Educating the Next Generation of Public Health Social Work Leaders: Findings from a Summit

ABSTRACT

This article reports the findings of a 2-day public health social work (PHSW) summit that brought together PHSW educators, practitioners, and administrators to generate ideas for preparing the next generation of PHSW leaders. Data from focus groups revealed four themes: the importance of PHSW in our healthcare delivery system, the need for public health social workers to develop their professional identity, the significance of branding/promoting PHSW, and the favorable consequences of infusing PHSW content into social work curricula. Attendees generated ideas for bringing PHSW forward and provided recommendations to accrediting bodies for highlighting the importance of PHSW.

KEYWORDS:

• macro practice
• policy practice
• field education
• public health

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the U. S. Health Resources and Services Administration (6G05HP7841).