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Geriatric Social Worker skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted Experts

Dr. Telvis Rich,

Dr. Dianna Cooper

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical geriatric social worker skills. We ranked the top skills for geriatric social workers based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 33.0% of geriatric social worker resumes contained social work as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a geriatric social worker needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 geriatric social worker skills for your resume and career

2. Patients

Here's how geriatric social workers use patients:

Counseled patients and families, provided discharge planning and follow-up services and maintained relevant information regarding ancillary services and referrals.
RUSH Generations: Organized and executed educational programs to promote healthy living for patients and caregivers.

3. Discharge Planning

Here's how geriatric social workers use discharge planning:

Participated in family meetings and completed discharge planning.
Coordinate discharge planning for hospitalized participants.

4. Community Resources

Community resources are a set of resources that are used in the day to day life of people which improves their lifestyle in some way. People, sites or houses, and population assistance can come under the services offered by community resources.

Here's how geriatric social workers use community resources:

Assess caregiver burden within veteran's support system and provide community resources and supportive counseling as necessary.
Provide education for residents and their family regarding memory loss, and behavioral management and community resources.

5. Group Therapy

Group psychotherapy or group therapy is the practice of treating a group of clients together in one sitting throughout multiple sessions. This practice allows people to receive encouragement and support from their peers who are taking the same group therapy.

Here's how geriatric social workers use group therapy:

Provide individual therapy and group therapy.
Observed group therapy sessions for a lower-functioning women's group and an all men's schizophrenic group.

6. Home Health

Here's how geriatric social workers use home health:

Promote Capital Home Health by making sales presentations to key referral sources resulting in increased referrals to Capital Home Health.
Provided case management, resource referral and explaining Medicare home health benefits to clients and their families.

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7. Medicaid

Here's how geriatric social workers use medicaid:

Performed assessments, entitlement screenings (SSI, food stamps, Medicaid, etc.
Conducted screening clinics with a registered nurse to assess physical, emotional and developmental needs of Medicaid eligible children.

9. Family Therapy

Here's how geriatric social workers use family therapy:

Provided family therapy as needed and madereferrals as needed.
Provide individual/family therapy and domestic violence preventive psycho-education.

10. Community Agencies

Community agencies stand for the organizations operated to provide human service in the community.

Here's how geriatric social workers use community agencies:

Provide resources and referrals to VA programs and community agencies.
Served as community liaison/marketer between patients/families/caregivers and community agencies.

11. Mental Health

Mental health is the state of wellbeing in which an individual can cope with the regular stresses and tensions of life, and can work productively without having any emotional or psychological breakdown. Mental health is essential for a person of any age and helps them make the right decisions in their life.

Here's how geriatric social workers use mental health:

Developed, marketed, and supervised in-home geriatric mental health counseling program in Southeastern Massachusetts.
Provided on-site team services at the Long Island Living Center, through the Community Mental Health Clinic of the hospital.

12. Minimum Data Set

Here's how geriatric social workers use minimum data set:

Maintained Medicare Minimum Data Set (MDS) and participated in interdisciplinary team meetings for each of my residents.
Complete psychosocial assessments and Minimum Data Set (MDS) to determine residents' level of functioning and social service/care needs.

13. Community Services

Community ѕеrvісе is аn unраіd activity in which аn individual оr grоuр еngаgеѕ tо bеnеfіt thе lосаl, nаtіоnаl оr glоbаl соmmunіtу. It іѕ also uѕеd as аn аltеrnаtіvе to imprisonment аnd іѕ intended tо connect offenders to the victim or society ѕо thаt they can undеrѕtаnd how their асtіоnѕ аffесt оthеrѕ.

Here's how geriatric social workers use community services:

Provided case management intervention in areas of benefits and entitlements, Advance Directives and community services.
Completed assessments regarding safety and interactions with each household member as well as made appropriate referrals to community services when needed.

14. Financial Resources

Fіnаnсіаl rеѕоurсеѕ аrе ѕоurсеѕ оf fundѕ thаt a buѕіnеѕѕ can drаw uроn tо bе successful, to finance its investments, саріtаl, and day-to-day operations. It соvеrѕ аll fіnаnсіаl fundѕ оf the organization fоr the іmрlеmеntаtіоn оf сurrеnt costs and extended rерrоduсtіоn еxреnѕеѕ, fоr the fulfіllmеnt оf financial оblіgаtіоnѕ аnd economic incentives fоr еmрlоуееѕ.

Here's how geriatric social workers use financial resources:

Identified and utilized appropriate community resources, assessed patient/family ability to access them, and assessed financial resources when appropriate.
Provide emotional support and assistance in obtaining community and financial resources for patients and families.

