Social Service Aide

Snapshot

Career Cluster(s): Human Services

Interests: Counseling, psychology, sociology, planning and leading group activities, record keeping

Earnings (Yearly Median): $41,410 per year $19.91 per hour

Employment & Outlook: 9% (Much faster than average)

Entry-Level Education High school diploma or equivalent

Related Work Experience None

On-the-job Training Short-term on-the-job training

Overview

Sphere of Work. Social service agencies employ social service aides to assist social workers and counselors in providing clients with social services. Social service aide is a general job category that includes a wide range of work titles and duties such as home healthcare assistant, caseworker, adult daycare worker, and mental health worker. Social service aides often help at-risk individuals find resources, resolve problems and conflicts, and secure opportunities. Social service aides work with individual clients to lessen the impact of, and sometimes resolve, issues of unemployment, poverty, drug and alcohol dependency, housing challenges, and domestic abuse. Social service aides may work with individuals, families, or targeted populations such as prisoners and older adults.

Work Environment. Social service aides spend their workdays seeing clients in various settings, including offices, residential facilities, homeless shelters, adult daycare facilities, schools, prisons, hospitals, and substance abuse clinics. Social service aides may have an office at a social service agency where they see clients or may be on the road most of their work hours, traveling to meet with clients in homes or facilities. Given the diverse demands of the social service profession, social service aides may need to work days, evenings, weekends, and on-call hours to meet client or caseload needs.

Occupation Interest. Individuals drawn to the profession of social service aide tend to be intelligent, socially conscious people who can quickly assess situations, find resources, demonstrate caring, and solve social problems. Those who succeed as social service aides exhibit empathy, patience, resourcefulness, time management, and concern for individuals and society. Social service aides should enjoy spending time with a wide range of people, including those considered at-risk and those from diverse cultural, social, and educational backgrounds.

A Day in the Life—Duties and Responsibilities. It is essential to understand that the job duties of a social service aide vary greatly depending on the aide’s level of education. Social service aides with an associate’s or bachelor’s degree will have more opportunities to engage in counseling and independent work. At the same time, those with a high school education only often tend to be assigned more paperwork and ancillary duties.

Social service aides may conduct background interviews with clients to record information on client health, family, education, work and drug history, and personal goals; complete client intake forms for drug rehab and residential facilities; perform in-home visits to record information on client home size, cleanliness, and the number of inhabitants; or educate clients about the services and resources offered by social service agencies. Other daily tasks include leading group activities in residential facilities such as nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities; accompanying handicapped, mentally challenged, or elderly clients on medical appointments; assisting clients with welfare, childcare, and food stamp applications; teaching clients practical life skills including cooking, cleaning, and shopping; and overseeing client job search efforts.

A supervisor, usually a licensed social worker, may ask the social service aide to help clients arrange transportation and housing, remind patients to take and renew medications as needed, participate in client team meetings, provide client updates to agency supervisors and client families, or refer clients to community services or agencies. Sometimes, social service aides visit housebound clients, conduct home visits for foster care, adoption, and abuse allegation cases, and work as court-ordered facilitators between families and social service agencies.

All social service aides are responsible for completing patient charts and required documentation daily.

Community Organization Workers. Community Organization Workers work with groups concerned with the needs of the community. They assist in planning, organizing, and establishing a link with local leaders and groups and encourage people to participate in beneficial programs.

Management Aides. Management Aides help relocate residents of public and private housing projects and apartments. They explain management rules and inform tenants about the facilities and services available.

Group Work Program Aides. Group Work Program Aides lead informal group work activities as directed by the agency program staff, planning program details to meet the needs and interests of individual members.

Work Environment

Immediate Physical Environment. The primary physical environment of social service aides varies based on their caseload and employer. Social and human services assistants spend their workdays seeing clients in various settings, including offices, outpatient facilities, nursing homes, residential facilities, homeless shelters, schools, prisons, hospitals, and substance abuse clinics.

Human Environment. Social service aides work with a wide variety of people. They should be comfortable meeting with colleagues, staff, children, individuals with mental illness, incarcerated people, older adults, people with physical or mental conditions, individuals experiencing homelessness, and families.

Technological Environment. Social service aides use computers, cars, and telecommunication tools to perform their jobs. For instance, social service aides must be comfortable using computers to access client records and write reports, cars to drive to client homes and facilities, and cell phones to ensure availability during on-call hours.

Education, Training, and Advancement

High School/Secondary. High school students interested in pursuing a career as a social service aide should prepare themselves by developing good study habits. High school-level study of foreign languages, public safety, sociology, psychology, and education will provide a strong foundation for work as a social service aide or college-level work in the field. Due to the diversity of social service aide duties, high school students interested in this career path will benefit from seeking internships or part-time work that exposes the students to diverse groups of people and social needs. High school students may be able to secure employment as a social service aide directly out of high school.

Postsecondary. Postsecondary students interested in becoming social service aides should work towards an associate’s or bachelor's degree in social work or a related field such as psychology or gerontology. Coursework in education, public safety, psychology, and foreign languages may also be helpful in their future work. Postsecondary students can gain work experience and potential advantage in future job searches by securing internships or part-time employment in social service agencies or with at-risk populations such as older adults or people experiencing homelessness.

− Childcare Worker

− Probation Officer and Correctional Treatment Specialist

− Social and Human Services Assistant

− Social Worker

Bibliography

“Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2023: 21-1093 Social and Human Service Assistants.” Occupational Employment Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labor, 3 Apr. 2024, www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes211093.htm. Accessed 27 Aug. 2024.

“Social and Human Service Assistants.” Occupational Outlook Handbook. Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labor, 17 Apr. 2024, www.bls.gov/ooh/community-and-social-service/social-and-human-service-assistants.htm. Accessed 27 Aug. 2024.