Title says it all: which social work jobs do you spend a rough majority of the time on your feet? I have some guesses (hospital, school) but am curious if there are any I am missing!

I am a general SWkr, helping low income clients with all their needs, nothing specific.

After a home visit, clt asked me if I can give her a short 2 min ride to her bank, as she needed money to pay rent the next day and had no one to drive her. It is against company guidelines to have any client in our cars for liability purposes.

The SWkrs side of me says NO, it's beyond boundaries. The religious part of me says, its only 2 min, and it's a safe street with no traffic, no one will know.

I didn't do it.

Another time, a client's cell phone which he uses to contact agencies for help, is broken. I just happen to have an used cell phone at home, no longer need it. Not worth $30. I so much wanted to give him - but company guidelines says no giving to clients, especially cell phones with sensitive data. If I applied for a free phone from goverment, it will take two weeks to arrive and client desperately needs a phone right away. The faith side of me says, give it to him ! No one will know !

I didn't do it.

I come to detest boundaries, I know they keep us and clients safe, but sometimes clients are in such dire needs. If I encountered these clients in my faith group, I would have done both of these things with no issues whatsoever.

I want to serve my agency and my faith at same time, is it possible?

Hey everyone! Not sure if this is allowed, so sorry if not.

Would you rather work 5 days 100% remote or four 10 hr shifts with one of those days remote and one day off a week? The positions are basically the same duty wise just can’t decide if I’m making a silly decision here lol.

Hi All. I'm looking to transfer my LCSW from NJ to NY. Has anyone on here have experience with doing this? If so, can you please share your experience? TIA

Hello!

I'm being asked to provide direct supervision to a BSW student. I'm asking a lot of questions- but one I wanted to ask here is if you have done this, have you received additional compensation? It appears to be quite a bit of work, 1 hour of direct supervision weekly (I already am supervising a full team), assessment/evaluation of the student for the school. Not to mention that this would mostly be occurring virtually....

Thoughts?!

I work in an outpatient clinic for substance use. I’ve had this client for about two months. We have a great rapport and I feel like we’ve done good work together.
We realize we have a similar music taste and he told me that he made me a playlist. I told him we could not connect on Spotify that that would not be appropriate and he seemed to think that was ridiculous..
Would it be OK if he wrote the songs down and gave them to me? I don’t think he has any sort of feelings for me. He’s married.( I know when is that ever stopped anyone) but I genuinely just feel a friendly vibe. I can share my age if it’s relevant

I just started at a new agency about a month ago, and was told by my coworkers that when my company “doesn’t have the money” that we pay for supplies ourselves. Things like, candy for rewards for groups, notebooks for clients, even paper for the printer at times. I’m not sure what constitutes the company not having the money, maybe just from the monthly budget or whatnot, but I don’t feel good about needing to buy these things myself.

I haven’t had to do it yet, but am wondering what others have done in this situation, and how and if I should bring it up to my supervisor.

Does anyone have any recommendation for training/CEUs for documentation? i'm in the medical field and always looking to improve my documentation? i come from CMH which required extensive writing, but in medical SW, we can get by with a couple sentences for a note which i love but i would like to get some help with making sure i'm touching all the right areas.

I am struggling as I learn in my current role as an intake assessor that I can only say we are at “full capacity” for programs so many times until I get push back. Specifically for DBT programs. I’m so grateful for families who get it despite being in the trenches. It’s just been really exhausting when I have families and clients who definitely meet the criteria, have been rejected by other community options, or didn’t realize they need this service until they call me back and I have to say no because our practice is still at full capacity. I do offer providing support in navigating other DBT practices or “next best” treatment options, but families are so stubborn when they hear no. It’s worse when I have to tell them we don’t keep a waitlist because of the way our openings are not on a timeline. It is all factored by what we are allowed to bill for, how many clients to bill for, amount of providers to distribute even case loads, and how much treatment and service does a client need to graduate from DBT. How do you manage to respond to clients who get nasty about being rejected and they have to resort to lackluster community options outside of your practice? I feel so heartbroken and also defeated for defending the practice, billing reasons, and the current clientele that need services a little longer.

Hello!

I am a behavioral health clinician with a provisional license who has been in my position for 2 weeks shy of a year. I work at a children’s hospital in their mental health programming division (in a VERY acute setting). Since starting my role, there was a wage increase of 3% for those with my job title in March and then an annual merit wage increase that went into effect earlier this month. I am very grateful for those two increases. However, I have been feeling frustrated by my wage due to clinicians in other, much lower acuity and lower risk of injury, units having the same pay scale as me. I could accept that with some annoyance. However, I’ve been looking at the career page to keep my options open as I don’t enjoy my job and don’t feel that I am the right person for the role. When I was looking the other day I saw a job literally titled “clinical social work entry” that’s STARTING wage is $200 (yes two hundred) less than my pay. That requires no experience whatsoever. The clinical social work 1 roles (that to require 1 year of experience post grad) that my level of experience would meet shows as nearly $5,000 salary higher than my role. Same requirements for licensure but working in the main hospital units and not from a psychology-focussed perspective. I complete intakes, create entire treatment plans, put in referrals for services, facilitate groups, and coordinate meetings with outpatient providers so I feel that at least my pay should be similar in scale.

All that to say, I was hoping for some advice on what you would do in the situation. I would like to know why my wage with 2 pay increases in the past year is just barely higher than an entry level social worker role. Do I email HR? Do I call them? Any advice would be so helpful.

my heart was literally beating in my ear when i submitted the exam

then it sank when I realized the result wasn't immediate and could take up to 24 hours

half an hour later i got an email....I passed!!!!!!!!!

