In the field of social work, clinical social work1 is a specialty practice area that focuses on the evaluation, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of emotional and other behavioral problems and mental diseases.
Wondering what is a clinical social worker? You don’t need to wonder about this topic, “What is a Clinical Social Worker“; here, everything will be covered.
Family, group and individual therapy are popular forms of treatment. In their state of operation, social workers who offer these services must hold a clinical license or certification.
Clinical social workers provide services in various contexts, including organizations, community mental health centers, hospitals, private practices, and primary care.
NASW protects clinical social workers through legislative and regulatory processes.
In 2015, clinical social work was recognized as one of the 100 Best Jobs overall and among the Best Healthcare Jobs by U.S. News & World Report.
But before diving into what is a clinical social worker, first get an idea of clinical social work. Here it is.
1. Clinical Social Work: What Is It?
What is a clinical social worker? Here is your answer, clinical social work is a healthcare field that focuses on behavioral and bio-psychosocial problems and disorders, with a particular emphasis on prevention and treatment theoretical approaches in the mental health and healthcare fields.
Use of the person-in-environment viewpoint, regard for the precedence of client rights, and a strong therapeutic bond between client and practitioner are only a few of clinical social work’s distinctive characteristics.
The National Association of Clinical Social Workers is the country’s largest group of mental health/healthcare providers, with 250,000 practitioners caring for millions of patient consumers.
Clinical social work’s knowledge base includes theories of biological, psychological, and social development as well as diversity and cultural competence, interpersonal dynamics, family, and group dynamics, mental disorders, and addictions.
It also includes information on the effects of mental illness, trauma, and injury as well as the physical, social, and cultural environments.
This knowledge is instilled in graduate-level social work coursework and combined with the clinical practice abilities that the practitioner develops over at least two years of master’s degree experience under clinical supervision.
This time frame ought to be sufficient to prepare the clinical social worker for independent practice and state licensure. Clinical social workers may choose to specialize in one or more fields or pursue an advanced generalist practice in the years that follow.
The adaptability of its practitioners and the range of their tasks, including team members and team leaders in a multidisciplinary setting, make clinical social work stand out.
Client consumers, who can be single people, married people, separated people, families, or groups, gain from a range of direct services, such as assessment, diagnosis, treatment planning, intervention/treatment, evaluation of outcomes, and case management.
The following are a few examples of clinical social work settings and social work services:
- Family and children’s services
- Locations for courts, forensics, and clinics
- Assisted-living facilities
- Hospice hospitals, not-for-profit groups, and home health care
- Rehabilitation and palliative care
- Offices for own private practice
- Schools, both public and private
- Facilities for mental health and health in the public sector
- Spiritual/religious institutions
- Residence-based therapy
- Social services for rural healthcare
- Uniformed social worker
Clinical social work is characterized by the adaptable and skillful application of knowledge, theories, and methodologies in a bio-psychosocial approach2.
The direct service social workers offer person-to-person procedures, or interventions, that are carried out with individuals of all ages and take a variety of forms, including preventive, crisis, and psycho-educational services, as well as collaborative client advocacy, short-term and long-term counseling, or psychotherapy.
Licensed Clinical social workers typically supervise and consult with other professionals, and they could engage in indirect practice (e.g., administration, research, teaching, writing). Clinical social workers are expected to follow an ethical code of conduct and participate in career-long continuing clinical education.
2. What is a Clinical Social Worker?
What is a clinical social worker? Clinical social worker issues include emotional health trauma, family strife, physical illness, emotional disorders and challenging personal circumstances like unhappiness or drug addiction.
In this line of employment, empathy, reliability, communication, cultural sensitivity, and critical thinking can be extremely useful traits.
Hospital departments (from pediatric acute care to oncology, cardiac, ER, and geriatrics), community health centres, child welfare organizations, employee assistance programmes, schools, primary health care clinics, substance abuse and addictions clinics, eating disorder treatment programmes, correctional facilities, and hospice and palliative care settings are just a few of the places where clinical social workers work.
There is also the opportunity for licenced clinical social workers (LCSWs) to operate in private practice.
