What's so great about social work
by Mark Wesseler, LCSW, BCD
It amazes me how often I still hear people ask “Oh, you’re a social worker? What do you do, exactly?” I love this question at the same time, though, because I get to answer, “Everything!”
I am a board certified, clinical social worker for the United States Army. As a social worker for the military, I have had the unique opportunities to be deployed to Iraq, jump out of airplanes with the 82nd Airborne Division, treat wounded warriors from Washington, D.C., to Hawaii, help military families, provide guidance to Service Members of all branches of service, and I do excellent evidence based therapy. I am currently the Chief of an Intensive Outpatient Program, part of the Department of Behavioral Health in a major military medical center. The department is full of psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers who work together as a team of peers to ensure the best quality of care in the best working environment. As a social worker, I get to influence policy in the department and within the hospital.
One of my favorite parts of being a social worker is teaching. I get to help train psychology techs, social work practicums and interns, and other residents. As the Chief, I have helped develop a two-track program that focuses on treating Service Members and their families who are suffering from general behavioral health diagnoses, the General Track, and those suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. We have patients for four to six weeks, three days a week, six hours a day. The program has been developed around the patients’ needs and how to best meet them, because a social worker helped develop the program!
The leadership in the hospital seeks social workers out to help solve problems at all levels. We have social workers helping with patient administration, interpreting documentation, in patient advocacy helping beneficiaries navigate our convoluted systems, in family advocacy preventing and treating child and spousal abuse, working with our legal teams to improve communication between staff and patients, in our inpatient clinics working on discharges, and throughout the behavioral health department doing assessments and therapy. I know social workers who are leading combat support hospitals, developing research programs, leading and treating troops in combat operational stress units in austere conditions, and working in Washington, D.C., on legislation.
Social workers have so many opportunities to help so many people and influence policies in so many ways, Social workers can do anything! That’s what’s so great about social work.
Note: The views expressed in this document are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the US Government.
Mark Wesseler is a Board Certified LCSW currently working as an Active Duty Major for the United States Army at Tripler Army Medical Center. MAJ Wesseler has been in the Army for 13 years and received his graduate degree through the Army's MSW program in 2011.