Helping Community Partners Build Capacity within Integrated Behavioral Health

Abstract

Social workers are recent additions to integrated health care teams; therefore, there is emerging literature about the work experiences and training needs of social workers in integrated settings. After receiving a Health Resources Services Administration-Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training (HRSA-BHWET) integrated behavioral health (IBH) grant, our social work program conducted a survey among our social work field education sites to determine training needs. Results of the needs assessment revealed that a lack of clarity exists about what is meant by integrated behavioral health as well as ways to measure and interpret levels of integration within social work field education sites. Barriers to collaboration and areas of needed training revealed gaps in knowledge and workforce readiness for providing integrated care. Recommendations include using a bidirectional level of integration conceptual framework to support greater participation of social workers and social service agencies in integrated care, in addition to specific curricular and continuing education training opportunities. Social work educators are afforded a unique opportunity to support our field education partners in reviewing and enhancing their systems of care as they continue to train future social workers.

Increasing Social Work’s Stake in Interprofessional Practice

“…A large number of social workers already work in integrated healthcare settings (Padykula et al, 2020). However, while integrated care education models have been welldeveloped in fields such as nursing, social work integrated care education models are comparatively younger and less developed (Zerden et al, 2018).…”

“…Social workers require training in many areas to be competent interprofessional practitioners, such as team-based care, cultural competency, inter-team communication, trauma-informed care, and evidence-based practices for physical health assessments (Horevitz & Manoleas, 2013;Mattison et al, 2017;Padykula et al, 2020). In one study, social workers working in integrated care settings in Canada identified specialized education and training to be vital for improving the social worker's integration into integrated healthcare teams (Ashcroft et al, 2018).…”

“…However, healthcare professionals like social workers are not frequently provided opportunities for formal interprofessional education in their university programs (Zerden et al, 2020a). Past research demonstrates that social workers frequently lack formal training in integrated healthcare competencies skills and service delivery models (Padykula et al, 2020). Instead, many social workers report learning the skills that they use on the job without formalized training programs (Horevitz & Manoleas, 2013).…”

“…Improving social work education models, and in particular field education, related to integrated care is essential for improving social workers' ability to work, and competitiveness, in integrated healthcare settings (Fraher et al, 2018;Horevitz & Manoleas, 2013;Padykula et al, 2020;Zerden et al, 2017). Field education provides students opportunities to use the skills they have learned in real-world situations and provides crucial training that can only be achieved through hands-on experience with real people and populations.…”

“…However, training social workers in integrated care is limited by the number of field placements in these settings and the availability of field instructors who can supervise students in these settings. As such, efforts need to be made to identify more integrated healthcare field placements for students to practice in (Mattison et al, 2017;Padykula et al, 2020;Putney et al, 2017;Zerden et al, 2020b).…”