Honoring social workers during Social Work Month

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Janelle Erickson, social worker[/caption]

Social work is not an easy profession. An extreme amount of emotional stress stems from this line of work. Social workers assist people every day who need some level of help. There may be limited resources available to meet those needs. The social workers at Aberdeen Village make being a social worker look easy. They work hard to assist our residents with many different needs, and despite limited resources to meet those needs, they don’t stop until they can find answers and solutions.

Janelle Erickson is one of our social workers, whom we are so blessed to have on the Aberdeen

Village team. She has been a social worker for nearly 30 years. Janelle admits that social work wasn’t even a thought for her initially, when she went to college. Her first major was elementary education. She worked in the preschool setting in college and thought that was the career path for her. A couple of majors later, Janelle says she just didn’t feel like she had found her calling. She happened to take an introduction to social work class and loved it. The professor was great, and Janelle said she finally felt like she knew what she was meant to do.

Janelle received a bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of Kansas and a master’s degree in gerontology at the University of Central Missouri.

Aberdeen Village is fortunate to have had Janelle on our team for the past six years. She says the best part of being a social worker is interacting with the residents. The most challenging part is the abundance of paperwork that is required from Medicare and sometimes the limited resources available for our residents’ needs. One thing is for sure: Janelle works hard to help every one of our residents with whatever needs they have.

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