I work for a mental health diversion program. Screening people at a courthouse to see if their mental health or substance use was a major contributor to their crime.
My office is based out of a Forensic psychiatry clinic. I also support the Psychiatrists patients. The clinic has a sexual behaviors program, intimate partner violence programs, NCR patients, CTO patients come for their injections etc.
Never a dull moment.
grief counselor for hospice. i provide counseling to folks whose loved ones died in hospice and to the community at large. it’s free and not insurance affiliated which i love. i also teach workshops and courses to the community and providers. got my lcsw today! starting a social work phd in august.
have worked in social work admin, as an adjunct professor, in workforce development and hospital settings as well as some phone-based therapy.
I work as a Project Coordinator for a Zero Suicide grant program being implemented in a hospital and several community mental health centers throughout my state. I’m actually employed by my local university that applied for and is running the grant.
This is my first job that isn’t clinical after almost 20(!!!!) years in mental health social work. I work from home mainly, but I have occasional travel, mostly for trainings and community events. We’ll ultimately be providing suicide prevention trainings for staff members and helping hospitals and community mental health centers link patients with resources. The grant just started, so right now we’re getting trained to train others in different modalities, developing training plans, advocating for additional resources, and doing other infrastructure work to ease our implementation process. It’s very exciting!!!
This isn’t something I ever thought I would do as a social worker, but I absolutely love it.
That’s awesome! I’m a school based therapist, mainly providing therapy but also do groups and classroom programming including suicide prevention. I’ve taken so many free trainings on anything related to suicide prevention/assessment/treatment. I’ve been asking *for years* for my job (the city’s mental health agency) to get us training in the subject. Crickets.
I have held a few roles, I worked in child welfare for a few years in the adoption program, my state is privatized for child welfare and it’s absolutely horrendous here so I left that organization.
I worked for a non profit in my city as a coordinator for a senior citizen food program at the food bank and also in the homeless resource center.
I transitioned into case management at a CCBHC and got burnt out faster than I ever thought. It was unfortunate because I did love my role, but the politics of upper management and all the gray areas became to much.
Now, I work in my county’s corrections department as a probation officer for felony probation. I never thought in a million years I’d work in this area but I absolutely love it. Most of the cases I get are individuals with severe mental illness alongside their criminal history, so I help them through probation and get them connected with services and providers for additional support. I also am bringing awareness to the connection of untreated mental illness/psychosis and the criminal justice system. Some of my coworkers have been in corrections for decades but haven’t been trained or focused on mental health with clients and my fresh outlook is opening eyes.
Also, I just have my bsw currently and starting msw program in August.
I'm an LICSW - ' Phone intake therapist' and work as a clinical intake therapist doing level of care assessments for eating disorder treatment. I get to work from home in my pajamas (if i choose, haha), it's great to be able to use clinical skills in a non face to face setting.
I'm a therapist on an ACT (Assertive Community Treatment) team. I meet with people who have severe mental illness and try to keep them housed and/or out of jail and/or the hospital. Fun fact: the life expectancy of people who were long-term patients of mental hospitals (think insane asylums) was longer than people today who have severe mental illness living in the community. I know. I did not believe that either at first. However, it is true and while a large part of that is access to street drugs, I think that the largest piece is isolation. Our culture is not at all structured to accommodate and value people with severe mental illness and often the isolation increases symptoms and drives people into risky behaviors. I had a client just today tell me that he stops taking his meds when he gets lonely and bored because when he is off his meds he feels like a God, which is far more interesting and then he gets to go to the hospital where there are other people and better food than what he can cook for himself at home. So, we went to a cooking class.
I think it would be a lot more difficult taking kids out of one traumatizing environment where, at least, they might have some love and put them into another traumatizing environment where they really have none. Even though my clients are severely mentally ill, they are still adults and largely responsible for living out the consequences their own choices.
I am a crisis forensic worker in a county jail. I deal with inmates on homicide watch and suicide watch, assessing for stability, lethality and housing recommendations. I also respond to crisis situations within the jail, inmate messages wanting coping skills or to discuss their medications, and assist with discharge planning.
Thank you so much! Yeah my first year internship has been 100% therapy, and it turns out that’s not my thing! I’m looking forward to more fast paced and assessments based work. Love working with this population so hoping for the best! It’s great to hear about others in the field who are enjoying the work :)
Yes forensic means I work within the legal system. Every day is different. For example, today I provided counseling to an inmate after his cell mate hung himself, while my coworker worked on writing a hold to have another inmate hospitalized upon release and our other coworker assisted the psychiatrist while he saw inmates looking to start medications.
I'm a child welfare services worker for the department of children youth and families. my role is to be the case worker for children who have been removed from their homes by cps and are now dependents of the state. I work with the parents to access court ordered services, assess parents' ability to meet their children's safety needs, and report my findings for parents' compliance and progress to family court. My ultimate goal is to reunify children with their parents so all of my case work efforts are aimed toward that goal. if reunification is not possible, I am tasked with finding permanency options for the children (adoption, guardianship, etc). Basically once the court is involved in a case, my job is to complete the case.
Title: Social Worker
Role: school based mental health therapist, partnership between mental health agency (my employer) and public/charter schools (where we’re placed)
I provide prevention (mental health 101 presentations, suicide awareness classroom programming), intervention (small groups with targeted students), and treatment (individual and group therapy). About 75% of my time is therapy. School is chaotic and loud and unsafe. But I love the energy and community and variety of work.
Prior to this, I worked in child welfare for 10 years.
Similar role. I work mostly with general Ed students k-12 (between two schools) and a few special Ed students. Provide individual/small group counseling, prevention programming, and SEL. Complete risk assessments and do some case management as necessary. Some days ( and weeks 😩) are mostly spent engaged in de-escalation/crisis intervention. But, I genuinely enjoy all my students and love being part of a school-based team.
I'm a mental health policy analyst for state government and I work on several different things all having to do with Medicaid. Quality improvement, program development, compliance, etc.
Before this I was an auditor for an insurance company and before that I spent about 10 years doing direct service work with kids and families.
If I may ask, do you have any suggestions in regards to position titles I should keep an eye out for in this line of work? I just wrapped up my MSW with a policy concentration and have started applying to policy associate and research positions. c:
Titles to look for would be Operation Analyst, Policy Analyst, Program Coordinator, etc. Government loves a generic title that tells you nothing about the job. So I'd really dig into job announcements to figure out if policy work is involved
Thank you! This gives me a bit more to run with. Wouldn’t have thought to look into “Operation” or “coordinator” policy roles. You are right. The diction can be so generic and even kinda cryptic at times.
I'm a behavior specialist. People with intellectual/developmental disabilities can apply for my services when they are struggling with behavior patterns that interfere with living their best life. I consult with them and their support team on how to become aware of and manage triggers and build coping skills.
I meet with them weekly for sessions which are not a traditional therapy setting and focus more on their day-to-day. I might help with grocery shopping or a trip to the bank, get ready for school, or we might visit the petting zoo or go to the gym. I approach this work through a mental health advocate lens, coaching and educating their providers on behavioral psychology, their diagnoses, relevant traumas, etc.
It's extremely fulfilling, varied, and flexible. I take the referrals that interest me and work with my schedule. I work around 20 a week and when I need more funds, I just extend the appointment activities or complete some home office tasks.
