“Is a victims advocate basically a social worker?”
My daughter was sexually assaulted and instead of getting a social worker for her case, she has a victim's advocate helping her. Are they the same thing?
4 Answers
No they are not the same thing. It is my understanding and experience that a victim’s advocate has specialized training and access to resources that allow them be more sensitive to the delicate needs of a sexual assault survivor. A social worker may not be trained in victim advocacy or trauma recovery.
A Victim's advocate might be a social worker. However, there is a significant difference between an advocate and a therapist. Therapy can only be conducted by a board certified licensed clinical social worker (LCSW). LCSW attend 6 years of college before 3000 hours of post-graduate clinical social work experience. Some social workers have only 2 years of college and clinical training.
A victim's advocate can be a social worker; I encourage you to find out what degree/certification they posses as well as their experience. Not every social worker has experience/expertise in handling sexual assault cases and a victim's advocate will have more experience.
The victim's advocate is a person who has volunteered to help children in danger. They are trained and generally have an emotional vested interest in the welfare of the child. What kind of social worker are we talking about? One who works for the school or one who works for the court? In this country, the problem with the court assigned social worker is that they are generally overloaded.
