Anna Lorson didn't just want to help people. That felt too general, too vague.

What drew her to social work was something more specific: the intersection between compassion and research. The idea that there are efficacious ways to help people: methods grounded in evidence, approaches that actually work.

"You can help people in any profession," she explains, "but social work is just a different vehicle."

That vehicle has taken her from juvenile justice to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, where she now works with families navigating one of the most complex and overwhelming systems imaginable: pediatric cardiac care.

Every family with a child born with a heart defect gets a social worker. Anna is often that person: the one who walks alongside them through the darkest days.

The Power of Just Sitting

When Anna entered the field, she was a go-getter. Young, energized, focused on the positives and the solutions she could provide.

But somewhere along the way, something shifted.

"I realized the most crucial parts of my day were just listening to someone and sitting with them while they experience pain," she says.

It wasn't the resource connection or the policy navigation (though those matter). It was the simple act of presence.

"My job isn't just about fixing the situation," Anna reflects. "It's about helping families not feel isolated or alone."

These families have their own support systems, of course. But those people aren't in the hospital. They don't fully understand the medical complexities, the terminology, the endless decisions that need to be made.

"Making people feel seen and heard," Anna says, "letting them know it's okay to not have it all together: that's where the real work happens."

It's a lesson that challenged her initial understanding of what it means to help. Sometimes the most powerful intervention is bearing witness to someone's pain without trying to immediately fix it.

The Many Roles in a Single Day

Social work is remarkably broad. It can exist in policy offices, school systems, mental health clinics, hospitals, courtrooms, community centers.

For Anna, that breadth is part of what makes the profession so dynamic.

"In any one day, I can be a medical liaison, an advocate, making referrals, being a supportive listener, serving as a leader among the interdisciplinary team," she explains. "So many roles in one day."

Her path reflects that flexibility. She started in juvenile justice, working in mental health with young people caught up in the system. Now she's connecting families with resources, advocating for children with cardiac conditions, being hands-on with families navigating the instability of unexpected hospitalizations.

"You're not locked into the first area you're in," she tells students exploring the field. "Find something that makes you excited, something you want to pursue."

The through-line in Anna's journey isn't a specific population or setting. It's the core principle of social work itself: empowerment.

"Social work focuses on working with individuals," she says. "It's important to lift up the people you're working with rather than doing everything for them."

Taking Responsibility for the Chaos

Healthcare is a complex and wild system. People are thrust into it (often suddenly, often terrified) and they don't know what to do.

Anna sees her role as taking responsibility for that chaos.

"I feel privileged to work with families and help them navigate the instability," she says. But she's clear-eyed about the weight of it.

The work is emotionally taxing. You can't sit with that much pain, day after day, without it affecting you.

So how does she sustain it?

"Keeping perspective of the bigger picture," Anna explains. "Families eventually find peace, a new normal, equilibrium. Recognizing it's a really hard day, but it's not like this every day."

There's wisdom in that framing. You have to go through the pain to get to the other side.

And Anna practices what she preaches: "Making sure my life is also one I'm taking care of: my mental health, self-care. It's important."

That self-care isn't selfish. It's what provides her with the resilience to show up for families on their hardest days. To model that it's okay to struggle, to reach out for support, to sit with difficulty without falling apart.

A Right, Not a Privilege

After years of working within the healthcare system, Anna has a clear vision for what needs to change.

"The most essential thing is universal recognition that healthcare is a right, not a privilege," she says firmly.

She wants to see barriers removed. She wants robust funding for social safety nets so families and children don't fall through the cracks. She wants treatment to be researched, accessible, comprehensive.

"Ensuring comprehensive wellbeing for communities: for anyone," she adds.

It's an ambitious vision, but Anna believes the next generation of social workers can help make it happen. They'll need to follow their interests, stay flexible, and remember the core mission: lifting people up rather than doing everything for them.

The Work of Bearing Witness

There's something profound in what Anna has learned over her years in social work: something that challenges our culture's obsession with fixing, solving, optimizing.

Sometimes the most important thing you can do is sit with someone in their pain and let them know they're not alone.

For families navigating a child's cardiac condition, that presence might matter more than any resource list or insurance navigation. It might be what allows them to eventually find their new normal.

Anna Lorson has embraced all the facets of social work: the advocacy, the resource connection, the policy work, the medical liaison role. But at its heart, her work is about walking alongside people through the hardest moments of their lives.

And in a healthcare system that often moves too fast, that treats people like cases rather than humans, that simple act of accompaniment might be the most radical intervention of all.

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