Msw specialization

[Jolcia17]

My school offers some specializations that I can choose from and I am stuck!! No idea what to go with. The ones that interest me sort of are health care, gerontology, and addictions. Any thoughts or advice?

[nugget]

If you have some time to decide, try to do some volunteer work to find out where your interests lie. You may want to consider volunteering at a hospital or similar where you'll be able to work in all 3 of these areas, or 2 in the very least.  

[Jolcia17]

Thanks for the reply! But I can't really do any volunteer work. At the moment I'm leaning into the health care field.

[nugget]

Health care is a broader specialization than the other two. It sounds like a safer bet than the other options if you aren't sure what to do and it also overlaps with gerontology and addictions, so you'd be exposed to these populations to a certain degree on your internships. Nice choice.

[Jolcia17]

Yes that's def true and I've thought of that. Hmm we shall see, I'm barely taking my first class as an grad student. Thank you for your input!

[nugget]

To work with seniors, I think you would need to be able to deal with death well because some of your patients will die while they are still your clients. It's also important to be a patient person because some seniors walk, talk or move slowly and some like to tell stories and get side tracked. When I worked with seniors, I learned to become a more patient person. I've never worked in addictions, but others have told me that you need to be a direct and assertive person in certain situations. If a client is beligerant and shows up to the appointment high or intoxicated you may need to ask the client to leave the centre. If you work in health care, you may be exposed to blood, wounds and funky smells in patient's rooms (ie: dirty diapers or colostomy bags, etc) although not nearly as much as doctors or nurses. In Canada, I've been told that social workers in hospitals do a lot of discharge planning which involes making sure that patients have access to various resources after they return home. I'd double check on this last point though as it may be different in the US.

Edited January 19, 2014 by jenste

[SaraElyse]

My advisor and other professors told me to go with the broader option. If you select a specialization that's too specific, it's going to confine you to that one area. If you're undecided now, that could cause you some grief later down the road.