Assessing Learning and Training Needs for Social Workers to Serve Clients With Traumatic Brain Injury

ABSTRACT

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) disproportionately affects marginalized populations social workers serve. Current practices and training needs of social workers who serve clients with TBI are not well-understood. An online survey was administered to all licensed social workers in Washington (N=5,032) to assess the following for clients with TBI: interactions, challenges, knowledge, beliefs, confidence, and training recommendations. Analyses involved descriptive statistics, logistic regression, and content analysis of open-ended responses. Respondents (n=834, 16.6% response rate) endorsed serving clients with TBI, heterogeneous confidence and practices, limited training, and high learning needs. New training approaches are needed to prepare social workers to better provide services to these clients. Training on diagnosis, understanding comorbidities, treating behavioral symptoms, disparities, and advocacy tools are recommended.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (KL2TR000421 to Dr. Moore).

Notes on contributors

Kelsey M. Conrick

Kelsey M. Conrick is Pre-Doctoral Instructor at University of Washington School of Social Work. Janessa M. Graves is Associate Professor at Washington State University College of Nursing. Larka Angell is a student at the University of Washington School of Social Work. Megan Moore is Sidney Miller Endowed Associate Professor in Direct Practice at University of Washington School of Social Work.