Guest Writer, Kylie
This is one story in a collection of stories from social workers to highlight why they chose to work in this field, how they entered the industry and what they enjoy most about the work they do.
Social workers are passionate and dedicated professionals who work tirelessly to help others. These stories provide a glimpse into the lives of Australian social workers.
Kylie’s story,
I’ve been a social worker for 18 years. I initially left school and obtained a Psychology degree but in the 3rd year it was mostly related to mental health and I decided I wanted to work with vulnerable people in the community. I then completed my Social Work degree at University of South Australia part time as I had credits from Psychology.
I wanted to work with people to help create more opportunity and choice for those in situations where there are limited alternatives.
I went straight into child protection as it was easy to get a job. Back then there were great social workers where I learnt so many skills around assessment and report writing and work within the legalities of statutory social work. It was crisis driven but in many situations I helped children find better outcomes. I spent most of my time in Department of Child Protection as a senior practitioner that overlooked the quality of social work practice and my most enjoyable time in the community with education and building resources for families so they did not re-enter the cold protection system.
I left social work for a while for family commitments but have now returned. Initially looking at assessing kinship carers and now working with young people at risk of homelessness and suffering violence or assault in some way.
I enjoy social work as everyone is in a unique situation where I listen to their own individual story and how their childhoods have framed their personality and cognitive perceptions.
My aim is to complete some more study around aged care. I have developed a passion to help the aged with living independently in their own homes. Because of the diversity of social work which I love about the field, you do get stuck in your skill set so I advise all social workers to change fields over their time so you can gain different skills. Hopefully in the next few years I can do some training to look at the other spectrum of life other than childhood and young people!
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