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Social staff worker skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted experts

Dr. Florence DiGennaro Reed Ph.D.,

Dr. Dianna Cooper

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical social staff worker skills. We ranked the top skills for social staff workers based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 35.9% of social staff worker resumes contained social work as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a social staff worker needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 social staff worker skills for your resume and career

2. Home Health

Here's how social staff workers use home health:

Organized, budgeted and coordinated community health fairs promoting awareness of home health services
Developed and implemented public relations and marketing program for hospital home health agency.

3. Crisis Intervention

Here's how social staff workers use crisis intervention:

Provided crisis intervention; developed and implemented behavior plans.
Conducted individual and family therapy and crisis intervention.

4. Patients

Here's how social staff workers use patients:

Provided case management and bereavement counseling/follow up for patients and their families.
Evaluated patients aged 60 and older for suspected elder abuse/neglect and those deemed at risk, followed appropriate protocols.

5. Discharge Planning

Here's how social staff workers use discharge planning:

Assisted in the formulation of the care plans, provided information/guidance about loss and the grief process, and discharge planning.
Coordinate and monitor services as well as complex discharge planning and problem solving.

6. Family Therapy

Here's how social staff workers use family therapy:

Provided individual and family therapy including developing and implementing DMH treatment plan as part of multidisciplinary team.
Provide family therapy under the supervision of a Clinical Licensed Social.

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7. 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 social staff workers use group therapy:

Developed and conducted group therapy.
Enhanced my client treatment abilities through outpatient individual and group therapy, micro and macro practice.

8. Mental Health Treatment

Here's how social staff workers use mental health treatment:

Provide outpatient and in home infant mental health treatment to children 0-using Child !

9. Substance Abuse

Here's how social staff workers use substance abuse:

Provided counseling and case management services to individuals diagnosed with mental health, substance abuse chronic medical issues and transient homelessness.
Conducted comprehensive substance abuse evaluation, determination of level of care needs, as well as treatment recommendations.

10. Consultation Services

Here's how social staff workers use consultation services:

Provide targeted assessments and evaluations, intensive individual treatment and consultation services.

11. Psychosocial Assessments

Here's how social staff workers use psychosocial assessments:

Provided comprehensive intervention and psychosocial assessments of offenders.
Conducted psychosocial assessments and diagnosis using DSM-IV-TR criteria.

13. Child Abuse

When a child who is under 18 is mistreated by an adult, it is considered child abuse. There are many forms of intentional harm and mistreatment for example physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, medical abuse, and neglect in providing adequate basic life necessities.

Here's how social staff workers use child abuse:

Reported instances of child abuse or neglect when needed, provided case management, and conducted home visits.
Received and documented child abuse and neglect reports.

14. Intake Interviews

Here's how social staff workers use intake interviews:

Conducted intake interviews with each patient and family referred, assessing their social, emotional, and environmental status.

15. Community Agencies

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

Here's how social staff workers use community agencies:

Coordinated and assisted residents from the sub-acute rehab unit with safe discharges involving community agencies and services.
Act as a liaison and provide referrals to community agencies

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What skills help Social Staff Workers find jobs?

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

What skills stand out on social staff worker resumes?

Dr. Florence DiGennaro Reed Ph.D.

Associate Professor and Chairperson, Director of the Performance Management Laboratory, University of Kansas

In my experience, employers appreciate real-world experience where students/recent graduates can apply the knowledge they learned in their courses to actual work settings. Thus, graduates who have had service-learning practicum courses, internships, or other relevant experiences have resumes that tend to stand out to future employers.

What soft skills should all social staff 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 social staff 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 social staff 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 social staff workers need?

Jacqueline Burse Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Because of the impact of COVID-19, racial, political, and economic issues, it will be critical for master's level social work graduates to hone in on their advanced clinical skills (assessment, evaluation, counseling/therapy) in efforts to address mental health and wellness.

Do you want to know more?

List of social staff worker skills to add to your resume

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

Social Work
Home Health
Crisis Intervention
Patients
Discharge Planning
Family Therapy
Group Therapy
Mental Health Treatment
Substance Abuse

Consultation Services
Psychosocial Assessments
Social Services
Child Abuse
Intake Interviews
Community Agencies
MSW
MDS
Mental Illness

Social Histories
Crisis Management
Individual Therapy
Medicare
Developmental Disabilities
Direct Care
Domestic Violence
Group Treatment
OMH

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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