Orientation to Social Work & Social Welfare - Admission/Application Essay Example

Social workers engage with the society at different levels to promote social change, solve human relationship problems and to empower and liberate people for the enhancement of their well-being. Out of the many possible fields through which social workers could execute their mandate, I seek to be a medical social worker, specifically focused on mental health. As documented by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, BLS (2014), this occupation would call for me to work with people having mental disorders so as to resolve their psychosocial problems and challenges which social problems, including poverty, trauma, unemployment, distress and disability, impact on people’s mental health. I am greatly motivated to pursue a Master’s level in mental health social work because of my life experience. As a young child, I was placed under the care of social workers for psychological therapy, having lost my father to death. This was a helpful experience to me as it provided me with the ability to overcome the grief. Nonetheless, being mixed with children who were undergoing therapy following their parents’ divorces made it difficult for the social workers to specifically address my individual issues. Even though I recovered from the challenge, the results would have been better had I received special attention specific to my issue. The identified lack of adequate social workers to offer specialized support in this field motivated me to pursue advanced understanding of social work with specific focus on how to offer psychological assistance to people experiencing psychological challenges such as what I was going through. Indeed, there are many people who face grief following bereavement and in need of psychological support. This is supported with statistics documented by Howarth (2011) which indicate that over 56 million individuals around the world die every year. Thus, it is clear that numerous number of people experience significant psychological morbidity due to the associated cognitive, emotional, spiritual, physical and social changes. As a mental health social worker, I would be of great benefit to the psychological health of these people. Even more specifically, a Master’s level in this field would qualify me for Licensed Master Social Worker, LMSW, this being a critical qualification in my pursuit of private practice as a social worker. On top of the basic generalist practical skills gained from the Bachelor’s level, Master of Social Work degree would develop the already acquired basic skills and further impart advanced skills in social work as noted by BLS (2014). Therefore, my motivation towards attaining a Master’s level qualification borrows from the need in the society and from my personal experience. Social work faces numerous issues in the society. Borrowing from Miguel Ferguson, an Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Texas, poverty has adversely affected this profession (Neff, 2009). Among developed nations, America faces unique form of poverty, making it rank poorly among its peer nations across the globe. Specifically affected with poverty in the US are children. Such children do not access proper prenatal care and could have innate cognitive deficits. They mostly live in crowded and dilapidated neighborhoods, exposed to crime, violence and drug and substance abuse. This leaves social workers with the task of having to resolve the associated problems. One of such problems identified by King Davis of School of Social Work in the University of Texas is mental health (Neff, 2009). The scholar notes that over 90 million of Americans are affected with mental illness which has cost the US government $195 billion in productivity due to loss of earnings and some other $124 billion spent in treatment. Moreover, families of such victims are left to bear immense emotional burden. With this particular problem, there have been consistent disparities gauging by ethnicity, race and culture with regards to access to healthcare. Stigma towards those suffering from mental illness has left the society highly prejudiced, thus the challenge in integrating such societies together by social workers. Thus, mental health has indeed posed a challenge to social work. Additionally, political philosophies have greatly impacted on social work. On one hand, the society has conservatives who, according to Neff (2009), would be reluctant to intrude in people’s private lives for fear of weakening social institutions. Such people pay attention to social values and traditions when solving social problems. This is the category that promotes social work. On the other hand, liberals do not believe in finding social solutions to social problems but instead believe that the government and private sector should offer solutions to its citizens. These are the people who oppose social legislation seeking to foster social equity and justice. This conflict in political philosophies makes social work a challenge because whereas they receive support from some quarters, they also receive opposition from others. This makes it difficult for them to effectively execute their functions. Even with these challenges, I look forward to being a licensed clinical social worker, LCSW in five years. Thus, I should have completed and graduated from Master’s of Social Work program. Additionally, I should have undertaken the requisite post-Master’s qualifications and gained appropriate experience under supervision. With this experience, I should have passed my licensure examinations and effectively licensed to practice as a clinical social worker. This licensure should have given me the qualification to venture into private practice as a clinical social worker without any supervision in the field of mental health. With my keen interest in offering support to the bereaved, I should have set up a private practice to offer support to the bereaved. The structure of this practice would be such that I would be working with hospitals to identify those in need of such services who would then be called and offered the requisite support. I intend to make it a wholesome solution from crisis counseling to supportive contact then bereavement counseling. Indeed, social work has been practical to me as a client at a tender age when my father passed on. Bereavement is among the life’s challenges that could adversely affect an individual, especially if no one would be there to offer the much needed consolation. It could come with psychological and emotional distress. When my father died, I felt like life had stopped for me because I looked up to him for nearly everything in life, be it material or emotional support. As such, his demise cut me from my dependence and I could not believe surviving without him. Our close relationship even worsened it for me as I felt like I had no one else to share my life’s troubles with. Whereas this was initially psychological, it started manifesting physically when I lost appetite for food, started suffering headaches and generally became agitated. This was reason enough for my family to seek help from a social worker. Unfortunately, there was no social worker with specialty in handling bereavement issues and I had to be booked into a program meant for children who suffered stress from the divorce of their parents. Well, it was a beneficial approach because I was able to interact with other children facing emotional challenges and through sharing, I felt much relieved and reassured of life after my father’s demise. However, it was difficult for me to cope with a class where the issue being handled was not what I shared in. Therefore, in spite of the program being beneficial to some extent, it failed to specifically address my issue. Nonetheless, it is clear that with specificity of attention, the profession of social work presents effective solution to resolving the myriad social problems in the society. References Howarth, R. A. (2011). Concepts and controversies in grief and loss. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 33(1), 4 – 10. Neff, N. (2009, November 2). What is the most significant social concern of our time? The University of Texas. Retrieved 15 May 2014 from http://www.utexas.edu/ US Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2014, January 8). Occupational outlook handbook, 2014-15 edition: Social workers. Department of Labor. Retrieved 15 May 2014 from http://www.bls.gov/ Read More