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Social service is a practice-based profession that promotes social development, derives social change, and empowers marginalized communities. Social services are provided to disadvantaged, distressed, and vulnerable people or groups of society to support and assist them. Most of the time, social services are provided by private or independent organizations, sometimes by individuals on their own, and often by various government agencies.
Social service professionals perform various duties but mainly focus on improving the lives of people. Their goal is to enhance social functioning ensure optimal health and the overall well-being of society. Therefore, they perform jobs that help people survive emergencies, lead healthier lives, get an education, and access legal, social, and community support. Social workers use different methods to provide optimal services in various fields, including academia, public health, government policy, military counseling, etc.
A bachelor’s degree is the minimum requirement for several entry-level jobs in social service. Apart from a bachelor’s in social work, other courses can also make you eligible for a variety of career pathways like a family counselor, child therapist, human resources specialist, policy analyst, foster care social worker, and medical social worker in this field. This article will discuss the various courses that can help in social service.
Table of Contents
Nursing
Nursing courses educate and empower students to treat their patients using the latest methods and techniques. Nurses focus on the health issues and the political, economic, cultural, and social issues affecting their patients. Nursing courses like an RN to BSN degree program enable students aiming to become social workers to provide optimal medical services to marginalized communities.
Nursing courses can increase the medical understanding of social workers and enable them to help patients suffering from physical and mental problems. Since social workers are not trained to provide medical intervention, nursing courses can help them identify physical effects like high blood pressure.
Depending on the nursing specialty, social service professionals can assist children, the elderly, or adults in emergencies. Nursing courses also help them to organize seminars and public awareness campaigns to educate people about leading healthy lives by adopting hygienic practices and healthier lifestyles to minimize and eliminate diseases from their communities.
Sociology
Sociology deals with various aspects of society, and it educates students about different social theories. Social work is essentially considered the practice of sociological theories. These theories help social workers understand human behavior, actions, and interactions in society. Since social service professionals aim to bring social change, understanding and to practice the concepts of sociology can help them derive that change effectively.
If social workers help people solve their problems, then sociologists help them identify the cause of the problem. Therefore, sociological courses empower social service professionals to identify the root cause of their clients’ problems. Nowadays, social workers are even expected to write their reports in a logical way, justifying these reports using sociological theories and research.
Psychology
Psychology educates students about the human mind, attitude, and behavior. It also helps understand the mental and abstract aspects of an individual’s personality. Both psychology and social services are focused on diagnosing and treating mental illness and enabling people to improve their lives by themselves.
Understanding psychology is crucial for social service professionals as it helps them understand their clients’ behavior, attitude, perception, and thought process. Many a time, negative individual behavior can cause social problems. Therefore, psychology courses equip social workers with the necessary knowledge to address the personal issues of their clients and stop those issues from impacting society.
Moreover, psychology empowers social service professionals to use theories and techniques like psychoanalysis or psychosocial theory to solve the problems faced by their clients. It has been observed that a social worker equipped with the knowledge of psychology can handle a case better than one with little to no knowledge about psychology because increased understanding leads to better solutions to the problems.
Economics
Economics is a social science that studies how people earn and use their earnings to satisfy their needs and wants. The fulfillment of a person’s needs or wants is an important factor in social life. Therefore, the economic aspect is crucial in the growth and development of an individual’s personal and social life.
Sometimes social problems arise due to the unfulfillment of the material needs of individuals. Therefore, social workers equipped with the knowledge of economics better understand the impacts of socio-economic factors on a person’s mental and physical health. They can also provide better solutions to any personal or social problems resulting from economic differences.
Moreover, economics courses help social service professionals to fight for social and economic justice. They do it by;
- Proposing policies to reduce poverty and unemployment
- Increasing training opportunities in communities
- Raising the overall standard of living
- Social Anthropology
Social anthropologists study the behavior patterns, basic psycho-physical needs, and the delivery of social services in primitive human societies, which were simple in nature. Anthropologists tend to find out the problems these societies had to face and try to find solutions for those problems. They also hold the knowledge that supports social justice and use practical methods to investigate philosophical issues about the nature of human life in society.
Since social workers advocate for social justice, social anthropology courses can be crucial for their careers. Social anthropology courses help social service professionals to apply or at-least take guidance from the solutions from the past.
A social work course can help you understand the basics of social service. However, various other courses can help you improve the quality of the social service that you provide. Nursing courses enable social workers to provide better medical care, and psychology courses assist them in understanding the human mind to better deal with mental problems. Sociology helps them understand the societal structure and its impacts on social interaction. Economics assists in understanding the socio-economic factors that can impact a society. All these courses can help social workers to provide social services more eloquently and efficiently. Hopefully, this article will help you understand how studying different courses can help in a social service career.
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