Step Away from the To-Do List and Bring Social Work Out of the Shadows
by Lella Still, LCSW
2021 looks promising in terms of the public recognizing and valuing the social work profession. For the first time in history, we have a president whose daughter is a social worker. Already, President Biden has appointed several social workers to high-level cabinet positions. Now, more than ever, our country needs social work leadership to drive large scale systemic change. From stanching the psychosocial wounds left open by a raging pandemic to eliminating blatantly racist policies, practices, and rhetoric, social workers have never, ever in history, been more essential. We are doing this work, on multiple levels, every single day.
But there’s a problem.
We’re not flashy about the work we do. We’re low profile. We just do our job, mainly because there is so much of it. Our to-do list never gets done because the work never truly ends. We’re taskmasters, methodically checking off one thing after another we must do for our clients. Social work leaders are taskmasters, too. Many of us are back on the front lines, as COVID-19 has led to more clients in need. But as vital as that work is, we have to step away from the to-do list at times. We must reflect on the work we’re doing and communicate that work widely and frequently. Our job is often described as thankless because so much of what we do goes unseen. It’s complicated and hard to articulate. And social work leaders must do a better job of highlighting, recognizing, and just in general, talking about what it is we actually do.
One of my supervisees frequently laments the challenges of working with "external customers," and for some reason (probably because it’s such corporate speak), this phrasing always makes me chuckle. But this pinpoints a very common challenge. Because this work, like much of our work, is obscured, we bear the burden of these challenges alone. The politics of the tenth email exchange with the right supervisor(s) for the right service(s) our patient needs are rarely captured in the exceedingly outcomes-focused, data-driven workplace environment. Brokering services, knowing the stakeholders, advocating - would non-social workers use these words to describe our work? Direct care social workers use similar skills to those of managers and politicians, although this is rarely recognized.
In the setting where I work (a state psychiatric hospital), it’s pretty clear what nurses do, what pharmacists do, what recreational therapists do (though there is no doubt much more to these roles than meets the eye, as well). Do others know that more than the discrete tasks that are a part of our job, there’s so much more we have to do for our patients? Do they know that we strive to know everything about our patients’ lives, to understand what every other service provider is doing for that patient, so we can tie all the pieces together in a pretty bow? It doesn't end there. We tie it tightly in hopes the bow stays secure, because the second it unravels, we know we're the ones who will be called on to wrap everything up again, to fix it, to make it presentable.
My goal for 2021 is to show what social workers do in my agency. When job roles are ambiguous, it’s harder to advocate for the resources we know we need. We must do a better job of recognizing social workers for their contributions at all organizational levels. Last year, one of my staff implored me to recognize social workers more publicly - terrific advice for all managers.
Many of us introverts (myself included) find it difficult to both give and receive praise. But it’s time to get over it. We have to be willing to have our work step outside of the shadows. We have to be ready to be seen if we want to move our profession forward.
Lella Still (she/her/hers), LCSW, is Director of Social Work for a psychiatric hospital in the southeastern United States. She is currently a DSW student at the University of Kentucky, with an expected graduation date in 2023. Her professional interests include improving continuity of care for patients post-discharge and clinical social work supervision.