Social Work Competencies and Necessary Skills
| 8 Min Read
Widener University prepares online Master of Social Work students to develop the competencies outlined by the Center for Social Work Education (CSWE). As a result, our students are ready to excel as leaders capable of employing social work skills in service to diverse clients throughout their communities.
Acquiring the social work core competencies will enable you to fulfill the five major social work responsibilities outlined below. These responsibilities serve critical purposes in mental health care, and social workers can meet them by acquiring the right qualifications through a Master of Social Work program.
Responsibility 1: Assess Your Client
Assessment involves getting to know your client on a multidimensional level to determine the most effective way to work toward positive change. In this stage, you’ll gather information about the client’s situation within their individual, organizational, and societal systems, allowing you to learn the details of their family and medical histories, friendships, schools, jobs, and issues they’ve had in each system.
Using your social work skills to conduct assessments will allow you to understand how your client sees their situation, which areas they wish to address, and what strengths they bring to therapy. When the assessment is complete, you’ll have a stronger idea of how to develop an effective treatment plan with your client.
Personality Traits
To meet this responsibility, you’ll need to be:
- Perceptive
- Objective
- Analytical
Responsibility 2: Create and Implement a Treatment Plan
Once you’ve assessed your client, it’s time to work on a treatment plan that will empower them to overcome, recover from, or adjust to their situation. At this stage, one of your primary duties will be to practice client-focused communication in social work, listening to them as you strive to jointly define the goals and criteria that establish wellness.
Treatment plans generally include continued one-on-one individual therapy sessions to help your client move toward their desired goal. You might also hold group or family sessions geared toward a specific challenge they’re dealing with. Flexibility in treatment plans is necessary. As goals are met, new problems become known. Your duties can also include referring clients to other resources and professionals with diverse qualifications, such as support group services and medical professionals.
Personality Traits
To meet this responsibility, you’ll need to be:
- Patient
- Empathic
- Flexible
Responsibility 3: Secure Resources
By employing your social work competencies, you can create and implement a treatment plan that involves more than just “talk therapy.” Clients often benefit when connected to community resources and government agencies, including food banks, health care services, unemployment services, and benefits programs, such as food stamp programs.
Clinical social workers may also refer clients to medical professionals for further treatment, support groups specifically geared to their client’s issue, job-placement recruiters, and child-care resources to help them successfully meet their wellness initiatives.
Personality Traits
To meet this responsibility, you’ll need to be:
- Organized
- Connected
- A Strong Advocate
Responsibility 4: Evaluate and Monitor Improvement
Once treatment is underway, you’ll continuously evaluate whether your client is moving toward their goals according to the criteria established when you created their treatment plan. The objectives involve determining how you can continue supporting your client and if your current methods effectively serve their purpose.
Through effective monitoring and communication in social work, you can determine if the treatment plan needs to be changed according to new problems or information presented during treatment. The key is to remain flexible in helping your clients move toward their goals in the most effective way.
Personality Traits
To meet this responsibility, you’ll need to be:
- Perceptive
- Flexible
- Analytical
Responsibility 5: Serve as a Client’s Advocate
Whether social workers think of advocacy on a micro, mezzo, or macro level — being an advocate for an individual, advocating within organizations and communities, or engaging in advocacy at the policy/research level — they have a strong calling to make the world a better place by representing those who cannot effectively represent themselves.
Social workers stand for another person on an individual level, often in complex situations. For instance, their duties may include providing necessary interventions when a child is in an abusive home. They also work with the family, police, and protective services to provide immediate and continued safety for the child.
On the mezzo and macro levels, social workers function within groups, within community organizations, and amongst policymakers to develop or improve programs, services, policies, and social conditions. These initiatives aim to benefit individuals and the field of social work at local, state, and national levels.
Personality Traits
To meet this responsibility, you’ll need to be:
- Courageous
- Impactful
- Persistent
Increase Your Impact Through the 9 Core Competencies of Social Work
Dividing the social worker role into five major responsibilities helps to simplify the work of practitioners. As you consider each one, remember that they require different activities for each client. After all, there is no “one size fits all” therapy plan, just as no two clients are the same.
