Education

CSWE Leads Initiative to Help Prepare Social Workers for Serving

The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) has launched an advanced practice in military social work education initiative to bridge the gap between the number of available prepared practitioners and the demand for social services with military personnel and their families. The initiative will result in an educators’ guide to advanced social work practice competencies in military social work.
 
This guide to the necessary specialized knowledge and skills to practice military social work will broadly address practice with military personnel, veterans, and their families. The guide will be reviewed over the next several months by scholars and other audiences that provide support to veterans and their families. By June the information obtained during this research period will be translated into a user-friendly reference accessible both online and in print.
 
“Today, the need for prepared social workers is greater than in any previous war. A new approach to the preparation of social workers and mental health professionals is essential,” says Anthony Hassan, chair of CSWE’s military social work education initiative. “Social workers bring a unique clinical and organizational systems perspective that can help military personnel, veterans, and their families with the complex challenges that they face. This initiative is vital to generate a rapid ramp-up of capacity and competence focused expressly on the unique treatment requirements of today’s wounded warriors and their families.”
 
The participants in this initiative hope the advanced practice guide for military social work will lead to increased concentration offerings at social work programs that address military cultural awareness and combat-related mental disorders, such as depression and posttraumatic stress disorder. For practicing social workers who have already earned their MSW, the goal is to create courses or certificate programs in the same areas. Enhanced training in military social work will help improve the health and well-being of veterans, their families, and the community.

— Source: Council on Social Work Education