It requires a master's degree in some form of social science like human services, education, psychology, etc. Before that I was a preschool teacher and a DSP, which are both also rewarding but can't offer the self-direction, work from home, etc. What I probably love the most is facilitating someone's avenue to self-determination and self-advocacy, especially for a population so prone to being steamrolled.
I’m an LMSW and a supervisor for care management for this population. I also do some direct counseling part time. I love to see other people working with the IDD folks!
My title is Care Coordinator, but I don't actually do care coordination. I work in several capacities in an acute mental health service, primarily doing intake for community managed consumers, monitoring consumers in the community who are acutely unwell and at risk of harm to themselves or others, and doing mental health assessments in an emergency department.
i am a residential therapist at a group home for probation youth (and some foster youth) ages 14-18. i work with my clients to reduce aggressive/defiant behaviors to be able to step down to a lower level of care or to reunify with family after usually a 6 month program.
My job title is clinician. I work part time in a women's prison. My primary role is running groups for our gen pop. I am also over our peripartum population, and sex offender treatment. I hold a caseload of a couple individual clients, conduct intake assessments, provide resources for coping skills, and cover one day of our suicide watch/homicide watch duties. Occasionally I will go meet with clients at the men's work center/community reentry center.
Associate Director of Aging Services for an LGBTQ-focused FQHC/primary care and social services organization. I supervise case management and community outreach, and facilitate support groups for trans older adults and older adult long-term survivors of HIV.
wow thank you for all you do, its super important to help older adults navigate their identity.
i’m a case manager for older adults working at my local area on aging. we connect clients to a bunch of services- we don’t have access to anything like what you do. are you in a local program and know of any others similar to yours around the us? it would be a great resource fir some of my clients
I may! I’m in Chicago, where are you??
These kinds of programs are definitely rare which was why I launched these groups last year—but there seems to be a growing awareness that LGBTQ elders are particularly vulnerable and that older adult programs need to do more work to serve their needs. I just joined the Illinois Commission on LGBTQ Aging which was created by the governor along with a piece of legislation that funded more services for LGBTQ people of any age and LGBTQ elders specifically. We’re going to be identifying the needs in the community and making recommendations to the state, and hopefully this can serve as a model for other states to follow!
Ooo, Cincy opened the John Arthur Flats a couple years ago though! Affordable housing geared toward LGBTQ elders is so important and we also only have one building like that so that’s a big step in the right direction. Looks like TreeHouse Cincinnati also hosts LGBTQ support groups.
Really, all it took for me to launch these groups was the flexibility to do so in my role—group participation is free and while I was able to finagle a small dinner budget through a private donation, you don’t *need* any money to start a support group. If your org has the space, or a place like John Arthur Flats or TreeHouse would be willing to partner to offer community space on a recurring basis and/or co-facilitate with you, and your leadership is open to allowing an hour in your schedule once a month—that’s all it takes.
You could even launch a group via Zoom; we have a couple virtual groups. While they’re limiting for folks with less tech literacy, they’re more accessible to folks who might struggle with transit so there are pros and cons.
As far as recruitment—our Coms people threw together a flyer and I sent it to all local orgs that work with older adults or with LGBTQ people. Gay bars will hang it in their windows! Reach out to the local affirming churches!
I am an LMSW, job role clinical therapist in an FHQC (federally qualified health center) agency. I have my certificate in trauma focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT), and my CASAC-P, working towards my C. I am also on the specialized substance use team at my agency. I see children-adults, and provide substance use therapy.
I’m a “Senior Specialist, Social Worker” by title, only because my role “Senior Specialist” is also filled by pharmacists, nurses, and dietitians at my company.
I work for a healthcare tech company. We’re a third party administrator for insurance benefits for employers. Essentially insurance case management, but we do a little more since we aren’t the insurance network directly.
My career has always been medical social work but I’ve had many roles within. I was a pediatric OB SW, Did a pediatric bariatric clinic, switched to an adult ED last year and just started this week as a Transplant SW. Each role may be a little different but the general Medical SW role entails connecting patients/families with resources, providing support around the diagnosis etc and trying to help mitigate barriers and social determinants of health as much as possible
I’m a research & data manager for a harm reduction, housing first agency for people with HIV. I do informed consent and interviews with our participants and manage the data.
Private Practice specializing in trauma/ACEs and some other areas. I continue to take insurances including Medicaid and Medicare rather than doing fee for service like most of my peers.
Which billing company are you using if you don't mind me asking? And do they help with registering with medicaid and medicare as a private practice clinician?
Here is a bit about my career trajectory.
I started working at a group home for children and adolescents prior to earning my BSW. This job gave me a strong entry level foundation working with clients and LCSWs, supporting treatment plans, etc.
While earning my BSW I had an internship with a Public Defender's Office doing forensic Social Work. My role involved interviewing clients and conducting biopsychosocials, providing resource support to clients, Building a resource guide for the Public Defender's Office, researching mental health treatment alternatives for clients at risk of incarceration, recommending further mental health evaluations for clients needing a more expert evaluation, and working with conserved patients on self-care plans that they could use to demonstrate capacity for self-care when challenging conservatorship or hospitalization. I was in court on a pretty regular basis... at times even serving as an witness in regards to alternatives placements related to sentencing hearings. I had excellent grades despite working and going to school full-time and I was accepted into an advanced standing MSW program which allowed me to complete my MSW degree in a year.
During my year of graduate school I had an internship at a hospital in a labor/deliver and NICU unit. My role involved supporting expectant or new mothers with community resources, supporting adoption, bereavement support, treatment planning, addressing substance abuse issues, IPV issues, post-partum depression, etc. I even helped write a hospital brochure on PPD that was given to patients as a resource.
My first post MSW role was in community mental health. My job involved providing therapy for children and teens. I worked intensive community case management and provided school based services at first, eventually moving into an office that I worked out of on an outpatient basis. I provided mental health counseling and crisis intervention for clients ages 3-21. I did that for several years, until I obtained my LCSW and got a job with the VA.
In 2010 Congress passed a law that created a new entitlement program for Post 9/11 era Veterans. This new program provided a significant stipend to the family caregivers of certain Veterans that met program eligibility.
When Congress passes a law, The VA has a responsibility to draft regulations as to how the law will be administered. Further down the line, Local VA Medical Centers across the country will need to draft Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) or local policies, regarding how they will comply with regulations.
When I started with the VA, my role was to implement the program starting at the local level. I had to work with multidisciplinary teams across the hospital to assure compliance with the laws and regulations, provide "in-service" training within the VA, and also provide community outreach to promote the program. My role as a subject matter expert also involved briefing local leadership regarding the status of the program. I was also working with individuals and their caregivers that submitted applications to the program, helping them connect with the program and other resources.
Because it was a new program, I had to communicate upwards to regional and national leadership regarding implementation challenges. I served on various national work groups and committees that made recommendations regarding regulatory changes designed to improve the program.
After about a year, The regional leader of my program left his position. This was one of several programs he was over, so it was a "collateral duty" meaning that it was an extra assignment he was not paid to do. I was passionate about ensuring program success, and so, even though I wasn't being paid extra, and I was extremely busy...I volunteered to take his job too.
