What Skills Do You Need to Become a Social Worker
Skills Needed to Be a Clinical Social Worker
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Clinical social workers perform a wide range of duties, including performing patient intake procedures, completing assessments, providing counseling and advocacy, and participating in discharge planning. They may work in hospitals, schools, mental health centers or in private practice. Specific skills needed to become a clinical social worker are usually taught in master's degree-level social work programs. The four main skill categories involve assessment, treatment planning, intervention and outcome evaluation.
Assessment
Clinical social workers must have comprehensive assessment skills. They must first obtain information about their client's social, psychological, environmental and physical needs in a compassionate and professional manner. After gathering information about the client, they must develop a biopsychosocial assessment, which reflects the basic information you've learned about your client's life and presenting problems. As a clinical social worker, you must have good judgment and above-average analytical skills to formulate this assessment. With the information you've learned from your assessment, you'll establish a diagnosis and formulate a collaborative treatment plan with your client.
Treatment Planning
Clinical social workers need strong diagnostic skills to establish a client's diagnosis and formulate a treatment plan. This requires a firm background in diagnostic criteria and the ability to accurately identify and categorize a client's symptoms. Clinical social workers must be able to establish achievable treatment goals with the client and to help the client implement cognitive, effective, and behavioral changes based on these treatment goals. For example, in a hospital setting, you may be required to diagnose a clinically depressed patient and formulate a treatment plan that includes significant improvement of your client's symptoms so he can return to work or school. The implementation of these goals is known as the intervention stage of treatment.
Intervention
Intervention comprises the bulk of clinical social work treatment. Having strong intervention skills means that you'll be able to help your client in an effective, professional and expedient manner. You may be required to intervene in crisis situations, such as a suicide situation, where you'll be expected to perform under high-stress circumstances with calmness and composure. For example, you may have to be on call around the clock if you work with high-risk populations and perform emergency counseling to prevent a client from harming himself. Clinical social work interventions require clear and well-developed communication skills and the ability to maintain professional boundaries with your clients even in the most difficult or emotional of circumstances.
Outcome Evaluation
Outcome evaluation refers to your ability to determine whether your intervention was successful, and whether the outcome can be directly attributed to your services. You must exercise the ability to be nonjudgmental and objective when evaluating the outcome of your intervention. According to the Council on Social Work Education, successful clinical social workers have the ability to critically analyze, monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of their interventions.
References
Writer Bio
Ashley Miller is a licensed social worker, psychotherapist, certified Reiki practitioner, yoga enthusiast and aromatherapist. She has also worked as an employee assistance program counselor and a substance-abuse professional. Miller holds a Master of Social Work and has extensive training in mental health diagnosis, as well as child and adolescent psychotherapy. She also has a bachelor's degree in music.
What Skills Do You Need to Become a Social Worker
Source: https://work.chron.com/skills-needed-clinical-social-worker-11385.html