Clinical Social Worker Job Description, Skills, and Salary
Get to know about the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and skills requirements of a clinical social worker. Feel free to use our job description template to produce your own. We also provide you with information about the salary you can earn as a clinical social worker.
Who is A Clinical Social Worker?
A clinical social worker is tasked with the responsibility of treating, assessing, preventing, and diagnosing individuals that pose mental health challenges. Also, clinical social workers are highly trained, supervised, and experienced in handling people with family dynamic ailments. Similarly, clinical social work is a unit, section, or department in the general social work practice. These astutely skilled professionals can choose to venture into private practice depending on their preferences. However, a plethora of clinical social workers are found in healthcare centers where they offer mental health therapy. They can also engage in community outreach programs as well as in community mental health centers.
A variety of mental health-related issues can be treated by clinical social workers; amongst which include anxiety disorders, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and trauma. Others are attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), relationship challenges, stress management, family trauma, parenting difficulties, and self-esteem issues to mention but a few. Sadly, there is a growing number of mental health issues in the world these days; hence the need for well-equipped and highly skilled clinical social workers. The clinical social work sub-sector has evolved to become one of the most important in the health sector and life in general. Simply put, we need clinical social workers with the growing insecurity, natural disasters, and political instability in the world.
Additionally, clinical social workers adopt and apply social work theory and knowledge drawn from human biology, the social sciences, and the behavioral sciences. This knowledge enables the clinical social worker to offer individual and family therapy sessions as part of the treatment modalities. Relatively, the knowledge and experience acquired make clinical social workers able to work in correctional facilities and with individuals with a long history of substance abuse to change their damaging behaviors and manage challenges in their lives. Thus, the clinical social worker is essential.
Clinical Social Worker Job Description
Below are the clinical social worker job description examples you can use to develop your resume or write a job description for your employee. The employer can use it to sieve out job seekers when choosing candidates for interviews.
Just like every other endeavor, clinical social workers have a specific job description which includes the following;
- Employ a combination of individual therapy, group therapy, and various case management techniques to assist clients.
- Understand how the client’s mental health challenges interact and affect their financial, social, and family lives.
- Help clients function better in the socioeconomic context by using the knowledge derived from the understanding of their problems or challenges.
- Set up meetings with the clients for the assessment of their needs, conditions, and histories.
- Counsel families and clients who developed mental health-related issues because of divorce, rape, and substance abuse.
- Provide emotional, and psychological support to individuals going through difficult situations such as unemployment and underemployment.
- Perform duties related to administration and record-keeping.
- Interview the client’s physician and family for extra information.
- Work with the families of the clients to provide all the needed care and support to heal faster.
- Use psychotherapy and behavioral therapy techniques to create a treatment plan or strategy for the clients.
- Work in tandem with other health professionals, support groups, and doctors for the benefit of the client.
- Collaborate with community service organizations to carry out community outreach programs.
- Monitor and evaluate the client’s response to treatment plans.
- Create modalities for the sustainability of treatment plans.
- Diagnose psychological, behavioral, and emotional disorders in clients.
- Administer social service programs.
- Coach clients on how to manage ongoing health conditions.
- Counsel clients in correctional facilities on how to make a positive behavior change.
- Provide emotional and psychological support to clients in the military and clients with PTSD.
- Attend courses and pieces of training organized for clinical social workers to learn new skills and techniques for better treatment of clients.
- Monitor and check on clients after treatment to avoid a relapse of their conditions.
- Make sure that the patients know the input from the government and assist them in getting it.
- Link clients to all the available community resources and support which are beneficial to them.
- Provide specific treatment plans on an individual basis; there is individuality in the condition of mental health patients.
- Promote the client’s cognitive changes that are in line with the treatment strategy.
Qualifications
A qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement or a credential attesting to that achievement. To be a clinical social worker, you must get a verifiable educational certificate(s); obtain a license to practice, and gain supervised experience.
- Education: Although a bachelor’s degree in the field of sociology, psychology, or a similar field can qualify you to be a social worker, you must possess a postgraduate master’s degree in social work to become qualified for a profession in clinical social work. Clinical social workers are mandated to have a master’s degree because it brings added experience, skills, and expertise. Additionally, a master’s program is advanced; hence, it contains extra information that is required for the career. Typically, the master’s degree program is a fully accredited program by the Council on Social Work Education. Similarly, the unique program takes a minimum of two years to complete and comes with a certificate at the end of the program. In relation, distinct courses are taught in this program; they include topics on mental disorders, social welfare policy, social work practice, and human behaviors. These courses are designed to acquaint the learners with the most needed information and exposure in the field. Regardless of the institution of study, most clinical social work master’s programs require social workers to undertake and complete a minimum of two years of supervised experience or an internship.
- License to practice: The next qualification required to become a clinical social worker is a license to practice. There is a variation in license to practice by region, Country, and state. Thus, clinical social workers are advised to contact the relevant body in their location to determine the details. However, you must have finished a mandatory supervised experience and received a verifiable master’s degree in clinical social work to be eligible for a license to practice. Furthermore, potential clinical social workers must register, sit for, and pass a social licensing exam. The exam is usually conducted by the Association of Social Work Boards in the relevant location.
