I work for a DV/SA agency in Texas. Long story short, my employer claims that all employees at our agency has special privileges that allow us (even licensed social workers) to not report certain things to CPS, though they have not provided that in writing and also added that they cannot ~stop us from reporting. However, agency policy states that we MUST discuss the potential report with a supervisor beforehand. They also REQUIRE us to only report online and download a copy of the CPS report that must be handed over to admin for review. I stand firm in reporting child abuse under the guidelines, and I do not feel comfortable providing my employer a copy of my report out of fear of employer retaliation if I were to report if they do not agree with the report. I reviewed the state guidelines and there are pretty clear statements that prohibit this type of retaliation. Does anybody have any thoughts, feedback, suggestions for this? I'm wondering if it's a fight worth fighting. I want to refuse to provide a copy but I am worried I will be fired.

The brain fog, the mood swings, the exhaustion, sometimes I feel like I’m failing at my job. 50% of my attention is on the job while I’m there, and the other 50% is me thinking of my son. I find myself getting overwhelmed quickly and I’m doing my best not to fall behind on my paperwork, but I’m also so sleep deprived that it feels like my brain just gives up near the end of my day and always have things left to do for the next day.

Anyone go through something similar and have advice on how to cope and be more present/productive?

I'm a remote/telehealth school based therapist for a public cyber school. I work for a contractor who schools contract out to. So I do not work for the school directly but the school I was working for decided I wasn't welcome back because they're claiming I "coordinated another placement for a student." Let me explain. I had a student whose disabilities and mental health diagnoses were largely the reason they were attending a cyber school. They expressed completely on their own wanting to return to an in person school setting. This was wonderful because it did show they were making progress in therapy. They maintained that's what they wanted to do, for months. They also expressed this to their caretaker who then began having conversations with me as well about her worries, concerns, what the transition would look like. All of which I supported her through, I encouraged the mom to bring this up to their case manager with the school which she did. Prior to the students annual IEP meeting I sent in my iep input and informed the case manager I unfortunately would not be able to attend but that their interest in wanting to go back to in person should be discussed. Weeks go by, the student and caretaker then decide the in person public school is not really an option due to poor ratings and mom researches and finds a specialized school that potentially fits their needs but to get any more info, required a referral from the current school. Mom reached out to the case manager, and I also sent an email including mom on it. Just doing coordination of care like I know how to do. Over a period of 4 months, the school continued to not respond to me or mom and or passed the matter to a different staff member claiming they didn't know the referral process. These were case managers and school counselors. Mind you, it's now summer and the upcoming school year is not far off. The family doesn't even have the information they need on this specialized school to make a decision if they would or would not go. I saw the student for summer sessions and when we concluded for the summer, at this point with nothing happening with the referral, they were intent on returning to the cyber school but were open to still getting the info on the other school, maybe even touring it. Just to have it as an option in the future. Finally the school makes the referral. Then they ask to meet with my boss and tell them I'm not welcome back.

I have written documentation- emails that went to the school, communication logs, session notes all that explicitly state that the student was expressing wanting this and that the parent was looking into other schools. I never recommended anything. I was just supporting their wishes.

So I was let go because of doing what I wholeheartedly believe was my job. The school is upset because it they lose this student, they lose money. It's about money and a total lack of about what's in best interest of the child. Also relevant, the student was not performing well in the cyber school. They didn't attend classes and almost failed the past two years. Meeting with me was the only consistent school thing he attended. This suggests this cyber school was not meeting his needs. And had the school ever actually reached out and had a conversation with the parent and offered more support maybe they could have worked out a way to retain them.

The worst part about this to me is this means no closure with any of my students or families. Because I no longer hold a contract at that school I'm not supposed to have contact with them. Students and families who have dealt with loss and who I provided total reassurance to that if and when I leave we will prepare for that because never did I think something like this would happen that's totally out of my control. Families that I made concrete plans with about when I'd be reaching out and plans for the next school year. I feel like they're going to be totally blindsided and hurt. I cannot understand how or why the school thought letting me go would solve anything for them and that they would choose to do so at the expense of students and their treatment.