15. Emotional Support

At its core, emotional support involves providing support, reassurance, acceptance, love, and encouragement. It is especially important in a time of stress/sadness as it stabilizes an individual and provides a positive foundation for trust. Honing this skill is important for individuals who want to pursue the career of caregivers and emotional support nurses. Their job includes monitoring mental health and helping patients to handle any mental challenge.

Here's how geriatric social workers use emotional support:

Displayed ability to communicate in sensitive areas, as well as provided emotional support when assisting patients/families with funeral planning.
Provided emotional support and active listening through end-of-life transitions involving all facets of religious, physical, spiritual and psycho-social needs.

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What skills help Geriatric Social Workers find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on Geriatric Social Worker resumes?

Dr. Telvis Rich

Associate Professor, Long Island University-Brooklyn

For a 21st century professional Social Worker, the following skills are essential to highlight on the resume: details of the roles, responsibilities and tasks completed during the bachelor level and/or master level Social Work practicum (internship), the interprofessional skills of working with diverse clients, communities, supervisors and colleagues during the practicum, and a clear vision of the population the applicant seeks to serve in an agency or organization. In short, today's workplace is very competitive; thus, a concise list of skills that highlight professionalism, diversity, service, competency in a practice area, and respect for others are truly essential. These required skills align to the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics and employers will seek to see such on a well written resume. Further, a quality cover letter outlining the skills will enhance the resume in a competitive and ever changing Social Work marketplace.

What soft skills should all Geriatric Social Workers possess?

Dr. Dianna Cooper

Associate Professor, Campbellsville University

The "change theory" used in social work practice follows several steps, including engaging, assessing, planning, intervening, evaluating, terminating, and following up. Soft skills are most likely to occur in engagement, intervention, and termination. Social workers are trained to "start wherever the client is," understanding that clients can be individuals, families, groups, communities, or organizations. Social workers are trained to respect the client as the expert in their needs, honor self-determination, use a strengths-based approach, and respect difference while using inclusion. The training turns into soft skills such as being empathetic, warm, genuine, and respectful. Social workers also develop skills in knowing when to listen and when to nudge the client toward action. Social workers are trained to intervene and, when change is completed, to terminate. Helping clients know when to end services also requires soft skills of talking about hard topics, seeing a brighter future and setting goals, recognizing when change is happening, and saying goodbye respectfully.

What hard/technical skills are most important for Geriatric Social Workers?

Dr. Dianna Cooper

Associate Professor, Campbellsville University

Hard or technical skills are most likely to occur in the stages of assessing, planning, intervening, and evaluating change theory. Social workers are trained to gather lots of information and then analyze strengths and needs. Social workers present their assessments to clients and work together to create goals and the steps that reach goals when executed. The process involves using the client's vision of what "better" looks like. Social workers then use evidence-based techniques to move the client toward the goal and define measures to know when the goal is met. The technical skills used in this process include analyzing many types of information repeatedly, knowing what resources exist and how to refer, knowing how to design effective goals and steps to achieve goals, researching current evidence-based practices, defining and measuring progress, and setting limits and timeframes.

What Geriatric Social Worker skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Lillian Wichinsky Ph.D.

Associate Dean, University of Nevada - Reno

The need for social workers with expertise in mental health care, school-based social work, health and substance misuse are particularly important. Sixty percent of mental health care in the US is provided by social workers and the need is growing.

What type of skills will young Geriatric Social Workers need?

Samantha Fletcher Ph.D.

Executive Director, National Association of Social Workers, New York State

The core skills of social work do not change over time. These skills include empathy, active listening, critical thinking, assessment, intervention, evaluation, advocacy, policy analysis, and adaptability. Social workers also need to evaluate the organizations they work in to assess for oppressive practices and policies. One of the profession's core values is social justice, which directs social workers to "pursue social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups of people. Social workers' social change efforts are focused primarily on issues of poverty, unemployment, discrimination, and other forms of social injustice" (National Association of Social Workers, 2017). As a profession, social workers aim to dismantle racist, sexist, heterosexist, xenophobic, ableist, classist, and religiously biased systems and structures.

Do you want to know more?

List of geriatric social worker skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a geriatric social worker resume and required skills for a geriatric social worker to have include:

Social Work
Patients
Discharge Planning
Community Resources
Group Therapy
Home Health
Medicaid
Social Services
Family Therapy

Community Agencies
Mental Health
Minimum Data Set
Community Services
Financial Resources
Emotional Support
Clinical Services
Intake Assessments
Medical Appointments

Crisis Intervention
Patient Care
Psycho-Social Assessments
Social Histories
Group Sessions
Individual Therapy
Substance Abuse

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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