- Supervised experience and training: Finally, the clinical social worker must undergo compulsory and supervised training to gain relevant experience. Being an essential and sensitive field, the supervised training exposes the clinical social worker to mentorship programs. The supervised clinical experience period is also known as a practicum. In the practicum, the clinical social worker is expected to be in a clinical setting and may be required to spend up to 3000 hours. During this period, they carry out an observation of experienced clinical social workers to learn more; they also provide care and treatment to patients under the guidance and supervision of the experienced clinical social professional.
Essential skills
A skill is a learned ability to act with determined results and good execution often within a given amount of time, energy, or both. As a sensitive profession, the clinical social worker needs to be intuitive since they predominantly care about helping people to improve their lives. Discussed below are the skills needed for success in clinical social work;
Communication skills: Communication is the exchange of information between two or more persons. Imagine a hypothetical scenario where a clinical social worker doesn’t understand his/her client’s needs because of poor listening skills. Clinical social workers need to be active listeners; remember, they meet and converse with clients regularly to talk about the challenges in their lives. Therefore, active listening skills will enable them to understand the client’s needs better. Also, they must be able to deliberate the difficulties with the patients and revert to their families using a language that is easy to comprehend. Additionally, clinical social workers interact with physicians and other health professionals; hence, they need excellent communication skills to interact well.
Emotional intelligence: To be successful in the clinical social profession, you need to have efficient emotional intelligence. Most clients are anxious, stressed, and difficult; hence, the clinical social worker needs to have compassion and patience to handle these patients or individuals effectively. Sensitivity is another attribute of emotional intelligence; you must be sensitive to the plight of the clients. Relatively, there should be empathy and understanding when dealing with individuals suffering from mental health-related illnesses. You don’t want to appear as irrational and unbothered to the clients and their families as well.
Interpersonal skills: A clinical social worker must be able to work well with individuals from all situations and backgrounds. They must be approachable and friendly to build strong and trusting relationships with their clients. You must have good human relations to be a successful clinical social worker.
Problem-solving skills: A clinical social worker must be an excellent problem-solver; this group of professionals should be willing and able to assess each patient and decipher the best treatment and solution for the individual’s issue or condition. In situations where treatment is not yielding the desired result, the clinical social worker should be able to identify and innovate alternatives.
How to Become a Clinical Social Worker
Clinical social workers spend over four years completing their education, supervised experience, and training to become licensed to practice. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to become a clinical social worker;
- Get a Bachelor’s degree
- Earn a Master’s degree
- Complete an internship or fieldwork
- Register and pass the licensing exam
- Renew your license
Get a bachelor’s degree: As an undergraduate student who is aspiring to become a clinical social worker, you need to enroll for a bachelor’s degree in sociology, psychology, political science, social work, or other related fields.
Earn a master’s degree: Next, you must obtain or earn a master’s degree in clinical social work from a verified and accredited program. The master courses prepare the aspiring clinical social worker to assess clients and work in a particular specialty, such as social services or mental health. Although the master’s program takes two years most times, an individual might complete their program in a year if they have a bachelor’s degree in social work.
Complete an internship or fieldwork: After your master’s degree program, you must spend a minimum of two years or 3000 hours doing supervised clinical experience or practicum. This experience should include research and group or individual counseling. Also, your supervised experience can include diagnosing, client treatment, and client advocacy. However, the exact hours spent in a clinic by clinical social workers may vary by location.
Register and pass the licensing exam: You must be licensed to legally practice as a clinical social worker; hence, contact your state office to find out the procedure for registration. These may include possessing a master’s degree and a specified number of hours of experience. Then you must sit for and pass the exam to be allowed to practice.
Renew your license: Clinical social workers must renew their license every two years. During this period, they must complete a certain number of continuing education hours through seminars and coursework.
Where to Work as a Clinical Social Worker
A clinical social worker is a full-time worker; they work long hours including evenings and weekends to meet with the clients as required. Others might even work on-call outside of normal work hours in emergency cases. A clinical social worker can work in different settings which include the following;
- Hospitals, community clinics, and other health centers.
- Private practice, schools, and correctional facilities.
- Hospices, child welfare agencies, and social service centers.
- Clinics for substance abuse, addictions, and eating disorders.
- Some clinical social workers provide remote counseling to clients.
- A clinical social worker can provide home services to clients.
- Also, you can work at centers for PTSD, trauma, and ADHD patients.
Clinical Social Worker Salary Scale
The salary range for clinical social workers is between 55,000 NGN and 158, 000 NGN. The salary covers transportation, accommodation, and other related benefits. Importantly, the salary range and structure are based on skills, location, and experience.
In addition, the median salary has been estimated to be 97,000 NGN monthly. The median is a representation of the mid-salary value.
In the United States, the Clinical Social Worker’s Salary ranges between $44,200 and $71,000.