SOCIAL WORKER OR HUMAN SERVICES PROFESSIONAL III AND IV

at  State of Hawaii

BASIC EDUCATION:

Social Worker III and IV: In accordance with Act 238, SLH 2005, applicants must possess a bachelor’s or master’s degree in social work from a program of study accredited by the Council on Social Work Education, or a doctoral degree in social work from a college or university accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, or a comparable regional accreditation body.
Human Services Professional III and IV: A bachelor’s degree from an accredited four-year college or university which included a minimum of 12 semester credit hours in courses such as counseling, criminal justice, human services, psychology, social work, social welfare, sociology or other behavioral sciences.
For The Human Services Professional III and IV Only: Excess work experience as described under the Specialized Experience below, or any other responsible administrative, professional or analytical work experience that provided knowledge, skills and abilities comparable to those acquired in four (4) years of successful study while completing a college or university curriculum leading to a baccalaureate degree, including the coursework specified above, may be substituted on a year-for-year basis. To be acceptable, the experience must have been of such scope, level and quality as to assure the possession of comparable knowledge, skills and abilities.
SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: Applicants must possess progressively responsible professional work experience which involved helping individuals and their families find satisfactory ways of identifying their problems, coping with their conditions, and functioning effectively within their environments in the amounts shown below. Please note that possession of the required number of years of experience will not in itself be accepted as proof of qualification for the position. The applicant’s overall experience must have been of such scope and level of responsibility as to conclusively demonstrate that he/she has the ability to perform the duties of the position for which he/she is being considered.

Social Workers and Human Services Professionals seek to improve the overall quality of life of people within the context of their environment through the remediation and prevention of their problems, and by improving accessibility, accountability and coordination of service delivery among a variety of professionals and/or agencies tasked with providing appropriate services to clients. These professionals come from a variety of interdisciplinary bases, establish working relationships of mutual respect and trust with the clientele served, and utilize a variety of helping interventions to enable these clients to function as effectively as possible.
These positions are found in a variety of settings and work with diverse types of people. They may be found in hospitals and other health service agencies, social service agencies, schools, correctional facilities, and programs concerned with substance abuse, aging, and family violence.
Although work settings and clientele may differ, all Social Workers and Human Services Professionals use similar professional concepts, principles and techniques regardless of the program in which they work. Social Worker or Human Services Professional IV positions are distinguished by the complexity of assigned cases and level of authority assumed by the worker. The following summarizes the types of positions found at this level:
Type A: The fully trained, experienced Social Worker or Human Services Professional who independently performs the full range of professional human services work for a caseload consisting of predominantly highly complex cases. These are cases where clients frequently exhibit extreme hostility (which may include violent behavior to others or themselves) or resistance to services, possibly because they have been repeatedly referred to or compelled to accept agency services; have multiple and/or severe psychological, mental, physical, and environmental problems or have become the focus of notoriety and/or intense public scrutiny; and there is difficulty in determining or obtaining appropriate services, and in having clients accept services and comply with treatment plans.
Type B: The fully trained and experienced Social Worker or Human Services Professional who serves as a program specialist under the direction of a higher-level specialist or other professional, and is assigned a program which is fairly narrow in scope and/or generally part of a larger program area. Work may encompass various tasks such as interpreting, clarifying, and developing guidelines within the overall scope of the larger program; drafting policies and implementation plans; developing training guides and providing training; and monitoring and reporting on implementation.
Type C: The fully trained, experienced Social Worker or Human Services Professional who spends a significant portion of the work time in direct performance of work typical of the Social Worker or Human Services Professional III and concurrently supervises a small group of less experienced Social Workers or Human Services Professionals and/or others providing professional human services, without having significant program management responsibilities.