2.1 An Overview of the Job Description of Clinical Social Workers
Clinical social workers often help in patient care through a combination of individual treatment plans, group therapy, and/or different case management duties; the specific duties they perform vary on their workplace and the people they work with.
Clinical social workers try to understand how clients’ issues are connected with their family, financial, and social lives in addition to assessing and assisting with their clients’ mental and emotional health challenges to precisely answer “what is a clinical social worker?“
This approach to social work practice is known as a holistic, person-in-environment approach. Clinical social workers then apply this knowledge to assist individuals in thriving in various crisis interventions like familial, interpersonal, and socioeconomic environments.
2.2 Qualifications for Education and Licensing
State governments control clinical social work.
In general, a licensed clinical social worker must possess a master’s degree in social work. MSW program from a Council on Social Work Education-accredited institution (CSWE) offers guidance in social work services providing therapy-related education.
There is an MSW program that offers guidance to students with clinical social work specialization, while they are not necessary for LCSW health care social workers. MSW programs are even provided online (MSW online).
Individuals must satisfy state-specific requirements, which include the following, in order to become a licensed clinical social worker in their state of residence:
- A specific number of hours of post-graduate work experience in a clinical setting having supervised experience.
- Passing the licensing tests required by their state’s board for the licensing of social workers. The Association of Clinical Social Workers Boards normally administers professional social workers’ clinical practice licensure exams.
- Completing the appropriate coursework for their state.
Students should verify with their state’s board of clinical social work licensure for the most recent requirements as social work license standards differ by state.
2.3 Psychologists Versus Clinical Social Workers
Clinical social work is a specialized discipline that integrates knowledge of the development of mental health and emotional disorders with clinical practice, as well as awareness of the effects of socioeconomic, cultural, and family factors on an individual’s behavioral health.
LCSWs frequently collaborate with other clinical settings and mental health specialists to offer clients and their families comprehensive care and support.
Psychologists assist their patients by treating underlying mental or emotional issues. Additionally, psychologists carry out novel research and publish it. They frequently provide long-term, even annual, care for the same patients.
2.4 Salary of Clinical Social Workers
The setting and function of a clinical social worker’s profession can affect how much median salary they make on average.
Depending on the location of social work, a social worker’s median salary might range from $46,650 to $61,230 as of March 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS). The top 10 percent of earners might make more median salary than $82,540.
Overview of Clinical Social Worker Careers and Employment Opportunities
Clinical social workers are frequently among the first professionals to assist people in managing and addressing challenging human development life circumstances. They work in a variety of behavioral health sectors.
Despite the fact that identifying and addressing people’s emotional, behavioral health, and mental illness issues is often their main responsibility, depending on the workplace, they may also conduct assessments, diagnose patients, and provide therapy for their well-being.
Clinical social workers can be of various types:
Family and children’s social workers as a group therapist.
Clinical social workers in child welfare.
Clinical social workers in geriatrics.
Clinical social workers in-home care and palliative care.
Hospice social workers.
Workers in social services abroad.
Clinical social workers in medicine and health care.
A clinical social worker for kids.
Mental illnesses social workers.
Clinical social workers in the military.
Clinical social workers at schools.
A clinical social worker for substance abuse and substance addiction.
Macro social workers (those offering indirect services), direct services social workers, and clinical social workers are different types of social workers.
3. Different Types of Social Workers
3.1 Family and Children’s Social Workers
Child and family social workers diagnose and treat psychological, emotional, behavioral difficulties, and other social challenges faced by children, adults, couples, and families.
Family counseling clinics counsel patients, residential treatment facilities with private practice, community wellness centers with community resources and community organizers, and university-based well-being centers are among places where child and family social workers can work.
If they are licensed clinical social workers and have gathered enough supervised experience, child and family social workers can also go into private practices and hold private practice sessions.
3.2 Clinical Social Worker in Child Welfare
Children are protected from mental health abuse and neglect by child welfare social workers, who are also known as child and family social workers. They specialize in foster care and adoption services.
On teams made up of “emergency response” licensed clinical social workers who visit families as soon as child abuse or neglect is reported; “back-end” social workers who work with children and their families involved in family rapprochement, family maintenance, and/or long-term foster care; and agency supervisors who allot resources, triage situations, and give the team direction.
