What's Your Profession?

Quick Poll: Raise your hand if you are a social worker? If you work for Tungland, your hand should be raised (you can put your arm down now, people are staring). I’m not saying everyone is a Professional Social Worker. That is an official title usually tied to degrees and/or licensure. I am talking about what you do for a profession when you are a Tungland employee.

The International Federation of Social Workers states:

“The social work profession promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being. Utilizing theories of human behaviour and social systems, social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work.”

What we do on a daily basis, exemplifies this definition. Each and every one of us works as a team to promote the growth and development of the people we serve. We do this through ensuring that a person’s finances are maintained, appropriate resources are in place, or at the most direct level, by utilizing our relationships with them as vehicle to promote their growth. The nature of our positions provides us with tremendous opportunities to make a difference for the people we serve, their families, and our greater communities.

With great opportunity, comes great responsibility. In order for us to meet our potential, we have to work towards our own professional growth and development. We need to learn the professional practices involved in social work. We need to gain a level of self awareness necessary to ensure we are able to put the people we serve before us while at work.  We need to balance appropriate boundaries with the compassion that brought all of us to the field in the first place. And, we need to do all of it while taking care of ourselves and each other so that we have the energy and stamina needed to last over the long haul.

In the coming months, I will have columns touching on the subjects discussed above. If there are specific topics you would like me to talk about, suggestions are welcome. Until then, thank you all for being who you are and doing what you do.

Michael Keegan,
Behavioral Consultant
The Tungland Corporation
(602) 606-8070