Social work
Social work has a long and distinguished history of working with service users and their family/whanau. A career in this dynamic field can be challenging and rewarding. In New Zealand social workers working in mental health care settings need to have a qualification that is recognised by the Social Workers Registration Board and in many cases be a member of the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW). These regulatory bodies ensure accountability for competent, safe and ethical practice.
Tasks
Many of the tasks performed by social workers are common to all mental health disciplines. Work in the area of mental health provides an opportunity for social workers to practice collaboratively with allied professionals while maintaining the integrity of their knowledge and skill base.
Working with service users and their family/whanau, mental health social workers promote a unique holistic, recovery orientated, social wellbeing/social inclusion model. Social workers place great emphasis on empowerment and self determination, working with service users and family/whanau in society, taking a person centred approach and promoting social empathy.
Another key component for social work within mental health settings is to ensure recognition of the role of culture and diversity, and where possible relevant and safe interventions are provided to those who require it.
The nature of these tasks reflects the essence of a number of the seven Real Skills outlined in Let’s get real, a framework that describes the knowledge, skills and attitudes required by everyone working in mental health and addiction services.
Roles
The majority of mental health social workers roles are performed in integrated, multi-disciplinary teams for district health boards (DHBs) and non-government organisations (NGOs)
The diversity of practice settings include; DHB hospital acute services, community services, crisis intervention, infant, child and adolescent services, drug and alcohol services, forensic and maternal mental health to name but a few. NGO services will also include a variety of settings including, residential services, vocational services, and community support services.
Click to read more about some of the exciting roles performed by social workers, and the specific profiles below:
Read more profiles of social workers on the Skills Matter website.
Links
Page last updated: 16 November 2009