2.5 years in (and two completely different agencies), realized I really dislike being a therapist. I have never experienced burnout like this in any career or job. I’ve done so much supervision around it, and my own therapy, received lots of additional training and done my own research to build skills, and I just - I really don’t like it. I had a period of intense disillusionment and existential dread/nihilism when I realized this just wasn’t it. I was recently offered a hospital social work position and am looking forward to a change, but sometimes I wonder if I chose the wrong field entirely. If you do hospital social work, what are some things you love about it? If you’ve been in this field for 10+ years, what has made it sustainable?
Much gratitude for anyone’s time and for the incredibly difficult work (I know) you do ♥️

I'm starting a position as a group therapist at an inpatient psych unit, what would you wear in this setting? I'm used to community mental health so this is new territory for me! Brands/websites that are budget friendly are appreciated! I'm a petite female, mid 30's.

Hi everyone!

How to learn how to never get provoked (never take the bait even if insulted/humiliated) and how to de-escalate? I wanna be able to withstand the most provocative things (insults, rumors, rudeness , misinformation)

I would really appreciate your help with above, thank you so much. I need that for my daily life.

I get A LOT of negativity about working as a social worker. For context i’m based in AUS and am currently still in uni.

I want to know everyone’s actual experiences. Most people I know burn out after a while, quit and move to less demanding roles, or complain about how “shitty” the job is. Sure, but i’m sure getting yourself into a career like this you would at-least know it’s going to be some intense shit. You’re the person doing everything in your power to help people who can’t help themselves.

Well - that’d just my opinion.

A lot of people try to talk me out of it, but i want to work for the JCPRP (google it).

I want to hear the ups to this field of work, nothing to me would be as rewarding as doing what I can to help kids.

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I've been in social work for about six years. I have had some close calls over the years but unfortunately caught bed bugs from my workplace last week. I take as many precautions as possible and still got them at the office without knowing. I feel kind of upset as I now have to take on the majority of the financial burden to take care of this infestation. I caught it pretty early but I will likely be dealing with this for a couple weeks.

I guess this post is part vent, part seeking advice. I have brainstormed with my supervisors how to navigate moving forward but it seems like this is going to be an ongoing issue for as long as I work there. I managed to get a week off with PTO and Labor Day. I'm advocating right now to work from home another week until I get a second chemical treatment at my apartment, and to confirm they sent exterminators to our offices.

I wanted to see if folks had any advice on how to move forward after such an unpleasant experience. I plan to seal and heat treat my clothes going to work and returning from work for the foreseeable future. I'm really not comfortable going back to the office until this is cleared up, but I imagine they may ask me to return sooner. I don't have savings to quit w/o notice and ethically I cannot abandon my clients. I don't want to quit, I like this job but there are workplace hazards besides bed bugs that make this job challenging.

Just feeling really squicked out and need to set up boundaries at work ASAP so I don't expose others or get re-exposed.

Because I get why the algorithm thinks I'm interested in social work. I bring it up a lot.

But they aren't even for DSW or PhD programs!

I don't need another MSW.

any more seasoned social workers care to give me some advice or encouragement? I’m 31 and a NY LMSW. Been in the field for 11 years. I always wanted to be in unique positions which I was led to post grad and loved to so much and really did a work myself out of a job situation (in a good way I really got my caseload to an amazing point and exceeded grant goals). I have been with the same agency for 8 years totally (for a time just part time/per diem while I did something else full time. Agency pay is pretty low overall due to being way too top heavy and benefits are pretty meh partially health care. There been so few openings to get a leadership positions and when there was it was the same rate as my school clinician job which doesn’t have me supervise 10 people . I was in competitive interviews for a state fellowship program as my passion would be to try to work at that level and ideally in child welfare policy, but ultimately didnt get the offer. I was later offered a position at a school that is more money, summers off, better benefits. I really like the age range at this school and principal seemed great and love urban schools. I’m excited overall and love walking with kids but I am so nervous about having “golden hand cuffs” with not being able to leave anything where I get summers off or being less credible/relevent not working in nonprofits (Id love to be able to consulting) or be able to be in leadership not being in a role that would lend to that area. 

Any works of wisdom, advice etc? Am I. Overthinking? 

I am not a social worker, but in the allied field of guardianship.

I found my client, aged 85, dead after a wellness check on Friday. Her family disowned her decades ago because of her sexual orientation and gender expression. She had no known living friends.

She was raised in the Catholic Church. Like many in the LGBTQ+ community she had a complex relationship with the religion - she did not go to church but there were elements that resonated with her.

I went to the Catholic church in the neighborhood and asked if they would read her name at services this morning. I thought my client would have appreciated it. They're are pretty cool; the homily was from their director of faith formation, who looked to me to be a butch lesbian, and her talk was about not being judgemental and the importance of inclusion. I stood up when everyone else stood up and sat down when everyone else sat down. I sang a few of the hymns because I do ok at vocal sightreading and don't have much opportunity for communal singing these days. I choked up a bit when my client's name was read from the pulpit.

