I saw a post on LinkedIn this week titled “The Social Worker Without the Degree.” The person had a degree in Recreation but spent 10 years working in advocacy, systems navigation, and crisis support. They framed it as being about the work, not the title.

I disagreed and said so. Calling yourself a social worker without the degree isn’t solidarity with the profession. It undermines it. Social work has a defined scope of practice, an ethical framework, and a licensure structure that exists for specific reasons. We are actively fighting for title protection in multiple states, and posts like that make that fight harder. Our work has value. Their work has value, too. Claiming the title of social worker without the credentials dilutes the profession. It does not elevate the work.

There are apparently mixed views on this, so I thought I’d bring it here. Who gets to be called a social worker?

Originally posted by u/MacroPractitioner on Reddit.

Top comment by u/pacificoats

that’s not a social worker, a better term would be someone who works in social services or an advocate.

it’s written by AI though so is it even real? who knows