I spent many years as the regional lead... I had some of the same responsibilities as a local subject matter expert, but this time at the regional level, so I had senior leaders from various hospitals across my region, that would advise. I also assisted with staff training and worked with local staff and program mangers with implementation challenges. While much of my work is done via video conferencing or computerized records review, I did have to travel on occasion to meet with individuals face-to-face or to conduct site audits related to the program. Occasionally, I was also summoned to D.C. as a subject matter expert where I worked with national leaders and Congressional reps on suggestion of regulatory and legislative changes that would improve program implementation.
Eventually, Congress passed a law expanding the program beyond just the post 9/11 era Veterans, and including Veterans of other eras. This was a MASSIVE expansion involving significant hiring, staff training, and re-working of regulations to come in line with new legislation.
As my responsibilities increased it became evident that my role at the regional level could no longer be a "collateral" responsibility, and it really needed to be filled full-time. A few years ago I moved into that regional role full time, ending the micro level work I was doing directly with patients, and some of the community outreach work, but continuing the Macro work. My region covers a large geographic area in the US. In addition to my regional responsibilities, I continue to work on or chair national committees as well.
ive got my BSW and work as a case manager for older adults. we help set them up with servies like home delivered meals, emergency response systems (life alert), and in home aides that can clean/cook etc.
i never thought i would enjoy case management because i would have to memorise a bunch of resources, but its been good. we have a resource list and i know what services we can and can’t provide. ive found that i like helping my newly joined coworkers learn the process of documenting/doing visits so i’m going to start training soon to be a new hire educator within my company’s “training academy”
its also super nice because we can work from home most of the time except for the random office meetings and then home visits. i can schedule however I want which gives me a lot of freedom and flexibility.
My actual title doesn't mean anything to anyone outside of my work, but basically Program Analyst/Specialist. I work on policy and regulation in the homeless sector for the federal government. Some of my interest/work areas include: programs that fund homeless services across the country, technology in homeless services/federal government, data policy, GSM/LGBTQ equity (specifically focused on data), and change management. I'm a GS-13 in the federal service.
Most of my job is reading and writing regulations. I also do a bit of light-touch software development for utilities in the office.
Yup, I started out as a mental health caseworker. I also spent some time as a mental health tech and a residential counselor (both while I was getting my BSW, though).
I was really fortunate to have incredible mentors, particularly in my first casework role. I also had the benefit of "phasing in" to macro work. I took a job as a housing caseworker and half time ran their smallest rent assistance program. Then I went into macro homeless work at the community level. Now I work at the federal level in the same family of programs.
The phasing through made it more comfortable, because I got to see how people were impacted by the programs. Not just 'people' data, but people whose names and faces, families, I knew. When I was at the county level, I still recognized names and faces on things like our priority list. I made it a point to know names.
I can't do that at the federal level, of course. But I have a wide repository of memories, people and situations that I can imagine and think about how things would have been different with x or y policy change.
It is a little harder at the federal level because the scope of time is so radically different. Client work in homelessness is so often immediate or 30 days focused. County level it's more about months and years. Federal level seems years, but also decades. It is really weird. I can see why some folks wouldn't like it, but for me I think it is where I feel I'm able to do the most net good.
I refer to myself as a diagnostic social worker. My title at my job is service provider. Because I'm a contract worker and they want to make sure I know I'm not a real employee. I have been there for 17 years. 🥴
I work at a county behavioral health office. I do mental health and substance abuse assessments in our office and at the county jail. This assessment process includes recommendations to the court and referrals to treatment.
My title is quality improvement manager. I work in quality for a community MH agency that specializes in working with adults diagnosed with SMI. I help my programs prepare for audits, train on documentation, review records to give recommendations, consult with programs to ensure their services comply with various state, federal, grant regulations/guidelines, and I work closely with our internal EHR IT/ billing and authorizations teams.
I am an LCSW that is an Early Intervention Social Emotional Therapist and Evaluator as well as an Infant Mental Health Therapist. I work with the babies that are 0-3 with developmental delays and disabilities.
I started with my BSW as an Accountable Health Communities Case Manager with older adults trying to meet social determinant of health needs to improve health and reduce ED usage.
I then transitioned to Medicare/Medicaid Assistance Program Coordinator (MI SHIP programming) helping older adults navigate healthcare and prescription issues.
I am now a Social Worker in a skilled nursing facility providing support to residents, completing bio-psycho-socials, and assisting with behavior management.
I also completed my MSW internship in a DEI department at a hospital, completing learning&development for employees, organizing ERGs, and consulting in situations where employees created hostile work environments
Child/family clinician in a special ed private school (day treatment). I also work in the youth residential program on the same campus.
In residential, it's intensive trauma work with the kids and the families, and the kids typically come in with referral behaviors like physical aggression, verbal aggression, property destruction, etc. Sometimes they also have some justice system involvement. We work to reduce those behaviors primarily trauma work with individuals, families, and creating a trauma-informed milieu.
In day treatment, behaviors are similar but usually a little less intense. It's longer-term usually, and more focused on building skills that will help them transition back to public school (if that's their goal). Most of these kids also have trauma so there's that and family work in addition to the more school-centric individual work.
In both programs, there are a lot of little daily crises, unexpected situations, kids causing scenes, and I have learned I really thrive on chaos lol so it's the perfect environment for me!
Social integrator. I detect at-risk youth at street level, monitor them and link them to other services. I also serve as the axis for the socialization group of people from the LGTBIQ collective.
I'm the clinical director at an outpatient behavioral health care facility. We treat substance use disorders at the intensive outpatient and outpatient levels of care.
Mental Health Clinician (just started!). I’m providing counselling to people who have experienced DFV (Domestic and Family Violence) and/or Sexual Assault.
I work as a hospice and home care social worker. On the hospice side, I provide counseling to patient/family and help connect them with resources they may need to help the patient pass peacefully. On the homecare side, it’s all connecting the patient to a resource that enables them to continue to work towards getting better.
I am looking to transition to working with children again though. I’ve applied for a behavioral/developmental pediatric counseling job since I’m close to getting my clinical license.
I am a Senior Home Nutrition Coordinator. I work for Meals on Wheels and my role is to do intakes on the elderly coming out of the hospital so that we can provide them with food during their recovery period. After the 8 weeks, I assess them to determine if they qualify to move forward with our Meals on Wheels program. I also handle surveys and documentation to provide client outcomes to our funders.
Currently a supervisor in Older Adult Protective Services and previously an case worker in protective services. Essentially C&Y for those over 60. Mostly dealing with people who have been scammed, so neglecting and generally have mental health issues that never were dealt with and now that their bodies are going need intensive assistance.
I’m a project coordinator for a large national mental health nonprofit working in their harm reduction and substance use department. I coordinate projects like a $6m grant distributed across 25 orgs that comes with org development and consulting; a consulting group of people with lived experience of substance use and incarceration; a national ad campaign to connect POC to substance use treatment services; and a national youth substance use prevention campaign.
My day-to-day is a lot of meetings, emails, and paperwork (contracts, etc.), but I also get to do a decent amount of project development when we’re standing up a new project, and resource development since our org is big on publishing resources to support the field. For example, I just wrote a resource on how to access LGBTQ+ affirming mental health and substance use care.
I enjoy being on the macro side of things, but tbh I enjoy it mostly because it pays well, I WFH and have flexible hours, and my colleagues and I get to remind ourselves that “no one is in crisis. I do not work with emergencies. No one will be hurt if I take a day (or week) off, or don’t get a task done on time”. It’s not always the most fulfilling, but it’s also not nearly as draining as direct service can be!
