Theres different jobs you can do as a social worker that wouldnt be going to clients homes, or dealing with super traumatic issues. School psychologists are higher paid than others, and while they certainly have stress, it’s a different kind of stress than say child protective services.
You could work at the hospital with cancer patients, either in a therapy setting or behind the scenes stuff doing the logistics for their care.
There are a ton of things you could do that would be less stressful than what you are describing. Working at a nursing home would be very rewarding.
Social workers mostly serve vulnerable populations, but there are different ways to serve those populations.
That’s a brave & wise decision @Air. Sounds like your case worker is really helpful & gave you sound advice. I am a little relieved for you, you may have saved yourself from considerable harm…I have never recovered fully from burn out, I still can’t watch the news and when people tell me their woes, unless it’s very close friends, I shut down & can’t listen, if I listen for long it triggers my psychotic symptoms. I feel like I’ve lost a chunk of my compassion that I can never get back.
Human computer interaction sounds cool, I hope that has some satisfaction in it for you.
It definitely has a human element, and a lot of psychology involved, especially when designing for disabled users which is something I focus on in my studies. I do think the reality though once you get into industry is that you are trying to make the most for your boss.
I work casual library shifts so I have a different boss each shift, I like the variety. I’m in customer service so I make the most for my customers more than for my boss each shift. My bosses are quite supportive as we get the difficult customers sometimes!
How many hours do you work/week? If you really want to have face to face work with disabled or dementia clients you could volunteer, say once a fortnight or month. If you can afford to time-wise & financially. There’s always a big demand for kindly people in those volunteer positions. I volunteered once a week for a year recently. I cooked hot lunches for mentally unwell people living in supported accommodation. I learnt a lot on many levels. My bosses there was awesome.
