Professional Social Worker Interview - Assignment Example

Professional Social Worker Interview al Affiliation Professional Social Worker Interview The professional social worker interviewed was Jessica Sullivan, the Assessment Services Program Coordinator of Adoptions Together. She was noted to have graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from The George Washington University and had pursued a Master of Social Work from Virginia Commonwealth University. One schedule a face-to-face interview with Ms. Sullivan on a Friday afternoon and she willingly accommodated one’s request. The following were her response to the indicated questions: 1. What is your job like? According to Ms. Sullivan, the role and responsibilities of an Assessment Services Program Coordinator is both challenging and rewarding. It is noted to be challenging in terms of being equally responsible with other assessment services staff of the Adoptions Together in conducting different assessment needs of parents who aim to adopt children; as well as assessing the distinct and unique needs of children who are earmarked for adoption. As the coordinator, Ms. Sullivan indicated that her responsibilities included bridging the link between the children for adoption and matching their needs and personalities with those of the parents or families who have signified intentions to adopt. 2. Tell me about your, typical day? She indicated that her typical day starts early and checks relevant messages, correspondences and business agenda. She then said that she goes on rounds within the Virgina Office to keep track of new updates and solicit information that would require her urgent and immediate attention and action. When parents who would like to have a child for adoption, she disclosed that she would provide all the necessary information to ensure that the parents understand and fully comprehend the repercussions of their actions. The initial phase of assessment was indicated to take place through the initial interview; and from then, appropriate information packets are provided for in-depth review of the parents, as required. In the afternoon, she indicated that she usually schedules providing guidance, counseling and educational support for prospective parents who signified intentions for adopting a child. Likewise, hours were also spent evaluating and matching the needs of both children for adoption and parents who opted to adopt depending on relevant factors: demographic profile, personalities, interests, current and future plans, health condition, among others. She also stated that takes several phone calls, visits homes (when needed), attends information meetings, attends updates on social work from government agencies, to name a few. As one listens and takes notes of her typical day, one could deduce that she loves what she does and that the passion for her work reverberates in the way she communicates and explains her typical day. 3. What do you do? What are the duties/functions/responsibilities of your job? As an assessment services program coordinator, Ms. Sullivan emphasized that the main duties and responsibilities fall into comprehensive evaluation of the parents who intend to adopt, the biological parents who signified intentions to have their child given up for adoption, and finally, the children who was earmarked for adoption. Part of the responsibilities, she said, include doing all the paper work: preparing documentations, reports, scheduling meetings, providing information, knowledge and education on the impact or effect of the adoption. 4. What kind of problems do you deal with? She indicated that the problems that she deals with frequently involve parents who initially signified their intention to adopt (or give up a child for adoption) and then suddenly change their minds after considerable amount of time, training, information have already been disseminated and communicated. Likewise, Ms. Sullivan also states that sometimes, there had been problems in finding the perfect match for an appropriate child that meets the criteria of the adoptive parents. 5. What kinds of decisions do you make? Ms. Sullivan explained that the decisions that she regularly makes involve providing assistance for assessment and coordination within her scope of endeavor. The final decision always is relegated to the Assessment Program Director. After careful assessment of cases for adoption, she indicated that she prepares a formal report and forwards the report to the Assessment Program Director for final decision. 6. As a social worker what part of this job do you personally find most satisfying, and most challenging? To this question, Ms. Sullivan explicitly indicated that the part that she finds most satisfying and fulfilling is when they have found a perfect match for the adoption. This, according to her, is only realized after several monitoring and progress reports and visits to the adoptive parents’ home to determine how successful the process had been. Concurrently, she also indicated that the most challenging and frustrating was that which she previously mentioned: having exerted as much effort, time, resources to find the perfect match for adoption and the fact that despite repeated tries, the adoption process did not materialize. Also, she said that there were some cases where the adoption process had been finalized but after follow-up visits or monitoring, it was recognized that the adoption was not successful. In this case, either the child was not able to adapt and adjust to the new environment; or the parent had realized that they were not yet prepared for the new child. 7. What do you like and not like about working in this field? Honestly, she said, she had been working as a social worker for more than 14 years and she loved what she is doing. She emphasized that despite the challenges, which she believes are regular part of her work, there is nothing in particular that she detests or dislike in working in this field of endeavor. 8. From your perspective, what are the problems you see working in this field? From her perspective, Ms. Sullivan indicated that she sees some potential problems with being regularly updated and adept at working with diverse people with different developmental disabilities. As the nation has been very vocal in encouraging diversity in culture, she noted that the more diverse the population are, the more challenging and problematic social work becomes. She said that there are increasing needs to be culturally aware of different traditions, beliefs, value systems that could affect the adoption process. 9. What are the major frustrations of this field? As she reiterated, the frustration were the challenges that she mentioned: not having been able to successfully provide a happy and nurturing home to a child who is in need; or to parents who felt the intense longing for a child. One thinks it is simple to match one to the other, she said. Also, she emphasized that, the process is long and there are so many factors to take into account. 10. What ethical challenges did you face and how did you resolve them? The ethical challenges faced in the profession included prying into the personal lives of people in the objective of determining the factors that could affect the adoption process. Of course, she said, she acknowledges that there is a portion of the clients’ lives that need to be private and confidential; therefore, she said, it was most challenging to dig deeper from other sources to determine the accuracy of the picture. Thus, she said, if she could not find information directly, but feels that she needs to pry more, she opted to search from other external source, without compromising the personal information of the people who assisted in the process. Conclusion At that, one profusely thanked Ms. Sullivan for her time and assistance for making the interview possible. She said that it was a pleasure on her end and that she hoped that the information she relayed would enrich social workers or potential social workers and feel the same commitment and genuine love for the profession. 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