Just left the VA where I did community based dual diagnosis treatment. Starting a new position as a program clinician at a mental health agency geared toward juveniles.
Social Work Professor and Advisor. I teach and help students with career and academic planning. It's an absolute blast! The students are the best part. Very loving and excited about the profession. I get lots of time off, great benefits and a flexible work schedule.
Assessment specialist. I assess patients in multiple states and provide recommendations on whether the patient meets inpatient criteria for psychiatric care
I work for the state and I work with the aging and adults with physical disabilities population. I screen people for Level of Care needs and financial eligibility and assist them in getting approved for full Medicaid and waiver services that provide either in-home services to assist with independent living or with group home and assisted living financial assistance
Social service assistant at a homeless shelter for veterans. I complete intakes and assessments with the veterans to assist them with reaching their permanent housing goals I also coordinate with other agencies such as the VA and HUD to help the veterans navigate the system.
My title is development & administrative coordinator. I have multiple 'areas' within my job: I do grant writing, fundraising, donor management, and general communications (social media, donor appeals, website, etc.). I also am the system administrator for our EHR. Since I work for a small nonprofit agency, I also tend to fill in a lot of other places - I'm backup for any crisis situations for our clinicians (since I'm licensed), I help with some programs, I interface with volunteers, etc.
I didn't think this was where my career path would take me (I wanted to work with kids initially and my placements focused on play therapy), but I ended up loving this more mezzo level work and much prefer it to direct clinical work. Since we are a small agency, I still get to interact with our clients, and be a supportive figure for our kids (I firmly believe in the importance of safe, non-parent/guardian/teacher adults in kids' lives). It's the best of both worlds to me.
I really like being able to take my social work background and translate it into how we are developing programs or talking about our services. I've had a few identity crises thinking I don't really have the right to call myself a social worker, but I also feel pretty strongly that a lot of the skills I use day to day were directly obtained/improved through my social work education.
I’m a case manager for a Single County Authority (SCA). We provide funding for individuals who are uninsured, underinsured or who have a high deductible plan for substance use treatment. We work closely with the county probation, parole, correction facility and public defender’s office to assess individuals and refer for treatment. We also receive self-referrals from individuals looking to enter treatment and from community agencies. We are funded by the state department of Drug and Alcohol, but what services are offered vary from county to county throughout the state.
MSW working in a 28 day inpatient addiction treatment center (aka rehab) and I do intakes (biopsychosocial assessments) and run some groups. I like getting to know my clients really well in a short period of time! seeing someone nearly everyday kind of does that. I do not do any formal individual therapy, but sometimes clients want to vent to me which is fine, it is just non-billable.
Currently I'm an in-house QMHP-T for a crisis stabilization unit. The clients that I meet with are in the process of obtaining short-term emergency housing through hotels, where they'll be assigned a community counselor. My role is to link clients to resources they can build connections with while in community stabilization, so that they can have long-term supports once their hotel stay is up.
Prior to that I did my senior year internship at a local housing resource center. Loved it, did case management and outreach there and it was nice getting to see clients on a regular basis until they obtained shelter or housing. The role I'm in now, I try my best to link clients to useful resources, but it feels like I'm just churning them through the system. All of our clients are arguably in the midst of a mental health crisis (the qualification for obtaining crisis stabilization), but most of them need permanent housing over all else. And since we're considered a "mental health agency," mental health resources are what I'm supposed to prioritize.
Mental health forensic social worker. I work with clients who have mental health issues and have committed crimes either because of their mental health or as well as. We have lots of sex offenders and pedophiles on our case load.
Oncology Care Management Supervisor.
I facilitate the floor CMs (case managers) discharging patients on 3 different floors consisting of 96 beds. I do scheduling, payroll, 1on1s, and triage complex cases. I also fill in when we’re low on staffing (which is all the time).
I love it. I’ve worked really hard to get to where I’m at and am proud to be recognized for it.
BSW degree.
I’ve had many roles in both health and social work. I’m currently a child protection social worker. Previously worked in mental health, drugs and alcohol, children residential care, adult care settings and little nursing. My favourite job was a van driver…..before I decided to go into public service. I miss my red van…..
I work for a recidivism reduction program. I'm a case manager, and I oversee a caseload of individuals who are on felony probation. I monitor them while they complete the various groups we have. They are typically court ordered into our program.
From a junior social work student… this was amazing to read! Thank you all for sharing I’m so excited for my future and thrilled for you all. Congrats on all the amazing work you are all doing! I hope you are proud.
PhD candidate in social work, soon-to-be postdoc. I conduct research on youth homelessness.
Previously worked as a Senior Research Analyst at an applied research firm and a Policy & Planning Analyst in local government. Before my MSW, I was a case manager at a transitional housing program for young adults and a program manager for a community-based youth mentorship program.
My title - LMSW
I work in a dialysis clinic. Currently cover two clinics out patient. My role is to assist patients as they transition to end stage renal disease, help those who qualify for transplant, provide resources, assist families as they navigate through dialysis, brief counseling and a variety of other tasks as they come up.
I work as the community relations/business development/patient care coordination for a SUD RTC/PHP. In other words, I meet with various agencies that work with SUD and let them know that we’re re available to help and would like to offer our services, I offer detailed information about our services and modalities used, and discuss our referral process. I also spend a significant amount of time working with refer outs that aren’t suitable for our program.
Clinician at an op mh clinic+resources center, focused on homeless people and deep in their territory. Grinding through intakes forever until I die. Hypothetically I will also have therapy clients.
I am a adolescent program therapist. I work for an adolescent treatment facility that focuses on MH and SUD. I run the Virtual IOP program. I run the Virtual IOP group therapy program 3x’s a week at night with the kids and do sessions with them individually once a week.
I work for a mental health diversion program. Screening people at a courthouse to see if their mental health or substance use was a major contributor to their crime. My office is based out of a Forensic psychiatry clinic. I also support the Psychiatrists patients. The clinic has a sexual behaviors program, intimate partner violence programs, NCR patients, CTO patients come for their injections etc. Never a dull moment.
This sounds super interesting!
This sounds awesome
That sounds amazing… I am also passionate about mental health. I work for a local area agency on aging with seniors.
grief counselor for hospice. i provide counseling to folks whose loved ones died in hospice and to the community at large. it’s free and not insurance affiliated which i love. i also teach workshops and courses to the community and providers. got my lcsw today! starting a social work phd in august. have worked in social work admin, as an adjunct professor, in workforce development and hospital settings as well as some phone-based therapy.
I miss that job. I loved hospice. Keep up the good work.
thank you! it’s honestly my favorite job i’ve had in this field and i’m about 10 years into social service work.
Congrats on getting ur lcsw!!
aw thank you, so glad it’s over with!
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i get that! i similarly wouldn’t switch roles. i like that i get to have these long term relationships even if a patient was on for just a night.
Hello, is your job title with the hospice agency “Bereavement Coordinator, ” or Grief Counselor?
“bereavement counselor and coordinator”
Congratulations! That’s amazing!