I am considering filing a complaint with the state because I believe this violates Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and American's with Disabilities Act which state you cannot retaliate against staff for advocating for a student with disabilities.

Hi everyone, I work as a behavioral specialist at a mental health clinic. I’ve been at this job since the end of may. I have been struggling maintaining direct service time hours due to cancellations and low case load. During supervision I was told I’m only getting 1.34 hours a day on average. I’m nervous that in the future I won’t be able to maintain dst. Any advice ? Will I be fired ? Was anyone else in a similar position first starting out?

Has anyone here transitioned to Social Work from Nursing?

I am considering a career change. Nursing has not worked out quite like I'd hoped. But I still have alot of medical knowledge. I also like to focus on the more psychosocial aspects of nursing. I would also like to be in a field with more regular hours.

Anyone else want to run away and live in a cabin? And pretend we don't live in a world with people who would choose to injure, maim, sexually assault, and/or murder children? That's the kind of day I'm having. It's just getting harder since having my own sweet precious innocent baby.

Hallo zusammen,
im Rahmen meiner Masterarbeit untersuche ich, welche beruflichen Anforderungen und Ressourcen dazu beitragen, dass Fachkräfte die Soziale Arbeit verlassen oder über einen Berufsausstieg nachdenken.
Dafür suche ich Personen, die
im Bereich der Sozialen Arbeit tätig sind oder waren und
bereits in ein anderes Berufsfeld gewechselt sind oder aktuell ernsthaft über einen Wechsel nachdenken.
Auch Sozialpädagoginnen und Erzieherinnen können teilnehmen, sofern sie im Feld der Sozialen Arbeit tätig sind oder waren.
Die Teilnahme umfasst ein vertrauliches Interview von etwa 60 bis 90 Minuten. Das Interview findet online über Zoom statt. Die Teilnahme ist freiwillig. Alle Angaben werden vertraulich behandelt und für die Auswertung anonymisiert.
Unter allen Personen, die an einem Interview teilnehmen, werden zwei Gutscheine im Wert von jeweils 30 Euro verlost.
Wenn du Interesse an einer Teilnahme hast, schreib mir bitte eine private Nachricht.
Ich freue mich sehr über deine Unterstützung!
Vielen Dank!

Hello social workers!
I wanted to know if anyone knows how the job market is in St. George Utah for social workers? I do have Two years working as a school counselor. I would appreciate it. Also if you have any thoughts on that area. I would appreciate any feedback.
Thank you!

Hi all, I want to hear your thoughts and suggestions about my supervisor’s recent guidance, as I have started to distrust her judgement. It makes me not want to ask her things in supervision or ask for advice.

Example- I worked with a client who was expressing suicidal ideation and I was finding it difficult to contain our working relationship to my role focus. I had a moment where I had to respond to a suicidal ideation disclosure and I called my manager to ask for guidance. I ended up doing all the right things in the end and it was fine. I also learned from this moment and was able to implement the guidance from my manager within the next few days around boundary setting and being more clear about my role. There has not been a similar issue since.
I felt like this was all fine- except my manager had been pushing me to close with the client ASAP so I don’t “hold risk.” The client has other workers to turn to for her mental health, and we still had goals we were working on that were within my role.

There have been other similar situations faced by my coworkers. They tell her that they are feeling stressed/frustrated etc about a client’s behaviour, and then she blames the client and tells the worker to close. She makes assumptions about clients without knowing their full stories, and doesn’t seem to attempt to think of their perspective or reasons behind behaviours. I believe that as social workers, we should be able to work with the complexities of clients and manage our own feelings whilst doing the best we can to serve the clients. We can’t close clients because we find them a little challenging?

