Training Social Work Master’s Students for Integrated Health Care Settings: The Importance of Specialized Education

ABSTRACT

Integrated health care poses a unique opportunity for social workers to deliver person-centered, empowering, and collaborative care addressing all aspects of patient health. This study analyzed four years of data from a project designed to train social work master’s students to be effective members on integrated teams. Students that participated in the project achieved statistically significant levels of improvement from pre- to posttests with large effect sizes on the Behavioral Health Consultant Core Competency Tool skills (n = 93, Cohen’s d = -1.752, t(92) = -16.894, p < .001) and the Team Skills Scale (n = 94, Cohen’s d = -1.558, t(93) = -15.101, p < .001). Wilcoxon signed-rank tests confirmed improvements. No existing evaluations of integrated training for social work students capture behavioral health competencies data. Offering specialized training in integrated behavioral health work to students has immense potential benefit for outgoing social workers seeking to support patients.

KEYWORDS:

• Integrated behavioral health
• integrated health
• behavioral health
• social work training

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This evaluation was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of an award totaling [$1,920,000] with 0% financed with non-governmental sources. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. Government. For more information, please visit HRSA.gov.