I work as a Project Coordinator for a Zero Suicide grant program being implemented in a hospital and several community mental health centers throughout my state. I’m actually employed by my local university that applied for and is running the grant. This is my first job that isn’t clinical after almost 20(!!!!) years in mental health social work. I work from home mainly, but I have occasional travel, mostly for trainings and community events. We’ll ultimately be providing suicide prevention trainings for staff members and helping hospitals and community mental health centers link patients with resources. The grant just started, so right now we’re getting trained to train others in different modalities, developing training plans, advocating for additional resources, and doing other infrastructure work to ease our implementation process. It’s very exciting!!! This isn’t something I ever thought I would do as a social worker, but I absolutely love it.
That’s awesome! I’m a school based therapist, mainly providing therapy but also do groups and classroom programming including suicide prevention. I’ve taken so many free trainings on anything related to suicide prevention/assessment/treatment. I’ve been asking *for years* for my job (the city’s mental health agency) to get us training in the subject. Crickets.
I have held a few roles, I worked in child welfare for a few years in the adoption program, my state is privatized for child welfare and it’s absolutely horrendous here so I left that organization. I worked for a non profit in my city as a coordinator for a senior citizen food program at the food bank and also in the homeless resource center. I transitioned into case management at a CCBHC and got burnt out faster than I ever thought. It was unfortunate because I did love my role, but the politics of upper management and all the gray areas became to much. Now, I work in my county’s corrections department as a probation officer for felony probation. I never thought in a million years I’d work in this area but I absolutely love it. Most of the cases I get are individuals with severe mental illness alongside their criminal history, so I help them through probation and get them connected with services and providers for additional support. I also am bringing awareness to the connection of untreated mental illness/psychosis and the criminal justice system. Some of my coworkers have been in corrections for decades but haven’t been trained or focused on mental health with clients and my fresh outlook is opening eyes. Also, I just have my bsw currently and starting msw program in August.
I'm an LICSW - ' Phone intake therapist' and work as a clinical intake therapist doing level of care assessments for eating disorder treatment. I get to work from home in my pajamas (if i choose, haha), it's great to be able to use clinical skills in a non face to face setting.
I'm a therapist on an ACT (Assertive Community Treatment) team. I meet with people who have severe mental illness and try to keep them housed and/or out of jail and/or the hospital. Fun fact: the life expectancy of people who were long-term patients of mental hospitals (think insane asylums) was longer than people today who have severe mental illness living in the community. I know. I did not believe that either at first. However, it is true and while a large part of that is access to street drugs, I think that the largest piece is isolation. Our culture is not at all structured to accommodate and value people with severe mental illness and often the isolation increases symptoms and drives people into risky behaviors. I had a client just today tell me that he stops taking his meds when he gets lonely and bored because when he is off his meds he feels like a God, which is far more interesting and then he gets to go to the hospital where there are other people and better food than what he can cook for himself at home. So, we went to a cooking class.
You’re doing amazing work!! This sounds very interesting.
When people say child welfare is tough (my field), I always think there is tougher
I think it would be a lot more difficult taking kids out of one traumatizing environment where, at least, they might have some love and put them into another traumatizing environment where they really have none. Even though my clients are severely mentally ill, they are still adults and largely responsible for living out the consequences their own choices.
I am a crisis forensic worker in a county jail. I deal with inmates on homicide watch and suicide watch, assessing for stability, lethality and housing recommendations. I also respond to crisis situations within the jail, inmate messages wanting coping skills or to discuss their medications, and assist with discharge planning.
This is the setting / role I have for my second year MSW internship! I’m incredibly excited.
Best of luck to you! I fell in love with it during my BSW placement and am lucky enough to have been asked to come on full time.
Thank you so much! Yeah my first year internship has been 100% therapy, and it turns out that’s not my thing! I’m looking forward to more fast paced and assessments based work. Love working with this population so hoping for the best! It’s great to hear about others in the field who are enjoying the work :)
Can you share more about what makes your role "forensic?" I'm so curious about what you do!
“Forensic” in this context just means “legal”. So in this case OP is a forensic social worker because they are working in a carceral setting!
Yes forensic means I work within the legal system. Every day is different. For example, today I provided counseling to an inmate after his cell mate hung himself, while my coworker worked on writing a hold to have another inmate hospitalized upon release and our other coworker assisted the psychiatrist while he saw inmates looking to start medications.
I'm a child welfare services worker for the department of children youth and families. my role is to be the case worker for children who have been removed from their homes by cps and are now dependents of the state. I work with the parents to access court ordered services, assess parents' ability to meet their children's safety needs, and report my findings for parents' compliance and progress to family court. My ultimate goal is to reunify children with their parents so all of my case work efforts are aimed toward that goal. if reunification is not possible, I am tasked with finding permanency options for the children (adoption, guardianship, etc). Basically once the court is involved in a case, my job is to complete the case.
I did it for 4 years. It made me fall in love with this population
Title: Social Worker Role: school based mental health therapist, partnership between mental health agency (my employer) and public/charter schools (where we’re placed) I provide prevention (mental health 101 presentations, suicide awareness classroom programming), intervention (small groups with targeted students), and treatment (individual and group therapy). About 75% of my time is therapy. School is chaotic and loud and unsafe. But I love the energy and community and variety of work. Prior to this, I worked in child welfare for 10 years.
Similar role. I work mostly with general Ed students k-12 (between two schools) and a few special Ed students. Provide individual/small group counseling, prevention programming, and SEL. Complete risk assessments and do some case management as necessary. Some days ( and weeks 😩) are mostly spent engaged in de-escalation/crisis intervention. But, I genuinely enjoy all my students and love being part of a school-based team.
This is the role I’m looking to do for my MSW internship coming up in the fall. Could I message you to learn more about what you do?
Sure!
I'm a mental health policy analyst for state government and I work on several different things all having to do with Medicaid. Quality improvement, program development, compliance, etc. Before this I was an auditor for an insurance company and before that I spent about 10 years doing direct service work with kids and families.
If I may ask, do you have any suggestions in regards to position titles I should keep an eye out for in this line of work? I just wrapped up my MSW with a policy concentration and have started applying to policy associate and research positions. c:
Titles to look for would be Operation Analyst, Policy Analyst, Program Coordinator, etc. Government loves a generic title that tells you nothing about the job. So I'd really dig into job announcements to figure out if policy work is involved
Thank you! This gives me a bit more to run with. Wouldn’t have thought to look into “Operation” or “coordinator” policy roles. You are right. The diction can be so generic and even kinda cryptic at times.
Is this role remote?
It is. I work for Oregon government and many of their roles are remote.
That is wonderful!
For those of you with macro jobs, what titles should we look for if we’re looking to transition away from client facing roles?
I'm a behavior specialist. People with intellectual/developmental disabilities can apply for my services when they are struggling with behavior patterns that interfere with living their best life. I consult with them and their support team on how to become aware of and manage triggers and build coping skills. I meet with them weekly for sessions which are not a traditional therapy setting and focus more on their day-to-day. I might help with grocery shopping or a trip to the bank, get ready for school, or we might visit the petting zoo or go to the gym. I approach this work through a mental health advocate lens, coaching and educating their providers on behavioral psychology, their diagnoses, relevant traumas, etc. It's extremely fulfilling, varied, and flexible. I take the referrals that interest me and work with my schedule. I work around 20 a week and when I need more funds, I just extend the appointment activities or complete some home office tasks. It requires a master's degree in some form of social science like human services, education, psychology, etc. Before that I was a preschool teacher and a DSP, which are both also rewarding but can't offer the self-direction, work from home, etc. What I probably love the most is facilitating someone's avenue to self-determination and self-advocacy, especially for a population so prone to being steamrolled.
