Joanne: Social Worker in Maryland Department of Juvenile Services - Essay Sample

Introduction

Joanne is a social worker in the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services. The department helps the detained youth with therapeutic and clinical social work services. The interview with Joanne will be aimed at establishing her qualifications as a social worker in the agency as well as her day to day responsibilities. The interview will provide insights on what a social worker looking forward to working in such a facility should expect. Joanne studied a undertook Bachelor of Social Work at Northern Arizona University and graduated in 2009. She pursued a Masters in social work (MSW) from the same University and graduated in 2011.

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A License in Master Social Worker (LCSW) is essential when venturing into social work (Cummins, & Sevel, 2017). After asking her how the academic work prepared her for the job, she indicated that what she studied in class, coupled with several years of experience in taking care of juvenile detainees, has greatly helped her carry out the duties ethically. Through education, she has adequate knowledge of juvenile detention and can, therefore, take care of the clients effectively.

Questions That Helps In Understanding the Juvenile Social Worker

Different questions can help in understanding the social worker and how the juvenile social worker can perform his or her work. Among the questions that helped in understanding the social worker include how the juvenile social worker can cope with work challenges. The challenges make it difficult for social worker to complete their tasks. The social worker responded that creativity helps in dealing with work challenges (Deiandra, 2016). The other question is, what are the partners do you work in your juvenile social work? Social workers get assistance from well-wishers and different departments; hence the question seeks to find out whether the social workers get help. The Other question is, what is the qualification does one needs to have in order to become a social worker? The question helps in understanding the qualifications required for different types of work that the social workers do.

Experiences

What is the experience that you experienced in your work that was the most challenging? The social worker stated that there are many experiences faced that are challenging, but the most memorable is when she was taking care of a young kid six months old (Gray, Bird, & Coates, 2016). The kid was physically weak and finally died when she was taking care of her. The juvenile social worker stated that the experience was challenging because she felt as if she had not done the best to help the kid. The challenges give the juvenile social worker a reason to continue helping the needy in the community. The engagement that went smoothly according to the social worker is where is was able to help a person living with walking challenges to be able to work normally, and the challenge was dealt with through therapy.

Strategies to Handle the Experiences

The social worker describes the two experiences with both happiness and sorrow, depending on the situation. It can be noted that when the social worker explains the challenging experience. The juvenile social worker seems to feel some guilt as if she could have handled the situation differently when given another chance (Morton, 2014). The situation where the juvenile social worker helped the patient recover, it can be noted that the social worker is proud of the achievement made. The social strategies that the juvenile social workers use to manage internal responses to clients as they engage them include encouraging and motivating the clients to keep fighting without losing hope that they will finally heal. The patient needs to be encouraged that it's possible for them to regain strength. The other strategy is engaging the patients to ensure all their needs are taken care of.

How Do You Use Change Process Within Your Work?

In any field, including social work, change is inevitable. Joanne admitted that she makes good use of the change process to help the patients. One of the key steps of change is engagement with the patient, and one of the key skills that are critical in this stage is listening (Boston Change Process Study Group, 2010). One has to listen attentively before asking questions that are essential in the assessment of the condition and how it can be solved. After the assessment, Joanne chooses the most effective treatment plan. She evaluates the progress of the patient every week and termination of the session occurs only after she is satisfied that the patient has fully recovered or when the patient needs to be referred to other departments for further assistance.

What Causes Satisfaction or Frustration in Your Job?

Job satisfaction is very important as it increases the productivity of the employee. Joanne noted that the facility she works for has the best working environment, and the coworkers are extremely supportive. The supervisors are friendly, and it is you who can freely discuss any issue of concern at any time. The organization as well as appreciates hard work through promotion and all these factors, coupled with her passion for helping young people create job satisfaction. Joanne indicated in the interview that she views her job as a service to humanity. The only frustration she faces in her social worker job is lack of cooperation from the client as well as the parents or guardians.

References

Cummins, L. K., & Sevel, J. A. (2017). Social Work Skills for Beginning Direct Practice: Text, Workbook and Interactive Multimedia Case Studies. Pearson.

Boston Change Process Study Group. (2010). Change in psychotherapy: A unifying paradigm. WW Norton & Company.

Deiandra, A. (2016). Mock Social Work Interview [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXlBzUiRCj0

Morton, K. (2014). Demonstrating a therapy appointment [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpZBuebqHpg

Gray, M., Bird, M. Y., & Coates, J. (2016). Towards an understanding of Indigenous social work. In Indigenous social work around the world (pp. 77-86). Routledge