Social Workers: Helping Resolve Life’s Challenges

March 4, 2019 in Social Work |

Every year in March, Canadians acknowledge the important work provided by Social Workers with Social Work Week. This year, the theme is “From everyday issues to complex needs: Social Workers, it’s what we do” and is being held the week of March 4-10, 2019.

The primary role of a Social Worker is to help people resolve their problems or challenges that are affecting their daily lives. They help identify what is causing the challenge or stress, and work with the individual to develop coping strategies. Often, this involves connecting the person/family to organizations in the area where they live.

Social Workers (about 17,000 in Ontario!) can be found in hospitals, family agencies, mental health settings, schools, and Employee Assistance Programs, to name a few. They are truly the ‘system navigators’ helping to connect those who may have entered the health care system and need help finding out who does what.

Examples where a Social Worker might help: mediating families in a crisis such as: an unexpected illness, grief counselling and elder care. Suicide prevention, mental health counselling, bullying and abuse and the stresses that people live with are all situations where Social Workers can help.

As our society ages and the number of socially vulnerable adults with complex care needs grow, the conflict between available resources – finances, people, time – will also grow, with more and more individuals seeking help from Social Workers.

It is unimaginable for most of us to think of what a ‘day in the life of a social worker’ would look like working with individuals and families who are in crisis, day in and day out. Take a few minutes to think about this. It’s not an easy job and it takes a special person to be a Social Worker. Be thankful that there are those who choose this career path because they want to help others. And they do a wonderful job!

At Mosaic, most of our clients are older and have complex care needs, so we work with Geriatric Care Managers, who are often Social Workers. We also work with Social Workers in hospitals when a patient is about to be discharged. And we have our very own Social Worker, Sarah, who is an important part of our team.

Mosaic staff will be visiting social workers at hospitals during March with food and treats as our way to say thank you to them. If you know a social worker, please take the time to acknowledge them!

If you are looking for a Social Worker who can help with an elderly parent or friend, please call Mosaic and we can refer you to a number of Geriatric Care Managers. Or, if you are looking for programs or organizations that have a Social Worker on site, our Community Resource Centres can help you with this. Call us at 905.597.7000 or 416.322.7002 or visit our website for more information: www.mosaichomecare.com

For more information about Social Workers, please visit their website: www.oasw.org

THANK YOU TO ALL THE SOCIAL WORKERS WHO WORK TIRELESSLY TO HELP OTHERS!

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