WHY I BECAME A SOCIAL WORKER

By David Boyd

I grew up in a small town in Illinois; my father was a Psychiatrist, my mother a full-time homemaker. During my school days, my father rented office space to Social Workers. I first met a Social Worker when I was age 9. About all I knew back then was that these Social Workers “saw patients who had problems”.

I developed an increasing fascination with “the decisions people made (actions) and the consequences of these decisions. Perhaps this was an outgrowth of my parents instilling in me (with varying degrees of success) to “think before you act”.

Being raised in a small town, people got to know some of their neighbors pretty well. For example, our next door neighbors were Jim and Louise (not their real names). Jim was an engineer employed by the State government and Louise was a young mother, taking care of an infant son. I always thought Jim was brilliant, as gave me considerable help with Algebra and Geometry homework. I knew that Jim was bored with his present job. After looking into what else was available in his field, Jim was offered what he thought was an exciting position in a mid-sized city in another state. The job was part of the growing “space industry”. Jim was so sure that his wife would be as excited as he was about this new opportunity for their young family, that he put down some “earnest money” towards the purchase of a new house. Upon returning home, Jim was dismayed to learn that Louise flatly refused to consider moving to the new location. Using terminology I picked up later in life, was this a couple who had dysfunctional communications, or was Louise afraid of leaving her “comfort zone”?

During my undergraduate years of college, I was Sociology major. I really disliked math and lab science courses, and found things like Philosophy abstract as in the “Twilight Zone”. As I approached graduation, I was looking at the fork in the road common to draft eligible males: Grad school or enter Military service. I felt somewhat unfilled with my education to date; I did not feel very qualified for any profession. This was partly because most of the information received (since I had avoided the sciences) was general. I did apply for admission to a couple of grad schools, and was accepted to the Univ. of Alabama, School of Social Work.

During the second semester of my senior year, I admitted that I was tired of being a student, so elected to enter military service (Coast Guard-hoping to avoid combat duty). My military service was mostly uneventful.

Since the University of Alabama was nice enough (the head of the admissions committee was a retired Army Social Worker) to “hold a space” for me for the Fall semester following my separation from active duty, we (married w/ one child then) headed for Tuscaloosa. I found most ( I never could relate to the required Community Organization courses) of the course work very stimulating. Things like Human Behavior/Social Environment and Psychopathology really got my fellow students and I fully invested in this educational experience. Finally, I was getting specifics about what to do when beginning treatment with a patient. The classroom discussions, panel presentations, and yes, even the research papers were some of the most fun things I had done to date. Forming a group (to practice Group therapy) was very interesting. Then there were two practica; getting to work with “real patients”. What an experience!

It seems that I’ve always had a fascination about human behavior. The payoff of this profession is having something very challenging to do every day, things that are complex and take time to figure out. Working with individuals and families on improving styles of communications, working with parents on selecting appropriate behaviors to reinforce, has been very satisfying. All of us in Social Work gain our own reinforcement when we recognize the “Aha, I’ve got it now” feedback from our patients.

All of us could benefit from taking some time for reflection: “Are you getting some of the things that attracted you into Social Work”? If not, take stock of the things that are in our power to change (i.e. attitude, the way you approach the work; are your expectations for patients sometimes too high?) If you have not taken some reflective time recently, perhaps it is time. Try to incorporate things that make it more pleasant to come to work. Consider talking things out with a trusted colleague. This may make a difference in the way you approach your work, and how you feel about it.

Author’s note: Mr. Boyd served in both the Army and Air Force as a Social Work Officer. He retired from the Air Force in 1995.

Readers may contact the author at the following e-mail address: naswintl@ naswintional.org.

For information please contact:
naswintl@naswinternational.org

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