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Embedding Social Justice into Clinical Practice: A Framework for Early Career Social Workers

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Abstract

This article offers a framework to help graduating MSW students and early career clinical social workers become social justice practitioners. Beginning with the assertion that clinical social work has the potential to be a powerful force in the movement to create a more just and humane world, the authors outline and discuss key components that can provide the foundation for clinical social workers to meet that potential. The authors first provide a definition of social justice, anchored in an ethic of love, and discuss the compatibility of clinical social work and social justice. They then summarize a framework for social workers to develop a critical consciousness through ongoing critical reflection and action. Each component is discussed using personal examples to illustrate how it is part of a process that helps us critically understand ourselves as social workers, how we show up and use ourselves in practice, how we attempt to come into community with our clients, and how we try to disrupt practices that reinforce systems of control and hierarchy. The article ends by recommending resources to help enhance early career social workers’ personal and professional growth.

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Notes

  1. While we recognize that many of the ideas in this article apply to a global context and that social work is practiced in a variety of ways throughout the world, we will be focusing on the U.S. context since that is what we are most familiar with.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Catholic School of Social Service, The Catholic University of America, Washington, USA

    Michael J. Massey

  2. Department of Psychiatry, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, USA

    Kimberly Sims

  3. Connected In Community, LLC, Hyattsville, USA

    Charla Yearwood

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  1. Michael J. Massey
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  2. Kimberly Sims
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  3. Charla Yearwood
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Correspondence to Michael J. Massey.

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Massey, M.J., Sims, K. & Yearwood, C. Embedding Social Justice into Clinical Practice: A Framework for Early Career Social Workers. Clin Soc Work J (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-024-00932-3

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