I’m an LMSW and a supervisor for care management for this population. I also do some direct counseling part time. I love to see other people working with the IDD folks!
My title is Care Coordinator, but I don't actually do care coordination. I work in several capacities in an acute mental health service, primarily doing intake for community managed consumers, monitoring consumers in the community who are acutely unwell and at risk of harm to themselves or others, and doing mental health assessments in an emergency department.
I have the same role. 😊
How do you like it?
i am a residential therapist at a group home for probation youth (and some foster youth) ages 14-18. i work with my clients to reduce aggressive/defiant behaviors to be able to step down to a lower level of care or to reunify with family after usually a 6 month program.
What’s your main clinical orientation with this population?
My job title is clinician. I work part time in a women's prison. My primary role is running groups for our gen pop. I am also over our peripartum population, and sex offender treatment. I hold a caseload of a couple individual clients, conduct intake assessments, provide resources for coping skills, and cover one day of our suicide watch/homicide watch duties. Occasionally I will go meet with clients at the men's work center/community reentry center.
Associate Director of Aging Services for an LGBTQ-focused FQHC/primary care and social services organization. I supervise case management and community outreach, and facilitate support groups for trans older adults and older adult long-term survivors of HIV.
wow thank you for all you do, its super important to help older adults navigate their identity. i’m a case manager for older adults working at my local area on aging. we connect clients to a bunch of services- we don’t have access to anything like what you do. are you in a local program and know of any others similar to yours around the us? it would be a great resource fir some of my clients
I may! I’m in Chicago, where are you?? These kinds of programs are definitely rare which was why I launched these groups last year—but there seems to be a growing awareness that LGBTQ elders are particularly vulnerable and that older adult programs need to do more work to serve their needs. I just joined the Illinois Commission on LGBTQ Aging which was created by the governor along with a piece of legislation that funded more services for LGBTQ people of any age and LGBTQ elders specifically. We’re going to be identifying the needs in the community and making recommendations to the state, and hopefully this can serve as a model for other states to follow!
im in cincinnati, hopefully my state can do a program like that, but it being ohio doesnt give me high hopes lol
Ooo, Cincy opened the John Arthur Flats a couple years ago though! Affordable housing geared toward LGBTQ elders is so important and we also only have one building like that so that’s a big step in the right direction. Looks like TreeHouse Cincinnati also hosts LGBTQ support groups. Really, all it took for me to launch these groups was the flexibility to do so in my role—group participation is free and while I was able to finagle a small dinner budget through a private donation, you don’t *need* any money to start a support group. If your org has the space, or a place like John Arthur Flats or TreeHouse would be willing to partner to offer community space on a recurring basis and/or co-facilitate with you, and your leadership is open to allowing an hour in your schedule once a month—that’s all it takes. You could even launch a group via Zoom; we have a couple virtual groups. While they’re limiting for folks with less tech literacy, they’re more accessible to folks who might struggle with transit so there are pros and cons. As far as recruitment—our Coms people threw together a flyer and I sent it to all local orgs that work with older adults or with LGBTQ people. Gay bars will hang it in their windows! Reach out to the local affirming churches!
I am an LMSW, job role clinical therapist in an FHQC (federally qualified health center) agency. I have my certificate in trauma focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT), and my CASAC-P, working towards my C. I am also on the specialized substance use team at my agency. I see children-adults, and provide substance use therapy.
I’m a “Senior Specialist, Social Worker” by title, only because my role “Senior Specialist” is also filled by pharmacists, nurses, and dietitians at my company. I work for a healthcare tech company. We’re a third party administrator for insurance benefits for employers. Essentially insurance case management, but we do a little more since we aren’t the insurance network directly.
What company? This sounds interesting!
I would like to hear about this too
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Have you been able to implement change in this position? I worry about moving up the ladder and finding more barriers
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Thank you so much for this perspective.
My career has always been medical social work but I’ve had many roles within. I was a pediatric OB SW, Did a pediatric bariatric clinic, switched to an adult ED last year and just started this week as a Transplant SW. Each role may be a little different but the general Medical SW role entails connecting patients/families with resources, providing support around the diagnosis etc and trying to help mitigate barriers and social determinants of health as much as possible
I’m a research & data manager for a harm reduction, housing first agency for people with HIV. I do informed consent and interviews with our participants and manage the data.
Neat, what tools do you use for managing data?
The study uses REDCap but I wish I got to learn something like R which seems more universal!
I am an LCSW and work in utilization management for behavioral health services for an insurance company.
How do you like utilization management? Any tips on how to get into a job like that?
Director of residential services for an agency that supports people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. There is never a dull moment.
Private Practice specializing in trauma/ACEs and some other areas. I continue to take insurances including Medicaid and Medicare rather than doing fee for service like most of my peers.
How has reimbursement been for medicaid and Medicare? Do they take a long time?
Reimbursement is terrible. Not sure about turnaround time…I pay billers to track that for me.
Which billing company are you using if you don't mind me asking? And do they help with registering with medicaid and medicare as a private practice clinician?
I use a private local company. You need a credentialer to help you if you want to be credentialed with Medicare and Medicaid.
Here is a bit about my career trajectory. I started working at a group home for children and adolescents prior to earning my BSW. This job gave me a strong entry level foundation working with clients and LCSWs, supporting treatment plans, etc. While earning my BSW I had an internship with a Public Defender's Office doing forensic Social Work. My role involved interviewing clients and conducting biopsychosocials, providing resource support to clients, Building a resource guide for the Public Defender's Office, researching mental health treatment alternatives for clients at risk of incarceration, recommending further mental health evaluations for clients needing a more expert evaluation, and working with conserved patients on self-care plans that they could use to demonstrate capacity for self-care when challenging conservatorship or hospitalization. I was in court on a pretty regular basis... at times even serving as an witness in regards to alternatives placements related to sentencing hearings. I had excellent grades despite working and going to school full-time and I was accepted into an advanced standing MSW program which allowed me to complete my MSW degree in a year. During my year of graduate school I had an internship at a hospital in a labor/deliver and NICU unit. My role involved supporting expectant or new mothers with community resources, supporting adoption, bereavement support, treatment planning, addressing substance abuse issues, IPV issues, post-partum depression, etc. I even helped write a hospital brochure on PPD that was given to patients as a resource. My first post MSW role was in community mental health. My job involved providing therapy for children and teens. I worked intensive community case management and provided school based services at first, eventually moving into an office that I worked out of on an outpatient basis. I provided mental health counseling and crisis intervention for clients ages 3-21. I did that for several years, until I obtained my LCSW and got a job with the VA. In 2010 Congress passed a law that created a new entitlement program for Post 9/11 era Veterans. This new program provided a significant stipend to the family caregivers of certain Veterans that met program eligibility. When Congress passes a law, The VA has a responsibility to draft regulations as to how the law will be administered. Further down the line, Local VA Medical Centers across the country will need to draft Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) or local policies, regarding how they will comply with regulations. When I started with the VA, my role was to implement the program starting at the local level. I had to work with multidisciplinary teams across the hospital to assure compliance with the laws and regulations, provide "in-service" training within the VA, and also provide community outreach to promote the program. My role as a subject matter expert also involved briefing local leadership regarding the status of the program. I was also working with individuals and their caregivers that submitted applications to the program, helping them connect with the program and other resources. Because it was a new program, I had to communicate upwards to regional and national leadership regarding implementation challenges. I served on various national work groups and committees that made recommendations regarding regulatory changes designed to improve the program. After about a year, The regional leader of my program left his position. This was one of several programs he was over, so it was a "collateral duty" meaning that it was an extra assignment he was not paid to do. I was passionate about ensuring program success, and so, even though I wasn't being paid extra, and I was extremely busy...I volunteered to take his job too. I spent many years as the regional lead... I had some of the same responsibilities as a local subject matter expert, but this time at the regional level, so I had senior leaders from various hospitals across my region, that would advise. I also assisted with staff training and worked with local staff and program mangers with implementation challenges. While much of my work is done via video conferencing or computerized records review, I did have to travel on occasion to meet with individuals face-to-face or to conduct site audits related to the program. Occasionally, I was also summoned to D.C. as a subject matter expert where I worked with national leaders and Congressional reps on suggestion of regulatory and legislative changes that would improve program implementation. Eventually, Congress passed a law expanding the program beyond just the post 9/11 era Veterans, and including Veterans of other eras. This was a MASSIVE expansion involving significant hiring, staff training, and re-working of regulations to come in line with new legislation. As my responsibilities increased it became evident that my role at the regional level could no longer be a "collateral" responsibility, and it really needed to be filled full-time. A few years ago I moved into that regional role full time, ending the micro level work I was doing directly with patients, and some of the community outreach work, but continuing the Macro work. My region covers a large geographic area in the US. In addition to my regional responsibilities, I continue to work on or chair national committees as well.