Typically, social workers with child welfare organizations work there.
According to Damoun Bozorgzad, ASW, a clinical social worker who spent three years with Los Angeles County Child Protective Services, “the roles and obligations of child welfare clinical social worker are first to keep children safe, then to assure their well-being and accomplish all of those while ensuring they have a shot at permanent families.”
3.3 Clinical Social Workers in the Criminal Justice System
Licensed clinical social workers (also known as forensic social workers or prison social workers) operate in courtrooms, jail mental units, and correctional facilities to offer case management services, individual and group treatment, and advocacy within the legal system to those who are incarcerated or on probation.
Samantha Roberts, LCSW, a clinical case manager with the Citywide Forensics Team of the Department of Psychiatry at UCSF, spoke about her experience working with inmates who have just been released from custody. “Our clients battle to survive while utilizing the least resources possible. For instance, when a client is released from prison, they are left with nothing, including no means of subsistence. We support and stabilize them as best we can during this trying period,” she said.
Criminal justice social workers can assist those who have been the victims of crimes, such as victims of domestic abuse, by offering counseling, support, and assistance navigating the legal system.
Leandra Peloquin, PPSC, a former legal advocate for rape victims who spent more than ten years at the YWCA Rape Crisis Center in San Jose, California, described her role in this regard. “As attorneys, [my colleagues and I] would inform survivors of their rights since frequently, sexual assault victims are not made aware of their rights throughout the process. We were able to inform survivors of the progress of their cases and provide them with explanations of how the justice system works,” the woman stated. A criminal case goes through many processes, and the procedure might be lengthy.
3.4 Clinical Social Workers in Geriatrics
A licensed clinical social worker in geriatrics(often called a gerontological social workers3) offers advice, resource recommendations, and care coordination to elderly people.
They also support the families of their patients’ patients by enhancing patient care. In hospitals, hospice and palliative care facilities, and home care settings, geriatric social workers frequently work in the geriatric/gerontological departments.
3.5 Clinical Social Workers in Home Care, Palliative Care, and Hospice
A clinical social worker in-home care, palliative care and hospice clinical social worker specializing in providing patients with severe, life-threatening, and crippling illnesses and disorders with end-of-life counselling and treatment.
In order to treat the mental illnesses and emotional health issues brought on by grief and stress, hospice and palliative care social workers engage closely with the relatives of their patients.
For hospices, home care agencies, and palliative care facilities, licensed clinical social workers are employed.
3.6 Workers in Social Services Abroad
Licensed clinical social workers give immigrants and refugees who require direction and assistance throughout their transition to a new nation case management services, resource referrals, counselling, and therapy.
International nonprofits and community organizations that support immigrant and refugee populations, as well as state departments of health and social services, are employers of international licensed clinical social workers.
3.7 Clinical Social Workers in Medicine and Health Care
Work in medical centers, community health clinics, and hospitals (typically specializing in certain areas, such as intensive care/ER, oncology, cardiology, etc.). They act as a point of contact for patients and their families with the medical care team and act as their champions.
3.8 Mental Illnesses Social Workers
A psychiatric social worker works with people who have severe mental illnesses (SMI) and dual diagnoses (for instance, severe mental illness and severe substance misuse), and they are frequently employed by hospitals in units that look after SMI and high-risk patients, as well as crisis service units at regional departments of public health.
They provide direct services in the treatment plan of behavioral health or psychiatric services divisions of prisons and other detention centers.
Psychiatric social workers4 might work as members of the medical team in forensic units, chemical dependency assistance programs, and psychiatry departments in hospitals’ public health work environments (serving severely mentally ill patients involved in the crimes).
Psychiatric social workers offer intake evaluations, case management services, and resource recommendations to SMI people inside crisis intervention units.
Psychiatric licensed clinical social workers offer intake evaluations, case management services, and resource recommendations to SMI people inside crisis intervention units.
Depending on the workplace context, psychiatric social workers provide patient intake, care coordination, and discharge services in collaboration with medical doctors and mental health specialists. They may also offer short- or long-term counseling/therapy.
The intricate nature of his work on the forensic team was characterized by Charles Berman, ASW, a psychiatric social worker with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Citywide Case Management Program.
