Clinical and Direct Practice

Despite high levels of functioning among older adults, chronic health conditions lead to impairment and the need for help. Family members provide most of the assistance; yet formal services such as in-home personal and homemaker services, congregate and home-delivered meals, adult day services, employment and educational services, transportation, nursing homes, assisted and supportive living facilities, legal and financial services, and case management are available. Even with the growing number and type of services, unequal access and uneven quality persist. In these settings, social workers develop and administer programs, provide clinical care, offer case management and discharge planning, and contribute to policy development.

A generic set of case management functions are performed in most practice settings. To improve outcomes within a complex service delivery system, case managers need to collaboratively work with clients and care providers. By incorporating the paradigm of evidence-based practice, case managers can improve decision making through integrating their practice expertise with the best available evidence, and by considering the characteristics, circumstances, values, preferences, and expectations of clients, as well as their involvement in the decision making.

Client violence and workplace safety are relevant issues for all social workers across practice settings. This entry addresses why and how social workers may be targets for a client's violent behavior, and what we know about who is at risk of encountering violence. Understanding violence from a biopsychosocial perspective, identifying risk markers associated with violent behavior, and an introduction to guidelines for conducting a risk assessment will be discussed. The entry concludes by identifying and describing some general strategies for the prevention of client violence.

Private independent practice (known historically as private practice) is a growing segment of the social work profession. Social workers entering this context are providing a range of services, including clinical and nonclinical. Major considerations for establishing, maintaining, and marketing a successful and ethical private independent practice will be discussed. Existing tensions and challenges in the social work profession and in the field of social work education will be briefly examined. Future directions for private independent practice of social work will be explored.

Digital, online, and other electronic technology has transformed the nature of social work practice and education. Contemporary social workers can provide services to clients by using online counseling, telephone counseling, video counseling, cybertherapy (avatar therapy), self-guided Web-based interventions, electronic social networks, e-mail, and text messages. In addition, increasing numbers of social work education programs are using distance education technology to teach students. The introduction of diverse digital, online, and other forms of electronic social services has created a wide range of complex ethical and related risk management issues. This article provides an overview of current technology used in social work; identifies compelling ethical issues; and explores risk-management issues. The author identifies relevant standards from the NASW Code of Ethics and other resources designed to guide practice.

Dual degree programs are growing rapidly around the country with increasing numbers of universities offering students an opportunity to earn an M.S.W. along with another degree. While two degrees offer clear benefits to the students and provide revenue to the institutions, they also raise some issues and concerns about the “relative worth” of an M.S.W.

Health social work is a subspecialization of social work concerned with a person's adjustment to changes in one's health and the impact this has on that person's social network. Social workers in every setting must be ready to assist individuals and families adjusting to illness and coping with medical crises. This entry provides a brief overview and history of health social work and describes the settings and roles where this work is practiced. Significant challenges and opportunities in clinical care, research, education, and policy are discussed. Standards and guidelines for quality practice are then noted.

This is an overview of interprofessional and partnered practice and how these are connected to and further the purposes of social work practice. This brief summary locates several models of collaborative practice in social work and also delineates the ways in which partnered practice provides an overarching paradigm that includes and also extends these approaches, describing a philosophy of practice that speaks to today's imperatives for change in the world.

Social work interviews are purposeful conversations between practitioners and clients, involving verbal and nonverbal communication. The basic skills are regularly used by social workers and reflect the field's major practice principles and the model of change employed by the practitioner. Competency-based forms of interviewing such as motivational and solution-focused interviewing are increasingly being used in direct and indirect practice. Additional research is needed on the outcomes of specific interviewing skills and how they are learned and transferred into practice.

Social work regulation protects the public by establishing the qualifications that a professional must possess, by establishing a means of holding professionals accountable, and by having a system for the public to make complaints against allegedly incompetent or unethical practitioners and have them investigated and adjudicated. Certification also exists in various specialty areas of social work practice, as is a function of professional organizations versus governmental regulatory agencies.