Specific Knowledge:
Jessica Peter on Social Work

When I tell people I’m a social worker, I usually get either vague nods or overly specific nods that make me immediately suspicious: it’s been my experience that people tend to have a single image of what a social worker is. What that single image is depends on the person. If they have a connection to someone in the field, they will sometimes understand all social workers to be that thing—the better option! If they don’t, they will often default to what the relatively limited media about social workers tells us. That media has a certain portrayal that absolutely dominates all others, which brings me to my first point. 

Social workers aren’t baby snatchers. . . in fact, many don’t work in child welfare at all.

Before I considered this field, I probably would have defined a social worker as someone who works in child protective services. For some reason, in film, TV, and books, the professions have become almost synonymous. Think: Precious (and the book it’s based on, Push by Sapphire), Lilo and Stitch, The Babadook, Free Willy, White Oleander by Janet Fitch, I Am Sam, Shameless, Case 39, Leave No Trace. . . and I could keep going. Worse still, a lot of this tends toward the “baby snatcher” trope: that social workers are there to steal your kids. Now there is plenty of space to criticize child welfare and foster care systems (please do, in fact), but the social workers who land in this area are usually the ones who love kids the most and truly want to keep them safe. Burnout is a real concern as this is a rough sub-field on all sides, but it’s not about gleefully planning family separations. It’s also far from the sole definition of what makes a social worker. 

Social workers are largely missing from the media. 

The places where we don’t see social workers sometimes stand out the most. In movies, TV, and books, there are rarely social workers doing counseling (whereas where I live, most counselors are social workers). You also don’t see nearly enough of the social workers in hospitals, other than clipboard-holding warm bodies who don’t do much at all, or more child welfare workers (Grey’s Anatomy is a repeat offender on both counts). You don’t see nearly enough social workers attached to policing (looking at you, Law & Order SVU and Olivia Benson doing her own counselling and social support . . . and maybe I’m also criticizing real-world policing for this gap too). 

Also, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything beyond direct social work practice with individuals represented in media. Social workers are also in areas such as community organizing, policy, advocacy, and research. I would theorize that part of the reason is that when the profession is succeeding, it’s almost invisible. The work isn’t public-facing—it faces individuals, families, communities, and societies in shifting individual and systemic needs for the better. If we’re doing our jobs to the highest standard, you’ll see the changes—but not necessarily the work to get there. 

Social workers are trained professionals with codes of ethics.

Social work isn’t a casual career you can just drop into: there is specific education you are required to have. Also, to even call yourself a “social worker” in most jurisdictions, you have to register with your local regulatory body and follow their code of ethics. And there is indeed a code of ethics! Media portrayals of violating codes of ethics are particularly egregious from the counseling side (which has enough fodder for its own essay like this), but two of the biggest issues are (1) getting into a romantic relationship with a client and (2)  breaking confidentiality. It’s one thing if this is dealt with within the story, but too often these things just come up with no guilt or repercussions. 

There’s a difference between a bad depiction of a social worker and a depiction of a bad social worker.

One of my favourite depictions of a social worker is a bad social worker: Mr. Healy, the prison social worker in Orange Is the New Black is burned out, corrupt, and deeply problematic. . . and it all feels realistic and within the bounds of real life. There are problematic people in every profession, after all. However, when baby-snatching child support workers and other bad social workers are some of the only depictions we get, it introduces something of a branding problem. It links an overall air of negativity to the profession, which is so at odds with the actual work of trying to improve society, however incrementally. 

So who does it well? 

You know what’s nice? Just having a social worker included in something, even incidentally. Not a story about the job, but just someone who happens to have that job. One example is The Grudge (2004). Sarah Michelle Gellar’s character is a social work student who is working as a live-in nurse. Social workers taking on jobs in other helping professions is also very common in the real world, so though this movie has nothing to do with social work, it was nice to see it in there.

My favorite portrayal of a social worker, however, is in Joker. For one, this is one of the only movies or TV shows where I’ve seen a social worker doing counseling (it’s very common! I’ve done it!), and it feels right somehow. She’s blunt, she listens, she deals with the issues. I feel like I might have been on the same side of the table while watching someone deal with psychosis while also getting crushed by a lack of funding from a system that doesn’t prioritize this work. Painfully realistic in some aspects—and since this is still a Joker movie, less realistic in others. 

So what?

Social work is a big-tent profession and I hope that the next time you see a social worker portrayed in a single way—or not at all—you think about who is behind the scenes. They live among us! 

Bio: Jessica Peter is a registered social worker who has worked in multiple sides of social work practice including individual and family counselling, community advocacy, and research. She is now working on a PhD focused on the health of people in prison. She’s also a horror writer, and you can find her work in places like Cosmic Horror Monthly, The NoSleep Podcast, and Apparition Literary, and she co-edited the recent Howls from the Scene of the Crime: A Crime Horror Anthology. Find her online at www.jessicapeter.net, @jessicapeter1 on Twitter/X, or @jessicapeter.bsky.social.