I feel like a small donation - less than $20 - for this act of service would be appropriate. Which is the appropriate account?

The client's - I am using it to pay her funeral costs, and this is the closest she's getting to a memorial service.

My business account - I can claim it as a business expense...? I tend to pay out of my business account for things I can't charge my clients for, but wouldn't have paid for at all if they weren't my clients.

My personal - there's no requirement to have had the church do this, it was my personal choice, and they would have done it without a contribution, so I should pony up.

Side note: I will put the set up of the reading and then attendance in my timesheet for court review as No Charge Time, if that affects your answer.

I’m looking for advice on the climate for SWs in Idaho. I haven’t been able to find much information online about good places for a SW in the state. I’m currently a school social work, and I also haven’t found much firsthand information about what it’s like to be a school SW in Boise (or around there) specifically.

I always like to post this question once in a bit. I am a therapist and run my own practice. Things we should
Have learned was an entire class on insurances how to bill how to credential. Also more focus on dx

Hi! I'm about to start working in a prison for the first time. I would like some literature recommendations about how to be a "good" and ethical social worker in a prison. I understand that the nature of this institution is oppressive, and so I want to ground myself in experienced people's theories/experiences before delving into the work.

I understand the best way to learn is through practice, so I'll never be able to "try out" the job just by reading. But I don't want to go in blind and simply learn through trial and error.

Thank you in advance.

The intention of a weekly discussion thread is to create a space for members to post anything; it's a place to post things that you want to say but you do not feel it deserves its own thread or you either don't want to make a whole thread out of it. This can mean little celebrations, rants, sharing news articles, shout outs to other members, pointless thoughts, memes, etc.

disclaimer: I am not asking for money.
I am a social worker at a children’s community mental health clinic. We normally provide snacks and drinks for the children and families we serve, but due to recent budget constraints, our supply has run out. The challenge in getting more is that technically we are not a non-profit so finding donations have been hard and staff have been coming out of their own pockets. Any advice ?

Thank you
Location: Los Angeles, California

Hello! Would love to hear from people who have passed the NEW version of the ASWB Clinical exam. What materials and concepts did you study that helped you pass? Any tips to share? I've been studying for the past few weeks and thinking of scheduling my exam for sometime in October. TIA!

I started working in a County Child Welfare organization almost 2 years ago. Prior to that I was an agency MH Blended Case Manager for 14 years. I loved mental health work but our agency was not heading in a direction I liked. We had a new director I didn't care for at all. She had no MH experience and it showed. I took the county job for stability, better pay and benis. Long story short I went to Intake as that was where I was needed. I was told when I expressed that the bulk of my experience was in building and maintaining longer term client engagement. I was told it was intake or nothing. I did ok in Intake but it is clear it is not the best fit for me. I would hold cases too long as I felt like I could fix them if given time. Intake is not built to fix though. My wife says it is treat them or street them. I got lost in the churn and overwhelmed myself.

Long story short my Manager recognized that I may be better suited to ongoing or somewhere else. I was offered to go to ongoing but balked due to not wanting to feel like a wash out. If I want to leave a dept I want to do it on my own not at someone else's urging. I was approached by a senior managy about switching to a newly created Family Engagement Unit. I will do family finding and Family Group Decision Making meetings eventually. The work load is similar but the documentation requirements are much lighter.

I will operate almost "outside" the agency. I will work for the agency but I am not an investigator or an assessor. Participation is voluntary which I appreciate. I hated the non voluntary aspect of Intake. I will be engaging with families and extended family to find solutions to issues. I am excited about the opportunity but it is still in a lot of ways short term contact with clients. I think it is a better fit for my skill set.

I guess I don't know exactly what I am looking for here but a little enouragment and support would be nice. Anyone go through something similar?

I don’t know if I can put this to words fairly. But there’s been multiple times where clients have verbally harassed me, attempting to stalk me or others frightening situations. And it’s like I understand that’s the population we deal with at my work so I’m not surprised by the clients.

What bothers me is when others don’t seem to acknowledge what we go through, there’s barely any repercussions the clients face or when there is people seem to think it’s too harsh. A coworkers’ client repeatedly sent strange messages to me, he was cyber stalking me and making overly suggestive comments. I wasn’t even the only one.

Anyway eventually he got sentenced from a previous battery charge and was in prison. Suddenly two of my coworkers are upset and saying things like aww that’s so messed up, he didn’t deserve all that prison time or that’s so sad he was clearly not doing well. And I can’t help but feel bad because I feel an immense sense of relief that he no longer is able to be a potential danger to myself or others for a period of time. I understand he’s severely mentally ill and delusional. The system has failed him many times. But I think there should be a line as to what should be excused due to mental illness and what should still be acknowledged, where there should be repercussions. Especially for the sake of public safety.

This isn’t the first situation this has happened and won’t be the last but sometimes it just frustrates me the position we’re in. All the expectation and responsibility to be the bigger person, the repercussions we face if we don’t maintain a cool head. Then the excuses people make for others when they cross the line. How do you deal with this?