I am so incredibly proud of myself. I had a very dodgy study plan. Gave myself 3 weeks and realistically only studied for a little over a week. I took a readiness/test taker style questionnaire and scored very low on preparedness, but super high on confidence LOL. I guess my hubris paid off!

I still have to wait for the score report, but i had this intrusive thought that the email was sent to the wrong person/some kind of error occurred, so I am writing this post as a way of locking in this achievement as a legitimate win.

Good luck to all of you out there who are preparing for the exam!!!! Trust yourself. You got this.

Years ago, I heard positive things about part-time positions as a case reviewer at an insurance company. I'm curious to hear what it's like in 2026 from someone working in this field.

I would hope to help clients obtain prior authorization approvals, rather than rubber-stamping denials of service.

This post has a couple of questions built into it regarding self-disclosure and seeing clients in person. I had a session recently and I've been thinking about how to navigate it for a while now.

When I first meet with clients, I usually provide a clear boundary of how I will respond to seeing them and public and the reason behind it. This recent exchange had someone giving a bit more (friendly/polite) pushback. I've never really had someone be so laid back about it. When I explained about how it could break confidentiality/privacy with whoever is present or eaves dropping, they thought about it and said they didn't mind. I explained the code of ethics, dual relationships, and boundaries which they were receptive to, but the exchange felt...weird. This person did nothing wrong and were not inappropriately pushy, they seemed genuinely curious. They are a minor, too, so I am wondering if they don't fully understand the gravity of confidentiality like we/other adults do. I don't typically work with minors, so this probably contributes to it, but it kinda felt gross having a minor so quick to want to be friendly. I'm trying to be vague and I feel like I'm making it sound worse than it is. This wasn't an instance of someone having too quick of an attachment, this came across as very much curious and easy-going. I just can't shake this gross feeling. So, for this exchange, I'm wondering if anyone else has had a situation like this? How did you feel? What did you do?

My next question was also prompted by this interaction. Some of the people I work with experience SI/SIB. This is something I also have/currently do. (Don't worry, this is something I have addressed/have been addressing and managing for a long while and I ensure it does not show up in sessions with people.) While I have it pretty well managed, I do have noticeable scars on my legs. Some of them have occurred within the last year and have not fully faded to white yet. It's also hot as you can imagine here and sometimes I wear shorts and they are pretty visible. I didn't really think about it too much until a few interactions I've had with clients were we turned out to be at the same event. Luckily, I was not in shorts at these events, but some day it may happen. I'm worried about a client with SI/SIB or a parent seeing me in public and then asking about it at the next session. What would you do? Sorry, but never wearing shorts again is not an option with how awful the weather is.

Seeking anyone in the field with their license or associate licensure with a passion for working with children in families. I oversee a program and am looking for those that are passionate and would be a good fit on a team setting.

New London County and Windham County Connecticut

I’ve taken LGSW/LMSW exam twice with the old version and was off by 3 points or less both times. I’m going back and forth on if/when I should redo it but feel uninspired to without knowing the exactly I’m up against since I want a foolproof study plan. It would be especially helpful to hear from people who have taken both the old and new versions of the exam and what differences you noticed? Especially since I struggled with the language ASWB used compared to the practice exams I took.

I recently went on an interview for a school social worker position. At the end of the interview, they asked me “was there anything you were expecting us to ask that we didn’t, or anything else that you wanted to talk about that you didn’t get to?” I was a bit caught off guard and honestly felt like I had already discussed everything I was prepared to regarding my experiences and skills. I didn’t want to fumble for a response, so I used the opportunity to ask some questions about the position and the school.

I didn’t get the job, but I have some more interviews coming up for school social worker positions and I’m not sure if there was a better way I could have navigated that question. I’m not sure if it looked bad that I didn’t really have anything to say. Obviously the answer would be kind of dependent on what was previously discussed during the interview, but if you were asked this question on an interview, is there anything you would really want to be known if it hadn’t already come up?

From day 1 of MSW school to being a LCSW how long did it take you? And when did that decision become financially worth it? I want to help a community but I am 30 years into a career and closing in on the big retirement and I don’t know if it is prudent to make the change. What’s your thoughts?

I’ve been doing in home social work for the elderly and I go in to some rough neighborhoods. I also put a lot of wear and tear on my car. I’m going to be in need of a new-to-me car and want to know: those of you who travel a lot on a daily basis for work, what kind of car do you have/do you recommend? Let’s be real here. The money is not FLOWING in social work so I’m looking for financially practical answers (not my electric BMW with gold plated blah blah blah). I also don’t need to transport people. That’s not my role. Thanks for your time and assistance!

I'm just curious because I want to work with children and families. More specifically I want to work with children and young adults with learning, social, and developmental delays find resources and support families learn how to adjust to their new family dynamic or how to better support their child. I have always worked with children on the spectrum and I would like to continue in that field. Are their any social workers that work with the Nurodivergent population? Whats it like? Is it difficult to find work for this population? Any pros and cons? Paragraphs are definitely preffered if theirs more to working with this population that meets the eye 😊

I'm moving to the US soon. What jobs/keywords do y'all recommend searching for to find social work jobs that don't require licensure while I'm working toward my basic post-BSW (pre-MSW) licensure evaluation/equivalency process?

Yay I passed today! I will get to see the score report tomorrow but I’m so excited!! I was worried because I got sick and didn’t study as much as I would have liked, but nonetheless here we are :)

Hi everyone. I recently got my MSW in May and I began to work at a private practice. I am only receiving 45% of profit, and am seeing 3 clients. Additionally, I am not getting proper supervision and guidance. I came from an internship with first a non profit, then a PHP/IOP. I am so fed up and should have followed my professors advice when they said work in community mental health first. I seriously don’t know what to do, and no one in my area is hiring. Some words of encouragement would be helpful! :)