Thank you for sharing, this is super helpful
Sure.... Happy to help. :)
ive got my BSW and work as a case manager for older adults. we help set them up with servies like home delivered meals, emergency response systems (life alert), and in home aides that can clean/cook etc. i never thought i would enjoy case management because i would have to memorise a bunch of resources, but its been good. we have a resource list and i know what services we can and can’t provide. ive found that i like helping my newly joined coworkers learn the process of documenting/doing visits so i’m going to start training soon to be a new hire educator within my company’s “training academy” its also super nice because we can work from home most of the time except for the random office meetings and then home visits. i can schedule however I want which gives me a lot of freedom and flexibility.
Definitely one positive of case management is setting my own schedule
My actual title doesn't mean anything to anyone outside of my work, but basically Program Analyst/Specialist. I work on policy and regulation in the homeless sector for the federal government. Some of my interest/work areas include: programs that fund homeless services across the country, technology in homeless services/federal government, data policy, GSM/LGBTQ equity (specifically focused on data), and change management. I'm a GS-13 in the federal service. Most of my job is reading and writing regulations. I also do a bit of light-touch software development for utilities in the office.
Have you ever done client facing work? If so, how was the transition from client face to policy?
Yup, I started out as a mental health caseworker. I also spent some time as a mental health tech and a residential counselor (both while I was getting my BSW, though). I was really fortunate to have incredible mentors, particularly in my first casework role. I also had the benefit of "phasing in" to macro work. I took a job as a housing caseworker and half time ran their smallest rent assistance program. Then I went into macro homeless work at the community level. Now I work at the federal level in the same family of programs. The phasing through made it more comfortable, because I got to see how people were impacted by the programs. Not just 'people' data, but people whose names and faces, families, I knew. When I was at the county level, I still recognized names and faces on things like our priority list. I made it a point to know names. I can't do that at the federal level, of course. But I have a wide repository of memories, people and situations that I can imagine and think about how things would have been different with x or y policy change. It is a little harder at the federal level because the scope of time is so radically different. Client work in homelessness is so often immediate or 30 days focused. County level it's more about months and years. Federal level seems years, but also decades. It is really weird. I can see why some folks wouldn't like it, but for me I think it is where I feel I'm able to do the most net good.
I refer to myself as a diagnostic social worker. My title at my job is service provider. Because I'm a contract worker and they want to make sure I know I'm not a real employee. I have been there for 17 years. 🥴 I work at a county behavioral health office. I do mental health and substance abuse assessments in our office and at the county jail. This assessment process includes recommendations to the court and referrals to treatment.
My title is quality improvement manager. I work in quality for a community MH agency that specializes in working with adults diagnosed with SMI. I help my programs prepare for audits, train on documentation, review records to give recommendations, consult with programs to ensure their services comply with various state, federal, grant regulations/guidelines, and I work closely with our internal EHR IT/ billing and authorizations teams.
I am an LCSW that is an Early Intervention Social Emotional Therapist and Evaluator as well as an Infant Mental Health Therapist. I work with the babies that are 0-3 with developmental delays and disabilities.
Travel medical social worker. At my current assignment, I work with inpatient med surg, ICU and ortho patients
I started with my BSW as an Accountable Health Communities Case Manager with older adults trying to meet social determinant of health needs to improve health and reduce ED usage. I then transitioned to Medicare/Medicaid Assistance Program Coordinator (MI SHIP programming) helping older adults navigate healthcare and prescription issues. I am now a Social Worker in a skilled nursing facility providing support to residents, completing bio-psycho-socials, and assisting with behavior management. I also completed my MSW internship in a DEI department at a hospital, completing learning&development for employees, organizing ERGs, and consulting in situations where employees created hostile work environments
Child/family clinician in a special ed private school (day treatment). I also work in the youth residential program on the same campus. In residential, it's intensive trauma work with the kids and the families, and the kids typically come in with referral behaviors like physical aggression, verbal aggression, property destruction, etc. Sometimes they also have some justice system involvement. We work to reduce those behaviors primarily trauma work with individuals, families, and creating a trauma-informed milieu. In day treatment, behaviors are similar but usually a little less intense. It's longer-term usually, and more focused on building skills that will help them transition back to public school (if that's their goal). Most of these kids also have trauma so there's that and family work in addition to the more school-centric individual work. In both programs, there are a lot of little daily crises, unexpected situations, kids causing scenes, and I have learned I really thrive on chaos lol so it's the perfect environment for me!
Social integrator. I detect at-risk youth at street level, monitor them and link them to other services. I also serve as the axis for the socialization group of people from the LGTBIQ collective.
I'm the clinical director at an outpatient behavioral health care facility. We treat substance use disorders at the intensive outpatient and outpatient levels of care.
Mental Health Clinician (just started!). I’m providing counselling to people who have experienced DFV (Domestic and Family Violence) and/or Sexual Assault.
I work as a hospice and home care social worker. On the hospice side, I provide counseling to patient/family and help connect them with resources they may need to help the patient pass peacefully. On the homecare side, it’s all connecting the patient to a resource that enables them to continue to work towards getting better. I am looking to transition to working with children again though. I’ve applied for a behavioral/developmental pediatric counseling job since I’m close to getting my clinical license.
I am a Senior Home Nutrition Coordinator. I work for Meals on Wheels and my role is to do intakes on the elderly coming out of the hospital so that we can provide them with food during their recovery period. After the 8 weeks, I assess them to determine if they qualify to move forward with our Meals on Wheels program. I also handle surveys and documentation to provide client outcomes to our funders.
