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Social worker assistant skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

Dr. Florence DiGennaro Reed Ph.D.,

Dr. Dianna Cooper

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical social worker assistant skills. We ranked the top skills for social workers assistant based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 21.7% of social worker assistant resumes contained social work as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a social worker assistant needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 social worker assistant skills for your resume and career

2. Patients

Here's how social workers assistant use patients:

Answered questions for several departments at the hospital regarding the Medicaid program and patients eligibility status.
Maintain respectful confidentiality and protect dignity of patients and family members during and after treatment.

3. Public Assistance

Here's how social workers assistant use public assistance:

Ensured that each person/family that applied for public assistance received the type and level of assistance that they were eligible for.
Assisted client's in applying and securing entitlements such as Medicaid, Food Stamps and Public Assistance.

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 social workers assistant use community resources:

Connected patient/families to community resources including appropriate MLTC in the community and provided assistance with entitlements such as Medicaid.
Provided court-ordered intake assessments, referrals, case management and discharge planning and referrals to community resources.

5. 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 social workers assistant use mental health:

Attended Provide appropriately referrals to Mental Health professionals and Medical professionals e.g.
Identify mental health and environmental concerns.

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7. DHS

DHS (Department of Homeland Security) refers to the department that handles the USA's immigration enforcement.

Here's how social workers assistant use dhs:

Oversee 700 cases for households (clients) requiring varying forms of State or Federal assistance through DHS.
Aided as an Emergency Worker for other Department of Human Services (DHS) employees.

8. Patient Care

Patient care entails the diagnosis, recovery, and control of sickness as well as the maintenance of physical and emotional well-being through the use of healthcare providers' services. Patient care is described as services provided to patients by health practitioners or non-professionals under guidance.

Here's how social workers assistant use patient care:

Collaborate with multidisciplinary staff to enhance high quality of patient care.
Participated in weekly Patient Care Conference with interdisciplinary team.

9. Crisis Intervention

Here's how social workers assistant use crisis intervention:

Skilled nursing and rehabilitation center; responsible for case management, crisis intervention, marketing and admission procedures.
Complete intake evaluations, provide crisis intervention, and formulate assessments and make treatment recommendations.

10. Discharge Planning

Here's how social workers assistant use discharge planning:

Verified medical insurance or patient eligibility information, updated weekly and monthly discharge planning reports.
Initiated and distributed discharge planning assessments upon completion of treatment.

11. Financial Assistance Programs

Here's how social workers assistant use financial assistance programs:

Provide information to resident/families as to Medicare/Medicaid, and other financial assistance programs available to the resident.
Interviewed applicants to obtain the necessary information to make eligibility determinations for financial assistance programs.

12. Substance Abuse

Here's how social workers assistant use substance abuse:

Facilitated group and individual counseling for families including weekly parenting classes youth counseling sessions, and substance abuse counseling.
Served as a member of a substance abuse treatment team delivering patient-centered, evidence-based substance use disorder treatment services.

13. MSW

Here's how social workers assistant use msw:

Gather materials to be filed, researched and retrieved in response to request from MSW, LCSW and staff Interdisciplinary Team.
Assisted MSW with client medication monitoring.

14. Foster Children

Here's how social workers assistant use foster children:

Conducted home safety checks, monitored visitation at county facilities or public settings involving foster children and their biological parents.
Supervised scheduled home visits between foster children and biological parents.

15. Child Care

Child care means the care, supervision, or guidance of a child by a person other than the child's parent, guardian, or custodian for periods of less than 24 hours. Childcare could be either center-based such as a daycare or a nursery or home-based care such as nannies or family daycare.

Here's how social workers assistant use child care:

Determine client eligibility for food, Medicaid, child care, cash assistance and also in a state of emergency.
Determined eligibility for statewide assistance programs such as SNAP, Medicaid, Child Care, Cash Assistance and Emergency Assistance.

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What skills help Social Workers Assistant find jobs?

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

What skills stand out on social worker assistant 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 worker assistants 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 worker assistants?

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 worker assistant 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 worker assistants 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 social worker assistant skills to add to your resume

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

Social Work
Patients
Public Assistance
Community Resources
Mental Health
Social Services
DHS
Patient Care
Crisis Intervention
Discharge Planning
Financial Assistance Programs
Substance Abuse
MSW
Foster Children
Child Care

Community Agencies
Physical Labor
DIG Trenches
Excavations
Community Services
Hoists
Construction Sites
Psychosocial Assessments
Support Services
Medical Appointments
Developmental Disabilities
Social Security
Child Abuse
MDS
Cement Mixers

Care Plan
Group Therapy
Mental Illness
Emergency Relief
Care Conferences
Food Assistance
PowerPoint
Emotional Support
Domestic Violence
Medical Care
Social Justice
Client Service
Construction Projects
Private Agencies

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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