How NOT To Practice Social Work
By Eva W. M. Forde, MSSW
(Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from Eva Forde's book How NOT To Practice Social Work: Saving Good People From Bad Practice One Step at a Time.)
I love social work.
I love belonging to a profession whose sole purpose is to help people and make the world a better place to live.
I love being able to qualify what comes naturally to me with scientific evidence.
I love the diversity of the profession - the people, arenas of practice, and scenarios.
I love sharing the life-stage with like-minded people who also want to see the world be better.
I love being allowed - mandated even - to acknowledge my own handicaps and deal with them professionally.
I love having enlightened social work friends to lean on.
I love the energy that social workers generate when they're in a room together. It's electric!
I love that social work encourages me to explore my interests to be more than just a social worker.
I love that social work acknowledges that I am a fallible human being, with needs and biases and influences and perspectives that must be recognized if I'm to be of any good to anyone else.
I love that I've found my calling and that my profession, like me, is ever evolving, ever unfolding, ever changing.
I love who social work has helped me to become and who it encourages me to be.
Eva Forde received her BSW from Oakwood College and her MSSW from Columbia University. She is president of the Jamaica Association of Social Workers and is the founder and director of Positive Solutions International. She can be reached at eva@evaforde.com.