Choosing an MSW program that helps you master the core social work competencies will aid you in meeting your responsibilities in accordance with each client’s needs. As outlined by CSWE’s 2022 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards,1 the competencies are:
Competency 1: Demonstrate Ethical and Professional Behavior
By learning this competency, you will acquire an ethical framework that guides your social work practice.
Competency 2: Advance Human Rights and Social, Racial, Economic, and Environmental Justice
Developing this competency enables you to advocate for human rights and support social, racial, economic, and environmental justice.
Competency 3: Engage Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ADEI) in Practice
This social work core competency requires you to demonstrate cultural humility and engage in anti-racist and anti-oppressive practices as a social worker.
Competency 4: Engage in Practice-Informed Research and Research-Informed Practice
Through this competency, you will use research to grow as a social worker and account for biases common to studies.
Competency 5: Engage in Policy Practice
Build an understanding of how policies underpin the methods of delivering services and apply your expertise to champion new justice-oriented policies.
Competency 6: Engage with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
Learn to develop engagement strategies for social workers to become a culturally responsive practitioner versed in human behavior.
Competency 7: Assess Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
Use your knowledge of human behavior, culturally responsive practice, and other concepts while working closely with clients during assessments. Strive for equal buy-in for plans by promoting client self-determination, an ethical standard outlined by The National Association of Social Workers (NASW).2
Competency 8: Intervene with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
Meeting this requirement will enhance your social work engagement skills for performing culturally responsive interventions when supporting client goals and advocating on their behalf.
Competency 9: Evaluate Practice with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
Through this competency, you will evaluate outcomes using culturally responsive methods and become more effective by analyzing outcomes and findings from evaluations.
An Overview of the Social Work Profession
Social work is a gratifying profession that allows you to say at the end of each day, “I made a difference in someone’s life.” Though it’s demanding work, more than 750,000 people are currently dedicating their lives and careers to this field, and its projected 7% growth rate between 2023 and 2033 means many more will do so.3
On a daily basis, you’ll be challenged to apply skills in social work roles as you help people navigate a wide range of positive and negative stressors, such as supporting parents with the emotional challenges of adopting a child, helping a professional navigate a new career, or working with someone who’s trying to exit an abusive relationship, overcome an addiction, or contemplating divorce. The tasks you’ll complete in the course of your work will fall into most, if not all, of the five responsibilities — assessment, treatment, securing resources, monitoring improvement, and being an advocate. By learning the social work core competencies, you’ll be ready to meet those responsibilities in ways that consider each client’s needs while committing to justice and the advancement of this essential field.
Make More Than a Difference
After developing the nine social work competencies outlined by CSWE, you will become a culturally responsive practitioner ready to fulfill your responsibilities to clients, constituents, and your community. With the online Master of Social Work from Widener University, you’ll take trauma-focused courses that prepare you to address the root cause of mental health challenges and increase your impact in this growing career field. To talk to a program manager about our online MSW, call 844-386-7321 or request more information.
While breaking down the role of a social worker into one of the five major responsibilities below seems to simplify the work at hand, they are richly different activities for each client and every social worker. There is no “one size fits all” plan for therapy — no two treatment plans or clients are the same. These steps in mental health care each serve a critical purpose, and only a social worker with the right qualifications and a degree in mental health care can provide them.
Sources
- Council on Social Work Education. “2022 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards for Baccalaureate and Master’s Social Work Programs.” Accessed September 4, 2024, https://www.cswe.org/getmedia/bb5d8afe-7680-42dc-a332-a6e6103f4998/2022-EPAS.pdf.
- National Association of Social Workers. “1. Social Workers’ Ethical Responsibilities to Clients.” Accessed September 4, 2024, https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics-English/Social-Workers-Ethical-Responsibilities-to-Clients.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, “Social Workers.” Accessed September 4, 2024, http://www.bls.gov/ooh/community-and-social-service/social-workers.htm.