Living As A Social Worker And Paying The Bills

By Author: carina coronel
Total Articles: 224
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Social workers work in very demanding jobs and a lot of the satisfaction comes from seeing people make changes and be able to both improve their external circumstances and perspectives that can cause depression. In our society, social workers and those in the teaching profession receive salaries that are much lower than many other professions. Yet, it is often a counselor or a teacher that we remember as one of the most influential people in our lives. We often can remember speaking with a teacher after school who encouraged us to dream big. Other important people in our lives can be our guidance counselor or psychotherapist. Often these key people helped us change a direction or stop a negative pattern.

As a social worker there are a number of different positions that one can take depending on whether one has the bsw or msw. Jobs can be in non-profit agencies, hospitals, mental health clinics, legal settings and even private practice positions. Salaries vary and some therapists will open a part-time private practice to upplement their day jobs. Also, it's possible to have a full-time private practice and do quite well
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... financially. However, this often depends upon getting accepted into the local insurance carriers and the hmo providers.

Within social work itself, there will be differences in pay if one goes into administration or becomes a supervisor. In certain states there are certification programs for being able to do supervision of interns and other social workers. In addition, one can go into teaching with the DSW degree which opens up the pay range of university teaching. The daily responsibilities of a social worker as well as pay differ based on the education , type of facility and position in the organization. For those in private practice, each insurance company will pay differently based on the their own terms. Insurance companies generally pay more the initial evaluation session than the psychotherapy sessions that follow that. It is easy to burn out if one doesn't enjoy the work or loses the interest in helping others overcome obstacles. Having one's own support is important as well as ways to relax and not carry people's problems around inside.

Learn more about Social Work Programs and Average Social Work Salary.