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Channel / Source:
TEDx Talks
Published: 2015-04-10
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A27QjpQ_Ieo
I'm I love this song and I love this song because everybody needs a hero in fact at some point when life throws us a big challenge we need a super hero somebody who is not scared jump into the chaos and fight the good fight with us shoulder to shoulder right subject good news for you today because all around the world cleverly disguised as mild mannered individuals
we have thousands of for heroes over six hundred thousand of them in the U. S. alone we just called and social workers yeah now you when I said superhero that lit up in the first thing that popped into your head with social worker maybe what popped into your head with something a little more like this hearings suspiciously at your parenting skills or if not immediately yes
peace and love and singing Kumbaya well I'm here to tell you social workers are neither of those things and Michael when you leave today is that the image you conjure when your social worker looks a little more like this social worker as superhero and I want to spend the next couple minutes talking to you about that social workers are not just nice people with good hearts
social workers are educated professionals who goes through accredited university programs that are grounded in a rigorous research base what they learn there is part of what makes them a super hero two biggest things they learn their mission and they learn how to make change the mission of social work promote and support individual and community well being fight social injustice social workers do that because we learn
how to see and understand the invisible inner convictions tween people and their families and their neighborhood and their community and society and laws and policies and we know that when those connections tango or break it any of those levels problems happen so we learn evidence based interventions that can help solve the problems around those tangles and breaks and with that we can make powerful change her
now a second reason that I like to think a social workers the super heroes is because just like with the super hero everyone is gonna need a social worker at some point because everybody's going to face a big challenge in their life at some point maybe the challenge starts early and you're born prematurely well who helps your new parents find the specialist or figure out how
to pay those huge hospital bills or find a car seat for a teeny tiny baby hospital social workers a little later on in life you're in school and maybe you're being bullied or you're thinking about dropping out well who designs and implements the anti bullying and the dropout prevention programs in schools school social workers later on as you get older maybe you face one of those
grown up problems divorce we lose your job you sink into depression maybe you even start drinking too much well who do you turn to for counseling and therapy licensed clinical social workers did you know that the majority of mental health services in this country are provided by social workers it's nearly seventy percent and then there there's really tough end of life issues you're eighty six year
old that has Parkinson's disease but is insistent that he can live independently who helps you figure out if he really is safe or who helps you find in home health or navigate those really difficult conversations about wheels power of attorney DNR geriatric social workers then there's the bigger picture who's running the nonprofit agency who's organizing the community who's fighting to make sure that the laws in
the policies are just and fair those are social work managers organizers and advocates at some point everybody's going to need some the final thing that I like to think about when I think about social workers at super S. superheroes came to me when my friend Carly gave me a mug for my birthday that had this saying on it at first I thought it was cute I'm
a social worker what's your super power but then I realized it's exactly what social worker to do we say hi I'm a social worker your super power social workers believe in strength and we help people find their strength so that they can face the challenges that they're wrestling with my favorite social worker strength story comes from my friend Martha who was a social worker who lived
on the coast and every year she would take a social work in turn well when you're she had a young woman she assigned him to a client in a column Bob well Bob struggled with a severe mental illness and Bob isolated himself in his apartment and all he would do all day obsessively is listen to the radio so Martha since the student to do an assessment
the student comes back Martha says so what you learn and the student said I learned he is really good at listening to the radio she had a plan she went to the local Coast Guard office where apparently there is somebody who has to listen to the short wave radio all day long and write down the announcements in the news analog she convinced them to let Bob
volunteer then she convinced Bob to try it really bad they want you to listen to the radio well he did and you listen to the radio better than anybody had ever listen to the radio they left him he I hear him part time so then Bob said okay I have a little bit of money and getting out of the house a little bit I'd like to
try eating in what I have done that in years but I'm scared to do it alone would you meet me at the local diner so the students is ya in the next day she gets there but she gets there early and she sits on the far side of the diner to the wind up comes in she hollers across the Dieter which you're on the radio Bob
haulers back all the news well they did this a couple of times a week for several weeks every local in the diner knows that if you wanna that's going on US Bob and where's this where's the by the end it was like that scene in cheers when norm walks in because the Arab so Bob has a job in many friends and it all happened because the
social worker tapped into his super power radio listening so my final thought for you today is this such said before everyone at some point is gonna need a social worker when that happens to you don't worry don't be embarrassed go find one I promise you they will be a super hero better yet they will help you find your super power so that you can work through
