Teaching Note—Training MSW Students in Sector-Specific Macro Content: An Innovative Behavioral Health Leadership Initiative

ABSTRACT

Social work education has responded to the heightened demand for graduates as competent behavioral health practitioners. However, the preparation of social work graduate students for transitioning into leadership roles in behavioral health settings is limited. To enhance graduate students’ macrolevel competencies, specifically in behavioral health, a social work graduate program and a Medicaid managed care organization partnered to pilot an innovative teaching initiative. This teaching note describes the initiative, provides an overview of the competencies, and highlights evaluation data and findings. Using a pretest–posttest design, paired sample t-tests were conducted. Mean differences between the pretest and posttest scores were statistically significant, and there was a moderate gain. This initiative is an innovative strategy for improving social work graduate students’ behavioral health leadership competencies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by Cardinal Innovations Healthcare.

Notes on contributors

Sonyia Richardson

Sonyia Richardson is Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Abby Brady, Margaret Phipps, Breanna Ussery, Chandradai Chandler, and Nathallie Chavez are recent graduates of the Master of Social Work program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Abby Brady

Sonyia Richardson is Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Abby Brady, Margaret Phipps, Breanna Ussery, Chandradai Chandler, and Nathallie Chavez are recent graduates of the Master of Social Work program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Margaret Phipps

Sonyia Richardson is Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Abby Brady, Margaret Phipps, Breanna Ussery, Chandradai Chandler, and Nathallie Chavez are recent graduates of the Master of Social Work program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Breanna Ussery

Sonyia Richardson is Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Abby Brady, Margaret Phipps, Breanna Ussery, Chandradai Chandler, and Nathallie Chavez are recent graduates of the Master of Social Work program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Chandradai Chandler

Sonyia Richardson is Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Abby Brady, Margaret Phipps, Breanna Ussery, Chandradai Chandler, and Nathallie Chavez are recent graduates of the Master of Social Work program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Nathallie Chavez

Sonyia Richardson is Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Abby Brady, Margaret Phipps, Breanna Ussery, Chandradai Chandler, and Nathallie Chavez are recent graduates of the Master of Social Work program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.