Social Work Education: Ensuring Its Viability into the Future

Abstract

The most common type of employer for social workers is a private, nonprofit, or charitable organization (34.3% of all social workers); however 41% of social workers work for the government when combining together federal, state, and local governments (The George Washington University Health Workforce Institute, Profile of the social work workforce, http://www.socialserviceworkforce.org/resources/profile-social-work-workforce, 2017). Given these organizations focus on individuals who are indigent, have serious behavioral health challenges and are typically covered through Medicaid and/or Medicare, ensuring social workers know how to supervise within public sector limitations while simultaneously being steeped in compliance related material, such as medical necessity, is vital to their success. However, most social work schools fail to offer targeted classes in these areas, often leaving graduates to learn from those with little or no formal training in key subject areas. While it may appear that addressing these concerns is relatively simple, there are many obstacles to doing so, including faculty having a lack of familiarity with new content and a distrust of public mental health systems (Hoge et al., in Clin Supv 30:184, 2011). Establishing a core set of public sector-based knowledge areas that build on the Council on Social Work Education nine competencies should be a priority, as otherwise social work education and its future utility may be drawn into question (Council on Social Work Education, Educational policy and accreditation standards for baccalaureate and master’s social work programs, https://www.cswe.org/getattachment/Accreditation/Accreditation-Process/2015, 2015).