50 Years and the Future of Agency-Based Clinical Social Work Practice: Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

This special issue is a celebration of the Silver

On the Importance of Direct Practice Experience Among Clinical Social Work Faculty: A Recent Graduate’s Perspective

“…Clinical social workers employ a variety of theories on human development and psychopathology, as well as approaches to practice-including psychotherapy, crisis intervention, and other types of therapeutic conversations-to intervene in the lives of those they work with (Lesser and Pope 2011). While considered a specialty within the social work profession as a whole, clinical social work embodies core, historical values and aspirations of the field-particularly the ethical imperatives of our profession, like our mandate to work with the most vulnerable and oppressed among us & Geoffrey M. Golia ggolia@gosonyc.org (Goldstein 2007;Simpson et al 2007;Videka and Goldstein 2012). Clinical social workers constitute the largest single group of mental health providers in the United States today (SAMHSA 2013), and perhaps the largest subset of practitioners within the field of social work (Videka and Goldstein 2012).…”

“…While considered a specialty within the social work profession as a whole, clinical social work embodies core, historical values and aspirations of the field-particularly the ethical imperatives of our profession, like our mandate to work with the most vulnerable and oppressed among us & Geoffrey M. Golia ggolia@gosonyc.org (Goldstein 2007;Simpson et al 2007;Videka and Goldstein 2012). Clinical social workers constitute the largest single group of mental health providers in the United States today (SAMHSA 2013), and perhaps the largest subset of practitioners within the field of social work (Videka and Goldstein 2012). Today, the role of educating and training clinical social workers is primarily the responsibility of Bachelors-and Masters-level degree programs in schools of social work (Anastas 2013;Belcher et al 2011;Simpson et al 2007;Videka and Goldstein 2012).…”

“…Clinical social workers constitute the largest single group of mental health providers in the United States today (SAMHSA 2013), and perhaps the largest subset of practitioners within the field of social work (Videka and Goldstein 2012). Today, the role of educating and training clinical social workers is primarily the responsibility of Bachelors-and Masters-level degree programs in schools of social work (Anastas 2013;Belcher et al 2011;Simpson et al 2007;Videka and Goldstein 2012). The purpose of social work education is to provide students with the knowledge base, practical experience, and reflective community in order to facilitate their development into competent, effective, and ethical clinical social work practitioners (Anastas 2013; Council on Social Work Education [CSWE] 2008)-a daunting task given the relatively short duration of professional degree programs.…”