Hello! I was wondering if anyone had insight on what it’s like working in an all girls adolescent home. I got a call back for an interview for a youth counselor position and am looking for a job that will offer me experience working for something meaningful and possibly rewarding.

However, to put it simply, I have read that this job is incredibly demanding emotionally and draining. So I also wanted to ask for more personal opinions on what the job is truly like as I’m sure many of you have experience in this setting.

For a bit of context, I am 22 and currently an undergraduate in pre-nursing. The job I applied for only requires a HS degree, which I found a bit strange in itself, but maybe this is common.

Any help would be incredibly appreciated!

For those of you who work in a job that has a really heavy HIPAA and PHI component to it, how are you able to talk about work to someone in order to feel some decompression from work without violating those privacy laws? Especially when the work can be emotionally and mentally exhausting I need to be able to get some release of the pressure.

I have a new job as a mobile crisis crisis clinician and I enjoy the job and working with people but the paperwork is killer. There’s so many forms that need to be signed and assessments that need to be completed and safety plans that need to be written. I am struggling with being able to get documentation completed in a timely manner. I like my notes to be detailed but at times I feel like I am missing information. There’s so many moving parts including adding insurance information, medical and mental health history, trauma history etc. for the different services we offer. We have short term plans and more long term plans and the long term plans have double the paperwork compared to the short term plans.

I’m just wondering if anyone has any tips, resources, recommendations, or anything else that helps with clinical documentation. I am currently working on making myself a checklist and a quick reference bank of phrases that I can pull from but I wanted some supplemental ideas or materials from people who have had the some problem and have some tips or tricks.

I work specifically for grief within a hospital but serve the whole district which includes 3 hospitals, counselling and community hospice. I also am a palliative care coach and work with quality improvement and education for 5 local health agencies.

Lately I’ve been getting random referrals from one of the hospitals for really small things. This is the site where my main office is also located.

I’m talking “pt expressed they lost their husband 8 months ago and is sad”.

I then got in trouble by the floor manager when I didn’t run to meet with this patient within 1 business day….but I was off for a few days and then had meetings / prep for an upcoming presentation and orientation of a student I am supervising.

Am I an ass in arguing that based on my clinical judgement as of now, one expression of grieving a loved one isn’t a valid reason to expect me to drop eveything to spend hours proving compassionate care??? This pt was seen my our mental health nurse in the interim along with having family and friends in. She’s a senior and in for a broken hip so I know there’s other triggers for grief in the mix….but come on!!! Not to mention 0 documentation by nursing or doctors on observing any low mood or expressions/verbalizations of grief.

I’m a recent MSW grad and feel that this is a slap in the face at times. I feel social workers are often assumed to be “friendly visitors” or “hand holders” when in reality, any one there can take 5 minutes to listen and validate feelings.

How is everyone managing expectations and standing ground on ensuring other professions are aware of program capacities??

I work in community mental health and some of the people we see are survivors or actively in domestic violence situations. I keep hearing reports in the media about Flock cameras being abused by perpetrators to stalk/find people. Do we know of any guidance or resources have been discussed to help promote victim/survivor safety?

Or, has anyone been able to troubleshoot some options?

Hi! I work at a community mental health outpatient clinic as a case manager. I’ve been working here for about 11 months. I’ve worked as a case manager for about 5 years now, so I fully understand the pros and cons of this field. But this place is another level.

When I started, there was no formal training process. We shadowed other case managers for about 2 weeks, and then got a case load. Our role and expectations are not clearly defined in the slightest. So I constantly feel like I’m failing because there is no policy and procedure to follow.

We are paid significantly less than other similar roles in the area I live.

New information that DIRECTLY affects my job and how I assist patients isn’t dispersed effectively, so when I don’t follow some new protocol, I’m scolded when the information never crossed my desk. (and shit is ALWAYS changing)

Our turnover rate is insane. Literally losing 1-2 staff members every month. And, of course, new responsibilities are put on the case managers to make up for the loss of those roles.

A new housing program opened up that I was voluntold to be the primary case manager of. No direction for me or the patients on the expectations of this program. I’m being told I’m “in charge of this program” with no pay raise. A shit ton of new responsibilities on top of my already full caseload. All while trying to train this new hire.

That was what almost made me rage quit. The job itself isn’t even the hardest case management job I’ve done. But the management and serious operation flaws makes the job infuriating. I’m a hard worker and like to do a good job. But I can’t do a good job when my role is constantly changing with no clear instructions. Needed to vent lol.

I have always enjoyed working with children 0-5, early childhood, early intervention and I for sure want to continue down the path in my career, whether that be CPP or other.

Long story short, I recently had a stillbirth at full term and was my first child. I am now back at work and many parents and some coworkers are pregnant, due to give birth soon. A parent just gave birth yesterday, bringing up a lot of sad and angry feelings for me, which makes me think this will happen overtime. I cry going to/from work, and overall not in a good place right now. However, still managing to do my work.

I’ve always planned to stay with early childhood but am now thinking differently.

Has anyone else had similar experiences? WWYD?