Social worker

A social worker provides help and support to people with social issues such as housing, employment, financial or other personal issues. They work with people of all ages regardless of their race and ethnicity. 

A social worker can work in many different areas. These include:

• child protection
• community work and community development
• diversity specific services (eg Chinese, Korean, Sāmoan, rainbow, spiritually-based)
• hospitals and primary healthcare
• housing
• iwi and marae-based social services
• management and supervision
• mental health and addictions
• offenders
• policy development
• refugees and migrants
• residential care
• schools
• tertiary education
• women
• youth justice.

A social worker can help people by:

• listening to and supporting people in crisis
• helping people to make decisions
• helping people to access resources, benefits and accommodations
• helping people to understand their rights and how they can improve their lives
• advising policy-makers about solutions to social problems
• working with community organisations to improve services. 

As social workers work with a wide range of clients, you can find them in hospitals, outpatient clinics, prison, nursing homes, hospices, schools or rehab centres. 

Talk to your doctor about getting a referral to a social worker.

A social worker has to do a 4 year training at university and be registered with the Social Workers Registration Board(external link) to work in New Zealand. Find out about different training options to become a social worker in New Zealand on the Careers NZ website(external link).