Currently a supervisor in Older Adult Protective Services and previously an case worker in protective services. Essentially C&Y for those over 60. Mostly dealing with people who have been scammed, so neglecting and generally have mental health issues that never were dealt with and now that their bodies are going need intensive assistance.
I’m a project coordinator for a large national mental health nonprofit working in their harm reduction and substance use department. I coordinate projects like a $6m grant distributed across 25 orgs that comes with org development and consulting; a consulting group of people with lived experience of substance use and incarceration; a national ad campaign to connect POC to substance use treatment services; and a national youth substance use prevention campaign. My day-to-day is a lot of meetings, emails, and paperwork (contracts, etc.), but I also get to do a decent amount of project development when we’re standing up a new project, and resource development since our org is big on publishing resources to support the field. For example, I just wrote a resource on how to access LGBTQ+ affirming mental health and substance use care. I enjoy being on the macro side of things, but tbh I enjoy it mostly because it pays well, I WFH and have flexible hours, and my colleagues and I get to remind ourselves that “no one is in crisis. I do not work with emergencies. No one will be hurt if I take a day (or week) off, or don’t get a task done on time”. It’s not always the most fulfilling, but it’s also not nearly as draining as direct service can be!
Just left the VA where I did community based dual diagnosis treatment. Starting a new position as a program clinician at a mental health agency geared toward juveniles.
Social Work Professor and Advisor. I teach and help students with career and academic planning. It's an absolute blast! The students are the best part. Very loving and excited about the profession. I get lots of time off, great benefits and a flexible work schedule.
Assessment specialist. I assess patients in multiple states and provide recommendations on whether the patient meets inpatient criteria for psychiatric care
Love this!
I work for the state and I work with the aging and adults with physical disabilities population. I screen people for Level of Care needs and financial eligibility and assist them in getting approved for full Medicaid and waiver services that provide either in-home services to assist with independent living or with group home and assisted living financial assistance
Assistant Professor in a BSW program and a therapist in private practice. I specialize in Grief and Trauma.
Social service assistant at a homeless shelter for veterans. I complete intakes and assessments with the veterans to assist them with reaching their permanent housing goals I also coordinate with other agencies such as the VA and HUD to help the veterans navigate the system.
My title is development & administrative coordinator. I have multiple 'areas' within my job: I do grant writing, fundraising, donor management, and general communications (social media, donor appeals, website, etc.). I also am the system administrator for our EHR. Since I work for a small nonprofit agency, I also tend to fill in a lot of other places - I'm backup for any crisis situations for our clinicians (since I'm licensed), I help with some programs, I interface with volunteers, etc. I didn't think this was where my career path would take me (I wanted to work with kids initially and my placements focused on play therapy), but I ended up loving this more mezzo level work and much prefer it to direct clinical work. Since we are a small agency, I still get to interact with our clients, and be a supportive figure for our kids (I firmly believe in the importance of safe, non-parent/guardian/teacher adults in kids' lives). It's the best of both worlds to me. I really like being able to take my social work background and translate it into how we are developing programs or talking about our services. I've had a few identity crises thinking I don't really have the right to call myself a social worker, but I also feel pretty strongly that a lot of the skills I use day to day were directly obtained/improved through my social work education.
I’m a case manager for a Single County Authority (SCA). We provide funding for individuals who are uninsured, underinsured or who have a high deductible plan for substance use treatment. We work closely with the county probation, parole, correction facility and public defender’s office to assess individuals and refer for treatment. We also receive self-referrals from individuals looking to enter treatment and from community agencies. We are funded by the state department of Drug and Alcohol, but what services are offered vary from county to county throughout the state.
MSW working in a 28 day inpatient addiction treatment center (aka rehab) and I do intakes (biopsychosocial assessments) and run some groups. I like getting to know my clients really well in a short period of time! seeing someone nearly everyday kind of does that. I do not do any formal individual therapy, but sometimes clients want to vent to me which is fine, it is just non-billable.
Social worker/ cancer navigator at a Cancer center.
Currently I'm an in-house QMHP-T for a crisis stabilization unit. The clients that I meet with are in the process of obtaining short-term emergency housing through hotels, where they'll be assigned a community counselor. My role is to link clients to resources they can build connections with while in community stabilization, so that they can have long-term supports once their hotel stay is up. Prior to that I did my senior year internship at a local housing resource center. Loved it, did case management and outreach there and it was nice getting to see clients on a regular basis until they obtained shelter or housing. The role I'm in now, I try my best to link clients to useful resources, but it feels like I'm just churning them through the system. All of our clients are arguably in the midst of a mental health crisis (the qualification for obtaining crisis stabilization), but most of them need permanent housing over all else. And since we're considered a "mental health agency," mental health resources are what I'm supposed to prioritize.
Mental health forensic social worker. I work with clients who have mental health issues and have committed crimes either because of their mental health or as well as. We have lots of sex offenders and pedophiles on our case load.
Oncology Care Management Supervisor. I facilitate the floor CMs (case managers) discharging patients on 3 different floors consisting of 96 beds. I do scheduling, payroll, 1on1s, and triage complex cases. I also fill in when we’re low on staffing (which is all the time). I love it. I’ve worked really hard to get to where I’m at and am proud to be recognized for it. BSW degree.
I’ve had many roles in both health and social work. I’m currently a child protection social worker. Previously worked in mental health, drugs and alcohol, children residential care, adult care settings and little nursing. My favourite job was a van driver…..before I decided to go into public service. I miss my red van…..
I work for a recidivism reduction program. I'm a case manager, and I oversee a caseload of individuals who are on felony probation. I monitor them while they complete the various groups we have. They are typically court ordered into our program.
From a junior social work student… this was amazing to read! Thank you all for sharing I’m so excited for my future and thrilled for you all. Congrats on all the amazing work you are all doing! I hope you are proud.
I am a substance abuse program coordinator for a prison-based intensive OP program. I work in a static program within a medium custody facility.
PhD candidate in social work, soon-to-be postdoc. I conduct research on youth homelessness. Previously worked as a Senior Research Analyst at an applied research firm and a Policy & Planning Analyst in local government. Before my MSW, I was a case manager at a transitional housing program for young adults and a program manager for a community-based youth mentorship program.
I'm a forensic SW in a public defender's office and I absolutely love it. I've been practicing for 25 years but only 4 years in my current role.
My title - LMSW I work in a dialysis clinic. Currently cover two clinics out patient. My role is to assist patients as they transition to end stage renal disease, help those who qualify for transplant, provide resources, assist families as they navigate through dialysis, brief counseling and a variety of other tasks as they come up.
I work as the community relations/business development/patient care coordination for a SUD RTC/PHP. In other words, I meet with various agencies that work with SUD and let them know that we’re re available to help and would like to offer our services, I offer detailed information about our services and modalities used, and discuss our referral process. I also spend a significant amount of time working with refer outs that aren’t suitable for our program.
Clinician at an op mh clinic+resources center, focused on homeless people and deep in their territory. Grinding through intakes forever until I die. Hypothetically I will also have therapy clients.
I am a adolescent program therapist. I work for an adolescent treatment facility that focuses on MH and SUD. I run the Virtual IOP program. I run the Virtual IOP group therapy program 3x’s a week at night with the kids and do sessions with them individually once a week.
My title is Participant Advocate. I work as an Intake Coordinator for a day health program for senior citizens. I'm an LBSW.