Mental health social work equips clients to recover

In her role with a community organisation, Katie supports clients with mental illness and advocates for them during their recovery journey.

“I either go to a client’s house to provide support or they come in to my workplace. “Every day and every client is different. I get to see the change in my clients, even just from having a chat with them. They do all the work and we give them the skills to do it.”

Katie started her role two weeks before she graduated in May 2025 and discovered much of what she learned in her degree translates from the coursework into practice.

“All the active listening and the non-verbal communication skills I use every day with clients. Even theories such as strength-based practice and trauma-informed care I use daily when I’m interacting with clients.”

Katie left a 15 year career in retail to study fulltime towards a Bachelor of Social Work at Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University. Coming from a family working in service professions, she felt social work was a natural fit for her.

Katie says studying social work requires a lot of personal reflection.

“You have to be able to understand yourself and have a backbone. I learnt way more about myself in the degree than I have in the rest of my working life. You have to be prepared to be confronted and discover new things about yourself. I learnt that I’m not an introvert, when I thought I was. In the start of the degree I was the one that would sit in the back corner of the lecture theatre and just listen. The more I got put on the spot, the more I connected with people.”

Stepping up and becoming a class representative during her study helped Katie realise that she enjoyed being a leader.

Katie was recognised for her contribution to her class with the Merv Hancock Award in 2024. The award honours social work trailblazer Merv Hancock who was instrumental in founding Massey’s Bachelor of Social Work in 1976, the first of its kind at a New Zealand university. Recipients of this award are nominated by their peers and staff from the School of Social Work in recognition of their leadership and contributions to the field.

Massey University is celebrating 50 years of the Bachelor of Social Work this year and Katie thinks helping people will remain at the core of social work no matter how technology advances in the future.

“There has been talk about integrating artificial intelligence into social work. It’s such an interaction-based thing and taking that human touch away would be quite different.”

Katie will be speaking at the upcoming Explore Massey's Bachelor of Social Work on Thursday 4 June.