Since many of his clients suffer from schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorders, or bipolar disorder with psychotic symptoms, he stressed the importance of adopting psycho-education to encourage medication compliance. Almost all of his clients had dual diagnoses; thus for substance abuse, he used harm reduction.
He had to work with vulnerable populations. Attempted to use exposure therapy for specific traumas or recommended to their seeking safety group for globalized trauma because all of his clients dealt with trauma, some of it very complicated.
Some of his clients had borderline personality disorder; therefore, he referred them to their dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) day-treatment plan and taught dialectical behavior treatment plans to them.
3.9 Clinical Social Workers in the Military
Military licensed clinical social workers assist current and former military personnel in recognizing, addressing, and overcoming the psychological, emotional, and social effects of their military experiences.
To assist active military personnel in overcoming the psychological and emotional obstacles preventing them from doing their duties, embedded military social workers have a work environment that offers policy practice of counseling and therapy.
Embedded military social workers provide support by frequently collaborating with a larger group of medical and mental health specialists who support a specific unit.
Veterans who are struggling with the psychological and emotional effects of their prior employment can also get assistance from military social workers; these professionals are frequently employed by the Department of Veterans Affairs or the Veterans Health Administration.
3.10 Clinical Social Worker for Substance Abuse
A licensed clinical social worker that specializes in substance abuse provides direct services to those who are battling chemical dependency or other forms of addiction.
Social workers who specialize in substance abuse work with people to evaluate, diagnose, and help them treat or manage their addictions and the underlying issues that led to these dependencies (such as anxiety disorders, emotional trauma, difficult family or social situations, etc.) through counseling, resource recommendations, and care coordination as needed for their well being.
They are employed by specialized medical offices, hospitals (in departments or programs that deal with chemical dependency), residential treatment and rehabilitation facilities, the VA, and community health centers.
3.11 Private Practice Social Work
These licensed clinical social workers can give social workers the freedom to focus on a particular aspect of social work practice, manage their time and the clients they encounter, and develop original and creative approaches to assisting clients with their difficulties. Most licensed clinical social workers (LCSWs) who enter private practice do so as psychotherapists, but some LCSWs may establish business consultancies or if they have macro-level experience, practices that assist social service organizations with research and program development.
4. Clinical Social Work: A Diverse and Wide-Ranging Profession
Students who are interested in becoming social workers should be aware of what is a clinical social worker. Clinical social work is a broad subject that can cover a variety of jobs and work environments rather than a specific vocation (as the list above illustrates).
Additionally, the issues that clinical social workers assist their clients with solving are sometimes intricate and multifaceted. Thus, certain occupations may fit into more than one of the aforementioned categories.
Due to their client’s mental and emotional difficulties, a criminal justice social worker who assists convicts in prison may also function well as a psychiatric social worker.
In general, the more complicated and/or serious the issues a practitioner’s customers are facing, the more likely it is that this professional will need to engage in various areas of clinical social work in order to be efficient at his or her job. Some clinical social work duties are more multidisciplinary than others.
Final Note
So, this information on what is a clinical social worker will help you a lot in many ways, and you get an idea about them. Despite the challenges of their line of work and regardless of their particular field, many social workers find satisfaction in the fact that they are directly improving people’s lives on both an individual and societal level.
The daily tasks and successes of clinical social workers are significant, extensive, and vitally important, whether they are preserving a family unit, safeguarding children from abuse or neglect, supporting a daughter who has lost a parent, offering support and direction to prisoners, or assisting military service members in overcoming trauma.
Hope now you get the answer to your question about what is a clinical social worker in this article.
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- Bogo, Marion. “Field education for clinical social work practice: Best practices and contemporary challenges.” Clinical Social Work Journal 43 (2015): 317-324. ↩︎
- Bhartiya, Ms Aditi, and Komal Verma. “Rethinking Health Care Approach: From A Bio-Psychosocial Perspective.” PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 58.2 (2021): 889-897. ↩︎
- Ray, Mo, et al. “Gerontological social work: Reflections on its role, purpose and value.” British Journal of Social Work 45.4 (2015): 1296-1312. ↩︎
- French, Lois Meredith. “Psychiatric social work.” (1940). ↩︎
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