by Robert S. Schachter, DSW, ACSW
(October 1997)

As a social work student, you are engaged in one of the educational experiences of a lifetime. We are fortunate that, for the most part, the schools have accumulated, through their faculty, advisors, and field educators, the wisdom, expertise, knowledge, and skill that is essential for producing the professionals our society desperately needs.

The schools face an awesome task preparing students each year to have the competence to be able to perform in meaningful and effective ways with people who are facing enormous challenges. Social work education, while it sometimes struggles to be as relevant and up to date as possible, is a powerful reflection of the components of what makes social work so compelling.

I remember my student experience rather vividly. During a breakout session following the orientation on the first day, the instructor who was leading our group said that we would never complete what we needed, or wanted to know within the two years that we were students. She said that we would have a lifetime to pursue what the profession had to offer. The point was that school is only the beginning of the educational experience.

That was a bit hard for me to accept because I felt impatient for the passage of time to acquire the essential tools of the trade, not to mention the wisdom to achieve competency.

Being a social worker has rarely been an easy experience, and today the challenge has never been greater. In the worst instances, some social workers have felt that they have little to offer their clients, whether because their clients' needs are so numerous, the services to be offered are inadequate or not available, or that programs are too rigid to be responsive.

In such cases, some social workers show symptoms of burnout while others in the same settings find ways to accomplish despite the odds. Why is this so? What do some social workers know that others do not? I think that these are important questions for embarking on a career, regardless of the type of setting you will work in, regardless of the types of problems your clients will have, or regardless of the array of services you will be able to offer.

Two things can be essential for our knowledge and skill to be useful. One is the ability to identify with our clients. The other is the ability to identify with the profession. Both are often easier said than done. For example, working within organizational environments that can't or just won't support good social work values can exert a tremendous pull that can undermine such identifications. There is a tendency to distance from the situation and to erect defences against the potential pain that comes from close contact. Even private practitioners are subjected to this pull, given the necessity of working with managed care companies and other demands.

Working this out requires a strong conscious ability to analyze what is transpiring, not only within the client's systems but within oneself and within the organization. It also requires overcoming isolation: The support of colleagues and obtaining good supervision, on your own if necessary, is empowering in the best sense of the word.

Finding such support is the essence of what a community has to offer. There is a large social work community in New York City that on one end looks like a network of friendships and close colleagues, and on the other end comprises the sum total of all of these relationships in the city, unfolding over time.

The largest manifestation of this community is NASW. Association means community. NASW is there for you whether you attend its activities, read its newsletter, or simply know that it is working for all of the profession to uphold standards and the Code of Ethics, and to keep the public aware that social work is, indeed, a profession of highly educated, effective practitioners.

Entering the social work profession is no piece of cake. It means accepting responsibility for being a leader in society (within your own sphere) and then struggling with all of its limitations as well as its possibilities. At the deepest level it requires authenticity and guts, an inspiring combination.

With this said, welcome to the greater social work community.