Social Work Profession: Unprofessional

(Baonghean) - Safter nearly 6 years of implementationProject for developing the social work profession in the period 2010 - 2020, the development results of social work profession in Nghe An still have limitations.

Social workers: Lacking and weak

Being present at the Provincial Social Protection Center in Giang Son Dong Commune (Do Luong), seeing the staff here taking care of mentally ill people, lonely elderly people with no place to rely on, one can feel their hearts. With the profession of caring for social protection subjects, also known as social work, in addition to a loving heart, one needs courage and certain skills. A "heart" for the profession is very necessary.

Although they are both working in the social work profession, the work of those in charge of social work in communes and wards is much more difficult than that of those working at social protection facilities and centers. Ms. Ho Thi Hang - social policy officer of Nghia My commune (Thai Hoa town), shared: "My work involves reaching out to support orphans, people with disabilities, drug addicts, and mentally ill people wandering in the commune.

Initially, when I first started working, due to lack of skills and knowledge about social work, I was confused in approaching the subjects. More than a year ago, I attended training and professional development classes, the work was more favorable but the training time was short, only 1 week, while in reality the work was very diverse and complicated, so I still encountered many difficulties.

Caring for mentally ill people at Nghe An Social Protection Center. Photo: MQ

According to the report of the Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs, Nghe An currently has over 134,000 social protection beneficiaries receiving regular benefits, including nearly 70,000 elderly people (nearly 13,000 lonely elderly people), over 50,000 people with disabilities, the rest are children in special circumstances, people with mental illness, homeless people... However, the whole province has only 8 social protection facilities (5 public facilities and 3 non-public facilities) nurturing and caring for more than 580 beneficiaries (including children, lonely elderly people and people with disabilities).

Thus, the number of social protection beneficiaries living in the community and society is very large and this requires the participation of social workers at the grassroots level. However, in reality, the team of social workers is still very small and unprofessional, most of them are holding other positions in the locality, working mainly based on experience.

Apart from 466 full-time and part-time staff in localities participating in social work, no locality has yet built a network of collaborators. Although after nearly 6 years of implementing Project 32 of the Prime Minister, nearly 1,300 people have participated in training to improve their knowledge of social work, according to the reflection of social work staff, the training sessions mainly provide general knowledge, lacking in-depth knowledge, therefore, the effectiveness of solving social problems is not high, lacking sustainability... In addition, the monthly support level for collaborators is still low, so it is not attractive to replicate the model of developing social work staff for localities throughout the province.

Appropriate mechanisms are needed.

Mr. Hoang Ngoc Chau - Head of Social Protection Department (Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs) said: In order to effectively care for and support social groups, aiming towards professionalizing the social work profession, one of the effective solutions is to develop the social work profession and expand the network of social work facilities.

Caring for disabled children at Thien An Shelter. Photo: MQ

However, although awareness of the social work profession has been raised, it is still not widespread, leading to limited coordination in implementation and investment of resources to develop the profession among levels and sectors; people are still hesitant and lack initiative in accessing services.

Mr. Nguyen Dang Duong - Deputy Director of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs affirmed: "The more society develops, the higher human needs become, not only the poor and the disadvantaged need social assistance, but also those with high living standards, their social services are also greater.

The above reality requires more cooperation and joint efforts of the whole community for the development of the social work profession, in which an important factor is to further improve the understanding and awareness of the whole society towards the social work profession. In addition, it is necessary to build a team of cadres, civil servants, employees and social work collaborators with sufficient quantity and quality requirements; at the same time, related sectors such as Home Affairs and Finance need to coordinate more closely with the Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs to have a support mechanism, increase the income level for those working in the social work profession so that they can work with peace of mind".

Minh Quan