Clinical social work

Clinical social work is a healthcare profession based on theories and methods of prevention and treatment in providing behavioral healthcare (mental health and substance use disorder) services, with special focus on bio-psycho-social-spiritual problems and disorders. Clinical social work’s unique attributes include use of the person-in-environment perspective, strengths perspective,systems theory, respect for the primacy of client rights, and strong therapeutic alliance between client and practitioner, using evidenced based best practices. With 200,000 practitioners serving millions of client consumers, clinical social workers constitute the largest group of behavioral healthcare providers in the nation.

The knowledge base of clinical social work includes theories of biological, psychological, and social development; diversity and cultural competency; interpersonal relationships; family and group dynamics; mental disorders; addictions and substance use disorders; impacts of illness, trauma, or injury; and the effects of the physical, social, and cultural environment. This knowledge is inculcated in social work graduate school and is fused with direct-practice skills that are developed by the practitioner during a period of at least two years of post-graduate experience under clinical supervision. This period should suffice to prepare the clinical social worker for autonomous practice and state-licensure as a clinical social work professional. In the years that follow, clinical social workers may pursue an advanced-generalist practice or may decide to specialize in one or more areas.

Clinical social work is notable for the versatility of its practitioners and the variety of their roles, including that of team member and team leader in a multi-disciplinary setting. Client consumers—individuals, couples, families, and groups—benefit from a variety of direct services, including assessment, diagnosis, treatment planning, intervention/treatment, evaluation of outcomes, and case management. Clinical social work settings and services include, but are not limited to, the following:

children and family services	palliative and rehabilitative care	residential treatment
clinics	private practice offices	rural healthcare
court and forensics	public and private schools	social services
elder care	public sector health/mental health	uniformed services and veteran affairs
home health care	behavioral health rehabilitation facilities	substance abuse treatment facilities
not-for-profit agencies and organization agencies	religious/spiritual organizations

The flexible and skillful application of knowledge, theories, and methods in a bio-psychosocial approach is a hallmark of clinical social work. Interventions—the direct person-to-person(s) process—are conducted with people of all ages and range in nature from preventive, crisis, and psycho-educational services to collaborative client advocacy and brief and long-term counseling or psychotherapy. Typically, clinical social workers supervise and consult with professional colleagues and may engage in indirect practice (e.g. administration, research, teaching, writing). It is a standard of practice for clinical social workers to engage in career-long continuing clinical education and to adhere to a professional code of ethics.