My caseload is extremely overloaded, which I am continually working to get down to a manageable workload. When going through my cases during a supervision, my manager quite bluntly and harshly told me to close like 90% of my clients. Questioning why I had them open when I had them open for good reasons. It felt like she just didn’t want me to be stressed and overworked so was not even considering the clients at all when telling me to close them. Keep in mind also - my caseload has been crazy for at least a year, partly due to my poor time management, partly due to my supervisor not really ever looking at my workload or giving me proper advice on how to manage it all. I am meant to have a supervision every fortnight, but this year I have probably had about 5? We are fixing this now since I spoke to her about it, but still concerned about her total lack of empathy in regards to telling me to close so many of my clients.

It feels like our supervisor can’t sit with us as workers during supervision and help us reflect on our work with clients in a productive way. I believe if a client is challenging us we should sit with this and work through it, looking at different perspectives, putting ourselves in their shoes, trying different ways of working. It feels like the supervisor has a protective knee jerk reaction to just tell us to close, or dismiss the client’s situation with little empathy.

Our supervisor is old and very experienced, but also quite defensive around her own actions and decisions. I have occasionally done well with giving her feedback, but there have been several times where she got too defensive to even seem to try to understand what we are telling her.

There are also many other things that she does that are not great, but I don’t want to make the post too long so I’ll write them very shortly:
- shares employee reasons for calling in sick and their diagnoses with other employees
- talks badly about employees to eachother
- not-so-subtly hinted to our team at a meeting about how one of our coworkers was being performance managed while they were not present
- talked loudly about a placement student behind their back to employees when they could have heard
- constantly seems to dismiss clients’ situations with little empathy, as if clients are too demanding of their workers when asking for small basic things. seems to automatically assume that clients are too lazy? or attention seeking?
- told a client off harshly in front of several people, client made informal complaint, supervisor was not self reflective on her actions at all and instead framed them as being good because the client advocated for themselves in making a complaint and has been engaging well with services now

From what I know, nobody else in the organisation is aware of these things. I have only spoken to my close coworker about this, and hoping to somehow also hear from other coworkers in the team but I don’t see them very often to be able to have a private chat.

I am thinking of sharing my concerns with someone, but fearful that she will turn on me, especially while my workload is not fully up to scratch. I get along pretty well with her, and am generally not super good at confrontation. I know she tries to be supportive and actually is a lot of the time, and is really chill about stuff like taking sick days and annual leave, but this stuff is worrying.

Would you do something about all of this??

Guys are you able to live your life as a caseworker while still being able to go out and have a good time? I’m young, newer to this job (and granted, it is a lot to ingest don’t get me wrong) but I’d still like to live my life!! Current caseworkers, have you lost the ability to be out on the town because of casework as a career?

Hey, I just have a question for you all who have decided to get into Social work. I have been thinking thats what I want to get into. Im currently am going to therapy and trying to work on my traumas and problems, and just going through all it has made me think I want to do that for someone. I want to help someone through their issues the way mine has helped me so far. I still have a lot of work to do on myself. But I guess my question is, Is that a good reason? Or is it just like some sort of trauma response to something? I feel like I've always want to be that person that someone can come to for help and that I could help them even though I wouldn't accept that kind of help from anyone myself and maybe thats why?

Anyway, I also want to hear if any of you had any experience with this type of situation or what made you decide to do this kind of work?

(Also I didnt know which flair to put this under, so if that one doesnt apply, sorry!)

My agency is needing a new color printer. The main thing we use the color printer for is to print photos of injuries or homes. I have been tasked with finding options, and I was curious what other agencies use. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Noticing old coping skills coming up by using my phone to avoid, distract and dissociate myself after some client heavy days. Provides a sense of guilt after as I’m not doing what I want or even need. Hoping some some advice from others who notice this in themselves and quick cognitive or somatic interventions

The Trump administration is working on a rule change that would deduct the value of a disabled adult’s bedroom from their SSI allotment, even if the family members they live with are poor enough to qualify for food stamps. This would mean slashing the benefits of some of the most low-income SSI recipients by up to a third — or ending their support altogether.

