Objective: COVID-19 disrupted access to and the delivery of behavioral health services for both clients and social work providers. This study aims to examine the use of tele-behavioral health by social workers before and during the pandemic, as well as the perceived barriers and supports to the use of technology. Method: An electronic survey was developed and distributed to a convenience sample of practicing social work professionals (n = 585) through a national listserv.A mixed methods study design was used to analyze responses. Results: Over 92% of social workers reported using tele-behavioral health since the beginning of COVID-19, as compared to 28% prior. About half of respondents received training on tele-behavioral health since COVID-19, whereas only 23% had received training prior. The vast majority (87%) indicated one or more barriers to the use of tele-behavioral health, with client barriers (73%) being the area of greatest concern. Yet, social workers overwhelmingly reported the desire for tele-behavioral health to continue beyond COVID-19. Conclusions: Based on study findings, we propose the following recommendations: 1) Ensure parity and reimbursement for tele-behavioral health; 2) Train current and future social work social work practitioners in tele-behavioral health; 3) Provide supports to engage clients use of tele-behavioral health.
Recognizing a clear call to dismantle traditionally racist structures within our nation, doctoral students at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work formed the Anti-Racist Doctoral Program Student Committee (ARDPSC) to push for systemic changes within our school and profession to eliminate anti-Black racism. Our student-led initiative is an innovative approach for two reasons. First, we strengthened our community virtually despite the limitations of COVID-19 and virtual spaces. Second, although collective organizing among students can be seen as threatening, we held a tension between agitation and collaboration, and contributed to, rather than disrupted, implementation of anti-racist reform. We map our experiences onto the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) using narrative data and documents produced by our committee. First, we describe how we built anti-racist group processes, established brave working environments, and integrated processes to reflect on change at various system levels. Next, we describe our actions to push our school and profession to be anti-racist and assess outcomes using the CFIR. Finally, we share our reflections on how to continue this work. We hope to document our experiences and reflect on how social work student groups can contribute to dismantling white supremacy and rebuilding institutions with an anti-racist approach.
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