Social work field and Asperger's

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For the past month or so, I've been looking into going back to school and getting a master's in social work. My social work interests are very broad from wanting to do clinical practice for teens and adults with ASD to working in health care or gerontology. The only thing that's holding me back from doing this is the Asperger's and the fact that I have low self-esteem. My Vocational Rehabilitation counselor also kind of rejected it and said most social workers don't make a lot of money. That was kind of insulting to me!

I'm not in the social work field but I do work in the residential care sector with teenagers with learning disabilities, epilepsy and autism. When I first applied for the job, I was worried about how my Aspergers would impact on my job but I have been in the same position for 4 and a half years and I love it! My manager has told me that he appreciates how concise and methodical I am at carrying out routine tasks. I have always been obsessed with medical conditions so I have a more in depth understanding of the conditions the students have than the other staff simply because I research them so avidly. I also think Aspergers helps me interact and communicate better with the autistic students-I can understand why they think in a certain way and can educate my colleagues about this. It can be very stressful at times and that can make me be self destructive at these times but I love my job and wouldn't want to change it. I would say go for it.

Thanks! I really want to go for it, but there are several impediments that are keeping me from doing it.

I'm still doubting myself about doing this, but I did read that it is a very common profession for women on the spectrum. Wonder why that is?

I'm on the spectrum and I actually just finished an MSW program and am currently working as a clinician. I also worked for a long time as a direct care staff and was fairly successful with that. My problems with the field (at least in the frame of AS) is that I got interested in human services to learn how to relate to people and most people that I work with are already good at that so they run circles around me in terms of navigating co-workers and office politics. I do great with my direct engagement skills with clients, though.
Your job counselor is right, though... the pay really does suck. But I find it fulfilling to help people (and folks already look to me as an expert on ASDs, so that kinda rocks!)

Well, I probably should've told my job counselor that I'm not looking to go into it for the money, then maybe she would've been more understanding. I really don't think social work is a profession where you focus so much on how much money you make. I believe its more about your compassion for others and willingness to relate to people from all different walks of life. I still don't feel I have the self-confidence to do it, though and that's holding me back a lot.

In my program (and I don't know if this is true of all programs), they helped us to find a degree of confidence to help us do the job well.
That confidence also comes with experience and, unfortunately, that experience comes at the cost of further education.

My husband is a LCSW. Recently, he had an Intern with Asperger's. He said he was great! He was able to do exactly as he was told and always had his report ready and very professional. Yes, he did miss social cues; however, once he developed a system and watched my husband, he imitated him very well. A good therapist has to be very scientific too. You'll be good in that way.

About the money, in the beginning it's low, but later it increases. A lot of therapists do private practice twice a week and work for an agency in the day. A few go into administration and still help interns with therapy, like my husband. He loves it. Get your Master's and your license. You also can help small agencies that do not have a licensed social worker. It's easy and extra money. My husband does that, and he does adoptions once in a while. Those assessments are long but run from $1000 to $2000 a family.

A supervisor makes over 80,000 a year if you've been in an agency for some time.

I say go for it! Try it out. You will be accepted in the field since everyone that goes into Social Work knows they have some kind of dysfunction. Everyone in my husband's office knew the intern had Asperger's without him revealing it. No one said anything, they just adapted to him right away, treated him very professionally and helped him with his weaknesses while focusing on his strengths.

The thing with private practice is that there's also the business side of things, which I don't think I'd be good at. You have to be able to market yourself and get your name out there, which is tough. OTOH, I could very well handle being a therapist at a public practice. My top 3 choices for social work are mental health, general health, and gerontology. The only things I don't think I could handle are military social work, public policy and administration, and dealing with young children since I don't have the patience for them.

I too wanted to go to college in order to become a Social Worker. What put me off was all the "red tape". The fact that things have to be done in a certain way even though it goes against logic.