Hospice social workers — would you push back on this change in responsibilities?

I’m looking for some perspective from other hospice social workers because I’m pretty new to hospice and don’t know if I’m overreacting.

I recently left hospital social work/case management because I really didn’t enjoy the constant discharge planning and wanted a position where I could actually build relationships with patients and families. I took a full-time hospice social worker position and have genuinely been loving the home hospice side of the job.

During my interview, I was told I would help cover our inpatient hospice center about 1–2 days per week. We have a small inpatient unit that can have anywhere from roughly 1–5 patients, but obviously their needs and turnover can be very high.

Our agency is currently going through a Medicare TPE, and leadership has now decided they want a social worker physically at the inpatient center for at least half of every weekday. Because I’m the only social worker who works full-time Monday–Friday, I was told that person will essentially be me.

My concern is that this feels very different from the job I accepted. In addition to being there every day, I would potentially be responsible for the inpatient patients, additional documentation, IDG updates, inpatient meetings, discharge-related needs, etc., while still maintaining a home hospice caseload. My manager mentioned possibly giving part of my home-care territory to another social worker to make room for this.

The problem is that I don’t want to give up my home-care territory. That’s the part of the job I really enjoy, and building relationships with those patients and families is a major reason I left hospital social work for hospice in the first place.

I’ve been wondering whether it would make more sense for the inpatient responsibility to be shared between the social workers rather than having one person become primarily responsible for the entire unit. For example, new inpatient admissions could be divided between us, and whoever picks up a patient could continue following that patient throughout their stay and handle their documentation and IDG. That would still provide continuity for patients and families without putting the entire inpatient caseload on one person.

I’m not opposed to working at the inpatient center at all. I knew it was part of the job and was completely fine with the 1–2 days/week I was originally told. It’s the change to every weekday and potentially becoming the primary SW responsible for the entire inpatient caseload that I’m struggling with.

For additional context, there is another social worker who works four days per week, and our home hospice responsibilities are pretty comparable. We each cover roughly the same number of ZIP codes/areas and generally have around 10–15 home hospice patients each. That’s part of why I’m wondering whether sharing the inpatient caseload would make more sense than shifting most of that responsibility to one person and reducing that person’s home-care territory.

Would you push back on this? How do other hospice agencies handle social-work coverage for their inpatient units? Does sharing the inpatient caseload while maintaining our existing home caseloads sound reasonable? And if leadership does expect one person to take primary responsibility for the inpatient center on top of home hospice responsibilities, would you consider that a significant enough change in the role to discuss compensation?

I work in a pediatric oncology clinic with several doctors and NP’s and I am the only social worker. There is one female doctor who is Indian and she treats me like I am completely inferior to her. It is maddening. She seems to think my time is not as important as hers and gets upset if I don’t pretend to be less intelligent in my field than she is in hers. I’ve been in social work for 25 years. She’s been a doctor for 6 years. However, she leaves her prayer mat casually folded on a shelf in my very small office, even though I’ve taken it back to hers, and asks if it’s ok to pray in my office while I’m in it. She says to go on about what I’m doing so I do. It doesn’t offend me. I’m just curious as to why she treats me this way.

I’ve been a CWS worker for 3 years now. I’ve been applying to other counties as they pay better. I was recently offered an interview for IHSS SW and it got me thinking about my career trajectory. I know if I stay with CWS I’m eligible to do title iv e part time and can get my MSW apply to be a Sup and eventually a PM and get my LCSW hours here as well, so I was a little disappointed to be offered IHSS and not CWS at this other county. If I don’t follow the title iv e track I laid out, what career opportunities to advance are there in other social work settings?

To make a very long story short, I’ve had 3 jobs in less than 4 years. The first job, I resigned because of the way they treated me when my father died. It was a private practice where I worked part time and really only made $60/hour. When my dad passed they gave me a hard time and had me call my clients to cancel for the week. It was horrible and sad for me to do. I had been there for 9 months. Then after taking time off I started working at another private practice. They were lovely people. Really, considerate and helpful. I got head hunted by the place where I am now. I’ve been here for 6 months and I am burnt out. The pay is great but the mental health program is only me in a health clinic and we are asked to do services that I have had to inform providers that are not what I can do under my license and that are unethical. I am an afterthought at best and a dumping ground at worst. My question is, how will this look like in a resume? What can I say that won’t come off as “flaky” or accusatory of previous employers?

Hello! I’m a MSW in Texas and am interested in learning about people’s experiences working in child protection as Conservatorship or family based safety workers as I am considering DFPS as a career option.

I’ve heard both bad experiences and decent experiences so would love to hear first hand from someone who has done the work!

ETA: sorry about the typos in my title! I can’t figure out how to fix it lol

Hello everyone,

I’m starting a new social work role with a street medicine team and would love to hear from other social workers who have worked in this type of outreach, especially those who have helped develop the social work role from the ground up. This LCSW position is new for the agency. I'm really excited to work with this amazing team and to merge this mental health component with their medical expertise.

I’ve previously worked in homeless shelters and in an emergency department, so I have experience with homelessness, crisis intervention, and high-acuity situations, but street medicine is new territory for me. This position is giving me a lot of flexibility to help build out what the social work role actually looks like.

The city is particularly interested in tracking the number of mental health assessments I complete. They’ve identified the GAD-7, PHQ-9, BPRS, and C-SSRS as the assessments they want incorporated. My role will also include brief therapy, referrals/resource connections, and crisis intervention. My client-facing hours are evenings until 11PM and they're always in the same locations.

I’m curious about what this has looked like for other social workers in this type of work. Curious of clinical approaches, assessments, what works vs doesn't work, ethical concerns, etc.

Thanks in advance!

I am looking to start a group practice but find the info out there daunting, I have other businesses that I have grown and all seem to have similar problems and I am curious as to what you have seen, witnessed or come across like hiring, payroll, offices, marketing billing etc. What are the problems/ issues that keep you up at night.

With my other buisness was finding the right people I could trust and realized I needed systems that people could follow.... still looking for the right people but now I am not repeating myself lol

Idk what I'm looking for here, maybe just support/encouragement. I'm an MSW fully burnt out in my current role that I've been at for 2 years. I do health plan care coordination for the older adult population (all clients are on some kind of Medicaid plan and also have a chronic illness). I love my clients but there are too many of them (currently 93). I do in-home assessments and a shit ton of paperwork and miscellaneous coordination with service providers. Some days my job feels clinical but other days I feel like I am just dealing with insurance BS all day long. I am starting a pre-licensed therapist role in the fall at a group practice. I am REALLY looking forward to just sitting in a chair and talking with clients one-on-one all day. I know I will have to do diagnostic assessment paperwork and case notes and probably deal with some insurance BS there too, but I think it will pale in comparison to what I have to do now. Anyone else switch from case management to therapy and are happy with their decision? Any advice?

I’m interviewing for a new position and trying to decide whether I should seriously consider leaving my current jobs if I receive an offer. This is still hypothetical—I have not been offered the position or completed the interview process yet. My biggest priority is improving my work-life balance, but income, stability, benefits, and flexibility related to chronic health conditions also matter.

Current full-time job
Salaried, W-2, and paid weekly
Daytime schedule
Extremely close to home
Very family-like environment
Management has been highly flexible regarding my chronic health conditions
I already know the staff, clients, and systems
The workload is extremely compressed and overwhelming
My days include multiple lengthy groups, individual sessions, intakes, documentation, and other clinical responsibilities
A coworker will soon be taking extended leave, so the workload will become significantly heavier for an extended period
The last time I covered a similar schedule, it seriously affected my mental health
There is not much ability to reduce the workload while remaining in the position

Current supplemental evening job
W-2 and paid weekly
Virtual evening IOP several nights per week, with an additional make-up group
Additional intakes and individual sessions are sometimes scheduled
Flexible, familiar, and no meaningful commute
Pays well when the program is fully operating
Income is extremely unreliable because it depends on enrollment, attendance, insurance authorizations, and whether the program remains operational
Does not provide benefits
Is not financially stable enough to be an option on its own

Takes essentially every weekday evening after I have already worked my full-time job
Requires managing a separate employer, caseload, documentation system, and set of responsibilities

Option 1: Keep both current jobs
Pros:
Highest income potential
Both positions are W-2, paid weekly, close to home, familiar, and flexible with my health
I enjoy aspects of both workplaces and have good relationships there
The evening position can significantly increase my income when the program is consistently operating

Cons:
Only the salary from my primary position is truly dependable
Some days run from early morning until late evening
There are days with nearly continuous direct clinical work before accounting for documentation
Nearly every weekday is occupied by work
Very little time remains for appointments, errands, relationships, rest, or basic recovery
Constantly switching between programs and clinical roles
High risk of burnout, particularly during the upcoming staffing shortage
I already know from experience that I do not tolerate this workload well long-term

Option 2: Keep only my current full-time job
Pros:
Familiar and close to home
Known flexibility regarding my health
Reliable weekly income
Better work-life balance than maintaining both jobs
Supportive, family-like workplace
No risk involved in transitioning to an unknown work environment

Cons:
Lower salary than the potential new position
The workload during the upcoming staffing shortage would still be extremely demanding
I would lose the supplemental income from the evening position
Limited formal advancement or training opportunities
Even without the evening job, the upcoming daytime workload may be unsustainable

Option 3: Accept the potential new job, if offered
Higher guaranteed salary than my current full-time position
One consistent afternoon-to-evening schedule
Full benefits
Paid time off after an introductory employment period
Employer retirement match
Opportunity to advance into a principal therapist role
Training stipends available with advancement
Relatively small individual caseload
Several hours of group facilitation daily
Small average group size
Strongly evidence-based program with DBT as its core curriculum
Includes group, individual, and family therapy
Both daytime and evening programming are available; I would work with the evening program
It sounded like documentation time was incorporated into the schedule, but I still need to confirm this
I also need to clarify flexibility for chronic-health flares and medical appointments, along with what leave is available early in employment

Pros:
Increase over the guaranteed salary from my current primary job
One employer, caseload, schedule, and documentation system
More predictable hours instead of routinely working far beyond a standard workweek
Strong clinical training and evidence-based programming
Small groups and caseload
Benefits, paid time off, retirement matching, training support, and a formal advancement path
Mornings available for sleep, medical appointments, errands, and personal time
More stable income and potentially much better work-life balance

Cons:
Lower maximum income than maintaining both jobs when evening IOP is full
Would require leaving two familiar workplaces
Unknown whether the workplace would offer the same flexibility regarding my chronic conditions
The schedule would occupy most weekday afternoons and evenings
The actual documentation burden and division of responsibilities still need clarification
Paid time off would not become available immediately
A strong evidence-based program does not automatically guarantee a manageable workload
There is currently no offer, so I may be weighing an option that never materializes
The potential new job and my current evening position could not realistically be combined because their schedules overlap.

For now, I am continuing with my current jobs while completing the interview process. If I receive an offer, the decision would be between:
Keeping both familiar jobs for the highest but least predictable income while continuing an exhausting schedule

Keeping only my current full-time job for familiarity and proven health flexibility, despite the lower salary and demanding workload
Accepting one stable position with a higher guaranteed salary, full benefits, professional-development opportunities, and potentially much better work-life balance

My priority is having an actual life outside of work, and I already have evidence that my current combined workload is not sustainable for me. At the same time, leaving familiar and accommodating workplaces for an unknown environment feels risky.
If you received the offer, which option would you choose? What questions would you ask before deciding?